Content Marketing 101: Content Strategy Part 1

By Julian Karstel - 2083 views


The content strategy is the foundation of the entire content process. The purpose of a content strategy is to create guidelines on how to create, publish and manage your content on the web. Having performed an elaborate content audit and content analysis it’s time to develop a kick-ass content strategy.

To understand the content strategy phase better try to answer the following questions:

  • What kind of content do we need and why?
  • What will the structure of the content be like?
  • How will your content be found?
  • How will we complete our content timeline?
  • What do we do after the content has been published?
  • What effects will the strategy have on your business?

Most will only really be able to answer the first two questions clearly, however there is hope yet (hence why you’re reading this article). In order to gain full perspective on all the questions you need to complete your content strategy.

Your company’s brand and messaging need to be reflected in your website as this will be your online image. When considering the voice or tone of your messaging we suggest you use the following contrasting values as a guideline:

  • Professional not Scholastic
  • Sure-footed not self-important
  • Expert not arrogant

Next create editorial guidelines to make sure your content stays both consistent and accurate throughout. Here are a few examples of what to include in your style or editorial guide:

  • Brand values
  • Voice and tone guidelines
  • Correct word usage
  • Product trademark usage
  • Web writing considerations
  • Web writing best practices


Note: It’s important that everyone working on your site’s content refer to the same style guide.

Next is the type of messages you want the user’s to experience. The messages need to coincide with your brand and business objectives. To simplify the abundance of messages you may want the user to understand, use a hierarchy system.

  • Begin with your primary message, which is the single most important thing you want your users to learn.
  • Then your secondary messages will supplement the primary message.
  • Next the details which are the facts, data, anecdotes or philosophies that substantiate your messages.
  • Finally you will need call-to-actions which will invoke the desired reaction from your users.


Now that we have branding and messaging figured out let’s start with answering the questions we laid out in the beginning.

What Content do you Need & Why?

If you already have online content, your content strategy might centre on existing features. If you are setting out on creating completely new content you have the wonderful opportunity to be a bit more creative and define exactly what features you want to include.

Here we can start using the message hierarchy we set up earlier. If any recommended content can’t be linked to your primary or secondary message, you probably shouldn’t use it (Or it needs to be repurposed).

This is where you need to go back to the analysis phase where you worked out the budget, timeline, technology, legal requirements and so on. If your proposed content promotes your business messages and fits the restrictions of the project then you have it!

How Will Users Search For & Find Your Content?

There isn’t any point in creating fantastic content that no one can find on the web. Here are a couple of useful tips to consider when adding content to your website:

Metadata

  • Metadata for web search and site search engines. Also known as metatags. Page title tags, page description tags, html tags and keyword tags.
  • Metadata for content management systems. Effective metadata for CMS’s allows information to be retrieved easily and generally makes sure everything is structured and organised in such a way as to not allow things to get lost.

Metadata is what search engines first see when scouring the web for the most relevant web pages. It’s very important to have the right metadata.

How Will the Content be Structured?

Your content needs to be structured in such a way that it makes sense to the users. Let’s begin organising your web content by looking at the three levels of content structure.

1.    Overall content structure

2.    Page templates or patterns

3.    Page-level requirements

At each level make sure to focus on the following:

  • Content format
  • Menu labelling
  • Linking strategy
  • CMS content types
  • Related content channels

They will be discussed in detail later.

  • A content structure that is orderly and precise will make adding and creating the actual content at a later stage a lot easier.
  • Site maps and process flows will help you create a structured architecture.
  • Page templates and page level requirements are usually used by the graphic designer or information architect to determine the general page layout.
  • The page template and page level requirement levels should be used as guidelines once they are set up by your web management team. It’s the overall structure or how the user will navigate through your website that you should focus on more.

Now that you know how your content will be structured we can now go back to what you must focus on in your considerations. This will be covered in part 2. Previous article in the series: Content Analysis Part 3

This article was inspired by the book Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson, 2010.


Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital agency | www.soundidea.co.za

Julian Karstel is a Digital Marketing Consultant for Sound Idea Digital | @JulianKarstelJulian@soundidea.co.za

 


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