Solo Content Strategy: Lesson for Lone Ranger & Tiny Teams

SOLO CONTENT STRATEGY:
LESSONS FOR LONE RANGERS & TINY TEAMS
Malaika Carpenter
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“
www.malaikacarpenter.com
@MalaikaInk
Can you create a _____________
real quick and throw it up on
the website?”
IN THE LAST MONTH HAVE YOU BEEN ASKED:
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Fill in the blank with any piece of content you were asked to create

IF YOU SAID ‘YES’ THEN YOU PROBABLY UNDERSTAND…
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➤ Quickly drafted and published content likely is not
based on a strategy or process.
➤ Producing eﬀective content—messages and materials
that inﬂuence user behavior and actions—requires a
thoughtful process and involves…
Adequate BudgetManpower Tools & resources
to automate tasks
Time

YOU’RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE IF YOU WANT TO LEARN…
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1. How to focus on important, strategic tasks by creating a
documented content strategy.
2. Ways to create operational infrastructure (systems,
processes, guidelines) for producing content eﬃciently.
3. Strategies to educate your stakeholders on how to
support and adhere to the content process.

ABOUT MALAIKA CARPENTER
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➤ Has a decade worth of B2B sales,
marketing & corporate communications
experience.
➤ Passionate about storytelling, including
improv & sketch comedy.
➤ Oversees content strategy & user comms,
and leads a 3-person team at health tech
startup Life.io.
➤ Advises companies on content creation
and brand messaging strategy as principal
consultant of SayCred Media Group.
I help people
articulate their brand
story in a creative
and compelling way
that delivers results.
@MalaikaInk

THE
PROBLEM
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AT FIRST, CONTENT PRODUCTION WAS MANAGEABLE UNTIL…
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CONTENT VOLUME STARTED TO GROW QUICKLY
And the content team did now grow at
the same rate.
Audience steadily grew.
More email campaigns created.Content-heavy features developed.
New user on-boarding ﬂow launched.
8

SOON, PRODUCING CONTENT BEGAN TO FEEL LIKE….
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AND POTENTIAL FOR ERRORS RISE, FEAR OF FAILURE SEEPS IN…
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DO YOU FEEL THIS WAY TOO? YOU’RE NOT ALONE!
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On the flip side, 72% of
B2B content marketers
in this same study
report that “producing
engaging content” is
their top priority
followed by measuring
its effectiveness.

THE CAUSE
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WHAT’S CAUSING THIS SURGE OF CONTENT?
1. Content is a business asset—essential for promoting
brand and products.
2. Content is being produced at increasing volumes and
speed.
3. Content is a priority but it’s not backed by a clear
vision, documented strategy, or budget.
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CONTENT IS A BUSINESS ASSET
➤ Content is a powerful tool for promoting products and services.  
➤ Customers learn about brands and products through content
(e.g., blog posts, ebooks, webinars, case studies, user-generated
reviews and comments, videos, etc.) and willing to share
information about themselves for content they value.
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FACTS: 47% of B2B buyers consume three to ﬁve pieces
of content prior to engaging with a salesperson.
– 2017 Content Preferences Survey, DemandGen Report

CONTENT IS BEING PRODUCED AT INCREASING SPEED & VOLUME
➤ Content marketing is trendy. Most brands are doing it.
➤ Big brands have their own in-house content studios & collaborator
networks.
➤ PepsiCo’s Creators League
➤ The New York Times’ T Brand Studio
➤ Forbes’ Platform Strategy
➤ Large teams feed this content beast.
➤ About 1,200 pieces of content are produced per day by HuﬀPost’s 532
full-time editorial staﬀ resulting in 43 million page views per day.
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CONTENT VOLUME BY NUMBERS:
➤ 40 billion indexed pages on Google today.
➤ 100 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
➤ Each day, 55 million photos are added to Instagram.
– DigiDay

“
@MalaikaInk
Winning in digital media now boils
down to a simple equation: ﬁgure out
a way to produce the most content
at as low a cost as possible.”
-DigiDay, 2013
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CONTENT IS A PRIORITY BUT HAS NO DOCUMENTED STRATEGY OR BUDGET
➤ Most business leaders know content is important.
➤ Most companies are racing to create more and more content.
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AND: 75% of companies without a documented strategy also do
not have a dedicated content budget.
– 2014 B2B Content Marketing Survey, LinkedIn
BUT: Of the 72% of content marketers with a content strategy in
place, only 30% have it formally documented.
– 2014 B2B Content Marketing Survey, LinkedIn

THE
CHALLENGE
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CLOSING GAP BETWEEN CONTENT VISION & REALITY
Yet, they don’t have the budget, resources, or team to
achieve this vision. Or, recognize that Buzzfeed has:
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Your stakeholders’ content vision may be:
“We want to have a variety of fun, shareable posts
like Buzzfeed.”
Large team of editors
& contributors
Multi-million dollar
funding
Content Aggregation &
Programmatics

ONE YOU, MANY TASKS
There’s only one of you but…
➤ Many pieces of content to create 
➤ Many channels of content to manage 
➤ Many users’ needs to consider 
➤ Many stakeholders to satisfy 
➤ Many projects and priorities to juggle 
Ultimately, there’s more tasks
than time to complete them.
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“
@MalaikaInk
I don’t have time to create or
document a content process.”
ASSUMPTION:
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THE REALITY: A content process can save you time
(and even expose time-wasters).

THE
SOLUTION
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THE SOLUTION
1. Create a documented content strategy.  
2. Know what it takes to produce a piece of content. 
3. Build operational tools (templates, guidelines, formats)
for producing content. 
4. Start small and measure content eﬀectiveness as you go. 
5. Spread the good news by educating your stakeholders
about the strategy and processes.
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BREAKING DOWN
THE SOLUTION
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DOCUMENT YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
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WHY? A documented content strategy allows you and your
team to know, prioritize, and plan for what you
need to create.
WHAT? A written plan that captures the content’s purpose,
goals, outcomes/ KPIs, target audience, and
requirements.
HOW? Conduct stakeholder interviews and content audit to
identify content goals and needs, and collect data
about target audience.

CREATING A DOCUMENTED CONTENT STRATEGY
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KEEP IN MIND:
➤ Consider both
business &
audience goals
➤ Tactics should
include:
➤ Content
channels
➤ Target audience
➤ Frequency
➤ Key Message
➤ Metrics
Always ask yourself: How will I measure success?
Identify specific and tangible KPIs and metrics.

KNOW YOUR CONTENT PROCESS
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WHY? Helps you be honest about what you can and
cannot accomplish so you can set realistic timelines
and determine staﬀ, resources, and budget needs.
WHAT? Map out on the tasks, steps, resources, stakeholders,
and timeframe involved in creating a single piece of
content.
HOW? Identify common content items you create and list
tasks, assigned roles, timeframe needed to move the
item to completion.

MAPPING YOUR CONTENT PROCESS
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CONTENT PRODUCTION STEPS COMMON CONTENT TASKS PRACTICE & PROCEDURES
1. Research & Plan
2. Write & Edit
3. Review
4. Revision
5. Final Review &
Approval
6. Upload & Schedule
7. Publish
8. Monitor & Track
9. Evaluate & Test
➤ Single-Message
Email
➤ Multi-Message
Email Campaign
➤ Multi-channel
Message Campaign
➤ Single Webpage
➤ Multiple Webpages
➤ Who is involved in
content creation?
➤ Who needs to
review and approve?
➤ How long does each
task take?
➤ How do you handle
delays?
➤ When will you
evaluate content
eﬀectiveness?

BUILD OPERATIONAL TOOLS (TEMPLATES, GUIDELINES, FORMATS)
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WHY? Allows you to create content in a structured,
repeatable, and sustainable manner so you can
create once and re-use or re-purpose.
WHAT? Create a content model to show how info is
organized, a message architecture to map key
messages, and templates to quickly format content.
HOW? Identify the common types of content you create, list
the elements that make up the content type, and be
speciﬁc about writing and format guidelines.

CONTENT MODEL
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Speciﬁes how information is organized and how content will be
presented based on user and content objectives.
PURPOSE:
➤ Deﬁnes each content
type’s elements,
attributes, and
relationships to each
other.
➤ Helps designers,
developers, authors
understand content
needs and
requirements.

MESSAGE ARCHITECTURE
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A map of the key messages that can be shared with multiple
stakeholders and communicate your brand and product story.

EXAMPLE OF MESSAGE ARCHITECTURE
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Summary of brand messaging from West Virginia University

TEMPLATES
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A preset format and guidelines for creating a piece of content
that can be re-used and cut down on content creation time. 
Examples from Life.io

WHY START SMALL, MEASURE & ITERATE
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WHY? Helps you determine if your content is achieving
desired goals and outcomes while keeping production
costs low.
WHAT? Instead of creating all content at once, determine
what is minimum viable content you need to create
for proof of concept and meeting goals.
HOW?
Break your overall plan into phases with a timeline.
Create content in batches and then test. Set objectives
for tests and examine one element at a time.

HOW TO MEASURE CONTENT EFFECTIVENESS
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FIRST THINGS FIRST: IDENTIFY YOUR KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI)
➤ Unique page views
➤ Time on page
➤ Leads generated
➤ Conversion rates
➤ Downloads
➤ Subscribe/ Registration
Heat maps
of website to
see where
users spend
most time.
A/B Testing
of message
copy, format,
structure.
Focus on one element at
a time. For example, test
call-to-action button vs.
link. Test video vs. image
only.

EDUCATE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS
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WHY? Keeps leadership informed about what’s required
from them to successfully create content and
inﬂuences their decisions.
WHAT? Share documentation (e.g., strategy, templates, etc.);
Discuss procedure & policy with team; Routinely
meet with leadership to share plans and results.
HOW? Host a workshop, use staﬀ meetings to update team
on procedures and case studies, and place strategy
documents in shared, central place.

EDUCATE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS
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CLOSING
THOUGHTS
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EVERY CONTENT PROJECT SHOULD START WITH…
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CONTENT VISION
CONTENT STRATEGY
CONTENT PROCESS
Your“Promiseland”—the ideal state of what
you want your content to look like and be.
Your roadmap towards achieving your
content vision.
The tangible and tactical steps to close the
gap between your content reality and
content vision.
Keep this in mind and on paper to stay organized.

GOT QUESTIONS?
WANT TO CHAT?
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@MalaikaInk
/malaikacarpenterwww.malaikacarpenter.com

Solo Content Strategy: Lesson for Lone Ranger & Tiny Teams

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