CONTENT STRATEGY
Katherine Dallas Hammond
Content Strategy Consultant, Fafoutee Films & Media
July 25, 2017

Content is…
• information: practical, functional or tactical
• data with context
• a business asset
• any medium designed to execute a message
• the sum total of the freshness, readability, relevancy, and usefulness
of the information presented, and the manner in which it is presented
• the essence of a communicated message or discourse, as
comprehended or received by its intended audience.
7/25/2017
http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/03/what-is-content/
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/content.html
2

Content strategy is...
• a comprehensive approach that will assess an organization’s current
state, understand its ideal future state, recognize where the gaps are,
and develop an implementation roadmap.
• focused on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance
of content.
• useful and usable content, that is well structured, and easily found.
• vital to improving the user experience.
7/25/2017
http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/content-strategy.html
3

Creating a content strategy
1. Define your goals
• Are you are creating content to boost brand awareness, generate leads, convert users, attract past
customers or improve search ranking results?
2. Research Your Audience
• Your content strategy can only be effective if you know your audience
3. Focus on Your Niche
• The more specific you are and focused on your niche, the greater your chances of establishing
yourself as an authority in your field
4. Measure Your Results
• You need to know what your audience liked as well as what they didn’t like, and why
5. Listen to Your Customers
• Your customers need to know they are being heard on social media, so ask them for feedback and
suggestions
6. Amplify Your Content
• To amplify your content, determine the places your audience is frequenting online, and then
publish on those channels to reach them
7/25/2017 http://blog.kissmetrics.com/content-strategy-a-development-guide/ 4

Content strategy core concepts & terms
• Lifecycle: the process that defines the series of changes in the life of any piece of content
• Accessibility: the extent to which content is available, understandable, and usable by all
• Optimization: the process of refining language to improve its readability, accuracy, clarity,
consistency, tone and voice
• Quality Assurance: the process to ensure content meets specified requirements before publishing
• Findability: the quality of being able to be discovered and retrieved through search or browsing
• Metadata: attributes to structure, define and target content
• Search Engine Optimization: designing content that will rank well in organic search
• Personalization: targeting content to specific users; the right content to the right user at the right
time
7/25/2017 http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/ 5

Content strategy core deliverables
• Content brief: a summary that aligns everyone involved around the same vision
or goal, and the approach to achieving it
• Content inventory: an organized listing of every existing content asset
• Content audit: the qualitative study of the content inventory
• Content analysis: the quality of content against objective benchmarks
• Content flow: a map of content from input to multiple outputs
• Persona: a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience
• Taxonomy: a hierarchical classification of categories, vocabulary of terms, to
describe a specific area of knowledge or subject matter
7/25/2017
http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
6

Target audience
• 1st things 1st
• Immersed comprehension of the product or service your client is selling
• Don’t assume, analyze the existing audience
• Talk to people
• Survey customers
• Analytics data currently being collected
• Dive deeper
• Industry research, market research, business analysis, industry trends,
statistics and forecasts
• Check out the competition
7/25/2017 http://www.digitalcurrent.com/digital-marketing/9-steps-to-find-your-target-audience/ 7

Personas
• A Persona is a composite sketch
of a key segment of your
audience
• Personas help you deliver
content that will be most
relevant and useful to your
audience
• Persona development is a
customized process, as it is
meant to address unique
marketing challenges and
opportunities
7/25/2017 http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2015/04/content-marketing-personas/ 8

Content brief
• Strategists aren’t always the ones actually writing or producing
content.
• A content brief is the most important place to exert leverage and
make an impact on their writing.
• It is a guideline for them to reference and is often a part of the Brand
book.
7/25/2017
http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
9

Inside a content brief
• Goals: Thought leadership, money…
• Ambition: What do you want to achieve? What is a success?
• Outline key points: What is the essence of what you want to say?
• Support them: Why should anyone believe you?
• Target Audience: Who? Get specific. Connect brief to Persona.
• Emotion: What should they feel? Know their beliefs, biases, loves &
hates.
• Tone of voice = How should you speak to your audience?
7/25/2017 https://velocitypartners.com/blog/how-to-write-a-great-content-marketing-brief/ 10

Content brief continued
• Key insight: Great content is
always built on a crystal of
insight. Create an “Aha!”
moment.
• World view: A clear, compelling
big picture view to create
urgency
• Story arc: Tell a story
• Competition: Gather what
content is out there and show
your team of writers what’s
good and what falls short
7/25/2017
http://velocitypartners.com/blog/how-to-write-a-great-content-marketing-brief/
11

Content distribution
• Owned media includes the channels that belong to your client, where
you control the content.
• Blog, website, email newsletter and social media profiles.
• Earned media involves others sharing the content.
• Social media shares, guest posts, media coverage and product reviews.
• Paid media is the exposure you pay for
• Pay-per-click ads, display ads or social ads
7/25/2017 https://blog.bufferapp.com/content-distribution-tools 12

http://blog.bufferapp.com/content-distribution-tools 13
Paid, earned and owned
7/25/2017 13

Tactics and templates for execution
Guides to document a content strategy &
streamline creation through:
• Alignment - matching marketing priorities to
business objectives
• Collaboration - content classification and
content workflows
• Accessibility - clearly defined publishing
channels and centralized digital asset
management
• Insights - metrics that matter to understand
your content operation and improve future
strategy
7/25/2017 http://resources.kapost.com/essential-b2b-content-templates-thank-you.html? 14

Content
calendars
• The schedule for publishing
content for a given period of
time
• Often annually or during a
specific campaign period
• Ensures important publishing
milestones are recognized
and planned
7/25/2017 15

Digital content
• Digital content is any content that exists in the form of digital data,
also known as digital media
• Digital content is stored on digital or analog storage in specific
formats
• Forms of digital content include information that is digitally
broadcast, streamed, or contained in computer files
7/25/2017 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_content 16

Digital content file formats
• Image: .jpg/jpeg, .png. .gif
• Audio: .mp3, .wav
• Video: .mp4, .mov, .avi
• Microsoft Office: .doc, .docx,
.xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx
• Portable Document Format:
.PDF
7/25/2017 http://pardot.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2629745-supported-content-file-types 17

Content management
• Content is a key business asset that effectively drives business growth
by enabling smart decision making
• Effective content management is mandatory to leverage the power of
content
• The explosive growth of content from various channels in varied
forms and formats can be a challenge for the content handling
capabilities of conventional content management systems
• Content strategists should be familiar with a variety of content
management systems
7/25/2017 http://www.htcinc.com/it-services/records-and-content-management/ 18

Track, measure and adjust
• Consumption - How many people viewed, downloaded or listened to
this piece of content?
• Sharing - How resonant is this content, and how often is it shared
with others?
• Lead generation - How often does content consumption result in a
lead?
• Sales - Did the client actually make any money because of this
content?
• ROI – ( a bit tricky) measure each program that can then be rolled up
to determine the overall
7/25/2017 http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/a-field-guide-to-the-four-types-of-content-marketing-metrics 19

Thank you
7/25/2017 20

Index
• http://hannondigital.com/how-content-marketing-can-help-a-recruitment-agency/
• http://www.toprankblog.com/what-is-content/
• http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/content.html
• http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
• http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/content-strategy.html
• http://blog.kissmetrics.com/content-strategy-a-development-guide/
• http://www.digitalcurrent.com/digital-marketing/9-steps-to-find-your-target-audience/
• http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/content-marketing-personas/
• http://velocitypartners.com/blog/how-to-write-a-great-content-marketing-brief/
• http://blog.bufferapp.com/content-distribution-tools
• http://resources.kapost.com/essential-b2b-content-templates-thank-you.html?
• http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/how-to-build-a-content-calendar
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_content
• http://pardot.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2629745-supported-content-file-types
• http://www.htcinc.com/it-services/records-and-content-management/
• http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/a-field-guide-to-the-four-types-of-content-marketing-metrics
7/25/2017 21