The document discusses content strategy and provides an overview of the key steps and deliverables in developing an effective content strategy. This includes developing a message architecture to define communication goals, conducting a content audit to analyze existing content, and identifying gaps to determine what new or updated content is needed to align with the message architecture and better achieve communication goals. The presentation also provides examples of how to conduct a card sorting activity to develop a message architecture and how to structure a content audit spreadsheet.
Defining Our Profession, Defining Ourselves at CSSummit14Margot Bloomstein
What’s in a name—and does it constrain or empower us? As “content strategy” evolves as an industry, so too do the areas of expertise individual practitioners offer and our clients expect. Is that a problem, or an opportunity? Can we grapple with our terminology to broaden the profession without losing its relevance? And do we run the risk of diluting the meaning? We’ll discuss the responsibility and opportunity in how we define our industry and the areas of specialty it can comprise.
Presented at Environments for Humans Content Strategy Summit, #CSSummit, August 19, 2014.
Trying to manage feature creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow?
These questions and other challenges drive content strategy; they’re basic issues to any strategist planning for content and the workflow behind it. But what if you’re not a content strategist? What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a whinging client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation… not to mention branded error messaging? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you design for the web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. Fancy more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand attributes cardsort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment.
Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. You’ll leave with the savvy and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking into your own work.
Presented as a workshop at UX London, #UXLondon, April 12 2013, in Greenwich UK.
Here's an understatement: website redesigns are challenging. Completing a highly successful redesign can be a daunting process down an unpaved road filled with potholes. If you've been down that road you know the drill – they need to be strategic and tactical. This presentation was first given at the 2014 Ingeniux User Conference and covers the 9 stages of an effective site redesign. We cover the gamut from the design process (IA/UX) to establishing a strategic foundation, content strategy and content management, stakeholder engagement and leadership buy-in, governance and decision-making, technical considerations, analytics and measuring success, mobile and social waves upon us, and the next wave (accessibility) soon to come. http://www.theprimacy.com
Know thyself: Your school's message-driven content strategyMargot Bloomstein
Before you can determine content types and prioritize channels, consider the roots of communication--and education. Start at home. Start in Delphi, in ancient Greece. You'll find instructions key to learning, communication, and brand-driven content strategy: know thyself. What does that mean in higher ed? Consider your communication goals and hierarchy of brand attributes. We'll discuss how they drive style and tone, content types, and the look and feel of your content—and how a message architecture helps ensure your audit is more meaningful and content is more consistent.
Presented at Confab Higher Ed, #ConfabEDU, November 12, 2013, in Atlanta.
You need to clarify and prioritize communication goals in order to choose content types and curate content. Before you launch a blog, redesign the website, compile an editorial calendar, or start pinning, create a message architecture. Learn how and why to achieve organizational alignment around a common vocabulary. Discover how to prevent seagulling and miscommunication of vision and goals. Understand how a message architecture can drive editorial style, content planning, and content types. This workshop will teach you how.
Presented at CMS Expo 2013, #CMSExpo and #CMSX, on May 14, 2013, in Chicago.
Making Meaning in Content and Design (Bloomstein at HOW)Margot Bloomstein
How do you rally stakeholders around a unified user experience that’s consistent across design and content? That’s the challenge of a modern designer. Fortunately, content strategy is a powerful ally in that challenge. Amid constrained budgets, tight timelines, and unlimited interaction expectations, can you really add another tool to your toolkit? Can you afford to focus on content too? Yes—and you can’t afford to “let the client worry about it” any longer. We’ll discuss the value content strategy can add to your work and how it can help you streamline your process to save time and keep stakeholders happy. Then, we’ll discuss how to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture with a hands-on exercise—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Finally, you’ll learn how to create consistency between copy, channels, and the typography and imagery you develop for those channels. There’s meaning in consistency, and you’ll explore how to master it in content and design.
Presented at HOW Interactive Design Conference, #HIDC, November 6, 2013, in Chicago.
Defining Our Profession, Defining Ourselves at CSSummit14Margot Bloomstein
What’s in a name—and does it constrain or empower us? As “content strategy” evolves as an industry, so too do the areas of expertise individual practitioners offer and our clients expect. Is that a problem, or an opportunity? Can we grapple with our terminology to broaden the profession without losing its relevance? And do we run the risk of diluting the meaning? We’ll discuss the responsibility and opportunity in how we define our industry and the areas of specialty it can comprise.
Presented at Environments for Humans Content Strategy Summit, #CSSummit, August 19, 2014.
Trying to manage feature creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow?
These questions and other challenges drive content strategy; they’re basic issues to any strategist planning for content and the workflow behind it. But what if you’re not a content strategist? What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a whinging client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation… not to mention branded error messaging? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you design for the web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. Fancy more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand attributes cardsort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment.
Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. You’ll leave with the savvy and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking into your own work.
Presented as a workshop at UX London, #UXLondon, April 12 2013, in Greenwich UK.
Here's an understatement: website redesigns are challenging. Completing a highly successful redesign can be a daunting process down an unpaved road filled with potholes. If you've been down that road you know the drill – they need to be strategic and tactical. This presentation was first given at the 2014 Ingeniux User Conference and covers the 9 stages of an effective site redesign. We cover the gamut from the design process (IA/UX) to establishing a strategic foundation, content strategy and content management, stakeholder engagement and leadership buy-in, governance and decision-making, technical considerations, analytics and measuring success, mobile and social waves upon us, and the next wave (accessibility) soon to come. http://www.theprimacy.com
Know thyself: Your school's message-driven content strategyMargot Bloomstein
Before you can determine content types and prioritize channels, consider the roots of communication--and education. Start at home. Start in Delphi, in ancient Greece. You'll find instructions key to learning, communication, and brand-driven content strategy: know thyself. What does that mean in higher ed? Consider your communication goals and hierarchy of brand attributes. We'll discuss how they drive style and tone, content types, and the look and feel of your content—and how a message architecture helps ensure your audit is more meaningful and content is more consistent.
Presented at Confab Higher Ed, #ConfabEDU, November 12, 2013, in Atlanta.
You need to clarify and prioritize communication goals in order to choose content types and curate content. Before you launch a blog, redesign the website, compile an editorial calendar, or start pinning, create a message architecture. Learn how and why to achieve organizational alignment around a common vocabulary. Discover how to prevent seagulling and miscommunication of vision and goals. Understand how a message architecture can drive editorial style, content planning, and content types. This workshop will teach you how.
Presented at CMS Expo 2013, #CMSExpo and #CMSX, on May 14, 2013, in Chicago.
Making Meaning in Content and Design (Bloomstein at HOW)Margot Bloomstein
How do you rally stakeholders around a unified user experience that’s consistent across design and content? That’s the challenge of a modern designer. Fortunately, content strategy is a powerful ally in that challenge. Amid constrained budgets, tight timelines, and unlimited interaction expectations, can you really add another tool to your toolkit? Can you afford to focus on content too? Yes—and you can’t afford to “let the client worry about it” any longer. We’ll discuss the value content strategy can add to your work and how it can help you streamline your process to save time and keep stakeholders happy. Then, we’ll discuss how to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture with a hands-on exercise—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Finally, you’ll learn how to create consistency between copy, channels, and the typography and imagery you develop for those channels. There’s meaning in consistency, and you’ll explore how to master it in content and design.
Presented at HOW Interactive Design Conference, #HIDC, November 6, 2013, in Chicago.
Join Bath Content Strategy Meetup for an evening with content strategist Margot Bloomstein, author of Content Strategy at Work: Real World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project. Even if content strategy isn't your job, content's probably your problem--and probably more than you think.
You or your business has a message you want to deliver, right? You can deliver that message through various channels and content types, from Tweets to testimonials and photo galleries galore, and your audience has just as many ways of engaging with it.
So many ways, so much content... so where's the problem? That is the problem. And you can measure it in time, creativity, money, lost opportunity, and the sobs you hear equally from creative directors, project managers, and search engine marketing specialists.
Content Strategy at Work offers an unparalleled collection of case studies and interviews from a range of industries and project times for real-world examples and approaches you can adopt, no matter your role on the team. Margot will share perspective and bring some of those case studies to life with Q&A and a drawing for a free copy--or get yours ahead of time from Amazon UK.
Presented at the Bath UK Content Strategy Meetup, #BathContent, April 11, 2013 in Bath, UK.
Establishing a Brand-driven Message Architecture WebVisions NYCMargot Bloomstein
Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow?
These questions and other challenges drive content strategy. If you’re a designer planning for content or a developer tailoring the CMS to specific content types, they’re your challenges, too. If you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation, forget your title. It’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you design for the web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. Then use this foundation to learn about a qualitative and quantitative content audit, content types, and editorial style guidelines. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. You’ll leave with the savvy and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking into your own work.
What you can expect:
Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise
Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update
Use a content audit to evaluate content against the message architecture
Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget
Presented as a workshop at WebVisions NYC, April 7, 2016, at WebVisions in New York.
Managing content can become overwhelming with the growing number of delivery platforms. Content strategist Margot Bloomstein, principal of Appropriate, Inc., breaks down the steps to implement a strategy that saves time, money, and frustration.
The Secrets of Brand-Driven Content Strategy (Workshop)Margot Bloomstein
Facing feature creep and disagreements among stakeholders? Does your CMO prize modernity and innovation, while the CEO insists on passive voice… but can’t wait to start blogging? Sounds like you need to get a grip on content, the people who make it—and the brand they want to establish.
Brand-driven content strategy can complement your user-centered design techniques, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. You’ll gain practical, hands-on experience by taking sample organisations through a website redesign engagement. First, we’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritise communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Discover how a brand attributes cardsort can help you identify potential pitfalls in the engagement and points of disagreement—and then improve organisational alignment around the brand and content.
Next you’ll use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality content. You’ll leave with confidence, savvy, and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking back to your own organisation.
- Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise.
- Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimise distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update.
- Use a content audit to evaluate content against the message architecture.
- Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget.
- Inform your work with an air-tight approach to better user experiences.
Presented as a workshop at CS Forum 2012, Cape Town South Africa; #CSForum12, October 24, 2012.
Brand-driven Content Strategy: Developing a Message Architecture at Confab In...Margot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences.
Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment. Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis can reveal when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Presented as a three-hour workshop at Confab Intensive, #ConfabINT, in Portland OR on August 31, 2015.
Assertive Strategy: Content Amid Constraints at Content Strategy AppliedMargot Bloomstein
We live in a world where people jump from Red Bull-branded satellites all in the name of good content. But is it really good—and is it right for our brands? Content strategy gives content marketing the tools to be sane and sustainable. Margot discusses how a more sustainable future means addressing the limits of budget, time, and creativity with content management, strategy, governance, and more. That’s the stuff that keeps logos off satellites and our content creators off high ledges.
Presented at Content Strategy Applied, #CSAUSA / #CSA13, October 17, 2013, in San Jose at eBay.
You've heard of content strategy, but is it up to the test? And if you submit your content to usability testing, are you testing the right things? This is bigger than learning about labels and confirming calls to action--so strap in for an exciting evening. We've got a lot to discuss!
Gain insight to content strategy processes and learn how to evaluate quality in the eyes of your target audience. Learn how--and why--to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise. Test out a basic content audit to evaluate content quantitatively and qualitatively. Draw on user feedback to determine content needs and next steps for content creation. Learn how to inform your work with an air-tight approach to better user experiences--and why no organization can afford to avoid content strategy. You'll leave with the confidence and savvy to bring content strategy thinking into your own process.
Presented at UPA 2012, Las Vegas; #UPA2012, June 4, 2012.
Arm yourself with personas, research, and KPIs. Look out at data you’re chasing. Then look in. What do you see? We spawn sites, create content, and chase new platforms without always knowing why. To keep up with competitors? To keep up with users? We know them better than we know ourselves, then burn resources racing toward questionable destinations and burn out in the process. That’s where content strategy can help. We’ll discuss forging a path from where you are and who you are. Learn how to allot constrained resources and engage your audience. Eager to reach them? To know them, first know yourself.
Presented as keynote at Now What 2015, #NowWhat15, April 30, 2015, in Sioux Falls SD.
Arm yourself with personas, research, and KPIs. Look out at data you’re chasing. Then look in. What do you see? We spawn sites, create content, and chase new platforms without always knowing why. To keep up with competitors? To keep up with users? We know them better than we know ourselves, then burn resources racing toward questionable destinations and burn out in the process. That’s where content strategy can help. We’ll discuss forging a path from where you are and who you are. Learn how to allot constrained resources and engage your audience. Eager to reach them? To know them, first know yourself.
Presented as keynote at Now What 2015, #NowWhat15, April 30, 2015, in Sioux Falls SD.
Jumpstarting content strategy with a message architecture at Converge2015Margot Bloomstein
Trying to manage scope, stakeholders, and shifting priorities? Need to determine a consistent voice among multiple authors? Content strategy can help. Amid constrained resources, competing priorities, and a contributory culture, content strategy can help us focus and do less—but do what really matters. Margot will discuss how to empower communicators and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for use in print, traditional web communication, and social media.
Presented at Converge 2015, #Converge2015, October 22, 2015 in New Orleans.
Content strategy for deliberate discovery at CongresCMMargot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, easy, and orderly—and sometimes, that’s all wrong for both users and brands. Not all websites need to be efficient to be effective. Some of the most memorable and profitable web experiences help users slow down, engage in discovery, and learn by doing.
Brands like IKEA use “slow content strategy” to encourage discovery and create a new level of brand engagement. Other companies such as outdoor specialist Patagonia and investment bank Fidelity use content types and editorial styles to help customers focus. Content strategist and author Margot Bloomstein explains how such a slow content strategy can pack a target audience for the brand and thus propel customer engagement to new heights.
Presented at Congres Content Marketing & Webredactie, #congresCM on November 20, 2014 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Establishing a Brand-Driven Message Architecture Workshop at HOWMargot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you design for the web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences.
Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand attributes cardsort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment. Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality.
Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy; they’re basic issues to any designer planning for content. But what if you’re not a content strategist? What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
You’ll leave with the savvy and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking into your own work.
Presented as two sold-out workshops at HOW Design Live, #HOWLive, May 12, 2014 in Boston.
A Village of P's and C's, Digital Content Strategies Conference KeynoteMargot Bloomstein
Tired? Frustrated? Intimidated by content? Welcome, friend. You’re in the right place. Your content takes a village, and the evolution of modern content strategy comes with just that: an unmistakable, inescapable culture of community. We share, collaborate, and socialize our work. That’s a practice you can bring home to address the people, process, and politics unique to your own corporate culture.
At the same time, those topics are key to infusing content marketing efforts with the laser focus of content strategy. Addressing your content as a business asset? Content strategy makes it happen. We’ll discuss how you can harness the power of community to make your content marketing efforts more focused and successful than ever before.
Presented at the Digital Content Strategies Conference 2013, San Diego; #DCSC13 March 13, 2013.
Cart, Meet Horse: Content Strategy for Content ManagementMargot Bloomstein
Before you can consider a new CMS, you need to know your content—and your communication goals.
We’ll discuss the key steps of a core content strategy process to audit your content and determine what you really need in a CMS.
If you’re considering a new CMS, stop. Before you can determine the fields and tags and functionality you need in technology, think about the content you need to support. How should it surface and what’s the message it needs to send? Enter brand-driven content strategy. We’d discuss the value of a message architecture to align your organization around specific content types and guide a content audit—then dig into how a content audit can inform your content model. There’s so much to do before you choose or implement a CMS, so c’mon! Let’s get started!
Presented at CMS Expo 2013, #CMSExpo and #CMSX, on May 14, 2013, in Chicago.
Are you ready to add content strategy to your resume? We'll gain some practical, hands-on experience together. Let's put a few sample organizations through the paces of "typical" process in a website redesign engagement. First, we’ll discuss how to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture with a hands-on exercise—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Then we’ll discuss how you can use this foundation to conduct a content audit, and work together to do it. Finally, we’ll ask “so what?” We’ll uncover the implications of a content audit through a gap analysis that points to content needs and next steps for our sample organizations. You’ll leave with the confidence and savvy to bring content strategy techniques and thinking back to your own organization.
Presented at IA Konferenz 2012, Essen Germany; #IAK12, May 10, 2012.
Brand-Driven Content Strategy: Creating a Message Architecture Workshop at Co...Margot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on why and how to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences.
From there, you’ll learn how to use a message architecture as the metric against which to measure content in a qualitative content audit. Then carry it into governance: We’ll explore the impact of a message architecture on editorial style guidelines and an editorial calendar—and see how that foundation can improve efficiency and client satisfaction throughout your projects. Discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment through entire engagements.
Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Learn how to establish a hierarchy of communication goals with a hands-on exercise and the right questions to ask along the way to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update.
Discover how to bring brand-driven thinking through subsequent activities, like the content audit and content model.
Explore the impact of the message architecture on “rubber meets the road” details in style, tone, and diction.
Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget.
Presented as a workshop at Confab Central, #ConfabCentral, in Minneapolis, June 7, 2017.
Driving a Multichannel Experience From a Single MessageMargot Bloomstein
E pluribus unum? Better yet, out of one, create many—many channels within a multifaceted but unified experience. That’s the challenge of experience design among constrained budgets, tight timelines, and unlimited interaction expectations. Content strategy’s communication foundation, the message architecture, can help you answer that challenge. First, we’ll discuss how to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture with a hands-on exercise—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Then learn how to create consistency between long-form web copy, action-oriented forms, and pointed Tweets. Discover how to prioritize features and content types across platforms by looking at examples that do this well, and those that don’t. Finally, respond to responsive design with a strategy to adapt content across platforms but still stay true to the brand.
Presented at IA Summit, #IAS12 and #singlemsg, March 23, 2012.
Online experiences can be fast, efficient and easy—but sometimes, that’s all wrong! Users click Buy too soon, miss important details or don’t find content that aids conversion. Efficient isn’t always effective and fast isn’t always functional. In fact, some of the most memorable web engagements employ “slow content strategy” with design considerations and content types that aid stickiness and retention. Margot Bloomstein will lead you through examples from a range of industries to see how you can manage—and slow—the pace at which users move through your website designs to create experiences that aid learning, fuel anticipation and create memories.
Content Strategy for Slow Experiences at Phoenix CSMargot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, efficient, easy, orderly—and sometimes, that’s all wrong! Users click confirm too soon, miss important details, or don’t find content that aids conversion. In short, efficient isn’t always effective. Not all experiences need to be fast to be functional. In fact, some of the most memorable and profitable web engagements employ “slow content strategy,” content speed bumps, and surprising content types that aid interaction. We’ll examine examples of content strategy in action that demonstrates how to identify and control the pace of user experience, adding value for both our users and the businesses that engage them.
Presented at Phoenix Content Strategy, April 29, 2014. #slowcs at #PHXCS
Whoa Nellie! Content Strategy for Slow Experiences at Confab MNMargot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, efficient, easy, orderly—and sometimes, that’s a recipe for disaster. We click confirm too soon, confuse important details, or miss a key feature in a product description. Efficient isn’t always effective. Not all experiences need to be fast to be functional. In fact, some of the most memorable and profitable engagements are slow and messy—and that’s just right.
Content strategy can identify and support opportunities to control the pace of user experience, but there’s a lot to keep in mind:
Learn how to identify experiences in which efficiency and speed would hinder the user’s interaction, satisfaction, and retention.
Understand how to introduce “speed bumps” in copy, content types, interaction design, and visual design that help users without annoying them.
Discover new tactics for sentence structure, diction, imagery positioning, and form design that all help slow down interaction and improve experiences
Presented at Confab 2013, June 5, 2013, #confabmn, in Minneapolis.
Keynote: Transforming Your Brand Into a Trusted Source at OmnichannelXMargot Bloomstein
Mass media and our most cynical memes say we live in a post-fact era. Who can we trust—and how do our users invest their trust? Without addressing those challenges, marketing falls flat. Expert opinions are a thing of the past; we favor user reviews from “people like us” whether we’re planning a meal or prioritizing a newsfeed. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike turn inward for the truth. By designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there.
Empower your audience to earn their trust. Presenting a new strategy for content and design that addresses empowerment, Margot will share examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users, build their confidence, and strengthen your brand. Embracing a new strategy, your work can drive something even more important: hope.
Delivered as a keynote to OmnichannelX 2020, #OmniXConf, in Amsterdam and virtually by Margot Bloomstein, @mbloomstein. (c) 2020 Margot Bloomstein.
Fostering Trust in Your Brand and Beyond at Rosenfeld Enterprise ExperienceMargot Bloomstein
Thursday March 12 • 11am-12pm ET • convert to your time zone here
Join the call via this Zoom videoconference link: https://zoom.us/j/120101278 or dial one of the following numbers and log in with meeting ID 120 101 278: +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) / +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) / find your local number
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Topic
We must empower our audiences to earn their trust—not the other way around—and our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Margot Bloomstein will walk you through examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users. Let’s address the tough questions: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? Is there a place for vulnerability in corporate strategy? And what’s the role of command and control consistency in the creative work of a corporate enterprise? Learn how these questions can drive design choices in organizations of any size and industry—and discover how your choices can empower users and rebuild our very sense of trust across society itself.
Presented in a Rosenfeld Media Enterprise Experience webinar March 12, 2020 by Margot Bloomstein.
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Join Bath Content Strategy Meetup for an evening with content strategist Margot Bloomstein, author of Content Strategy at Work: Real World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project. Even if content strategy isn't your job, content's probably your problem--and probably more than you think.
You or your business has a message you want to deliver, right? You can deliver that message through various channels and content types, from Tweets to testimonials and photo galleries galore, and your audience has just as many ways of engaging with it.
So many ways, so much content... so where's the problem? That is the problem. And you can measure it in time, creativity, money, lost opportunity, and the sobs you hear equally from creative directors, project managers, and search engine marketing specialists.
Content Strategy at Work offers an unparalleled collection of case studies and interviews from a range of industries and project times for real-world examples and approaches you can adopt, no matter your role on the team. Margot will share perspective and bring some of those case studies to life with Q&A and a drawing for a free copy--or get yours ahead of time from Amazon UK.
Presented at the Bath UK Content Strategy Meetup, #BathContent, April 11, 2013 in Bath, UK.
Establishing a Brand-driven Message Architecture WebVisions NYCMargot Bloomstein
Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow?
These questions and other challenges drive content strategy. If you’re a designer planning for content or a developer tailoring the CMS to specific content types, they’re your challenges, too. If you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation, forget your title. It’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you design for the web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. Then use this foundation to learn about a qualitative and quantitative content audit, content types, and editorial style guidelines. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. You’ll leave with the savvy and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking into your own work.
What you can expect:
Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise
Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update
Use a content audit to evaluate content against the message architecture
Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget
Presented as a workshop at WebVisions NYC, April 7, 2016, at WebVisions in New York.
Managing content can become overwhelming with the growing number of delivery platforms. Content strategist Margot Bloomstein, principal of Appropriate, Inc., breaks down the steps to implement a strategy that saves time, money, and frustration.
The Secrets of Brand-Driven Content Strategy (Workshop)Margot Bloomstein
Facing feature creep and disagreements among stakeholders? Does your CMO prize modernity and innovation, while the CEO insists on passive voice… but can’t wait to start blogging? Sounds like you need to get a grip on content, the people who make it—and the brand they want to establish.
Brand-driven content strategy can complement your user-centered design techniques, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. You’ll gain practical, hands-on experience by taking sample organisations through a website redesign engagement. First, we’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritise communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Discover how a brand attributes cardsort can help you identify potential pitfalls in the engagement and points of disagreement—and then improve organisational alignment around the brand and content.
Next you’ll use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality content. You’ll leave with confidence, savvy, and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking back to your own organisation.
- Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise.
- Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimise distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update.
- Use a content audit to evaluate content against the message architecture.
- Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget.
- Inform your work with an air-tight approach to better user experiences.
Presented as a workshop at CS Forum 2012, Cape Town South Africa; #CSForum12, October 24, 2012.
Brand-driven Content Strategy: Developing a Message Architecture at Confab In...Margot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences.
Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment. Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis can reveal when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Presented as a three-hour workshop at Confab Intensive, #ConfabINT, in Portland OR on August 31, 2015.
Assertive Strategy: Content Amid Constraints at Content Strategy AppliedMargot Bloomstein
We live in a world where people jump from Red Bull-branded satellites all in the name of good content. But is it really good—and is it right for our brands? Content strategy gives content marketing the tools to be sane and sustainable. Margot discusses how a more sustainable future means addressing the limits of budget, time, and creativity with content management, strategy, governance, and more. That’s the stuff that keeps logos off satellites and our content creators off high ledges.
Presented at Content Strategy Applied, #CSAUSA / #CSA13, October 17, 2013, in San Jose at eBay.
You've heard of content strategy, but is it up to the test? And if you submit your content to usability testing, are you testing the right things? This is bigger than learning about labels and confirming calls to action--so strap in for an exciting evening. We've got a lot to discuss!
Gain insight to content strategy processes and learn how to evaluate quality in the eyes of your target audience. Learn how--and why--to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise. Test out a basic content audit to evaluate content quantitatively and qualitatively. Draw on user feedback to determine content needs and next steps for content creation. Learn how to inform your work with an air-tight approach to better user experiences--and why no organization can afford to avoid content strategy. You'll leave with the confidence and savvy to bring content strategy thinking into your own process.
Presented at UPA 2012, Las Vegas; #UPA2012, June 4, 2012.
Arm yourself with personas, research, and KPIs. Look out at data you’re chasing. Then look in. What do you see? We spawn sites, create content, and chase new platforms without always knowing why. To keep up with competitors? To keep up with users? We know them better than we know ourselves, then burn resources racing toward questionable destinations and burn out in the process. That’s where content strategy can help. We’ll discuss forging a path from where you are and who you are. Learn how to allot constrained resources and engage your audience. Eager to reach them? To know them, first know yourself.
Presented as keynote at Now What 2015, #NowWhat15, April 30, 2015, in Sioux Falls SD.
Arm yourself with personas, research, and KPIs. Look out at data you’re chasing. Then look in. What do you see? We spawn sites, create content, and chase new platforms without always knowing why. To keep up with competitors? To keep up with users? We know them better than we know ourselves, then burn resources racing toward questionable destinations and burn out in the process. That’s where content strategy can help. We’ll discuss forging a path from where you are and who you are. Learn how to allot constrained resources and engage your audience. Eager to reach them? To know them, first know yourself.
Presented as keynote at Now What 2015, #NowWhat15, April 30, 2015, in Sioux Falls SD.
Jumpstarting content strategy with a message architecture at Converge2015Margot Bloomstein
Trying to manage scope, stakeholders, and shifting priorities? Need to determine a consistent voice among multiple authors? Content strategy can help. Amid constrained resources, competing priorities, and a contributory culture, content strategy can help us focus and do less—but do what really matters. Margot will discuss how to empower communicators and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for use in print, traditional web communication, and social media.
Presented at Converge 2015, #Converge2015, October 22, 2015 in New Orleans.
Content strategy for deliberate discovery at CongresCMMargot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, easy, and orderly—and sometimes, that’s all wrong for both users and brands. Not all websites need to be efficient to be effective. Some of the most memorable and profitable web experiences help users slow down, engage in discovery, and learn by doing.
Brands like IKEA use “slow content strategy” to encourage discovery and create a new level of brand engagement. Other companies such as outdoor specialist Patagonia and investment bank Fidelity use content types and editorial styles to help customers focus. Content strategist and author Margot Bloomstein explains how such a slow content strategy can pack a target audience for the brand and thus propel customer engagement to new heights.
Presented at Congres Content Marketing & Webredactie, #congresCM on November 20, 2014 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Establishing a Brand-Driven Message Architecture Workshop at HOWMargot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you design for the web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences.
Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand attributes cardsort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment. Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality.
Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy; they’re basic issues to any designer planning for content. But what if you’re not a content strategist? What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
You’ll leave with the savvy and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking into your own work.
Presented as two sold-out workshops at HOW Design Live, #HOWLive, May 12, 2014 in Boston.
A Village of P's and C's, Digital Content Strategies Conference KeynoteMargot Bloomstein
Tired? Frustrated? Intimidated by content? Welcome, friend. You’re in the right place. Your content takes a village, and the evolution of modern content strategy comes with just that: an unmistakable, inescapable culture of community. We share, collaborate, and socialize our work. That’s a practice you can bring home to address the people, process, and politics unique to your own corporate culture.
At the same time, those topics are key to infusing content marketing efforts with the laser focus of content strategy. Addressing your content as a business asset? Content strategy makes it happen. We’ll discuss how you can harness the power of community to make your content marketing efforts more focused and successful than ever before.
Presented at the Digital Content Strategies Conference 2013, San Diego; #DCSC13 March 13, 2013.
Cart, Meet Horse: Content Strategy for Content ManagementMargot Bloomstein
Before you can consider a new CMS, you need to know your content—and your communication goals.
We’ll discuss the key steps of a core content strategy process to audit your content and determine what you really need in a CMS.
If you’re considering a new CMS, stop. Before you can determine the fields and tags and functionality you need in technology, think about the content you need to support. How should it surface and what’s the message it needs to send? Enter brand-driven content strategy. We’d discuss the value of a message architecture to align your organization around specific content types and guide a content audit—then dig into how a content audit can inform your content model. There’s so much to do before you choose or implement a CMS, so c’mon! Let’s get started!
Presented at CMS Expo 2013, #CMSExpo and #CMSX, on May 14, 2013, in Chicago.
Are you ready to add content strategy to your resume? We'll gain some practical, hands-on experience together. Let's put a few sample organizations through the paces of "typical" process in a website redesign engagement. First, we’ll discuss how to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture with a hands-on exercise—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Then we’ll discuss how you can use this foundation to conduct a content audit, and work together to do it. Finally, we’ll ask “so what?” We’ll uncover the implications of a content audit through a gap analysis that points to content needs and next steps for our sample organizations. You’ll leave with the confidence and savvy to bring content strategy techniques and thinking back to your own organization.
Presented at IA Konferenz 2012, Essen Germany; #IAK12, May 10, 2012.
Brand-Driven Content Strategy: Creating a Message Architecture Workshop at Co...Margot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on why and how to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences.
From there, you’ll learn how to use a message architecture as the metric against which to measure content in a qualitative content audit. Then carry it into governance: We’ll explore the impact of a message architecture on editorial style guidelines and an editorial calendar—and see how that foundation can improve efficiency and client satisfaction throughout your projects. Discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment through entire engagements.
Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Learn how to establish a hierarchy of communication goals with a hands-on exercise and the right questions to ask along the way to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update.
Discover how to bring brand-driven thinking through subsequent activities, like the content audit and content model.
Explore the impact of the message architecture on “rubber meets the road” details in style, tone, and diction.
Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget.
Presented as a workshop at Confab Central, #ConfabCentral, in Minneapolis, June 7, 2017.
Driving a Multichannel Experience From a Single MessageMargot Bloomstein
E pluribus unum? Better yet, out of one, create many—many channels within a multifaceted but unified experience. That’s the challenge of experience design among constrained budgets, tight timelines, and unlimited interaction expectations. Content strategy’s communication foundation, the message architecture, can help you answer that challenge. First, we’ll discuss how to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture with a hands-on exercise—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Then learn how to create consistency between long-form web copy, action-oriented forms, and pointed Tweets. Discover how to prioritize features and content types across platforms by looking at examples that do this well, and those that don’t. Finally, respond to responsive design with a strategy to adapt content across platforms but still stay true to the brand.
Presented at IA Summit, #IAS12 and #singlemsg, March 23, 2012.
Online experiences can be fast, efficient and easy—but sometimes, that’s all wrong! Users click Buy too soon, miss important details or don’t find content that aids conversion. Efficient isn’t always effective and fast isn’t always functional. In fact, some of the most memorable web engagements employ “slow content strategy” with design considerations and content types that aid stickiness and retention. Margot Bloomstein will lead you through examples from a range of industries to see how you can manage—and slow—the pace at which users move through your website designs to create experiences that aid learning, fuel anticipation and create memories.
Content Strategy for Slow Experiences at Phoenix CSMargot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, efficient, easy, orderly—and sometimes, that’s all wrong! Users click confirm too soon, miss important details, or don’t find content that aids conversion. In short, efficient isn’t always effective. Not all experiences need to be fast to be functional. In fact, some of the most memorable and profitable web engagements employ “slow content strategy,” content speed bumps, and surprising content types that aid interaction. We’ll examine examples of content strategy in action that demonstrates how to identify and control the pace of user experience, adding value for both our users and the businesses that engage them.
Presented at Phoenix Content Strategy, April 29, 2014. #slowcs at #PHXCS
Whoa Nellie! Content Strategy for Slow Experiences at Confab MNMargot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, efficient, easy, orderly—and sometimes, that’s a recipe for disaster. We click confirm too soon, confuse important details, or miss a key feature in a product description. Efficient isn’t always effective. Not all experiences need to be fast to be functional. In fact, some of the most memorable and profitable engagements are slow and messy—and that’s just right.
Content strategy can identify and support opportunities to control the pace of user experience, but there’s a lot to keep in mind:
Learn how to identify experiences in which efficiency and speed would hinder the user’s interaction, satisfaction, and retention.
Understand how to introduce “speed bumps” in copy, content types, interaction design, and visual design that help users without annoying them.
Discover new tactics for sentence structure, diction, imagery positioning, and form design that all help slow down interaction and improve experiences
Presented at Confab 2013, June 5, 2013, #confabmn, in Minneapolis.
Similar to Secrets of Brand-Driven Content Strategy workshop (20)
Keynote: Transforming Your Brand Into a Trusted Source at OmnichannelXMargot Bloomstein
Mass media and our most cynical memes say we live in a post-fact era. Who can we trust—and how do our users invest their trust? Without addressing those challenges, marketing falls flat. Expert opinions are a thing of the past; we favor user reviews from “people like us” whether we’re planning a meal or prioritizing a newsfeed. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike turn inward for the truth. By designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there.
Empower your audience to earn their trust. Presenting a new strategy for content and design that addresses empowerment, Margot will share examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users, build their confidence, and strengthen your brand. Embracing a new strategy, your work can drive something even more important: hope.
Delivered as a keynote to OmnichannelX 2020, #OmniXConf, in Amsterdam and virtually by Margot Bloomstein, @mbloomstein. (c) 2020 Margot Bloomstein.
Fostering Trust in Your Brand and Beyond at Rosenfeld Enterprise ExperienceMargot Bloomstein
Thursday March 12 • 11am-12pm ET • convert to your time zone here
Join the call via this Zoom videoconference link: https://zoom.us/j/120101278 or dial one of the following numbers and log in with meeting ID 120 101 278: +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) / +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) / find your local number
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Topic
We must empower our audiences to earn their trust—not the other way around—and our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Margot Bloomstein will walk you through examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users. Let’s address the tough questions: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? Is there a place for vulnerability in corporate strategy? And what’s the role of command and control consistency in the creative work of a corporate enterprise? Learn how these questions can drive design choices in organizations of any size and industry—and discover how your choices can empower users and rebuild our very sense of trust across society itself.
Presented in a Rosenfeld Media Enterprise Experience webinar March 12, 2020 by Margot Bloomstein.
Designing for Trust in an Uncertain World at An Event Apart San FranciscoMargot Bloomstein
Mass media and our most cynical memes say we live in a post-fact era. So who can we trust—and how do our users invest their trust? Expert opinions are a thing of the past; we favor user reviews from “people like us” whether we're planning a meal or prioritizing a newsfeed. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike turn inward for the truth. By designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there.
We must empower our audiences to earn their trust—not the other way around—and our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Margot will walk you through examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users. We'll ask the tough questions: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? Can you design around cultural predisposition to improve public safety? And how do voice and vulnerability go beyond buzzwords and into broader corporate strategy? Learn how these questions can drive design choices in organizations of any size and industry—and discover how your choices can empower users and rebuild our very sense of trust itself.
Presented at An Event Apart San Francisco, #aeasf, on December 9, 2019 by Margot Bloomstein
Designing for Trust in an Uncertain World An Event Apart DCMargot Bloomstein
To regain their trust, we must empower our users. Expert opinions are a thing of the past; we favor user reviews from “people like us” whether we're planning a meal or prioritizing a newsfeed. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike turn inward for the truth. By designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there.
In an age of cynicism, we can design for trust: our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Examples from the FBI, Mailchimp, NIH, GOV.UK, and America's Test Kitchen demonstrate what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Focusing on voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users and rebuild our very sense of trust itself.
Presented by Margot Bloomstein, @mbloomstein, at An Event Apart Washington DC, #aeadc, on July 29, 2019.
Mass media and our most cynical memes say that we live in a post-fact era. So who can we trust and how do our users use their trust? Expert opinions are a thing of the past, and we prefer user reviews written by "people like us", whether we select a restaurant or scan a newsfeed. But when the filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike turn back inside to find the truth. Through designs that "empower", the smartest organizations meet them right there. We need to empower and empower our audience to gain their trust, not the other way around, and only through tactical decisions about content and design, empowerment can be initiated.
Margot Bloomstein presents examples from a variety of industries and shows in detail how to deal with unexpected problems in the consumption of information. Learn how language, volume, and vulnerabilities can influence your design and content strategy to win the trust of your users. It asks the difficult questions, such as "How can brands build a harmonious bond when the logic of their audience is overshadowed by their emotions? Can one "design around" cultural dispositions to improve public safety? And how do your voice and vulnerability stand out against mere buzz words and penetrate into a broader business strategy?
Presented at design monat Graz, #designmonatgraz2019, in Graz Austria in conjunction with FH | Joanneum by Margot Bloomstein, @mbloomstein. (c) 2019 Margot Bloomstein.
Rebuilding Trust: Validate users by starting where they are at Confab 2019Margot Bloomstein
Before we engage users with products, interfaces, and content, we need their trust. Trust is waning today; users disregard traditional sources of expertise and bring skepticism to even innocuous interface copy. Can you blame them? Popular media, politicians, and big-name brands are gaslighting, talking down, and talking too much about themselves.
Let’s do better: Exploring examples from insurance, consumer goods, and online education, you’ll see how the right content validates audience beliefs and life experience to move them forward. Margot will go deeper into themes she first brought to Confab last year to unpack tactics of style and tone that use vulnerability to foster trust, educate audiences—and ultimately reinvigorate brands.
Discover the key changes in diction (beyond just mirroring your audience’s vocabulary) you can make to invite users in to your brand, as champions rather than consumers.
Learn how content that asks questions, exposes process, and loses the polish can build goodwill and engender greater faith from your audience.
Gain practical examples of how—and why—to talk about mistakes, challenges, and screwups with your audience while ensuring Legal remains your biggest fan.
Presented at Confab 2019, #confab2019, by Margot Bloomstein on April 25, 2019, in lovely Minneapolis.
Design for Trust: Find Strength in Vulnerability, Voice, and Volume at CMC2019Margot Bloomstein
How do you earn the trust of your customers, readers, and fans when facts are out—and what “feels right” wins? Mass media and our most cynical memes say we live in a post-fact era. That idea undermines any marketing that promotes ideas, products, services, or politician… and it tracks with trends in social media: our customers turned away from experts and big brands to let “people like us” influence choices instead. But we’re popping those filter bubbles. Now consumers turn inward for the truth—and by embracing vulnerability and designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there.
Drawing on lessons from America’s Test Kitchen, Crutchfield, GOV.UK, and Volkswagen, discover tactics of content strategy and design to foster trust, build rapport, and increase loyalty by learning to “prototype in public" and lean into vulnerability, using voice to strengthen your base, and determine the right volume for your users' goals.
Designing for Trust in an Era of Self-Validating Facts: Keynote UX in the Cit...Margot Bloomstein
Consumers and citizens alike turn inward for the truth. By designing for empowerment, the smartest organisations meet them there.
We’ll explore why trust in the old guard has fallen apart - and then examine how today’s smartest companies and institutions rebuild trust by bolstering their customers’ knowledge. We’ll dig into examples from the public and private sector to ask: how do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? What happens when cultural predisposition affects public safety? And how do voice and vulnerability go beyond buzzwords and into broader corporate strategy?
You’ll see how to use tactics of design and content to empower users. The same tactics can work across industries, scale and audience. You’ll uncover a play-by-play approach to educating and empowering consumers and citizens alike - and learn how to operationalise vulnerability through design that rebuilds hope itself.
Keynote presented at UX in the City Manchester, #UXCityMCR, on March 14, 2019, in Manchester UK.
Designing for Trust in an Uncertain World at An Event Apart SeattleMargot Bloomstein
We must empower our audiences to earn their trust—not the other way around—and our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Margot will walk you through examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users. We'll ask the tough questions: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? Can you design around cultural predisposition to improve public safety? And how do voice and vulnerability go beyond buzzwords and into broader corporate strategy? Learn how these questions can drive design choices in organizations of any size and industry—and discover how your choices can empower users and rebuild our very sense of trust itself.
Presented by Margot Bloomstein, @mbloomstein, at An Event Apart Seattle, #aeasea on March 4, 2019.
Designing trust in an era of self-validating facts at Fluxible 2018Margot Bloomstein
Mass media and our most cynical memes say we live in a post-fact era. If that’s the case, who can we trust — and how do we invest our trust? We used to seek experts as arbiters of reality, but then looked to “people like us” whether we were picking a restaurant, planning a vacation, or clicking on a trending news item. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike began to turn inward for the truth — and by designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there.
In this exploration of some of today’s most engaging brands, content strategist Margot Bloomstein draws on two decades of personal experience building trust into companies, their websites, and their broader messaging. Author of Content Strategy at Work and the forthcoming Trustworthy, she explores why trust in the old guard has fallen apart — and then presents how today’s smartest companies and institutions rebuild trust by building and bolstering the knowledge of their customers. We’ll dig into examples from America’s Test Kitchen, Volkswagen, Crutchfield, GOV.UK, and other organizations of the public and private sector to ask: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? What happens when cultural predisposition affects public safety? And how do voice and vulnerability go beyond buzzwords and into broader corporate strategy?
You’ll see how design and content come together to empower users — and how the same tactics can work across industries, scale, and audience. You’ll uncover a play-by-play approach to educating and empowering consumers and citizens alike — and learn how thoughtful design and content can rebuild our sense of trust itself.
Presented by Margot Bloomstein at Fluxible 2018, #fluxible2018, on September 23, 2018, in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario Canada.
How to Embrace Pace with Content Strategy for Slow ExperiencesMargot Bloomstein
Fast and efficient may rule the web, but efficient experiences aren’t always effective, for many reasons. Instead, try slowing down your customers to improve learning and advance their journey. Fast-to-publish and quick-to-sell can lead to low lifetime value, shopping cart abandonment, returned merchandise—and understandably unhappy reviews. Attend this session, and learn how to craft appropriately-paced customer experiences that allow the time and space for discovery, customer confidence, and insights that last long after the conversion. The secrets live in how you craft copy and prioritize content types to move customers forward wisely, to enjoy the journey mile after mile.
Presented at Content Marketing Conference 2018, #CMC18, in Boston, May 3, 2018
Content Strategy for Slow Experiences at Generate NYC 2018Margot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, efficient, easy, orderly—and sometimes, that's all wrong! Users click to confirm too soon, confuse important details, or miss key features in product descriptions. Efficient isn't always effective. Not all experiences need to be fast to be functional. In fact, some of the most memorable and profitable engagements are slow and messy... and that’s just right.
By designing for pace, we can intentionally help users focus on details and gain confidence in their choices. We can also encourage their sense of discovery and help them build stronger memories. Not all experiences need to be slower, but content strategy can help identify and support these outliers of user experience. Look to REI, Target, Fidelity, Patagonia, Disney, and others for lessons you can apply to aid learning, retention, and user satisfaction. Help your audience soak up the journey or just engage with more certainty, all by design.
Presented by Margot Bloomstein at Generate 2018, #generateconf, on April 27, 2018, in New York City.
Empowerment in an era of self-validating facts at World IA Day BostonMargot Bloomstein
As we wrangle with the focus of World IA Day, "IA for good," we should start by asking: what does it mean to be good in the context of IA, user experience, content strategy, and design? In this post-fact era, does the truth matter--and does good matter?
It does--not in how we shift our loyalties, but in how our users shift their instincts. Inconsistency affects us and destroys trust--in brands, governments, wisdom, and ourselves. The most good IA can do is to empower the impact of our users. Design is a force multiplier and we can fuel that good.
Keynote at World IA Day Boston, #WIADBOS, #WIAD18, February 24, 2018, in Cambridge MA.
Driving Your Product's Content Strategy with a Message Architecture at UX Lon...Margot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centred design to use prioritised communication goals to focus new features, content types, and the workflow to create and maintain them. In this workshop, you’ll get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement brand-driven content strategy. We’ll use BrandSort™ to conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritise communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the web, mobile apps, social media, offline experiences, or any imagined output of your CMS. Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll discover how a brand attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organisational alignment. Then we’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis can reveal when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality in a content audit.
Join this workshop to build out your content strategy toolkit:
Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with the hands-on BrandSort exercise.
Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimise distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update.
Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget
Presented at UX London in London, #UXLondon, on May 24, 2017.
Communicating in an Era of Self-Validating Facts at SXSWMargot Bloomstein
The 2016 US presidential election revealed a post-fact culture. Previously, catching someone in a lie could sully their name, derail a campaign, or decimate a brand—ask Gary Hart, Richard Nixon, and former governor and Appalachian Trail enthusiast Mark Sanford. Today, lies matter less… not to brands, but to their audiences. Emotion replaces logic. So how do you develop rapport when your audience tests proof points against their own convictions? Can mass media validate fact if “truthiness” trumps truth? Can you harness opposing perspectives without ceding to false equivalency? Most importantly, we’ll discuss how to empower audiences to embrace the courage of their convictions on your behalf.
Presented at SXSW in Austin, #sxsw and #factstalk, on March 14, 2017.
Behind Your Back: How Other Industries Talk About Higher Ed at ConfabEDU 2016Margot Bloomstein
Long before you target prospective students, they’re forming opinions, narrowing options, and determining costs… without talking to you. They’re hearing other voices—and what those voices say may surprise you. Today, organizations like Peterson’s, Sallie Mae, and College Confidential help students vet schools and determine budgets, conversations previous generations had with guidance counselors and college recruiters.
Discover how publishers and financial institutions are earning trust through new choices in content types, calls to action, and partner investments. As higher education draws scrutiny for cost and relevance, it’s time to learn from adjacent industries and reframe the conversation from your own institution.
Learn how students gain confidence in their choices as they navigate the application and aid processes.
Discover what prospects look for when determining what resources deserve their time, attention, and trust.
Uncover how partners can strengthen your brand in the topics students value—especially when they don’t want to hear about those topics from you.
Presented at Confab Higher Ed 2016, #ConfabEDU, in Philadelphia November 15, 2016.
Brand-driven Content Strategy: Developing a Message Architecture workshop at ...Margot Bloomstein
Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences.
Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment. Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit.
We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis can reveal when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow?
These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture.
Join this workshop to build out your content strategy toolkit:
Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise
Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update
Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget
Content Strategy for an Era of Self-Validating Facts at CSsummitMargot Bloomstein
The 2016 US presidential election reveals a post-fact culture. Previously, catching someone in a lie could sully their name, derail a campaign, or decimate a brand--ask Gary Hart, Richard Nixon, and former governor and Appalachian Trail enthusiast Mark Sanford.
Today, lies matter less. Not to brands, but to their audiences. Emotion replaces logic. So how do you choose content types to develop rapport when your audience tests proof points against their convictions? Can mass media validate fact if "truthiness" trumps truth? Can you harness opposing perspectives without ceding to false equivalency? Most importantly, we'll discuss how to empower audiences to embrace the courage of their convictions on your behalf.
Presented at the online Content Strategy Summit 2016, #CSsummit, August 25, 2016.
Expanding our expectations of "everyone" at Content Strategy Summit 2015Margot Bloomstein
Content strategy both champions and makes possible the idea that "everyone is a publisher." New platforms and approaches to collaboration let us reframe the conversation beyond traditional book publishing. But with challenges to net neutrality and inconsistent network connectivity in the developing world, do we need to limit our definition of "everyone" to just the white and wealthy world and the more cutting-edge businesses it spawns?
Maybe that's the case today, but today is the mirror of realism. The future is the undefined outcome of optimism—and we have many reasons to be optimistic.
Looking at emerging examples from modern business culture, Silicon Valley investment strategies, and communication trends beyond the United States, Margot Bloomstein will map out challenges and opportunities for publishing in the coming decades.
The author of Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project, Bloomstein will explore how content strategy will work in the future to aid the changing face of publishing. Who will practice it? Will power align with technology, quality, perspective, or a combination of all three? And how will we define "publishing," anyhow?
Presented at Content Strategy Summit, #CSSummit, online, on September 22, 2015
Content Strategy for Slow Experiences at Web Design DayMargot Bloomstein
Online experiences can be fast, efficient, easy, orderly—and sometimes, that's a recipe for disaster. Users click confirm too soon, confuse important details, or miss a key feature in a product description. Efficient isn't always effective. Not all experiences need to be fast to be functional. In fact, some of the most memorable and profitable engagements are slow and messy... and that’s just right.
By designing for pace, we can intentionally help users focus on details and gain confidence in their choices. We can also encourage their sense of discovery and help them build stronger memories. Not all experiences need to be slower, but content strategy can help identify and support these outliers of user experience. We’ll look at REI, Target, Patagonia, Disney, and others for lessons you can apply to aid learning, retention, and user satisfaction. Help your audience soak up the journey or just engage with more certainty, all with more deliberate content strategy.
Presented at Web Design Day in Pittsburgh, #WDD2015, June 12, 2015.