Any Indianapolis parent faced with the prospect of a frigid Saturday indoors with two hyper kids deep in the throes of cabin fever can attest to the dino-rific lure of the Indianapolis Children's Museum. Inside its walls kids explore special exhibits, play with science, and can even meet an astronaut.

Outside its walls, the museum is doing a lot of work to extend its educational mission through a cross-channel content strategy focused on offering family-centric content and at-home learning opportunities.

At a recent American Marketing Association luncheon in Indianapolis Digital Marketing Coordinator for the Children's Museum Lori Phillips and her agency partner Craig "Dodge" Lile, senior director of marketing at Raidious talked about their approach.

Here are some key takeaways you can use to move your content to the next level-even if you don't have an astronaut at your disposal.

1. Know your audience and develop a content plan that has their needs as your focus.
The Children's Museum uses analytics and demographic information to identify the precise personas they want to engage. The content developed for these personas echoes the museum's core brand attributes. Because Lori and her team know the needs of their audiences, readers have an organic experience that provides value while also exposing them to the museum's brand.

Give your customers content that is focused on their needs. Who do you want to target? What interests them? What motivates them? What problems can you solve?

2. Create meaningful content by making it come to life for your customers.
If your content doesn't resonate with your audience-if it's not relatable-it will fall flat.

The Children's Museum began a series aimed at answering the question "Why?" A post called, "Why is there a gecko in the Milky Way?" seemed a nice way of driving interest in a gecko exhibit.

They discovered, however, that while it might be a perfectly interesting topic, there has never been a kid in the history of the world that asked his or her parent about a gecko in the Milky Way. In short, it didn't have meaning for the target audience.

By contrast, a post called "Why would I ever lick a fossil?" went viral. The difference is that the fossil question was simple, interesting, and engaging to their target audience-it resonated.

3. Distribute your content on platforms familiar to your audience and make it easy for your customers to engage with you.
Every good marketer knows you need to meet customers on their terms. The Children's Museum uses a cross-channel approach, tailoring content to meet the specific needs of the medium.

The museum also attempts to connect the physical space to the virtual through an #atTCM campaign. When visitors come to the museum they can tweet or post to Instagram using the hashtag and the museum curates the photos on its website, creating a reciprocal experience.

Think about how your target customers engage with content. What platforms do they use? What can you do to add to their experience?

4. Measure, analyze, and repeat.
Perhaps the most important step in developing great content is knowing what works and what doesn't. Analytics are crucial to any good content strategy.

At the end of the day great content boils down to great customer service. Show your customers you care by delivering the value they deserve.