How & why to incorporate content strategy into your project

@jakedimare

Hilary Marsh Chief Strategist – Content Company

Jake DiMare

Senior Project Manager – ISITE Design Contributing Editor – The CMS Myth

Incorporating Content Strategy into Your

Project: Why and How

@hilarymarsh #gilbanecontent

2 12/4/13 @hilarymarsh | @jakedimare


•  Who, what, when, where, why, how of publishing content

+ •  A strategic statement tying content

to business & user needs +

•  People, processes, and power to execute that statement

What is Content Strategy?


Without a Content Strategy…

© mike krzeszak Flickr


If you build a site without knowing the content that will exist, the site you create may not be able to be successful!

Without a Content Strategy…


Business Consequences

© Don Graham, 1998, Flickr


• Event • Product • Class • Program • Research

What is Content?


• Event Strategy • Product Strategy • Class Strategy • Program Strategy • Research Strategy

Content Strategy, then, is


Technological Capabilities (What’s Possible)

Business Drivers

(What’s Important)

User Needs

(What’s Desirable)

Content Strategy


Project Management

Content Strategy

AWESOME


Scope


Schedule


Budget


Stakeholder expectations


Risk


7 WAYS CONTENT CAN ‘CHOKE OUT’ A WEB PROJECT


#1 FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE BUSINESS GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Create the experience business needs...


Digital Experience

Vision

Culture & Governance

Technology

Optimization Content

Operations Plan

Customer Insight

The seven gates for digital change


– Paul Ford, former Web editor at Harper’s magazine Confab 2013

“Every pixel has an owner.”


Content = scope…

#2 FAILURE TO APPRECIATE THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF A PROJECT


The Big Dig

Eventually completed in: 2007 @ 14.6B

Originally scheduled for completion: 1998 @ $2.8B


#3 FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF CONTENT

It’s all about the content…

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#4 FAILURE TO PLAN FOR CREATING AND/OR REVISING CONTENT

Ready or not…


The Editorial Process

Conception

Writing

Revising

Publishing

Promoting

Maintaining/Renewing/

Expiring


#5 FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGES OF DESIGNING WITH DUMMY CONTENT

For placement only (for dummies)…


Dummy text is for…

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. It has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s…

…the 1500s…

…the1500s…

…the 1500s…


#6 FAILURE TO PROPERLY PLAN FOR CONTENT MIGRATION

Content on the move…


#7 FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONTENT AND EXPERIENCE

Experience this…


6 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO MITIGATE THESE RISKS

45 12/4/13 @hilarymarsh | @jakedimare #SoHappy @jakedimare


Content Strategist as Orchestra Conductor


Defining success today…

Targeted Portable Mobile Social

Responsive Local Global Relevant


Transcend the politics


Sell the vision


Respect the depth


Foster collaboration


Motivate and Recognize

Photo by Chris Hunkeler, Flickr


Redefine success

I put the information up online –now I also

need to know how many people have

used it???


Activities, Milestones and Deliverables

Discovery Design Development


Conduct a content audit

What: Detailed content inventory

and associated analysis

When: Scoping, Discovery

Why: The cone of uncertainty


Content Audit


Content audit pro tips

•  Do use Xenu or CAT •  Don’t just run automated software •  Include UXA, UXD, MO, and business

stakeholders in the analysis •  Look for pockets of abandoned

content •  Compare audit against analytics


Think about message architecture

What: Hierarchy of

communication goals

When: Discovery, Design

Why: Learnin’!


Do some migration planning

What: Documents detailing the

effort associated with content

integration

When: Design, Development

Why: Because migration is hard


Migration planning pro tips •  Start early, update often •  Be informed by genuine workflow •  Let stakeholders know this is a

living document. It doesn’t get ‘finished’

•  Make sure everyone is working from the same sheet music.

•  Have a sign-off column!


Plan for CMS governance

What: Documentation of rules,

vital information, etc.

When: Development

Why: Self-preservation (do you

ever want to go on vacation?)


CMS governance •  Hosting information •  Support information •  Content management team information •  Measurement team information •  Advertising information •  Archiving •  Security •  Information architecture •  Hiring and training •  Standards and procedures •  Legal issues (Privacy, TOS, Etc.)


Educate your users

What: Guides, brown-bag lunches,

reminder tips, success stories

When: Development

Why: Self-preservation, portfolio

rot…


7 ways content can choke out your project…

•  #1 Failure to understand business needs

•  #2 Failure to understand scope

•  #3 Failure to respect the content

•  #4 Failure to plan for content creation

•  #5 Failure to design with real copy

•  #6 Failure to plan for content migration

•  #7 Failure to recognize the relationship between content and experience


6 things you can do to mitigate these risks…

•  Hire a content strategist!

•  Create a content strategy

•  Conduct a content audit

•  Migration planning

•  Write CMS governance documentation

•  Educate users


Connect with us Jake @jakedimare www.isitedesign.com www.cmsmyth.com

Hilary @hilarymarsh www.hilarymarsh.com

How & why to incorporate content strategy into your project

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