The Basics of Developing a Content Strategy for Regulated Industries

There's too much content out there. And most of it is rubbish (garbage). I may even have written some of it... I'm not proud to admit that, but it paid the bills when I first started out. For quite a while, most content was just an amalgamation of other blog posts out there. You'd do a few Google searches and then write a blog post of about 1,000 words based on what you found out. Or, you'd write something just to target keywords. There was no joy in it.

But the slop years (as I like to call them - not to be confused with the AI slop of today) taught me that without a strategy, your content is just words taking up space on the internet, and having a pretty negative impact on your carbon footprint.

In regulated industries, the default response to "we need a strategy" is usually "let's just make sure everything is compliant and call it a day." Which is how you end up with content that technically ticks every box and bores every single person who reads it.

But once you stop treating compliance as the enemy and start treating it as the framework - the thing that actually forces you to be more creative, precise, and intentional - it stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling like something you might actually enjoy. I mean, who knew that the RSPB's TikTok channel and LinkedIn page would be such a hoot (pun intended)?

But developing a content strategy means you need to understand the core components and what your audience wants. It never ceases to amaze me how much people assume they know what their audience wants based on what they think or like.

This blog post will discuss the basics of developing a content strategy for regulated industries, providing you with practical insights and examples for these specific industries along with actionable recommendations.

What Are You Actually Trying to Achieve With Your Content Strategy?

Most regulated companies set content objectives that look something like this: more traffic and more leads. Which is fine, except it tells you absolutely nothing about how traffic gets you more leads and what to actually create.

The companies I see struggling most aren't struggling because they don't have enough content. They're struggling because they have no idea who they sound like. Strip the logo off their website, and you genuinely could not tell them apart from their three nearest competitors. Same tone, same topics, same vague promises about "innovative solutions" and "industry-leading expertise." And then they wonder why the clicks aren't converting.

Here's what actually matters. Before you decide how much content to produce or which channels to post on, decide what you want someone to think and feel after reading it. Not just what you want them to do. Because in regulated industries, where buying cycles are long and trust is everything, the click is never the point. The click is just proof that something landed.

Figure out your voice first. Everything else follows from that.

Start With the Why

Most regulated companies launch content the same way they launch products: here's what it is and what it does. Feature, specification, compliance tick. Next. The problem is that nobody cares about your product until they care about the problem it solves.

I worked on two product launches that illustrated this perfectly. One was a plastic manufacturing additive. The why was right there: it was PFAS-free, at a moment when the entire industry was under pressure to find alternatives to forever chemicals. The story wrote itself. The other was a transformer fluid for data centers, which sounds deeply niche until you connect it to the AI boom and the explosion in energy demand that nobody quite knows how to handle yet. Suddenly it's not a product launch. It's a solution to one of the biggest infrastructure challenges of the next decade.

Compare that to a campaign I worked on where there simply was no why. The product existed, it was technically sound, it was compliant, and it had absolutely nothing to say for itself. Predictably, neither did the content.

Before you write a single brief, a single post, or a single word of messaging, find your why. Not the why your R&D team cares about. The why your audience will still be thinking about on the drive home.

How to Make People Actually Care About What You Do

Sometimes you are so deep inside your own product that you've completely lost the ability to see why anyone outside your organization should find it interesting. You've been talking about it for so long that it just sounds like background noise. Which is exactly why the content ends up the way it does.

I worked with a pharma company that wanted templated materials for patient recruitment to speed up the IRB and EC review process and get trials moving faster. Except when we looked at the actual materials, they were written for regulators, not patients. The people being asked to participate in clinical trials were being handed documents that read like legal contracts. Nobody had stopped to ask whether a nervous patient sitting in a consultation room could actually understand what they were agreeing to.

When you're inside a business, the story disappears. What's left is process, approval, and the path of least resistance — which is always to do what you did last time, because it got through review and nobody got fired. Finding your why requires stepping outside that entirely. Which is, not coincidentally, exactly what an outside perspective is for.

Best Practices for Content Strategy Development

To maximise the effectiveness of your content strategy, I'd recommend following the below best practices (although also don't be afraid to break the rules):

1. Stay True to Your Brand: Always maintain a consistent voice and style that aligns with your brand identity. This builds trust and recognition with your audience.

2. Test and Optimize: Regularly experiment with different content types, headlines, channels, images, and distribution strategies to identify what works best. Continuous iteration is key to success.

3. Engage with Your Audience: Respond to comments and messages promptly. Building relationships with your audience increases loyalty and encourages sharing.

4. Focus on Quality, Not Quantity: It’s better to produce fewer high-quality pieces than to flood your audience with mediocre content. Invest time in crafting valuable content that attracts and retains your audience.

5. Integrate AEO Best Practices: Implementing AEO strategies to make sure you are cited by and show up in AI platforms and answer engines can significantly improve your content’s visibility.

   
   

And on that note, let's just quickly talk about AI. While you can consider using AI tools for content creation,you really need to still maintain ensure human oversight if you want to preserve authenticity and brand consistency and also not sound like all the other AI slop out there.

Taking the First Step

If you’re unsure where to begin, the best course of action is simple: start. Outline your goals, conduct research, and create a basic plan that you can build upon over time. Engaging in proper content strategy planning will lay a strong foundation for your efforts.

Empower yourself with knowledge, seek feedback from your audience, and stay flexible in your approach. By focusing on creating valuable, relevant content that serves your audience, you will set the stage for long-term success.

By following these guidelines and building a strong content strategy, your business can thrive in today’s competitive online environment. Embrace the challenge, and start developing a strategy that will engage and grow your audience effectively.