Content Marketing Services
Main Services
Content marketing strategy
Too often content marketing begins with writing a blog, creating a social media post, or dashing off an email. But those are simply tactics that should be the product of a strategy. How will those tactics help achieve overall goals, address audience pain points, or fit into the comprehensive plan and narrative you want to tell?
Why you need a content strategy: You wouldn’t try to write a novel starting with the individual scenes, without giving any thought or planning to your plot, who your characters are, and the story you ultimately want to tell. Similarly, content creation without a strategy just makes everything harder and less cohesive to your audience. Having a solid content strategy can help you better speak to your target audience while saving time and effort.
How I can help: I work with you to create a comprehensive content strategy unique to your school or department that includes goal-setting, identifying your target audience, solidifying your message and brand, strategies for various content channels (website, blog, social media, newsletter, etc.), analytics, and more. Then, simply take this strategy and execute it.
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Here’s the process I take my clients through when developing their content strategy and program:
First, we start with your goals and what you’re trying to achieve in your marketing efforts, as well as identify metrics to track.
Then we determine who your target audience is and develop audience personae, so that you can speak to them more directly in your marketing efforts.
Then we pick the key topics for your content. Don't post about everything in the universe, but pick two or three things that will further your goals and that your target audience will gravitate towards.
We also talk about branding, voice, and style so that your content will be aligned with your messaging.
Then we figure out which channels are going to be the best places for your marketing efforts based on where your target audience is.
We put all of it together into a detailed content calendar that shows why you're creating this piece of content, what you're creating content about, who you're creating it for, and where and when you're posting it.
We’ll take a look at your content development process so that you can more easily create high-quality and highly-targeted content. We’ll also streamline the development process and make sure you have the right people in the right roles.
Once you have this detailed content calendar and streamlined process, it's much easier to go through and create content that's tailored to your audience, aligned with your goals, and that tells the story you want to tell. We’ll work on content creation best practices across various formats.
Now, we start distributing content to your various channels, guided by your content calendar.
We’ll establish a cadence for measurement: looking at metrics, analyzing that data for insights, and applying those insights to improve your content strategy.
Finally, we’ll revisit this strategy and program and make sure that it’s sustainable for you to continue into the future.
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below.
Content project management
Serve your audience high-quality, well-written content — even if you don’t have the capacity to develop or write it in-house.
Why you need content project management: Marketing teams, departments, and programs are trying to juggle a lot these days — and may not have the capacity to develop, write, and edit high-quality content. Many teams today are outsourcing to content experts. Why not you?
How I can help: Blog posts, articles and insights, email/newsletters, social media content, industry reports, whitepapers, video scripts, copywriting… Let’s talk about what one-off projects or campaigns you need written for you.
Note: I do not use AI in my writing or process. It’s unreliable and falls short of the quality your audience deserves. Additionally, my focus is on creating high-quality content that speaks directly to your audience and their interests. As such, I do not take an SEO/keyword research-focused approach to the content process, which, in my experience, can tend to ignore your audience’s interests and needs.
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below.
Other/Additional Services
Master content/editorial calendar creation
How do you translate your content strategy into action? With a master content calendar, your goals, target audience interests and needs, messaging, and key topics transform into an easy-to-follow, actionable content creation list.
Why you need a content calendar: It’s the challenge of the blank page. Too often those in charge of creating content sit down the day of and think, “What do I write? What do I create? I have to get something out.” This franticness produces hurried content that may not relate to your goals or audience interests. With a content calendar, you know what you’re creating in advance and that it aligns with your overall content strategy.
How I can help: I help you create a master calendar that guides your content production process, with your goals, key topics and ideas, assets, CTAs, and more, creating a multi-channel guide you simply follow. I also provide coaching and oversight to help you effectively execute that calendar so that you can build a sustainable content program.
Here’s one example of a content calendar I can help you make (yes, I like color-coding!):
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below.
Content development process assistance
You can have the best strategy, process, calendar, and intentions in the world — but it won’t matter if your audience is met with low-quality content that doesn’t speak to them, engage with them, or inspire them to take action.
Why you need high-quality content: Content is the interface between you and your audience. It’s how a prospective student may first meet you, what inspires current students to stay engaged, and what continues to build the relationship with alumni. It catches attention, builds awareness and trust, and gets them leaning in to want to know more.
How I can help: I’ve been honing my writing craft for over 20 years, and bring that excellence and high bar of standard to every writing or content management project. I can help you create the processes needed to create high-quality content, from idea generation around topics that really matter to your audience, to how to create comprehensive briefs, to outlines that make an argument or tell a story, to the words on the screen.
Note: I do not use AI in my writing or process. It’s unreliable and falls short of the quality your audience deserves. Additionally, my focus is on creating high-quality content that speaks directly to your audience and their interests. As such, I do not take an SEO/keyword research-focused approach to the content process, which, in my experience, can tend to ignore your audience’s interests and needs.
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below.
Distribution and measurement strategy
Great content is wasted if you can’t get it front of your audience, and too many teams create high-quality content only to let it sit on a blog when it could be in front of an audience. Having a distribution strategy — and a way to measure those efforts — is just as important as goal-setting and target audience research.
Why you need a distribution and measurement strategy: You put a lot of effort into creating great content that will meet the needs of your audience — so go put it in front of them! In today’s crowded marketing channels, it’s no longer effective to wait until your audience finds you. By going to them and putting content in front of their eyes, you can more proactively build awareness and trust. Also, you don’t need a degree in business analytics to analyze the data behind your efforts. Even simple data insights can help you improve your content strategy into the future.
How I can help: In my 13 years of running Literary Boston, distribution via social media and newsletter has been the primary way I’ve built an audience. One of the pillars of my strategy when overseeing the Prematriculation program was “tweaking for excellence,” where I tracked data on student engagement with my content and used that data to improve my efforts for the future. Let me do the same for you: I can help you build a distribution strategy (that includes the aforementioned content calendar) and coach you through execution. I can also help you identify key metrics to track, how to find those metrics, and how to make sense of them.
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below.
Thought leadership strategy
Leverage your institution’s expertise in your content marketing, or boost faculty thought leadership on their own channels. Uncover your unique point of view — what new perspectives or ideas that can lead to student transformation — and how to communicate it to your audience through your content.
Why you need a thought leadership strategy: At the core of the higher ed experience is the classroom filled with new ideas and perspectives, offering students not just knowledge but a new way of seeing the world around them. From university research to faculty members’ unique offerings, being able to articulate the world of ideas at your institution can help differentiate you to your audience.
How I can help: For the past five years, I’ve been the thought leadership ghostwriter for CEOs and business leaders, with dozens (a hundred?) of ghostwritten CEO articles placed on sites like Forbes, Fast Company, and Newsweek, and ghostwritten CEO content on LinkedIn. I work with clients to identify their unique perspective on industry topics and, most importantly, how to articulate it in their content. I can do the same for you!
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below.
Content program troubleshooting and audit
You have a content marketing program in place, but something’s just not working. You have great ideas but they’re not being developed or they’re getting stuck in the pipeline. You produce a lot of content but nothing’s really getting your audience engaged. Let’s figure it out.
Why you need a streamlined and focused content program: It’s not enough to be “good enough,” especially when it comes to attracting students, getting them to say yes, or keeping them engaged once they’re on campus. But many marketing teams, departments, and programs need to do more with less these days. That’s why troubleshooting your content program, working out the bugs, and streamlining and simplifying can help you save time, stress, and resources, and help you more effectively use your budget.
How I can help: I can help you examine and diagnosis your content program issues — process or team structure problem? a lack of messaging and positioning? no measurement? — and put in place new approaches to help get you on track. Or if you’re looking for an audit of your content to assess quality, focus, or gaps/repurposing areas, I can help with that, too.
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below.
Let’s work together!
Fill out the form below with what marketing solutions you’re looking for! I’ll follow up to schedule a quick call to talk through options.