What Should a Good Content Strategy Include?
A strong content strategy brings clarity, consistency and purpose. Here's what to include to make your content work harder and deliver results.
Fractional Content Support

If your content feels inconsistent, disconnected or like it’s just not landing – this is where to start.

Most businesses don’t have a content problem. They have a clarity problem.

They’re already creating content – a blog here, a video there, a bit of activity on LinkedIn – but it feels disjointed, reactive, or simply not having the impact it should.

The missing piece? A proper strategy.

A good content strategy doesn’t just tell you what to post. It gives you the tools to make consistent, purposeful decisions that support your wider business goals – without reinventing the wheel every week.

So what should it actually include? Let’s break it down.

Two team members from CentricHR working together over a document - have they aligned what a good content strategy should include?
CentricHR

1. Audience insight that actually means something

It starts here. If you don’t understand who you’re talking to, everything else falls flat.

A good strategy includes:

  • Clarity on your primary audience(s)
  • Their challenges, goals, language and habits
  • Where they spend time, what kind of content they engage with, and what drives them to take action

Too many strategies skip past this part, or rely on assumptions. But when you take the time to understand your audience properly, your messaging sharpens, your tone shifts – and your content starts cutting through.

2. Messaging foundations that keep you consistent

This is your north star. It’s what keeps your team aligned, your tone on-brand, and your message coherent across every platform.

Your strategy should clearly set out:

  • Core brand messages
  • Your value proposition and point of difference
  • A tone of voice guide – how you sound and why it matters
  • Your content pillars – the themes you come back to again and again

This is especially important when multiple people contribute to your content. It stops the voice from drifting and helps everything feel like it came from the same place.

3. Clear, realistic content goals

Content for content’s sake is a waste of everyone’s time. A strong strategy is tied directly to your business objectives.

Are you:

  • Building brand visibility?
  • Generating leads?
  • Supporting account-based marketing or sales enablement?
  • Creating internal culture or stakeholder alignment?
  • Educating your audience or sparking conversations?

Set clear intentions up front, then build your content around those goals. It sounds simple, but this bit is often skipped – and it makes all the difference when it comes to measuring success.

4. A plan you’ll actually follow

If your content plan lives in a spreadsheet that no one opens… that’s not a strategy. That’s wishful thinking.

What you need is a working calendar that:

  • Plots out your themes, formats and channels
  • Feels realistic and achievable with the resource you have
  • Builds in space for reactive content or timely moments
  • Is aligned to your internal capacity, campaigns, or team bandwidth

You don’t need to map out every post for the next 12 months. But a rolling 8–12 week plan? That’s enough to take the stress out of content and get ahead of the curve.

5. Repurposing and reusing content that already works

You don’t always need to create something new.
In fact, most businesses have gold sitting in their archives – it just hasn’t been repurposed properly.

A good strategy includes a process for:

  • Spotting high-performing or evergreen content
  • Reworking it for different formats (e.g. turning a blog into LinkedIn posts, or a webinar into short videos)
  • Scheduling re-posts where relevant
  • Ensuring key messages are reinforced, not just posted once and forgotten

This saves time, boosts consistency, and helps your best ideas land more than once.

6. Smart distribution

It’s not just what you create – it’s where you put it.

Great content can still fall flat if it’s not showing up in the right places. Your strategy should include guidance on:

  • Primary distribution channels (LinkedIn, blog, email, podcast, etc.)
  • How content is repurposed across platforms
  • What format works best for each space
  • When and how often to post for your audience

If you’re trying to be everywhere, you’ll burn out. Focus on the channels where your audience actually is – and do them well.

7. Performance measurement that makes sense

Finally – you’ve got to know what’s working.

But this doesn’t mean obsessing over likes and impressions. Focus on metrics that connect to your goals.

Your strategy should cover:

  • What to track (engagement, reach, conversions, lead quality, etc.)
  • How often to review performance
  • What success looks like for your team or business
  • How feedback loops into future planning

It’s not about chasing vanity metrics. It’s about learning what resonates and adapting intelligently.

Final thoughts

A good content strategy isn’t a luxury. It’s the thing that turns your content from “we post when we can” into “we’re showing up with purpose and consistency.”

It helps you stay focused, aligned and ahead of the game. And it gives your team the tools to create great content without the constant guesswork.

If your content feels like it’s missing something – start here.