The goal of content creation is to provide relevant information to your core target audience. The most decisive task is to start with a commitment to a defined cadence. Defining the talent of who writes, photographs, and illustrates the content is just as crucial as defining the editorial calendar to keep the commitment real. When developing your strategy, there are three different types of content to consider.

1. Foundational content includes ebooks, slideshows, videos, motion graphics, interactive graphics, white papers, editorial stories, and case studies. This is the most expensive content because it involves the creation of new material. Behind the scenes, the production of this content should be scheduled as a daily commitment. Don’t expect to complete a full-length article in one day! In developing this content consider who has the skill internally and what services need to be outsourced. The goal is quality as defined by your target audience and assigned editor, art director, or creative director.
2. Snowball content is lean content that is repurposed from the foundational content into smaller information. It is meant to provide a steady stream of publishing across media channels. Remember the hard work done to create the foundational content. This is cherry picking the best-of-the-best and leveraging across relevant media channels.
3. Newsworthy content is timely content that capitalizes on news, trends, or industry events. Having slack in the schedule enables you to be proactive so you are ready to develop content when your industry makes the news.

Once the content is created, have a plan to leverage it across as many media channels as is relevant to your industry. Creating new content is hard work. Don’t expect immediate results. The development of content is a long-term strategy. Lastly, just because you want to create content doesn’t make it a reality. Assign the proper resources: people, budget, and the time to generate the material.

_DVH