Making content is often approached in terms of individual projects. You need to produce a webpage, brochure or report, so you focus on the steps and resources you need to complete and publish that particular piece of content.
But making great content – that is clear and engaging, and meets both business and user needs – is not about individual projects.
A content strategy involves thinking through what you are trying to achieve, who you want to reach and how best to approach it. It considers both business goals and user needs, and lays out everything you need to develop and maintain effective content. It moves away from short-term and reactive thinking on ‘how to get this report out the door’ to look at the long-term communication needs of your organisation.
Taking this broader strategic view not only makes your content more effective, it also helps to streamline your processes and use your resources wisely to coordinate the production of multiple pieces of content.
An effective content strategy can:
- increase impact so that all content, be it web, print or any other channel, works towards the same goal
- cut costs by reducing wasted or repeated effort
- improve quality by reducing development rush and ensuring that content is kept up to date.
Developing a content strategy
Developing a content strategy first involves a process of discovery to understand your context, your audience and your content.
Understanding the context means identifying what the content aims to achieve, including organisational goals, business needs and stakeholder needs. It also means understanding how content is usually produced, including workflow, resources and processes to produce and update content. Understanding the context involves reviewing background documents and conducting internal and external stakeholder workshops to identify the goals and processes of everyone involved.
Understanding your audience means characterising your various users, and their needs and capabilities. User research doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive, and a small investment in user research and testing will save time and money by avoiding having to redo content, products or websites. User research can involve exploring existing data such as website analytics, collecting new data through surveys or interviews, or testing draft designs and content with users.
Understanding your content means analysing and understanding the subject matter; content types; clarity and readability; structure, flow and navigation; logic and consistency; and appropriateness for users and stakeholders, including the style and tone. Understanding the content becomes even more important when the content is complex or scientific.
Based on the understanding developed during discovery, the content strategy is developed to provide a framework for all future content production. A content strategy should be a living document that is updated as your business and content evolve.
A content strategy versus a communication strategy
‘Content strategy’ and ’communication strategy’ are sometimes used as interchangeable terms, but each has its own process and purpose.
A content strategy provides an overarching framework to ensure that content is designed and produced in a way that meets the needs of both you (or your organisation) and your target audience. It includes:
- your high-level organisational communication goals and messages
- research on your audience
- a review of your existing content (and gaps)
- information on your content system (e.g. your web publishing platform or social media channels)
- plans for the most effective workflow and outcomes.
A communication strategy is a more targeted, usually short-term, strategy that focuses on specific communication goals, promotional campaigns and product communications. It works within the content strategy framework to develop specific activities. It includes:
- how your communication goals support your content goals
- project-specific goals and messages
- profiles of project-specific audiences
- channels and timelines for getting information out
- project plans.
In organisational terms, the content strategy is like the strategic plan – providing long-term strategy and structure, and clear direction. The communication strategy is like the operational plan – providing short-term goals and activities.
Ideally, they work together to deliver effective content across your organisation and across time.
Remember..
- A content strategy is your framework for higher-impact, more efficient content production.
- Every organisation should have a content strategy.
- A content strategy is not the same as a communication strategy.
Learn more
- Find more guidance on communicating complex content in Biotext’s Quick guide to effective content.
- Keep an eye on Biotext training courses – we run short online workshops on data literacy and data visualisation, and writing and editing complex content.
- Subscribe to the Australian manual of style to access detailed guidance on clearly communicating complex and technical information.
