Is that a content strategy or a bunch of keywords?

🥲 Everything we know is a lie.

To everyone who subscribed after my manager shared this newsletter on LinkedIn, welcome 👋🏾.

Here are two things you should know about Itsjustwriting 👇🏾

1. It is a space where I share lessons, observations, triumphs, and failures about my work as a content marketer + some highlights from my life.

2. It’s my playground. I started Itsjustwriting because I always felt pressured to be an amazing writer, and I hated it. I love writing and I want to have fun with it again.

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Let’s play a game. I’ll say a word, and you’ll shout out what comes to mind even though I can’t hear you, and I won’t ever know the answer.

Ready?

Content strategy.

I’m going to assume you yelled one of the words below:

• SEO

• Keywords

• Blogs

• Competitor research

• More blogs

(I’m not sure why there’s any screaming or yelling going on, but I’ve decided that I like it, and it’s going in the newsletter 👍🏾)

If it’s any of those things, you, my friend, are just like me. If you said something completely different, you might actually know what you’re doing. I envy you.

I started out in content marketing as a writer, creating articles targeting keywords. And unknown to me, a bias grew. Content = written assets of a limited kind.

Also, everyone around me has always connected SEO with content strategy. Course creators paddled keyword plans, promising that was just what I needed to know how to build to become a strategist. Every top-ranking post from Ahrefs to Hubspot recommended looking at it from an SEO viewpoint.

The funny thing is that it was never obvious to me that something was wrong. The word content literally means anything from articles to videos to games to infographics to courses to reports to the tons of formats I can’t think of. And strategy could never be a bunch of keywords in a spreadsheet.

There were three things that made my perception shift.

1. Reading a really good book about strategy

In 2022, my mentor at the time, Jelle Schut, recommended I read Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard P. Rumelt. In it, I found the shocking news that a plan was not a strategy 💀 Rumelt went on to propose that a strategy was far more complex, requiring:

• A diagnosis that outlines the challenge or problem

• A guiding policy that dictates how said problem will be tackled

• A set of coherent actions that will be carried out to fix the issue.
  

Jelle asked me to use this framework to build my first content strategy for a fictional company. Guess what? I started from keywords 😂 The bias prevailed.

But at least I was aware that there was a problem.

If you can’t read the book but happen to have an hour to spare, watch Rumelt’s interview where he touches on ideas from Good Strategy, Bad Strategy.

2. Reading a newsletter by an expert about content strategy

The next event that brought me closer to the truth was reading How to Think Like a Strategist by Fio Dossetto, my manager.

The core idea is to ask three questions:

• What’s going on?! —> diagnosis

• Where do we want to go? —> strategy

• How will we get there? —> tactics

(The order is a framework first, then questions next, but I switched it because that’s the easiest way to remember 😌)

Image source

In her piece, she only hints at search, but that’s about it.

When I read it, I thought mind-blowing amazing stuff 🤯.

So why the hell is everyone else going on about keywords???

3. Seeing a strategist build a content strategy

The final event was observing how Fio created a strategy doc for Float when she joined us.

In her first few weeks, she asked many questions about the company, our product, the customers, channels, and existing content assets. After she got all this information, she started building a doc with a clear diagnosis, solutions, and the exact tactics we’d follow.

Unfortunately, I can’t share confidential company information with you 🥺 so you’ll have to use your imagination 🧠

I understand much better now, and if you ask me what content strategy is today, I’d say:
Content strategy aligns your business goals with your audience’s needs, informing the themes, channels, and formats you’ll use to attract, convert, and retain customers.

Now it’s over to you, what do you think content strategy is? Unlike the first question I asked, I’ll actually know your response if you type it in the comments section.

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Some unsolicited life updates 😌

July was a wholesome month. I spent so many hours surrounded by my friends. Below are pictures of me having a swell time at Ekondo’s anniversary party. If you’re ever in Abuja, swing by and adopt a plant.

I’ve been journaling more and thinking a lot about what I want in life. It’s easy to not pay attention and wake up one day surprised by all the lost time and unfulfilled dreams.

I traveled to Kigali to pick up the rest of my stuff. It was a relief to visit for the joy of it instead of running there for refuge. One day, I’ll write about my experience living there.

East Africa gifted me the most beautiful sunset

Work was a bit hard in July. The first two weeks were productive, but then my brain bailed on me for the rest of the month 🫠. I was behind on tasks. A confusing brief worsened the situation. I struggled on my own for weeks and then finally asked for help. The piece has been published, and most of my backlog is clear. I am hoping August is better.

Till next time 👋🏾