My Recipe for a Great Content Strategy: A Mastery of Storytelling Skills and Marketing Basics

Published by Ashton Elder

Ashton has an M.S. in Marketing from Florida International University and has been working as a marketer for over five years. She is currently serving on the University of North Florida’s Department of Communications Professional Committee Board. Ashton has been a guest on several media and marketing panels throughout her career. She also holds a degree from the University of North Florida where she studied political science, journalism, and mass communications. Prior to working in marketing, she worked as a journalist for several news outlets and publications, including an internship at NPR where she produced several radio features. This site features a collection of her articles and radio features from her career in journalism. This site also features some of her insights and projects from her career in marketing. Ashton’s background in journalism has provided her with a solid foundation on which to build enhanced media and social media strategies to provide creative, innovative marketing solutions. Ashton also has first-hand experience with brand design and brand building. Ashton also works on an array of marketing projects from social media to email marketing and everything in between. View all posts by Ashton Elder

branding, content marketing, customer journey, digital marketing, email, email marketing, Marketing, omni channel marketing, SEO

A comprehensive content strategy is an essential part of any digital marketing campaign.
First things first: marketers should start with the basics such as defining a marketing campaign objective, choosing a target audience and determining a marketing message.
After these steps are complete, the information you gain will help create a guide for a content marketing plan. The location, interests and pain points of your target audience really serve as a great guide for a content strategy. This information will help you craft content that is relevant to your key audiences.

I use key information about my target audiences as the head of marketing at a Florida real estate brokerage, EXIT 1 Stop Realty. I use content on subjects that relate to the Northeast Florida area on my company’s blog, Top of the Coast. The blog’s committed to those who make their home on the First Coast and therefore we automatically generate interest from those who are most likely to buy or sell their home in Northeast Florida. I use this data to guide my company’s email marketing program, the Door to Door in 904 e-newsletter. One of the main marketing objectives of the Door to Door in 904 news is to recruit new real estate agents to the brokerage. We often add items of value that appeal to real estate agents and feature articles on home and hospitality. My background in journalism, especially my experience as a features editor, has given me some unique skills in developing compelling content. I find these skills incredibly useful in my marketing career.
As in journalism, in marketing creative and engaging content is key to gaining the audience’s attention and interests. Although in marketing the data I discussed above is key for marketers.
Another important thing marketers need to keep in mind is the importance of the customer journey. It is essential to keep the brand aesthetic consistent throughout the customer journey. It is also vital to use the right content along the various stages of the customer journey. Different types of content work better in the awareness, attention, interest, desire and action phases of the journey. Each stage of the customer journey requires different types of content. I always use shorter, more important items first in the awareness stage and keep the most wordy, information heavy content for the decision phase of the marketing funnel. To sum it up, creativity and excellent storytelling skills paired with a mastery of marketing fundamentals makes the perfect recipe for an excellent content marketing strategy.