TRAVEL SOUTH DAKOTA
Crafting a Unified Content Strategy for a Diverse Agency Network
A myriad of different agencies covering PR, co-op, website, digital, and social content— and no content strategy in sight. A dream or nightmare scenario to walk into? Depends on how much you love a challenge.
Truthfully, it was a little bit of both. We had some of the smartest minds in the business working across all verticals, but without a cohesive content strategy, it felt like content was made for individual channels and silos, rather than contributing to a unified content ecosystem.
Needless to say, I got to work immediately. Within a matter of weeks, we developed a comprehensive 50+ page content strategy document. This included tone, voice, and personality guidelines, a style guide, an editorial calendar, and an updated brand book.
Building a Cohesive Content Ecosystem
When it comes to content strategy, I like to think of it as a person walking into different rooms. As humans, we have a healthy dose of self-awareness—the version of you who reunites with your college friends is different from the one who meets their future in-laws for the first time. It's still the same you, but you're playing up or down different parts of your personality because you know how to read a room.
Think of brand strategy as the personification of the brand; once we’re clear on who the brand is, we can determine where they’re showing up (i.e., which rooms) and what they’re saying (i.e., content). Content strategy is the rooms we walk into and how we act in those rooms.
For instance, our social content is a bit more casual than our website content, which is more informative and direct than our PR content (so on and so forth). This approach ensures consistency across channels while allowing flexibility for each agency.
Implementing the Strategy and Ensuring Consistency
My goal for this content strategy was to create a guide that anyone could pick up and use to confidently and seamlessly create content on behalf of South Dakota.
A consumer shouldn’t be able to tell that social or web content came from different agencies or writers; instead, they should engage with the content and immediately recognize the brand we’re all representing.
From there, the content strategy flourished, leading to the creation of an annual content calendar that all agencies could work from. Every piece of content is tracked alongside our content pillars to ensure we are creating content for every pillar in our arsenal—and doing so in an intentional way.
Results and Impact
The comprehensive strategy enabled cohesive messaging across all channels, aligning with our brand’s voice and personality. This not only streamlined content creation processes but also significantly enhanced brand recognition and user engagement.
