10 steps to execute a good content strategy in 2026

Transform your digital presence in 2026: build community and generate lasting trust with this 10-step guide to a good content strategy.

Organic content is what makes up most of what we see online. It's the "meat"; the reason we're addicted to our phones . And, of course, algorithms favor content that keeps people on the social network as long as possible.

If you know this, you're already one step closer to creating a good content strategy. But what should you consider? Where should you start? How deep or shallow should you go with your branding? How do you know what content your audience wants to see? How do you increase sales?

Without further ado, here are 10 steps to follow to have a plan that truly contributes to your business goals and helps create loyal customers for your brand .

1. Understand the Organic Content

Let's say you open Instagram. The first thing you see is a meme that makes you laugh, and you decide to share it. Then, you scroll further and come across a carousel of photos from your friend's wedding, which you like and comment on. Next, a news story relevant to your city pops up, and you start reading it. At that moment, you receive an email notification about your subscription to a daily poetry newsletter. You click on it, and it takes you to the sender's blog post. After reading it, you put on your favorite podcast about '80s movies.

Everything I mentioned that you consumed was organic content.

[And I say obviously, because many times that intention is there, but it's very well disguised.]

This is the main difference with paid content, which clearly has the objective of making you take an action regarding a brand: buy, follow, subscribe, etc.

So don't make the mistake of trying to [obviously] sell your products and services through your organic content.

And you might say: But then why would I want to create organic content if I'm not going to sell it?

And I'll tell you: You're not going to sell immediately, but you DO want to create organic content because it directly supports building your brand and the Brand Awareness stage of the funnel . People rarely buy from brands they don't trust or don't know. If they don't even know you exist, how are they going to buy from you?

Remember that the consumer has a "buyer journey" represented in the Marketing Funnel, which runs parallel to the stages of the Sales Funnel. Your prospects must first be aware of your existence, then have some interest in what you sell, consider you, have the intention to buy, evaluate, and finally, make the purchase.

Organic content is the space where your brand comes to life in the digital world . It's where people can get to know your voice, your personality, interact with you, share opinions, build community, and connect with you.

It's called organic not because it's hormone-free and free-range (🥁 haha! How funny of me!), but because the interactions your brand will have with your audience, and the lasting impact and recall of those interactions, will happen naturally , without advertising pushes or paying to be seen. These interactions are much deeper and more lasting than any advertisement.

“Brands with high levels of 'intimacy' (deep emotional connection) outperform S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies in revenue and profit growth . Furthermore, 40% of customers feel 'very connected' or 'identified' with their favorite brands.”

— MBLM - Brand Intimacy Study (2025).

2. Know Your Real Customer

Returning to the analogy of inviting him for coffee:

You'd be more likely to fall in love with someone who listens to you, has good conversations, talks about interesting topics, and has a charming personality, than with someone who only talks about themselves and tries to sell you a timeshare. Or am I wrong?

Have a clear understanding of who your real customer is. Not just their age range and socioeconomic level, but truly understand what kind of content they look for on social media , what kind of podcasts they listen to, what searches they perform, what they like and dislike.

First of all, it is known that consumers do not like to see advertising on their social networks :

“ 91% of social media users simply ignore or scroll over ads without paying attention to them.”

— (Source: HEC Montréal 2025).

And that's because he thinks:

• What is the intention behind a person entering Instagram?

• Is that the same reason you join TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest? [Pst! The answer is NO.]

• Why do you listen to a podcast?

• What blogs do you like to read?

• What kind of videos do you like to watch?

  
  

As I mentioned at the beginning, people consume content that adds educational, recreational, and/or entertainment value. Think about the intention behind your target audience's activity on each social network and represent it in a diagram [we'll use it later 😉].

3. Define Your Business Objectives

Now, at the end of the day, we have a business that needs to sell and generate revenue to survive. I'm sure your business goals are: Sell more.

But beyond that, I also know that it's important for you to define HOW you're going to sell more .

Don't focus solely on the short term; business objectives should also have a medium- and long-term perspective. They should include things like strengthening your brand , increasing recognition, and establishing yourself as a leader in your industry or field, among other things. Therefore, you should consider what kind of messages you should convey to support these "critical battles" and achieve your overall goal.

If you already understand this, all that remains is to cross-reference these with the many marketing actions that support and reinforce that business objective. As Arjan already mentioned in his previous article :

This is particularly important, as having clarity will help you know what direction your communication will take in your content efforts.

For example : If your goal is to grow your pizza business unit, it makes sense that much of your content should be focused on talking about pizzas and not so much about hot dogs.

4. Define Your Brand's Personality and Voice

If you haven't yet defined your Brand Personality and Voice, it's crucial that you do so as soon as possible.

Brand personality and voice are the ways in which a brand will consistently express itself across all its channels. Defining this depends on factors such as the industry it belongs to, its target audience, its added value and differentiators, its core values, and above all, the role it plays between the customer and the value proposition.

I recommend defining your Brand Personality in a Brand Strategy Map exercise , since within the methodology the Brand is defined as a person who has personality attributes based on Jung's Archetypes.

For example , the Werko Marketing Solutions brand has predominantly Magician (seeks to contribute transformative ideas) and Sage (offers knowledge in service to others) patterns, but also has a background touch of Creator (restless and imaginative).

The Brand Voice is the way this personality expresses itself. Therefore, Werko has a voice that speaks to his audience informally (not out of disrespect, but out of closeness). He's a young, professional, yet fun-loving adult, fashionable, and unafraid to try new things.

It's important to define your brand's personality and voice so you know how it should behave in different environments. Think of it this way: Even though you have a defining personality, you don't act the same way with your friends as you do with your grandmother.

And a word of caution: It's crucial that you don't entrust this task to ChatGPT. Because one thing it (still) can't do is mimic human personality and essence. People don't like feeling like they're interacting with a robot. Several AI agents promise to be able to assume your brand's voice, but in my opinion, they still fall short and continue to project a lack of authenticity that ultimately becomes noticeable.

5. Define your Communication Channels

At this point, you'll be ready to define your Communication Lines. You'll do this by taking into account:

• The target audience intent diagram for each social network [remember when I told you we were going to use it again? 😉]

• Your Business Objectives

• Brand Personality and Voice

  
  

Communication Lines are, so to speak, the channels of “ideas” that your brand will follow in different spaces. It's a short list of general ideas that your brand will always be talking about, based on what you defined in points 2, 3, and 4.

Ask yourself: If my brand were a person, what would they talk about all the time? Some things might be:

1. Areas of expertise

2. My clients and projects

3. Who we are / Our values

4. My industry

5. Promotions

   
   

This list will look different depending on each company, but I'm using it as an example so you can see that a brand (just like a person) isn't well-received if it only talks about its prices and promotions (and only wants to sell you timeshares).

Once you define the communication guidelines, keep in mind that:

In other words, the bulk of your messages, 80%, should be focused on content of interest to your audience, things that provide them with value (as we already discussed).

So calculate the percentages you should speak in across your different communication channels to ensure you don't bore your audience by only talking about yourself.

6. Establish your Communication Mix

The Communication Mix refers to: Where should and can your brand be? Where should it publish and where should it interact and join current conversations?

To find that out, you will rely on, that's right: The Target Audience Intent Diagram you made for each Social Network and on what you researched about your audience.

Choose the social networks that allow you to be closer to your audience , where your presence makes sense, and cross-reference your messages according to your Communication Guidelines .

For example , imagine you're Home Depot . Taking into account your customers' social media consumption habits and the things that interest them, it makes sense for your digital mix to consist of:

• Pinterest - Home decor content, interior design trends

• YouTube - Home Installation and Repair Tutorial Videos

• TikTok - Short home hack videos

• Blog - Detailed step-by-step tutorials

• Instagram and Facebook - Amplification of video content, TikTok and Blog posts

  
  

I'm 100% sure I'm understating the issue. But to further illustrate my point, now imagine you're a law firm . Would it make sense to do the same thing as Home Depot and also be on Pinterest? No. Your digital channel mix needs to be tailored to you and your audience.

7. Plan Your Content

Plan your content months in advance using a Content Calendar where you keep track of important dates (e.g., your business anniversary, participation in events, etc.) as well as seasonal events that have an impact (e.g., Black Friday, Christmas, Summer, etc.) so that you have time to really organize and structure your content .

Additionally, there's plenty of content you can anticipate that will generate value if you publish it today or at a future date . There are messages you can plan for specific dates because it will be relevant to tell those stories on those dates. But remember that much content is evergreen , and not all value comes from immediacy.

This calendar should be cross-referenced with your Communication Lines so you can calculate the percentage of messages for each line and have clarity on the volume you will be handling for each one, and avoid falling into the trap of only talking about yourself and your products (and losing the interest of your audience).

Additionally, it must include things like: publication date, format, aspect ratio, channel on which it appears, among others.

8. Create High-Impact Content

The next step is to get to work and create high-impact content, taking into account the social network where you will publish and keeping in mind which formats and types of content work best for each social network .

In 2026, based on our experience at the agency and what we've seen in the industry, the best formats and content for each social network are :

• TikTok: Short, vertically formatted videos for useful entertainment.

• Facebook: Long-form (3 to 5 minutes) vertical video reels that encourage interaction.

• Instagram: Reels in vertical video format, carousels, and Stories.

• LinkedIn: Documents (PDF carousels) and video with subtitles, featuring long opinion pieces to spark conversations.

• YouTube: Shorts (short videos in vertical format) and long videos of more than 10 minutes of tutorials.

  
  

So experiment with different formats (video, reels, tutorials, carousels, downloadable PDFs, photo styles, innovative designs, and much more) but always make sure that what you do is in line with the essence of your brand.

At the same time, don't be afraid to make mistakes at the beginning. The first few months are for seeing what resonates with your audience and what doesn't, and for learning what types of content the algorithms favor in your industry.

9. Stay Updated

Now, you may have done everything right up to this point, but you will still need to keep up to date with the changing context and discourse that exists in digital channels.

Make sure you stay up to date with online "slang," understand what kind of new content your audience consumes, what makes them laugh, what causes controversy, what their general feelings are about various topics (not just about your industry), and consider all of this when planning your content and executing your schedule .

Not to promote ourselves, BUT I honestly recommend you followour podcast , which is released every Friday. We not only talk about marketing trends, news, hot topics, and more, but everything is also accompanied by insights from your trusted marketing agency with practical applications for your business.

Also, remember that it's very important not to just schedule, publish, and leave. You must be very attentive to your community , to the comments they leave, respond to them, and generate conversations. Interaction with your community is VERY important to keep it active.

Another recommendation is to identify accounts relevant to your business or industry to interact with and tag. Remember, these are the spaces where your brand comes to life . By commenting on someone else's posts on behalf of your brand, you'll be giving it visibility on alternative channels with similar audiences and, at the same time, strengthening your online community.

10. Measure and Adjust Your Strategy

Finally, the next step is to monitor your strategy. It's crucial to measure results and focus on the metrics that truly matter to your business. Be careful not to focus on vanity metrics , but rather on those that genuinely contribute to your brand strategy.

Make the necessary adjustments based on your community's response, keep experimenting, and above all, have fun in the process!

A good content strategy in 2026 that truly transcends

A good content strategy is one that allows you to contribute to the customer journey we discussed at the beginning. With it, you'll see your brand come to life in digital spaces, stay close to your customers, and simultaneously build a community.

To achieve this successfully in 2026, remember that the key lies in balance: 80% genuine value versus 20% commercial intent. It's not about shouting louder than the competition with ads that 91% of users will ignore, but about whispering messages in your audience's ear that educate, entertain, and resonate with their real needs . At the end of the day, brands that achieve deep intimacy with their audience not only survive the algorithm but also far outperform the growth of the largest companies in the market.

Sources:

• MBLM (2025) Brand Intimacy 2025.

• HEC Montreal (2025) Social Media Advertising: Why 91% of Users Ignore Your Ads.