Content strategy: a primer

By tids

By Simon van Wyk.

Following on from our discussion on content strategies in this month’s HotHouse podcast, it’s worth learning more about this emerging framework. Here are some good places to find out more about developing and executing a content strategy:

  • Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data – Razorfish content strategy head Rachel Lovinger provides a good introduction to the topic. She writes, “content strategy is to copywriting as information architecture is to design…. because content is so pervasive, everyone thinks they know all there is to know about it. If you can read and write, you can make content, right? (Nearly 60 million blogs may prove that.) But the fact is, as interactive experiences become more complex, so does the nature of content. A superficial understanding of content isn’t going to cut it anymore.”

    • rachellovinger

  • The Discipline of Content Strategy – A bit deep and worthy, but worth looking at to understand the reasons behind developing a content strategy. Here’s an excerpt: “As a community, we’re rather quiet on the matter of content. In fact, we appear to have collectively, silently come to the conclusion that content is really somebody else’s problem—‘the client can do it,’ ‘the users will generate it’—so we, the people who make websites, shouldn’t have to worry about it in the first place. Do you think it’s a coincidence, then, that web content is, for the most part, crap?”

    • elephant

  • How To Develop a Content Strategy (for your blog) – In this post from the top-25 marketing blog Conversation Agent, Valeria Maltoni writes, “Instead of building a site around an organization chart, which in many ways mirrors the company’s hierarchy, we should build the context around customer needs in two areas of browsing: 1) search - for answers; 2) sharing - of stories. These two desires and functions are the bread and butter of blogs, where more recent, or shared trump content win. Plus, blogs help with the relationship thing in ways that Web sites don’t - by humanizing the interaction with your company through conversation and relationship building.”A tip – check out the right-hand menu and you’ll find links to other posts Valeria has written about content strategy.

    valeriamaltoni

  • How to Plan for, Create and Publish Online Content for Maximum ROI – A Slideshare presentation by consultants at Brain Traffic and Junta 42 which lays out the case for content strategies and how to develop those strategies in clear, actionable language. An excerpt: “Why does content REALLY matter? It’s what forms customer action… or INaction… both online and off…. The content is always about what the customer needs and wants, not about the company itself.”
  • A Simple Four-Step Strategy for Developing Content That Connects – Brian Clark from the venerable blog Copyblogger outlines how to develop content that appeals to the four major learning styles that cover nearly all web users. An excerpt: “Make the presentation of your information flow by keeping the reader constantly engaged across both hemispheres of the brain. How? Follow up facts or main points with stories, anecdotes, relevant quotes… basically anything cool that holds attention and reinforces learning. This method engages left and right brain in a healthy cadence that makes the experience less of a chore, and more entertaining.”

copyblogger

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