Learn how Tourism Saskatchewan and Content Strategy Inc (CSI) partnered on a new content strategy initiative for the tourism industry. Includes what they did, why they did it, what came out of it, and lessons learned along the way. May be of particular interest to government and public-sector organizations.

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2. Lessons learned in
Content Strategy:
A Tourism Saskatchewan
Case Study

4. Elizabeth
Braitenbach
• Manager of Communications with Tourism Saskatchewan
• Eight years directing the evolution of consumer print materials
and strategic communications
• Degrees in English and Education from the University of
Saskatchewan
• 10 years market research experience
• Primary project lead for Tourism Saskatchewan’s content
strategy
• Integral role in implementing findings and recommendations
across Tourism Saskatchewan’s consumer channels

5. Kathy Wagner
@Kathy_CS_Inc
@Team_CS_Inc
• Founder of Content
Strategy Inc.
• Background in technical
communication and
customer experience
research.
• 15+ years leading content
projects
• Shared project lead for
Tourism Saskatchewan’s
content strategy project

6. Content strategy is…
Planning for the creation,
delivery, and governance of
useful, usable content.
~ Kristina Halvorson

7. Content
strategy
is…

8. • A $2.15 billion year industry, and
growing
• Consumers need and want content
• 80 full-time employees
• 38 Marketing/Communications staff
Tourism Saskatchewan

9. Our
challenge

10. • An outdated organizational structure
• Overemphasis on print
• Siloed teams
• Fragmented, inconsistent content
Our challenge

11. Why content strategy?
• To inspire more people to travel to and
within Saskatchewan.
• To create better experiences.
• To adapt to an increasingly digital world.
• To be more efficient and effective.

12. Bid process
• Took 16 weeks from concept to awarding the contract
• Revelation: There are few content strategy experts in
Canada
• Most firms focus on websites only, or content marketing
• Content Strategy Inc. (CSI) stood out as the only firm who
truly understood what we were looking for and had the
capabilities to do it.

13. Discovery Strategy
Design
Phase 1
Solutions
Dec & Jan February March
Focus on content for consumer audiences
CSI’s engagement

14. The secret sauce

15. Cross-team
collaboration
Cross-team
collaboration

16. • 15 stakeholder meetings
• 5 small team workshops
• 4 cross-functional workshops
• 4 mentoring activities
• 2 staff surveys
Staff engagement

17. Project management wizardry

18. Mentoring
instead of
training

19. Part 1: Discovery
Part 1: Discovery

20. Understand
our audience
Discovery

21. Discovery
Market research
Focus groups
Survey

22. Discovery
Customer
journey
workshops

23. Understand
our content
Discovery

24. Discovery
Understand
our content

25. Understand
ourselves
Discovery

26. Discovery
Interviews
Survey

27. Discovery

28. Discovery
Key
takeaways
• Adopt an digital-first approach
• Use brand journalism to raise
awareness
• Distinguish between consideration
& awareness content
• Restructure teams

29. Part 2: Strategy

30. Strategy
Refocus the
audience

31. Scott: New
adventure seeker
Val: Caretaker of
family memories
Chad: Fishing
fanatic
Strategy
Three experience-based personas

32. Strategy
Early drafts

33. Strategy

34. Strategy

35. Strategy
Tourism Saskatchewan content helps target audiences
to discover, choose, and celebrate
uniquely Saskatchewan travel experiences.
Content strategy statement

36. Strategy

37. Strategy
Help people to discover more about what
they’re already interested in.
Rather than lure audiences into meeting
organizational-focused goals.
Brand journalism = Discovery content

38. Less like this:
And more like this:
Brand journalism focusing on the experience
(not the place) and distributed where your
audience already is, in the format they prefer.
Strategy

39. Strategy
Consideration content
Easy-to-find and easy-to-use content
that gives people the information they
need to make travel decisions and plans
they feel good about.

40. Less like this:
And more like this:
Strategy

41. Prefer print
No preference
Prefer online
Strategy
Digital
first 48% 40%
12%

42. Part 3: Solutions

43. Solutions

44. Solutions

45. Solutions

46. Solutions

47. Team structure
• More centralized (some distributed)
• Specialized areas of expertise:
writing, creative, marketing
• Cross-functional working teams
Solutions

48. Lessons Learned

49. Lessons learned
• We were more fragmented than we thought
• Essential to have staff engaged in the process
• Mentoring was important for skill building and
advocacy
• We knew so much about our audiences, but we needed
help shaping the knowledge into something useful
• Content strategy is a process and mindset, not a project

50. Lessons learned
• Government organizations can stick to tight
timelines and review cycles.
• Mentoring and assigning responsibilities to in-house
teams was super valuable.
• Everything works a whole lot better when there are
no “nay-sayers”.

51. Public sector hurdles
• The bid process was a good experience, but lengthy
with lots of paperwork!
• Very tight timeline constraints due to needing to
wrap up by fiscal year-end of March 31.
• Need to balance some recommendations with
government sensitivities. Eg: putting print
Saskatchewan guides on hiatus.
• Union environment makes staffing changes complex.

52. What’s next?
• Implementation team
• Determine short/medium/ long-
term goals
• Communications plan
• New organizational structure

54. Resources
Resources
Favourite starter books:
• Content Strategy for the Web,
by Halvorson & Rach
• Don’t Make Me Think,
by Steve Krug
• Letting Go of the Words,
by Ginny Reddish
Favourite online resources:
• Gathercontent.com/resources
• NNgroup.com/articles
• ContentMarketingInstitute.com
• ContentStrategyInc.com/articles
CSI newsletter:
• ContentStrategyInc.com/articles

55. Questions?
Questions?

56. Thank You!
Thank You!