When you design your content from the inside-out, you focus on the core tasks your audience needs to accomplish. Before you start writing a word, you need to identify what the content is supposed to accomplish, what the readers’ needs are, where people are coming from, and what they will do after reading the information. Here's a process for creating content that starts with asking questions and ends with measuring how well it works.

1. © 2016 Tanzen
CREATING A USER-CENTERED
ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS
February 24, 2017
Carrie Hane
Founder, Tanzen

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TRUE STORY
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0%
100%
200%
300%
400%
Members One-time
donations
Monthly
donors
Monthly
donations
Norwegian Cancer Society

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HELLO, MY NAME IS…
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CARRIE HANE
BEFORE
18 years web and content strategy
Web team lead 2 associations
Practice leader digital agency
Tanzen provides training for people who communicate online.
NOW
Founder, Tanzen
Speaker, author on content strategy topics

4. © 2016 Tanzen
USER-CENTERED COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS
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Who is this for?
What do they want to
do?
IDENTIFY AUDIENCE DEFINE GOALS CREATE CONTENT PROMOTE, MEASURE,
REPEATWhat are you trying to
achieve?
How can you help your
audience?
Write from the inside
out Continuous cycle of
improvement

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ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS
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Website
Search
EnginesEmail
Social
media
Referrals
Direct
Mail
Blog
Forums

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1 IDENTIFY AUDIENCE

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TARGET AUDIENCE
Who are you talking to?
• Prioritize for channel
• Pick one per page
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What do they want to do?
• How do they want to do it?

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FOCUS ON THE TASK
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No Yes
Get information about
upcoming conferences.
Find out when and where the
next Lunch & Learn is.
We want to increase
membership.
We want more students to
join.
Use career resources for
hiring.
Post a job description to job
board.

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2 DEFINE GOALS

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BUSINESS GOALS
What are you trying to achieve?
What can you offer your audience to help achieve that?
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INTERSECTION OF USER NEEDS AND BUSINESS GOALS
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User Needs Business GoalsMagic

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BUT NOT THIS
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Source: XKCD

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3 DEVELOP CORE CONTENT

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ASK THESE QUESTIONS FOR EACH PAGE
1. Who is the person reading this?
2. What are they here for?
3. What do I have to offer them?
4. So what?
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F-SHAPED PATTERN FOR SCANNING
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ON-PAGE CONTENT
• Prioritize messages and call to action
• Put the key takeaway at the top
• Progressively enhance as you go down the page
• One idea per page
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CALL TO ACTION
• Nearly every page should have one
• Explicitly invite user to do something
• Use plain language
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4 PROMOTE, MEASURE,
REPEAT

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THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?
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THANK YOU
Stay in touch!
Carrie Hane
carrie@tanzenconsulting.com
tanzenconsulting.com