Content is one of the most important things companies can do to connect with their audience, build a community behind their brand and discover new customers and clients.*

Earlier this year I founded the startup Lean Content and published ‘Lean Content Marketing' to help small and medium sized businesses balance their marketing.

Be strategic

I have one piece of advice when it comes to content: be a wolf and not a sheep. Sheep are content to follow the herd, wolves are highly focused. Wolves work in teams to isolate a lone animal, then act decisively when the time is right.

Wolves don't waste energy on just any old prey. They're single-minded, targeting only the individual that will make the easiest lunch. And that's exactly what you should do: think about a single customer before you even start.

Be data driven

As Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science at the University of South Australia, explains in his book How Brands Grow, "You must understand heterogeneity and cater for the differences". In other words, segment your market and focus on the group of people most likely to buy from you.

You'll already have information about your customers, but there are plenty of places to gather more. If you're after purely quantitative market research, then data.gov.uk has a large range of publicly available free datasets. Google Trends and Google Public Data Exporter both collate online data and are easily accessible. Another nifty tool is YouGov Profiles. Search an existing brand, personality or object. YouGov will then spend a few moments building you an aggregated profile of the average consumer based on your search.

Don't waste time on omni-channel

The next step involves deciding which channel to use, so that the customer you're targeting is likely to engage with you. This might mean you don't use social media at all. You might not need to blog either, and that's absolutely fine.

Once you have a customer in mind, and a clear idea of exactly where to address them, you can decide on what to say. Your message will be shaped by the channel, and the customer's needs, both of which you will have spent time thinking about.

80% Thinking, 20% Doing

This is why content marketing should be 80 per cent thinking, because once you've done the thinking, it becomes obvious what to say. I don't believe you can decide your message until you know who you're talking to, and where they're going to be. Otherwise, it would be like being asked to write a best man's speech in English, only to be told you're addressing a science convention in Japan.

By channelling your inner wolf, you'll go on to write content tailored to your target customer. You'll look at the world and write something just for them. And unlike the unfortunate elk caught by a wolf pack, they'll thank you for it.

I wrote a book about a more predatory approach to content marketing. You can get a copy here.

*Adobe Digital Trends Survey: https://blogs.adobe.com/digitaleurope/digital-marketing/at-a-glance-adob...