Presentation from User Focus 2012 in Chevy Chase, MD. Think your organization or project is too small for content strategy? Don’t know where to start on the massive project you’ve just been handed? Want to incorporate it into you current organization/agency/team’s process? Regardless of the size of your team, organization, or project, you can do content strategy. We’ll break down content strategy into its parts and show how anyone can fit it into what they do, stealthily or blatantly, whichever way works for you. We’ll also show you ways to sell it to your boss and evaluate your strategy’s success.

1. Content Strategy
That Fits
SMALL MEDIUM AND LARGE
Carrie Hane Dennison @carriehd
Lorelei Brown @beezy
#userfocus

2. Self-test
Do you have Do you know
 A list of search terms?  When you need to update your
site?
 Analytics?
 Who is responsible for the
 A list of site content? content?
 A standards/editorial style  What words everyone is using to
guide? describe your
company/product/offering?
 Target audiences?

3. Content Strategy
AUDITS, STRATEGY, GOVERNANCE
 Audits – LISTING
 A list of content on your site.
 What wordseveryone is using to describe your
company/product/offering?
 Search terms?
 Strategy – PLANNING
 When you need to update content.
 Defined audience.
 How content builds a relationship with your
audience.
 Governance – MAINTAINING
 Define who is responsible for the content.
 Standards/editorial style guide?
 Know who’s the sheriff?

4. Why Bother?
 Reasons WHY you’re doing this – a plan
that everyone can agree on (more or less)
 Ways to measure if the plan is working
 Guidelines to prioritize work
 Less overhead time figuring out what you
need to do
 More time spent engaging your audience

5. Audit – You Are Here
You can’t know how to get where you’re
going until you know where you are.
 SMALL
 Start with top level pages and key
‘strategic content’
image of map with  Note seasonal/response content
"you are here"
 MEDIUM
 Add audiences, purposes, start evaluation
 LARGE
 List every page

6. INSERT EXAMPLE OF
AUDIT
 screen shot of NGAUS content inventory

7. Audit Outcomes
 Catalog of what’s there
 Condition of the content – good, editable,
redundant, terrible
 What’s missing

8. Strategy – We Are Going
There
What’s the route you’re going to take to get
there?
 SMALL
 Define who we’re trying to reach and what they
want to know.
 MEDIUM
 Map pages and paths to user tasks
 Find pain points
 LARGE
 Group content to pages
 Consider IA/functionality revisions

9. Strategy Input

10. Strategy Input

11. Strategy Outcomes
 Strong guidelines for producing content.
 Hit the ground running – we’re already
ramped up.
 Common understanding for designers,
developers, marketers….everyone.

12. Ggovernance – We’re Here!
 SMALL
 Define how something gets on the site
 Write a basic site calendar
 Assign content ownership
 Create an archive policy
 MEDIUM
 Write a visual and editorial style guide
 Include voice, vocabulary, etc.
 Create workflows
 LARGE
 Form a governance board that meets quarterly
 Coordinate website and other communication
channels
 Get a place at the table

13. GOVERNANCE EXAMPLES
 Screen shot of giant spreadsheet of terror

14. Governance Outcomes
 Standards and process
 Unified voice
 Content is audience-focused

15. Getting Started Activities
 Assess the situation
 Audit
 Get baseline metrics to measure changes
 Find Partnerships
 Coordinate editorial calendars
 Record decisions
 Build buy-in

16. Keep Going
 Altruism: Build credibility by being
helpful
 Communicate bite-sized, what’s-in-it-for-
me numbers and facts
 Make it easier to produce and post
content
 Self-Interest: Show value by being helpful
 Track saved manhours from your team
and other teams
 Save happy emails