Entering the social media world without a clearly defined strategy is full of perils. Clients who come to us for branding or a website or marketing programs sometimes want to throw in a little social media, lest they be left behind or miss out on an important channel.

Businesspeople understand the need for a market strategy, some understand the need for a brand strategy but relatively new on the marketing landscape is the need for a “content strategy.” So, what is a content strategy, why do you need it and how do you create one?

Having a content strategy is at the heart of what makes a website a lead generation tool vs. a static brochure-ware experience. Initially, the driving force behind corporate websites was that the technology existed to create them and that all of one’s competitors had one. The recipe for creating a website became standardized: