With a new year fast approaching, it’s time to make sure your content strategy is in tip-top shape. One of the most important building blocks of a successful strategy is having a captivating and relevant theme. Using the right theme can help you craft timely, engaging content to connect with consumers. If you’re unsure how to use and choose the right themes, our team is here to guide you step-by-step and take your content marketing to the next level.

Let’s take a closer look at themes and learn why they’re an integral part of a strong content strategy:

What is a theme?

A theme is a specific topic that aligns with your brand’s messaging and goals. Whether your brand is food- or lifestyle-focused, determining a specific topic or content category is the best starting point for a successful content program. Examples include holiday entertaining, home DIY projects, healthy recipes, travel tips and back-to-school family meals. Although there are infinite potential themes, it’s important to choose one that’s broad enough to appeal to a large audience.

What is a theme-driven strategy?
A theme-driven strategy is built around a specific topic that will be consistently used throughout your campaign. Whether your content is digital, print or both, your theme will stand out as the focal point of your brand’s messaging and overall content creation.

What is the difference between timely themes and evergreen content?
Evergreen content is relevant and “fresh” to consumers any time of the year and not limited to a specific season or trend. A theme can be based on an evergreen topic, such as pet care, car maintenance or healthy living. A timely theme is specifically relevant to a season or holiday, such as spring cleaning or Easter. While a timely theme may be popular at a particular point in time, it has a shorter lifespan than evergreen content.

Are themes and brand messages different?
Your theme is often related and complementary to your brand messaging. For example, if your product is a piece of lawn care equipment, your theme may be winterizing your lawn. If your brand makes a healthy food product, your content may center around nutritious family meals or smart snacking with recipes that complement the theme.

Why are themes important and how can they help your brand?
Themes allow you to develop unique content strategies that add structure and direction to your brand’s overall content marketing plan. Starting with a theme can also help guide your brainstorming and fuel creativity to showcase your product or recipes. 

Having a cohesive theme helps create a solid foundation for your content strategy. If your strategy lacks a strong or relevant theme, it can hinder your overall marketing goals and may not reach the right consumers.

Aligning your content with popular themes also increases your opportunities for bigger results and drives brand awareness. Editors often look for specific themes to fill their publications and planning around timely themes can help give your brand the exposure it deserves. When using timely themes (such as a specific holiday), it’s important to remember to plan early so editors can use your content and give your brand exposure.

Our project planner is a great tool to find inspiration and stay on top of upcoming themes and deadlines throughout the year.

Are you ready to get your next project started? Contact us today to learn more!