Do you need to revamp your content marketing strategy? Wondering how AI will alter content marketing? In this article, we'll explore content marketing strategy in the age of AI.

Why Is Content Marketing Strategy Important?

Content marketing has become an essential strategy for brands looking to attract and engage audiences. However, with the rise of AI, content marketing is undergoing rapid changes.

Having a solid strategy is crucial for effective content marketing. Many marketers focus only on creating content without thinking strategically about how it fits into their broader business goals.

An intentional strategy considers how content creation, distribution, governance, and technologies can work cohesively to support your business objectives.

This requires you to look at the 'big picture' connections between content activities rather than siloed tactics.

Strategy is about maximizing your value, either through differentiated activities from your competitors or executing similar activities differently.

#1: Distinguish Content Marketing Strategy From Tactics

A common mistake people make with content marketing is focusing only on tactics without an overarching strategy guiding them.

Tactics are the specific individual tasks or actions you carry out to meet your strategy objectives.

It's easy to get excited about various tactics, like creating viral videos or optimizing for search, at the individual team level.

For example, let's say two teams are creating the same content for two separate channels. They're competing for the same audience.

Strategists take a holistic view, while tacticians zoom in on details. Good strategy connects disparate activities across teams and channels to create synergy.

Creating a Successful Content Marketing Strategy Is a Team Sport

When deciding who should take the lead on content strategy in your company, it's ultimately a team effort requiring collaboration.

Ideally, there should be one or two 'deciders' who provide high-level direction and vision.

The key is having someone chart the overall objectives, plans, and tactics to ensure coordination.

Strategy is not the vision and it's not the tactics—it's the thing in between.

#2: Rethink Your Content Marketing Strategy

First, clearly define your content marketing objectives and charter.

For example, some common goals you may include: Becoming an industry media expert, improving your website's SEO, or using content as a primary revenue stream.

With a clear charter established, you can then develop an operating model detailing your activities, teams, workflows, and technologies.

Take Red Bull, for example. Red Bull began sponsoring Formula One races and found people were more interested in their marketing materials than product leaflets.

The publishing company is its own business within the business of Red Bull.

Another example is Terminus, the account-based marketing software platform. Early on, they started a content brand, FlipMyFunnel.

You have to start understanding what you're doing is building and treating your content like a product.

Marketing is about reach and frequency. How many people can you reach with how much frequency?

Build Addressable Audiences

A key objective of content marketing is building addressable audiences. These are engaged subscribers you can reach anytime.

If you can convert 1–5% of your market into loyal subscribers, you win every time.

Think of Marvel as a media company. Their goal is to have as big of an audience as they possibly can.

Or take the Barbie movie, for example. It's the perfect way to think about content marketing.

You can build a spider web of all of the different ways that a singular asset—your audience—can provide monetization to your company.

Another way to think about addressable audiences is to ask yourself if you can reach them on your terms, independent of platform.

What you hope in building those audiences on social media platforms is that you are treating them like a river where they flow into becoming addressable.

#3: How AI Could Alter Your Content Strategy

Since ChatGPT's launch, there have been significant drops in search traffic as people increasingly get direct answers from AI.

Google is currently beta-testing AI in its search results.

A lot of companies aren't using AI tools to drive better content or marketing strategies.

Robert Rose, founder of The Content Advisory, found that AI is powerful, but it actually added more work to content teams.

When you search on the Internet, you generally want to maximize the amount of answers you get.

From a content and marketing perspective, it means you have to be the answer.

Brands that block AI crawlability are making a mistake, as they'll get left out of search results.

#4: Creating Content vs Constructing Content With AI

When discussing his writing and ideas, Charles Dickens separated his content into two categories: created and constructed.

Constructed content is that which is loved only after it is created, or content that you create to communicate something.

AI content will always be derivative because it is always looking to that which has existed before to create the new thing.

It's important to consider and understand the value of your content.

For example, let's say Stephen King has a new book out. He used AI to create it.

Rather than automating creation, use AI as a research assistant for generating ideas.