It’s kind of ironic that there’s often very little strategy in what many people refer to as “content strategy”. The work being done is either tactical or applied best practice. Now, there’s nothing wrong with either of those things — they’re both quite necessary at times. But a strategy needs provide a solution to a significant problem by identifying specific obstacles and opportunities, outlining a guiding vision, and planning for how an organisation will achieve that vision. A content strategy, simply does the same thing but uses content and content practices to achieve the goal. In this webinar, Kathy breaks out the essential parts of good strategy and provides hands-on, practical advice for making sure your content strategy is strategic.

1. Let’s put some
strategy
in our content
strategies!
Twitter:
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

2. How do you
spend your days?
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3. • Audits
• Recommendations
• Personas
• Future vision
• Research
• Writing
• Journey maps
• Content models
• Training
• Team building
• Information architecture
• Messaging

4. What is that
accomplishing?
And why?
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

5. Does content strategy give
you a sense of achievement
or contribution?
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6. Best practices
Methods or techniques
generally accepted as
superior because they
produce consistently
superior results.
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

7. Tactics
Means by which a
strategy is carried out.
Activities that deal with
the demands of the
moment, or move
towards milestones.
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8. Strategy
“A coherent set of
analysis, concepts,
policies, and arguments
that respond to a high-
stakes challenge.”
~ Richard Rumelt
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9. Know your
high-stakes challenge
Have it or find it
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10. Aligns with a functional or
business goal.
Improved content is beneficial to
the goal, or content status quo is
detrimental to the goal.
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Know your
high-stakes challenge

11.  Good high-stakes challenge  Not good high-stakes challenge
Reduce customer support calls Revise content for plain language
Streamline operational efficiency Review content approval process
Align digital properties to one brand Revise page titles for consistency
Reuse content efficiently across regions Develop a taxonomy
Increase employee use of intranet Move HR policies from pdf to html
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

12. When we know
how our activities
fit within a strategy
We know our
contributions are
valued#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

13. How much strategy is
in your content
strategy work?
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

14. A strategy
has three
parts:
1. Findings & foundation
2. Guiding focus
3. Coherent action plan
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

15. Download this here: www.contentstrategyinc.com/wp-content/uploads/Strategic-Content-Strategy-Canvas.pdf

16. Understand the current situation,
future objectives, and any
obstacles or opportunities
involved.
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Findings and
foundation

17. Investigate business needs
and environment
• What challenge did you identify, or are
you responding to?
• How will the current business
environment help or hinder your
progress?
• What resources do you have to work
with, in terms of skill-sets, time, and
budget?
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

18. Investigate audience needs
and situation
• Who is your audience?
• What are your audience’s goals,
perceptions, and needs?
• What obstacles and opportunities are
there in meeting audience needs?
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

19. Review your current
content situation
• What content do you have or need to
work with, to effectively respond to the
challenge?
• What content teams and processes are
impacted?
• How much work is required to move the
content (and content teams, processes,
technology, etc) from current state to
future vision?
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

20. Guiding focus
Provides:
• a vision for the future.
• high-level guidelines for
getting there.
• a rationale for why this vision
is the strategic solution.
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21. Show the content strategy
vision
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• A sneak peek into the future
state of content.
• Not a blue-sky vision. An
achievable, strategic vision.

22. Define the guiding
principles
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc
• Are rules that help people stay
focused.
• Provides enough of a high-level
“how” to get senior-level support.
• Becomes a decision-making
framework moving forward.

23. Provide the rationale
• Why this vision, and these
guiding principles, rather than
another?
• What does the research
show?
• Reiterate risks of status quo.
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

24. Guiding
focus
Findings &
foundation
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25. Action plan
A detailed outline of what’s
involved and how the work will
get done.
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26. Action plan
• What needs to happen, by who, and when?
• How will it get done (in terms of resourcing,
budgets, etc)?
• What are the dependencies and implications
(for example, technology and training)?
• Creating a detailed roadmap works well for
this.
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

27. Guiding
focus
Action
plan
Findings &
foundation
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28. The canvas does not
convey strategy details
Simply a tool to help make
sure your content strategy is
strategic.
You can use it as…
Download this here: www.contentstrategyinc.com/wp-content/uploads/Strategic-Content-Strategy-Canvas.pdf

29. A facilitation
tool.
Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

30. A working
framework.
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31. A summary
snapshot.
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32. How to open the door
for strategic work?
• Start small
• Support other teams
• Build trust
• Measure progress
• Share successes
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33.  Good high-stakes challenge  Good small high-stakes challenge
Reduce customer support calls …from people who visit support site
Streamline operational efficiency …of approval process within a team
Align digital properties to new brand … starting with one priority area
Reuse content efficiently across regions …starting with one use case
Increase employee use of intranet …starting with high-priority section
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

34. Aligns with a functional or
business goal.
Improved content is beneficial to
the goal, or content status quo is
detrimental to the goal.
Photo by Tj Kolesnik on Unspl#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc
Even a small
high-stakes challenge

35. Strategy
review

36. A strategy Is a response to a
high-stakes challenge.
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

37. A strategy
has three
parts:
1. Findings & foundation
2. Guiding focus
3. Coherent action plan
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

38. Findings &
foundation
includes:
1. Business needs
2. Audience needs
3. Content needs
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

39. Guiding
focus
includes:
1. Vision
2. Guiding principles
3. Rationale
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40. Coherant
action plan
includes:
1. Who
2. What
3. When
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41. To make sure you cover all
areas that contribute to
good content strategy
Use the
canvas
framework
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

42. Use the
canvas
framework
• To facilitate discussion
• To guide your approach
• To show snapshot
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43. Which gives us a sense of
achievement and contribution.
Photo by Maria Teneva on Unsplash
Aligning activities to a
strategy helps others to see
the value in what we do.
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc

44. How do you
spend your days?
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

45. • Audits
• Recommendations
• Personas
• Future vision
• Research
• Writing
• Journey maps
• Content models
• Training
• Team building
• Information architecture
• Messaging

46. But you’ll know
what you’re
contributing to.
And can prioritize
your efforts.
#StrategyFirstCS | @Kathy_CS_Inc Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

47. If you want
more on
strategy

48. Visit ContentStrategyInc.com
for related articles:
• Put more strategy into your content strategy
• How to complete the content strategy canvas
• Three ways to use the content strategy canvas
And to download the canvas:
• Strategic Content Strategy Canvas (pdf)

49. Questions?
And thank you
Kathy Wagner
Content Strategy Inc
kathy@contentstrategyinc.com
@Kathy_CS_Inc | @Team_CS_Inc
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