Content Strategy for the Web

by Kristina Halvorson

  • Processes and procedures: The way work gets done (See this chapter).

  • Plans and priorities: The roadmaps for near-term initiatives and projects.

  • Content policies: Non-optional rules or procedures the content team has to follow (for example, legal requirements).

  • Guidelines: Generally understood sets of good practices that the content team ought to follow.

  Common tasks

  Often, governing content includes the following tasks:

  • Review evaluation results

  • Schedule workshops or meetings

  • Conduct workshops or meetings

  • Draft (the strategy, plan, procedure, guideline)

  • Review

  • Approve

  • Communicate

  • Collect feedback

  • Update

  Questions to ask yourself

  While designing this stage of the process, you’ll want to know:

  • Who needs to participate in governance activities?

  • How often should governance policies and procedures be updated?

  • How are updates to style guides and legal requirements communicated?

  • Which tools do you use (or wish you had) for content creation and updates?

  • Are there different rules for different kinds of content (for example, a blog versus a product page)?

  Helpful tools

  Some tools that help manage this process include:

  • Style guide: A guideline that ensures that content is consistent; used by anyone who creates, reviews, edits, or publishes content. (See “Tool Spotlight” below.)

  • Content planning and prioritization matrix: A spreadsheet that helps you evaluate and prioritize content projects based on criteria drawn from your content strategy.

  • Meeting participation guide: More than a meeting agenda, a document that lets participants in governance meetings know what’s expected of them, and what to expect from the meeting.

  Tool spotlight: Style guide

  We’ve worked on hundreds of web content projects. And how many times has there been a style guide to reference for one of these projects? About six. Of those six style guides, sadly, only one of them was of any real use.

  In her indispensable guide to writing web content, Letting Go of the Words, Ginny Redish devotes an entire chapter to creating what she calls an “organic” web content style guide. Here are some highlights:

  • Start small. Let your style guide grow as issues and questions arise.

  • Focus on issues that keep coming up. Your web writers likely have the same questions over and over. Make a decision, record it, and move on.

  • Put someone in charge. The style guide isn’t going to update itself. Make sure someone owns it and is accountable for its accuracy.

  • Put it online. It’s your most accessible, flexible, most cost-efficient option. In fact, a wiki might be a perfect option for your organization. Just make sure it has an owner to oversee its evolution.

  Recommended style guidelines

  Here are some examples of the types of information you may want to include in your style guide or style guide requirements:

  • Voice and tone guidelines. Explain how you want your brand to sound, and how you want users to feel. (See Chapter 6, Analysis.)

  • Correct word usage. This will vary among organizations. We recommend choosing specific terms and staying consistent (such as “team member” versus “employee”).

  • Product trademark usage. Clarify the need for special symbols and dates.

  • Web writing considerations. Specifically, recommend how text links, labeling, metadata, and other repeating content elements should be documented, so that they remain consistent throughout your content.

  • Organization’s choice of global style guide. Rather than copying an entire grammar and usage manual into your content style guide, simply refer to the global style guide your organization decides upon, such as the AP Stylebook or The Chicago Manual of Style.

  • Web writing best practices. This information may be a quick, one-page summary of tips on writing web content.

  Make sure that the people who are creating, reviewing, and approving your content are all referring to the same playbook. You don’t want to leave style open to individual interpretations.

  Documenting your Processes

  Whether you are creating a new process or changing an existing one, it helps to get things down on paper. That way, everyone involved can understand it and react to it. Processes are bound to change and evolve, so keeping your document(s) up to date is an ongoing task.

  In The Web Content Strategist’s Bible, Richard Sheffield offers these guidelines for documenting effective content processes:

  1. Determine a starting point. (Author’s note: Although we know content is a continuous lifecycle, the documentation needs a starting place. Common starting places are strategy development or a new content request.)

  2. Figure out a logical place for the process to end. (Author’s note: Some might say this is when content is delivered online; we’d argue it shouldn’t end until content is archived or destroyed.)

  3. Identify all players from beginning to end of the process. (Author’s note: This should include not only content stakeholders, but also information architects, designers, developers, and anyone else who may need to weigh in on any content requests.)

  4. Sketch the tasks.

  5. Identify interaction patterns among players and tasks.

  6. Allocate timeframes for tasks. (Author’s note: These need to be REALITY-based, not impossibly ambitious.)

  7. Identify notification patterns: who needs to know what at any given stage of the process.

  8. Identify approval patterns.

  9. Determine all the “what ifs” that may knock your process off its path.

  10. Once all roles are identified, tasks are sketched, and notification and approval patterns are identified, examine your workflow to see if it can be simplified.

  We provided a simple sketch of a workflow diagram in Chapter 6, Analysis (see page 81). There are literally thousands of other formats which vary widely in complexity and level of detail; ultimately, your needs and situation will shape a workflow diagram that’s all your own.

  Making it Happen

  Once your content processes have been identified and designed, it’s time to figure out a smart way to tell people about it and motivate them to adopt the process. There are a few things to consider, here:

  Make people feel included

  From the beginning, you’ve been asking people for their insights and input. Hopefully, you’ve incorporated their feedback into your process design. Therefore, they’re already somewhat invested in this thing you’re doing to make their lives easier. Be sure to keep them involved and informed as your content evolves.

  Communicate the benefits

  Old habits die hard. Don’t expect to send a PDF of the process design to your coworkers and have everything running smoothly the next day. People do things the way they like to do them, regardless of whether it’s the most efficient way. Introduce new workflow and governance processes by clearly communicating the benefits—not only to the organization as a whole, but to the individuals who will be responsible for making the overall effort a success.

  Give it time

  People will need some time to adapt to a new process, especially if you’re simultaneously teaching them how to use a new CMS. Identify your success measures. Track usage. Celebrate short-term wins. Make sure people are clearly seeing the end-product benefits: that content is more accurate, more consistent, more in line with the vision of what it should be.

  Look What You’ve Done

  Okay. We’re nine chapters in. Let’s review.

  You’ve learned about what content strategy is and why you need it. You’ve done a deep-dive analysis of your content and the things that impact it. You’ve created a core strategy and made smart decisions
about substance, structure, workflow, and governance. You’ve aligned the troops again and again.

  Who’s awesome? You’re awesome. High fives.

  Of course, there’s more to success than methodology. The real world awaits ...

  Success

  Are you itching to save the world with your newfound content strategy superpowers? Before you embark, there are a few things you should know.

  10. Persuasion

  YOU ARE SO TOTALLY AMPED. You know what content strategy is and why it’s important. You know what to do, and you’re ready for action. So, here’s the big question: How can you persuade clients or colleagues to take on a content strategy project?

  Whether you’re a consultant or working inside an organization, making the case for content strategy can feel like an uphill battle. Not only do you have to get people interested in content, but you need to get them to participate in—and pay for—content strategy work. So bothersome.

  In this chapter, we’ll talk about how to:

  • Start the conversation.

  • Tell a good story.

  • Pitch your project.

  • Get the budget.

  You can do this. We promise.

  Start the Conversation

  When you’re starting out, the goal is to get as many people excited about content strategy as possible. The more people understand about the value of content strategy, the more willing they’ll be to invest in it. There are a couple ways to go about it.

  Bang the Drum

  Start making lots of noise about content strategy. Tell everyone you know what content strategy is, and why they should care. Give talks and hold workshops about it. Leave your copy of this book on your boss’s desk. Write a blog or an email, and forward it to your clients and colleagues.

  One hint, though. Before you march into the CEO’s office with a proposal of what you’re going to do and when, practice on some people who you know are sympathetic to your cause and can help refine your ideas.

  Go Stealth

  During a 2011 presentation at Confab: The Content Strategy Conference, Michael Fienen (Director of Web Marketing, Pittsburg State University) reminded the audience, “People in organizations will often look at content strategy as just more work.” He advocates for “stealth content strategy”—in other words, don’t formalize or advertise your efforts. Casually mention—and keep mentioning—content issues.

  Or, if you’re already a content professional, steer conversations toward more strategic activities. Look for opportunities to forward people content strategy tools (like checklists or editorial calendars), articles, or blog posts—as if you stumbled across them and thought they might be useful. Hide the zucchini in the brownies. Wear dark sunglasses and hide behind people’s monitors. Oh, wait. Don’t do that. Just try to ease people into the conversation slowly.

  You’ve Got to Start Somewhere

  How you start the conversation depends on the organization, the person you’re talking to, your personality, and the urgency of your content problems. Whether you quietly take the stealth approach or start waving the content strategy flag, the important thing is to take action.

  Tell a Good Story

  The absolutely most effective way to win support is to tailor your message to each audience. Don’t just write generic emails about the topic of content strategy and blast them out to all your colleagues. Put content strategy in the context of their world—why should they care, and what will they get out of it? Think about what the individual or group wants (or is supposed) to accomplish. What projects are their priorities? Why? What’s in their way? What are the things keeping them up at night? (You can probably get this out over coffee. Or happy hour.) Then, working backwards, build a case around their worst pain points or biggest opportunities. Focus on how content strategy will specifically help them get wins where they need to. Make your constant subliminal message be, “When we do this work, you will come out looking like a rock star.”

  (By the way, if someone has given you this book to help build their case for content strategy ... say “yes.” Because when the two of you do this work, both of you will come out looking like rock stars. Or ninjas. Or both!)

  Pitch Your Project

  When you have people’s attention, it’s time to take things to the next level: proposing a specific project. Although the exact conversation you have is audience-specific, there are several high-level themes you can use.

  “Our Users Deserve Better Content”

  If good user experience is a value the team shares, appeal to their inclination to do right by their audiences. After all ... it’s impossible to design a good user experience with bad content.

  Provide examples of how content can assist—and fail—the users. Haul out those particularly cringe-worthy pieces of their content if you have to. Scour user testing and surveys for proof. Or, if you’re really lucky, get some content-specific user testing on the docket—even if it’s part of a bigger study.

  Good content will increase audience trust and engagement, which in turn will help your bottom line. Keep reminding your stakeholders that people don’t come to your website for visual appeal or complex technical features: They come for the content.

  “Content Strategy will Make Us More Efficient”

  When in doubt, lead with workflow. Better content is a noble cause, but content quality may seem like a subjective goal to some. Almost everyone, however, can agree that inefficiencies are no good. Getting good processes in place simplifies everyone’s lives, saves time and money, and is conducive to workplace sanity.

  Just point out how screwed up the content process really is. Highlight:

  • Overlaps and gaps: “Does the marketing team really need to review content three times to ensure brand consistency ... or could a joint content style guide help?”

  • Impacts to the bottom line: “Everyone calls our customer service phone number instead of getting the info on the website. If we could make the website content more clear, we could save lots of cash in call center staffing.”

  • Errors and inconsistencies: “This content got passed around so much, we lost track of who was editing what. Now it contradicts most of the pages that link to it.”

  • Embarrassing misses: “The ‘coming soon’ link on our home page is for a product that launched two months ago. Do we even know whose job it is to change that?’”

  “Our Competitors are Winning”

  You know from Chapter 6, Analysis that just because your competitors are doing something, doesn’t mean you should. But if your website content was created in 1998 and your competitor has a shiny new site that’s a serious threat, you might have to play the competitor card.

  The “everyone else is doing content strategy” argument can have a silly amount of power. Nothing gets people riled up like fighting against a common enemy. Just be sure to invest time on a comprehensive, content-focused competitive review, so you can concentrate on competitive advantage, not specific features or tactics.

  “The Numbers Say it All”

  Business is, by and large, a numbers game. So, quantifying content strategy—whether its opportunity or potential loss—can make a huge impact. Use the results of your audit, site traffic statistics, and other sources to tabulate numbers that support your cause:

  • Work with your sales or customer service teams to identify the number of incoming comments or calls that could have been addressed with better content. Even better, couple this with the average cost of an incoming call to show how much money can be saved.

  • Find specific pain points you can measure that force stakeholders to face the ugly truth about the condition of their online content:

  • Number of mistakes or inaccuracies found in the content

  • Percentage of outdated or inaccurate content

  • Number of pages that have virtually no traffic ... or none at all

  • Number of pages or sections that have no identifiable owners

  • Foll
ow up your “scary” numbers with the percentage of your audience that use online sources, especially in making decisions that impact your business. Emphasize the fact that your audience isn’t coming to your website for fancy design, social media widgets, or a CMS bloated with “nice to have” features: they’re coming for the content.

  Get the details, do some projections, and use numbers to set up the dire situation and hero opportunity.

  Get the Budget

  Getting people interested in content strategy is one thing. Getting them to invest in a content strategy project is totally different. Whether you are an outside consultant with a proposal, or an insider requesting budget—you need to have a plan.

  Option 1: Start Small

  If content strategy is new to the organization, a terrific option is to start with a “pilot” project to help you prove the value of content strategy. If your project goes well, it’s much easier to get a bigger budget next time. Focus on getting measurement and metrics to keep proving your case. Get some really solid numbers. Share the results with anyone and everyone.

  In her blog post, “The Inside Job,” Brain Traffic’s Christine Benson advises:

  Find low visibility content with high potential. People often have strong opinions about the home page and main section pages. These content hot spots can be difficult starting points until you have some success stories to back you up. Look for things that have high potential for customer engagement, but usually get ignored. Support content like help sections, customer service pages, or error messages are good candidates.*