--- title: "What is a #ContentStrategy & why does your school need one?" description: "What is a #ContentStrategy & why does your school need one?" --- [Inspiring Schools Blog ](https://www.interactiveschools.com/blog) # [What is a #ContentStrategy & why does your school need one?](https://www.interactiveschools.com/blog/what-is-a-contentstrategy-why-does-your-school-need-one) Written by [Interactive Schools Blog](https://www.interactiveschools.com/blog/author/socialinteractiveschools-com) | 17 May 2017 data-animation-override> “Content is king, but distribution is queen…and she wears the pants” — Jonah Peretti, CEO of Buzzfeed Marketing is not the same today as it was 50 years ago. Ok…it does seem an obvious statement to make - a **lot **has happened since then after all. However, would it be as obvious to say marketing today is not the same as it was **just** **five years** ago?  In terms of technology, more breakthroughs and shifts have occurred in five short years than they have in 50 long ones! Via the prevalence of technology, and the surge in social media, the way we buy as consumers has changed dramatically. In a recent article we explored [the 4 C's (consumer, cost, convenience and communication) of modern marketing](http://blog.interactive-schools.co.uk/blog/4-cs-the-modern-marketing-replacement). It highlighted how the Product - the traditional focus of marketing - has been replaced by the Consumer. This shift puts marketing in a customer-first mindset: does the *customer* respond to this? Does the *customer *empathise with this? Does the *customer *appreciate this? In order to be *valued* *by* the customer you need to possess *value* *for* the customer. ## What IS a #ContentStrategy? In modern terms, a content strategy is the drive behind the development, planning, creation, delivery and management of your content. In other words, it is the *who*, *what*, *where*, *why *and *how *for all your marketing. Since the consumer now desires content they can **engage **with and that adds **value** to them, it is down to you and the school to see that this is delivered.  Luckily, schools have a wide range of outlets to help communicate and share their content, including: - social media - school website - newsletters - parent portals - apps - digital publications It's about knowing which platform will reach which demographic. The first two, however, are essential. Get these spot on - using a well devised Content Strategy - and you are more than half way there! ## How to create a #ContentStategy Devising a top content strategy is a task requiring lots of adaptation. But you can start building the foundation of your strategy by answering *who*, *what*, *when*, *where*, *why *and *how*. ### Who The first step demands research and understanding. You need to know *who* you are targeting with your marketing. To do this you should curate personas - parent profiles - of your community. These different personas will cover important information such as: - gender - income - family size - career - values / goals - education / background Use this handy checklist to help [develop your personas, and what questions should be answered](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-100-questions) about them. Armed with this information you will be able to select the content that will resonate with your community most effectively; you will be able to curate your *what*... ### What The *what *is defined by your *who*. In other words your audience will mould everything about your content, such as: - substance (great stories must have substance) - form (the type of media used) - style (funny, cute, monochrome, flashy?) - topic (which conversations will your demographic engage with?) With a clearer picture of *who* you are marketing to, it should be easier to decide on *what* type of content you will use.  **TOP TIP: **Be willing to experiment with the different forms of content you can create. Here are a few ideas to get you started: - visuals (photos / infographics) - blogs / vlogs - audio - video - newsletters ### When *When* should you post to social media? *When* should you send your weekly newsletter? *When* should you publish your next blog or article? Knowing the answer to these questions will form a core part of your content strategy. For social media refer to the infographic below (*click to enlarge*), to help form a basis for scheduling content. To make this even more efficient try using these [scheduling tools to streamline your school's marketing](http://blog.interactive-schools.co.uk/blog/4-scheduling-tools-to-streamline-your-schools-marketing). CLICK TO ENLARGE : Infographic by SurePayroll.com **TOP TIP: **As a school your optimum times are likely to change, particularly with networks like Twitter where you should be sharing #SchoolStories **as they happen**. With this in mind be experimental with your posting times and use analytics to review impact and level of engagement. ### Where An obvious consideration for your content strategy is *where* to put your content. As noted above, schools have a wide range of channels to share their content on - so it becomes a question of which channel works best for the selected media (*what*) being used. What media works best on what channel? Understanding the *where *is something we really get, and we are here to help you understand it too. [Get in touch if you want to talk to us about social media training or marketing strategy](http://interactive-schools.co.uk/#contactSuccess).  ### Why Perhaps the most important question to answer - *why *are you posting the content? Perhaps, as as school, you are looking to boost your pupil numbers? Perhaps your are looking to boost numbers, but in a certain year group (i.e. nursery / pre-prep)? Perhaps you are over-subscribed and looking to increase your school's profile nationally or even internationally instead?  These considerations are incredibly important if your content is to have the desired effect. Launching a tailored campaign to your community will **only be as good** as the relevance it has to your *why*. ### How The final question to answer is *how*? *How* does your content, and the strategy behind it, **answer** all of the above. If this in itself cannot be answered then your marketing will not have the desired effect.  To answer your *how*, your strongest ally will be in reports and analytics. These will allow you to actively see what is working and what isn't. For social media there are plenty of great reporting tools to help you with this, and for your website look no further than Google Analytics. ### **We are here to help! ** We see the future of school marketing residing within social media and want to see more schools sharing their unique, amazing [#SchoolStories](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SchoolStories&src=tyah) with the world. We offer training days for schools - where we will come and talk to the whole school, to inspire *their* part in marketing and sharing all those great #SchoolStories. We will help define your content strategy and support you in its employment across the **entire** school. It's time to ✨**stand out**✨ from your competitors! class="sqs-block-button-container sqs-block-button-container--center" data-animation-role="button" data-alignment="center" data-button-size="large" data-button-type="secondary" > href="http://blog.interactive-schools.co.uk/book-social-media-training" class="sqs-block-button-element--large sqs-button-element--secondary sqs-block-button-element" data-sqsp-button target="_blank" > BOOK TRAINING DAY   **Thanks for taking the time to read this article. We'd love to discuss this or anything related - so be sure to leave comments / thoughts in the comment box below. Have a great day.** [View full post](https://www.interactiveschools.com/blog/what-is-a-contentstrategy-why-does-your-school-need-one) ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Interactive Schools Blog" }, "dateModified" : "2025-07-21T09:10:22.139Z", "datePublished" : "2017-05-17T13:48:49Z", "headline" : "What is a #ContentStrategy & why does your school need one?", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 400, "url" : "https://1860455.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/1860455/Imported_Blog_Media/image-asset-Jul-21-2025-08-46-03-1791-AM.jpg", "width" : 1200 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.interactiveschools.com/blog/what-is-a-contentstrategy-why-does-your-school-need-one", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 60, "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png", "width" : 60 }, "name" : "Inspiring Schools Blog" } } ```