Introduction to Content Strategy

What is digital content strategy, and how does it benefit you? This is the central question of today’s post.

The theoretical side of this class are the course materials. In simple terms, I’m learning why and how certain projects are successful. And for businesses, the criteria of success is making a profit.

The practical side is a content audit. In a team of four people, I will create a content strategy for an undisclosed client’s content base. In addition, I will create documentation of the process and results. This project is meant to be an eye-opener for students to transition from school to the business world. It will also stretch my teamwork skills.

Glossary

Watch closely as these definitions build on each other. The more clearly you understand one concept, the clearer others will become.

Digital Content

“Any text, image, video, decoration, or user-consumable elements that contribute to comprehension” –Scott Abel, The Language of Content Strategy

Value

When a product or service is of high enough quality that it can be a source of profit

Asset

A product or service that adds value to a company

Unique Value

Value that one company has but its competitors do not have

Management Consulting

“Professional service that helps managers to analyze and solve practical problems faced by their organizations, improve organizational performance, learn from the experience of other managers and organizations, and seize new business opportunities” –Sarah O’Keefe, Understanding Content Strategy as a Specialized Form of Management Consulting

Misconceptions

For me, the most interesting part of the course materials were the misconceptions surrounding content strategy. Content strategy means that all content produced by a company should add value to the company. The way to ensure value is to create the content within a system (aka strategy) that takes the company’s needs into account. Here was the surprising part for me: not all companies realize that content can add value. Thus, they don’t realize the need for content strategists.

Another misconception, brought to light by Kristina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web, is that content strategy equates to marketing. While yes, marketing is half of content strategy, the other overlooked half is technical writing. Traditionally, marketing walks a consumer through half of the journey: from becoming aware of the product or service to buying it. In a word, persuasion. Technical writing picks up where marketing leaves off: information or instructions about the product or service for the consumer to refer to. There is growing overlap between these two halves, but marketing and technical writing remain generally distinct. If marketing only gets half of the job done, then there’s still a place in the world for people like me.

The more general issue at play here is miscommunication. A short cartoon from Orange & Bronze Software Labs called How Projects Really Work illustrates miscommunication across every possible party. (Imagine an illustrated game of “telephone” and you’ll get the idea.) No one is satisfied because everyone visualized the end product differently and failed to communicate it.

Advocate for Yourself

If you are working in content strategy, it’s important to understand how the general public and the rest of the corporate environment perceive content strategy. In order to win over your managers and others in the chain of command, you need to sell them on the value of your content and also the value of your perspective. Why hire multiple content strategists when the job gets done with only one? Because your thoughts are not your teammate’s thoughts. You bring unique strengths and weaknesses to your team and the company at large. Be ready to defend your usefulness.