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format: strategy
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# Best Practices: Content and Marketing Strategy

## Core Principles

Strategy is the set of choices that determines where to focus, what to build, and what to ignore. A strategy without constraints is just a wish list.

- **Start with the business goal, not the content idea.** Every content piece should map to a measurable business outcome.
- **Choose a lane.** Trying to be everywhere at once leads to mediocrity everywhere. Dominate one platform, one format, one audience segment first.
- **Measure what matters.** Vanity metrics (followers, impressions) are inputs. Revenue, leads, and retention are outputs. Strategy serves outputs.

## Strategic Frameworks

### OKR Alignment (Objectives and Key Results)
```
Objective: [What are we trying to achieve?]
KR1: [Measurable milestone 1]
KR2: [Measurable milestone 2]
KR3: [Measurable milestone 3]
Content initiatives that serve this OKR: [list]
```

### Audience-First Mapping
1. Define the primary audience persona (1 person, not a demographic)
2. Identify their top 3 pain points
3. Identify their top 3 aspirations
4. Map content topics to pain/aspiration intersections
5. Match each topic to a stage of the buyer journey (Awareness / Consideration / Decision)

### Content Pillars Framework
- Define 3–5 core content pillars (themes you will consistently own)
- Each pillar should be: relevant to your audience, differentiated from competitors, sustainable to produce
- Distribute content production across pillars (e.g., 40% / 30% / 20% / 10%)

### SOSTAC Planning
- **Situation** — Where are we now? (audit)
- **Objectives** — Where do we want to go? (SMART goals)
- **Strategy** — How will we get there? (positioning, audience, channels)
- **Tactics** — What specifically will we do? (editorial calendar, campaigns)
- **Action** — Who does what, when? (roles, timelines)
- **Control** — How will we measure success? (KPIs, reporting cadence)

## Structure (Strategy Document)

```
[EXECUTIVE SUMMARY — 1 page]

[SITUATION ANALYSIS]
- Current state: channels, metrics, audience
- Competitive landscape
- SWOT analysis

[GOALS AND KPIs]
- Primary goal
- 3–5 measurable KPIs with targets and timelines

[AUDIENCE]
- Primary persona
- Secondary persona (if applicable)
- Buyer journey map

[POSITIONING]
- Unique point of view / differentiated angle
- Tone of voice and brand personality

[CHANNEL AND FORMAT STRATEGY]
- Priority channels (ranked 1–3)
- Content formats per channel
- Publishing frequency

[EDITORIAL CALENDAR GUIDELINES]
- Content pillars and distribution
- Campaign themes (quarterly or monthly)

[MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING]
- Reporting frequency
- Dashboard or tool
- Review and iteration process
```

## Guidelines

- Build a 90-day strategy, not a 12-month plan. Markets change; plans should too.
- Separate strategy (direction) from tactics (execution). Do not write tactics inside a strategy document.
- Validate assumptions with data before committing resources. A 2-week test costs less than a failed quarter.
- Document the "why not" for channels and formats you're deliberately excluding — it prevents strategy drift.
- Review performance monthly; adjust quarterly; rewrite the strategy annually.
