Business Content Strategies - the content u need to remember

So u own a business, have a website, have a vision, dream, goal and action plan to make it happen.
Have u ever asked yourself or your staff how the content on your website, advertising, marketing, and even staff themselves contribute to, enhance and align themselves to your vision.
Words are so important to you and your company's brand. Not only do words communicate with your audience, but they also tie in the business, the website and other mechanisms that u use to talk to your customers.
Points to keep in mind when u are working with words and content:

• Who are u talking to ? if u don't know who your audience is how will you know how to communicate and engage them
• What does your audience want - why do people come to your site and what information do they expect to find on the site
• What do u want to say - what message do you want to try and get across to your audience. Also remember that u don't know who will be visiting your site, reading your ads, coming into your store etc
• what content do u already have, what do u need to create and who will produce it and how will u get it - if u don't know what u need and who will write it, then u really can't deliver to your audience
  
• remember that content also includes images, video and advertising material - make sure you get content in the format u need for your business to re-use in multiple ways eg blogs, videos, podcasts, traditional print media
  
• be consistent and unified - no matter what the content medium, ensure that you communicate the same way to keep it consistent with your brand and what you want to say
  
• look at the content itself - is it current, accurate, timely, on-brand, consistent, does it really say what u want it to say
• use the inverted pyramid - pack the punch up front, then give the audience more content in stages, so that they keep wanting to read more, search your site more, click on your site more
• ensure that you have the metadata, keywords and other aspects about your content correct - your metadata provides rich context to your content and will give it extra focus with your audience, customers and even search engine
• consider your key content messages and highlight these in both your website, content, advertising and SEO strategy
• ensure that your key messages are clearly articulated in every medium that you use to talk to your audience and customers - you must ensure that you are remembered and known for your core values and key value propositions. Knowing what your key messages are and ensuring that they they are clearly communicated can only assist your customers to remember who u are, what u sell and what why they should come back to u
  
• your content must seamlessly integrate with your user experience, personas, user stories and brand - you really must have a strong connection with your audience and customers (ie your users) and know exactly what they want and the words and language they use to really communicate with them.

So I really hope that this gives you a guide as to how a content strategy can help you connect with and maintain your relationship with your audience and customers.