Building a content strategy with
content types
Content Strategy Singapore Meetup
5 Oct 2016

Content types are distinctive,
recognisable types of content.
They have a name, purpose, structure
and are accepted in the community
they are used in.
They are a response to a
communication situation that happens
repeatedly.
What are content types
Social acceptance
StructurePurpose
Content type

Examples
• Case studies
• Expert profiles
• Events
• Impact stories
• Newsletters
• Courses
• Interviews
• Book reviews
• Press releases
• Explainers
• Quizzes
• Instructional e-books
• White papers
• Speeches

Why have content types
Why purpose ● Each content type has a purpose e.g. product page vs. support
article
● They help bring an organisation’s purpose to life
Why
community
● Content types are useful to a community - they also help build a
community
Why structure ● Content types create expectations and use conventions
● Parts of the structure can be reused in new ways

BBC vs Buzzfeed

Content type vs.
content format
• Content types have a purpose and
conventions
• They can include content formats
• Content formats don’t necessarily tell us
what to expect e.g. PDF, photos, video
• May need extra context
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture

What content types reveal
Reflect activities
of a community
Reveal
context
Reveal
gaps

Activities in a community
Which community
will have these
content types?
Appeals
Briefs
Case history
Litigations
Precedents

Reveal context
What do these
content types say
about the
community?
Appeals
Briefs
Case history
Litigations
Precedents
Consultant resume
Consultant brief
Consultant fees

Reveal gaps
Project charter
Minutes of meeting
To-dos
Status reports
Closing reports
Case studies
Lessons learned
Q&A
Retrospects
Can this project
community
become a
knowledge-sharing
community?
A knowledge-
sharing community
has these content
types

How content types can help
Manage content Add meaning As navigation

Manage content
• Consistent structure and metadata
• Lets you create collections and reuse elements
Project page Project listing
Country page
https://www.adb.org/projects/afghanistan

Add meaning
• Structure lets us bring
out what’s important to
users
http://cooking.nytimes.com/search?q=salmon

As navigation
• Not always a good idea
• Users may not know what to
expect under a content type
• May still need topic-based
navigation

How to design content types
Content modelling is a way to design content types.
A content model defines the structure of a content type
(also called attributes) and the relationship between
different content types.
Map view List view Table view Form view

Case study

The situation
● Policy paper (PDF)
● FAQs
● Occasional blog posts
?
What content
types do we
have?
What content
types do we
need?
What do we want
to do?
● Inform, engage,
excite
● Present diverse
viewpoints
● Audience: working
adults, teachers

Identify content types
1. Audit existing content
● What do we keep?
● What do we need to
transform?
● What should not be
included?
2. Scan the community
● What content types does
the community use?
● What is the purpose of
each?
3. Define your content mix
● Map to core strategy,
audience, journey etc
● Stock vs. flow
● Easy vs. difficult to
create
4. Choose and refine
● What are our priorities?
● What’s realistic?
● What can we become
known for?
Analyse
Prioritise and refine

Scan and define content mix
Audience How often?Core strategy Where will we get content?What format?

Prioritise content types
● Policy paper (PDF)
● FAQs
● Occasional blog posts
● Explainers
● Key indicator dashboard
● Articles (original, curated)
● Poll, Quiz
● Event
● Debate
● Contributor
● Newsletter
Statistics database
What content
types do we
have?
What content
types do we
need?
What do we want
to do?
● Inform, engage,
excite
● Present diverse
viewpoints
● Audience: working
adults, teachers

Define each content type
• What is it?
• What is the purpose?
• What is the business goal?
• Who is the audience?
• Who will create it?
• How will we measure it?
• What is the structure?
• Does it need a special workflow?

Content type card

Create the content model
• Define the attributes of each content type and their relationships
• Helps CMS team develop the system
Map view Table view

● Content types are the building blocks of
content strategy along with editorial design
● Content types are strategic
● Content types allow the reuse of content in
different contexts
● Content types allow for customised
presentation
To sum it up

● Unleash the power of content types
https://gathercontent.com/blog/unleash-the-power-of-content-types
Further reading