BUILDING CONTENT STRATEGY SEMINAR The tips, tools and advice you need to build a content strategy Whether you’re looking to get into content marketing, are responsible for your company’s websites and social platforms, or want to use information and advice to better connect with consumers, you need content strategy to be successful. But what is content strategy and how do you build a successful one? In this workshop, you will learn about the exciting new discipline of content strategy and a step-by-step method to build one — all with a focus of putting people -- those that will be consuming, commenting, and sharing your content -- first. Beginner to more advanced content professionals will learn how to develop a well thought out strategy that satisfies business objectives. Plus, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how one of Canada’s leading content agencies crafts award-winning strategies for some of Canada’s biggest brands. In this full-day session participants will explore key concepts of the discipline of content strategy and will apply these ideas to a business case. You Will Learn · Define the objectives that will drive your content strategy · Get to know your audience and their content needs · Find out what kind of content you have, if it’s reusable, and what gaps exist · Communicate your strategy and get stakeholder buy-in · Plan for great content · Maintain and measure efforts Key Take-Aways · Real-world content strategy examples · A toolkit of templates to use when crafting a content strategy back at your own organization · An opportunity to get answers to your tough content problems WHO SHOULD ATTEND · Writers, editors and social media managers · User experience and web professionals · Marketing managers and those crafting content for their organizations · Agencies looking for a primer on content strategy

1. People-Focused
Content Strategy
Workbook
CMA | Building Content Strategy
February 6, 2013
ariad.ca

2. Business Riddle:
Define your organization’s business challenge that you’re solving for:
Example:
A local environmental NGO is thinking about redoing its website. The organization
received feedback from donors that the site doesn’t look very professional. The
group has also been struggling to secure donations online to accommodate regular
donors who would find it much easier to make payments electronically rather than
call in directly. Processing payments manually also eats up a lot of the staff’s time, as
does mailing tax receipts to individual donors.
Sandy, the NGO’s Executive Director, also feels that the organization isn’t doing a
good enough job telling their story: “We do a lot of great work in local communities.
We need to brag a little.”
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3. Audience Overview:
Audience Information
Relevant data and information
Gender
Age
Education
Spending Behaviour
Market Size
Online Activity
Addition information
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4. Exercise 1: Tell your story.
Using the space below, write out your organization’s story. Describe how you got
started, your greatest successes, competitors and greatest challenges. Be creative.
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5. Exercise 2: Mapping your
stakeholders
Understanding who the players are that can impact your project is key. Use this
template to map out the lay of the land.
•
•
•
•
List each stakeholders name
List their job title
Describe what motivates them
Outline how content can help with their job
Stakeholder
Name
Title
Motivation
How Content
Helps
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6. Exercise 3: Outlining Business
Objectives
Use this template to articulate your business goals.
Here’s how:
1. Write down the greatest challenge(s) your organization faces (this is
the thing that keeps you up at night).
2. Next, write down how you might address this challenge (this is your
business objective).
3. Finally use the MFB criteria to determine if your proposed solution is a
good objective.
M=Measurable
F=Focused
B=Business Imperative
Challenges
How to address challenge
M F B
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7. Exercise 4: Audience Overview
List your audiences in order of priority. Write as much as you can about each,
it will help you later (i.e. what motivates them, how old are they, etc.)
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8. Exercise 4 continued…Uncovering
Audience Insights
Remember empathy is a key part of marketing. Thinking about your priority
audience now, use the template to map out how they think and feel. Also
outline their pain. Really try to get inside their head.
Think & Feel?
Hear?
See?
Pain?
Say & Do?
Gain?
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9. Exercise 5: Mapping Business
Objectives to Audience Goals
This is where your strategy really starts to take shape. With this template, your
goal is to find the overlap between your business objectives and your
audience’s goals. Here’s how:
1. Start by listing your refined business objectives in the left-hand column.
2. In the right-hand column, list your audience goals.
3. Use lines to connect similar business and audience goals.
Business Objectives
Audience Goals
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10. Exercise 6: Identify Brand Themes
Start by putting the name of your organization in the centre of the page. Now
brainstorm the themes your brand wants to be known for. For instance, “DIY
environmentalism.”
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11. Exercise 7: Creating a Strategy
Statement
Look back on all of the work you’ve completed so far. Distill this thinking
down into a one sentence statement about the strategy you propose – this is
your content mission. The statement should address the needs of your
organization and audience. Then annotate the statement. The annotations are
the rationale for the strategy.
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12. Exercise 8: Aligning Content to
Goals
Use this template to start to map out the topics and format of content required to
achieve your goals. Here’s how:
1.
2.
3.
4.
List audience goals in the left-hand column.
Add in the topics you think will address these goals.
Outline the formats that are best suited for each goal.
Think about the content you have back at your organization, can any of it be
reused?
Audience
Goal
Topics
Format
Reuse
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13. Exercise 9: Crafting Content
Requirements
Select a piece of content that you’ll likely have to produce from scratch and give the
template below a try.
Communication Goal: List the purpose of this piece of content (i.e. readers should
feel persuaded to learn more).
Copy points: List key information to be included, or include a link to source
content.
Tone and voice: Describe how the content should sound. (For instance,
professional without feeling formal.)
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