The document discusses why a "one size fits all" approach does not work for content strategies. It argues that best practices should be guidelines, not rules, as circumstances vary between companies. It provides questions to consider when building a content strategy, such as whether a tactic aligns with business goals, the audience, and available resources. The document emphasizes finding the right balance between best practices, trends, and each company's unique situation to develop an effective content strategy.

1. Content Strategy:
One Size Does
NOT Fit All
Toronto HUG | December 2, 2021
Christina Bockisch, Inbound Consultant at HubSpot

2. Is this thing on? Are we recording?

3. Light up the
chat!

4. Christina Bockisch
Blogger. Poet. Ravenclaw. INFJ. Mud Runner. Mental Health
Advocate. Dog Mom x3 (and Best Zoom Co-Host Winners). 2020
Global Customer Success Top Performer.
Inbound Consultant at HubSpot
Meet the Speaker
Email: cbockisch@hubspot.com
Book a meeting with me!
LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTok

5. Meet the Mentors
Hendrix
• Service dog
• Hufflepup
• Frequent visitor to HQ
(and well-loved by the Pro
Services team)
Canine Executive
Officer (CEO)
Khaleesi
• Resident trouble-maker
• 100% lives up to her name
• Never would’ve gotten
into Hogwarts (but if she
did, she’d be a Slytherin)
Growth
Barketer
Benny
• Gryffindog
• Loves the camera and
being in the Zoom spotlight
• Gives his bark of approval
during my consulting calls
Emotional Support
Specialist

6. Today’s Agenda
1. A Quick Note
2. Why “Best Practices” Aren’t Always Best
3. Questions to Ask (And Things to Consider) When Building
Your Content Strategy
4. Tying It All Together
5. Q&A

7. GOALS FOR TODAY
Encourage you (and your business) to move away from the
“best practices” mindset when building your content
strategy.
Provide you with questions that get you thinking about what
to include in your content strategy and how to know when to
leave something out (even if it sounds like fun).
For you to leave with one thing that you never thought
about before when building your content strategy.

8. Let’s get started!

9. A Quick Note:
There’s No Shortage
of Info Out There

10. And I’m not here to say it’s bad stuff
● A quick Google search will give you hundreds of articles about
building a content strategy – and I’m not saying “don’t read it”
or “it’s bad advice” or “you shouldn’t use those tactics”
● Quite the opposite. I know the value of these articles.
● I’ve used them to build content strategies when I worked for
Solutions Partners. I’ve referenced them while working with my
customers at HubSpot.
● I’ve written blogs on related topics – like these...

13. Creating a content strategy is hard
● Without the “how to” blogs or “ultimate guides,” many of us
wouldn’t know where to start, what’s out there, what we could
incorporate into our content strategy
● Don’t be afraid to read those blogs and write down ideas that
stand out to you and/or get you excited

14. But remember:
There’s no
one-size-fits-all
content strategy

15. Why “Best Practices”
Aren’t Always Best
For Your Business

16. Here’s the thing about best practices
● Too often, best practices seen as hard facts. The ultimate truth.
What you should strive for.
● Best practices are guidelines – not rules
● Plus, best practices can vary greatly depending on the source,
how they got their data or where it was pulled from
○ Were the companies included the same size as yours? How long
have they been in business? Do they have a dedicated team
(in-house or outsourced) for their content strategy?
○ Was the data self-reported by businesses or pulled from their
software?
○ What parameters did they look at? Did they exclude anything?

17. Stop comparing your current metrics to
industry best practices
● If you’re making progress year-over-year or
quarter-over-quarter, does it really if your open rate is “on
target” with the best practice for your industry?
● Why do we look to larger, well-established businesses in our
industry as the “gold standard” for what we should be doing?
● Best practices are often a starting point, but they’re rarely the
final answer

18. Let’s not forget about content trends
● Cool stuff is happening on the internet
○ New platforms. New trends. New approaches to traditional tactics.
● Gamification is becoming increasingly popular in marketing
○ Plus other strategies that encourage engagement and participation
● TikTok is fun. Its algorithm is spot-on. It’s also taken some
surprising turns with content like…
○ #LearnOnTikTok for educational content
○ Normalizing things we don’t often see/talk about on social media
○ Put a finger down challenges
○ All the things on Amazon we didn’t know we needed but apparently
we do…

19. But you don’t need to participate in or use
every trend
● Content marketing trends aren’t “bad” – and you should
absolutely stay up-to-date on evolving trends
○ And yes, incorporate them into your overall strategy and/or
day-to-day tactics!
● But just like with best practices, not every trend is right for every
business
● You have to ask yourself: Does it align with our business goals?
Do we have the resources to execute this? Does it make sense
for our business?

20. Best practices and trends
have their place when
building and executing your
content strategy. But there’s
a lot more to consider.

21. What to Think About
When Building Your
Content Strategy

22. Does this tactic/trend/strategy align with
our overall goals?
● Everything we do should tie back to our goals
○ Business goals, marketing goals, content goals, KPIs, etc.
● When you’re unsure about whether a strategy is right for your
business, look back at your goals. Does this tactic help get us closer
to those goals?
● High-level examples:
○ Would creating TikTok videos help our business generate more MQLs?
○ Are podcasts and webinars an effective way to provide education to our
existing customers?
○ Will sending “abandon cart” emails help us re-engage buyers on our site?

23. Is our audience using this channel and/or
interacting with businesses in this way?
● Knowing where your audience spends time online for business
purposes and how they prefer to get business-related content is key
● Invest resources into the channels where your audience spends their
time
○ If your audience doesn’t use Facebook for business purposes, creating
and running Facebook ads won’t be effective (even if you read an article
that said FB ads are the most effective paid ads for B2B companies)

24. Content offers: To gate or not to gate?
● Best practice tells us to put all content offers behind a form, but is
that always the best approach?
○ On one hand, forms are how we generate leads that we can nurture and
convert
○ But from an SEO perspective, landing pages have a harder time ranking
because Google favors long-form content
● Ultimately, it’s about balance and gating the right content
○ We create a buyer’s journey that converts leads to customers
○ Allows us to build an audience journey that answers questions and
educates people – even if they never buy from us

25. Content offers: To gate or not to gate?
● Types of content you put behind a form:
○ High-value content (think: deep dives, original research/content from a
subject matter expert, templates/toolkits/calculators)
○ Offers where lead/prospect will have the opportunity to talk directly to
someone on your team (think: demos, free consultations,etc.)
● When not to gate content:
○ High-level, educational content that’s readily available in blogs, articles
and/or pillar pages
○ Content on topics/keywords you want to rank for in search engines
○ Case studies (I said what I said)

26. Do we have the resources (people, time,
money, etc.) to execute this tactic?
● Content is time-consuming
● One thing I often hear from my customers is that they want to
create more content but they don’t have the time, resources, etc.
● On the flip side, sometimes I see small marketing teams trying to
do more when they’re already overwhelmed

27. Do we have the resources (people, time,
money, etc.) to execute this tactic?
● It’s important to be aware of whether you have the resources to
build, execute and manage content tactics like creating a podcast,
hosting webinars, building more lead nurturing workflows, sending
a newsletter, etc.
● If you don’t have the in-house resources, do you have the budget to
outsource some of the work to an agency or freelancer?
○ It’s important to know what to outsource vs. what to keep doing
in-house
○ Examples of content to keep in-house: Managing Instagram or TikTok
accounts, videos that don’t require high-quality production or will be
used by your sales team, etc

28. Are we playing it too safe?
● There’s a difference between jumping on a trend for the sake of
doing so and experimenting with new strategies/channels/tactics
● It’s good to experiment. It’s how we find what works, what
resonates with our audience and what helps us reach our goals.
● Not taking any risks or avoiding trying new trends in content
marketing can be just as detrimental as diving head first into the
deep end of TikTok with no strategy and hoping something sticks

29. What are some trends to take advantage of?
● Repeat after me: Trends are NOT bad
● Incorporating content trends that align with your goals and allow you
to interact with people in more meaningful ways is a GOOD THING
● Some examples:
○ Short educational videos
○ Visual storytelling and/or gamification
○ Inclusive language and accessibility
○ Using humor to build awareness and educate (Have you heard of
HubSpot?)
○ Content for your existing customers
○ Podcasts, webinars and virtual events

30. Are we creating educational content for
all channels?
● When we think of content strategy, we’re often heavily focused on
marketing content.
● But what about content for sales? Content for chatbots? Self-service
content (like a Knowledge Base or FAQ page) for leads, prospects
and customers?
● Education happens at all stages of the buyer’s journey
● Doing an audit of your existing content and overall strategy can
help identify gaps and areas of opportunity for new content

31. Tying It All Together

32. There’s no universal right or wrong answer
● At the end of the day, there’s no universal right or wrong answer
to any of the questions I shared with you today
○ It’s a matter of what’s right (or best) for your business, audience and
goals
● Although we don’t want to anchor ourselves too heavily to best
practices or jump right into using the newest social channel, we
also don’t want to ignore them
○ It’s about finding balance and figuring out what’s worth the risk for
your business – because some tactics are worth experimenting with
(yes, even TikTok)
● When we can find that balance, we’re able to make better
decisions on how to build and execute our content strategy

33. Did anyone else sing that in their head
thanks to TikTok? Or did I (possibly) get
my audience wrong?
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk...to my TED Talk...

34. Questions?

35. Thank you

36. Resources

37. ● Pillar Page: The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing in 2021
● Pillar Page: The Ultimate Guide to Content Creation
● Blog: The Future of Content Strategy
● Blog: 8 TikTok Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Brand in 2022
● Blog: How to Create Content for Gen Z, From a
TikTok-Influencer-Approved Marketing Agency
●
Resources: HubSpot Blogs + Pillar Pages

38. ● HubSpot Academy Course: Learn How to Create a Successful
Content Strategy
● HubSpot Academy Lesson: Creating a Content Strategy in
HubSpot
● Video (YouTube): Have You Heard of HubSpot?
Resources: HubSpot Academy + Videos

39. ● Content Marketing Institute: To Gate or Not to Gate? Is That
Really the Question?
● Stmats Blog: 6 Content Strategy and Marketing Trends to Expect
in 2022
● Business2Community: 10 Content Marketing Trends to Watch in
2022
● Content Marketing Institute: B2B Content Marketing Insights for
2022: More Budget, More Work, More Empathy
● Meltwater: 8 Content Marketing Trends You Need to Know For
2022
Resources: Other Blogs and Articles

40. ● The Brit Agency: B2B Content Marketing: What Separates the
Best From the Rest in 2021?
● Clariant Creative Agency: A 5-Step Guide to Conducting a Full
Content Audit for Your Website
● Clariant Creative Agency: The 9-Step Guide to a Complete B2B
Content Strategy
● Square2Marketing: 7 Tips for Gamifying Content Marketing
● Business2Community: How to Implement Gamification in Your
Content Marketing Strategy: Useful Tips and Tools
Resources: Other Blogs and Articles (con’t)