Content strategy: the essential link

29 September 2010

by Diana Railton

Content strategy is catching on fast in the web world. But in many corporate communications departments, or their equivalent, it seems few people know what it means or what to make of it.

Is content strategy just another buzzword, or here to stay, like social media?

What’s different about content strategy? And what has it got to offer?

In this post I show how content strategy provides an essential link with corporate comms strategy.

Content, content, everywhere….

Content surrounds us in all our communications. A web term initially, nowadays content can mean anything a communication channel contains. Written, spoken or pictorial. Text, images, sound or video.

So just as websites and intranets have content, so do printed publications, speeches, videos, podcasts, social media channels like Twitter, and so on.

Nowadays we have more communication channels to choose from than ever before. Without content they would have no purpose or function.

Content is perhaps too amorphous a word for one of the most powerful tools available to corporate communicators. To give content strategic value, we need to be as specific as possible about its purpose and make up.

Content analysis

Content, in its broadest sense, has several basic but distinguishing features. It helps to be clear about these before doing a deeper analysis of content in your organisation. For example:

Content and communication channels are co-dependent. While content can’t stand apart from a channel, the effectiveness of a channel depends on the quality of its content. The skill of the corporate communicator is to tailor the right content for the right channel.

Content is a servant rather than king. ‘Content is king’ is a cliché that arose as we slowly learnt how to use the web. No one can now dispute how important content is. Content’s main role is to serve our communication objectives.

Content and messages are different. Messages, by implication, communicate. Some content is too badly structured to convey meaning, let alone messages. Typical examples are ‘Lorem Ipsum’ and Golden Bull.

Content can be indeterminate in size. It can vary from a few words on a flyer to millions of complex ‘pages’ on websites and intranets. Content needs classifying into distinct units.

Content shows the character of your organisation. Both verbally and visually, the impression your organisation gives to the outside world comes from your use of content.

Content costs money. Content teams are often large and diverse. Even if the channel costs little, add up the cost of everyone’s time and the total can be astounding. Does all your content provide value for money?

Content has unlimited potential. With strong creativity, management and teamwork, quality content can transform an organisation, bringing about considerable return on investment.

In short, content is a vital asset that needs careful planning. Content needs strategy.

Strategy, strategy, everywhere…

Everything seems to have a strategy nowadays.

We have, for example: corporate comms strategy, external comms strategy, internal comms strategy, communications channels strategy, intranet strategy, social media strategy, print strategy, Twitter strategy, digital strategy, knowledge management strategy, messaging strategy, findability strategy, change management strategy, editorial strategy, SEO strategy…

The list and terminology can go on and on.

Do we really need content strategy as well?

Yes – without any doubt. And at the highest management level.

Content strategy will help ensure that your content is coordinated, consistent and complementary – between teams and channels. That it meets your  organisation’s communication and business objectives. And that it provides the best possible return on investment.

What is content strategy?

Much of the credit for developing content strategy as a discipline goes to Kristina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web. I am just one of the many people she continues to inspire.

Closely linked to the work of Kristina, and other content strategists around the world, I define content strategy broadly as:

• a plan for creating, delivering and governing your content, with specific measurable outcomes
• a rationale for providing content through the most appropriate channels to support your organisation’s goals and meet your audiences’ needs
• a repeatable system that manages your content throughout its lifecycle

Some crucial wording:

Plan. A content strategy is a road map that takes you from A to B, achieving a number of goals en route. It will have several components, each requiring different actions, depending on the identified needs of your organisation.

Creating content. Examples are writing text, preparing images, producing videos etc. But first the need for new content has to be justified.

Delivering content. Choosing between communication channels to deliver your content, and tailoring content to suit.

Governing content. Content teams need managing and coordinating, with policies and standards to follow. Among other tasks, content needs checking, approving and curating, with regular auditing and updating throughout its lifecycle.

Specific measurable outcomes. While the goals of the content strategy should be easy to measure, every piece of content should add obvious value. This means all content should have a clearly defined purpose.

Rationale. By working out and planning exactly how you want content to serve your organisation, and through which teams and channels, you have a framework for everyone to keep to.

Repeatable system. Once you’ve developed workable procedures, you can use these systematically and repeatedly throughout the organisation.

Content strategy in place

This simplified diagram shows the essential link content strategy has with corporate comms strategy, external comms strategy, internal comms strategy, channels strategy and others.

Content strategy is multidisciplinary. It can stand alone, while integrating with other strategies. You might, for example, have an organisation-wide content strategy and a complementary intranet content strategy.

Output from a content strategy can even include a central ‘dash board’ to show what content your main communication channels are displaying at any particular time.

Content strategy brings together large teams of people working on different communication channels in external and internal comms.

It gives them a common, coordinated purpose: to use content to help meet an organisation’s communication and business objectives in the most efficient, effective and systematic way.

Subheadings influenced by The Rime of the Ancient Mariner