Content strategy involves planning for the creation, publication, and governance of content to meet organizational goals and user needs. It defines how different types of content will be used and organized, and guides decisions around the content lifecycle. Content strategy ensures that content supports the user experience and is useful, usable, and meets both business and audience needs.

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3. Transforming User Experience
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Content Tips, Tactics,
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4. What the heck
is content strategy?
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5. Content Strategy Is Not
Content Strategy Southern California
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• Content marketing
• Managing writers
• Editing
• Voice and tone guidelines (or any set of artifacts — these are tactical
outcomes of content strategy)
• Newsletters or blogs
• Copywriting

6. Content Strategy Is
The establishment of a plan for the creation, publication, distribution and
repurposing of useful, usable content that:
• Defines the “how” and the “why” of content types and assets
• How content is used to meet organizational goals and user needs
• Why a specific content type is relevant to those goals and needs
• Guides decisions on the content lifecycle, from discovery to deletion
• Sets benchmarks against which to measure (future) success
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

7. What It Is
Content strategy plans for the creation, publication and governance of
useful, usable content.
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

8. Content Strategy Quad
At the center, Core Strategy defines how
content will be used to achieve business
objectives and meet user needs.
Content Components
• Substance – What content is needed to
achieve business goals?
• Structure – How will content be
prioritized, organized, displayed?
People Components
• Workflow – What tools, processes are
needed to establish, maintain strategy?
• Governance – Who (internally) has
oversight over key content decisions?
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

9. Content in UX
Source: Marcella Missirian, User Experience and the UX Process
Content
Content
ContentContent
Content
Content Content
Content
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

10. Content in UX
Source: Sonya Lee, UX Your Life: Applying User Experience Principles to Your Life
ContentContent
ContentContent
Content Content
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

11. Large-scale content organization
Enterprise content strategy
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12. Enterprise content strategy
12

13. Business Strategy User Experience
Content Strategy Southern California
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• Provides insight into the overall
goal of the campaign or project
• Provides use case information
• Offers viability of content
workflow and governance plans
from organizational perspective
• Provides insight into user flow
and projected swim lanes
• Provides the delivery platforms
and display context of the
content
• Partners with content strategy
to frame the story

14. Content Analysis
Content Strategy Southern California
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Messaging Goals
• Content Plan
• Content Calendar
Content Audit
• URLs
• Content Types
Data Sources
Taxonomies
How do we make sure content is
• Findable
• Useful
• Engaging?

15. Content Preparation
Content Strategy Southern California
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1. Determine what content goes where
– Qualified, sorted, ranked, organized
– Tagged according to metadata schema
2. Customize the CMS
– Content details: types, assets, sub-assets
3. Content Workflow
– Creation, management, maintenance

16. Content Implementation
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal
1. Content is created according to the messaging
aligned with editorial strategy.
2. Content manager or producer uses the workflow model
to put content into the CMS
3. Content is measured, analyzed, improved.

17. Better content always equals
better user experience.
17

18. Template Design and Content Strategy
Designing Templates for Content and Users
• To ensure that each page can achieve its stated intent, rely on the content
strategist for insight and decisions about content elements of each
template, their relative weight, and how they interrelate.
• Do proposed templates meet all business and user needs? Are some
extraneous? Ask the content strategist.
• With tools such as editorial calendars, campaign communications plans,
and “parking lot” lists of requested capabilities, the content strategist
identifies gaps and contributes to template usability.
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

19. Component Design and Content Strategy
Structured Content = Consistent Content
The content strategist’s expertise enables her to weigh in on which content-
entry fields are needed in each component, which must be suppressible or
optional, and which options must be provided for usability and flexibility.
Examples:
> Fields needed in “Page Properties”
> Correlations & re-use: what is fed by each content field
> Number of calls to action (CTAs), images, headers
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

20. Operational Considerations
Staffing and Resource Planning
• Does the production team have sufficient resources (staff writers, art
directors, video producers, or budget to procure them via contractors) to
keep the site fresh? The content strategist can weigh in on resources
needed; executives determine staffing and resource commitments. The
delta identifies areas for further discussion.
Editorial Calendars
• With knowledge of past editorial calendars, will there be there sufficient
content to feed the beast? Conversely, does the interactive model provide
sufficient opportunity to present content for all anticipated situations?
Test, retest, and test again.
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

21. Content
Design
21

22. Workshops and Exercises
Message Architecture
– Hierarchy of communication goals
– Drives tactical components of communication (visual, verbal,
interactive)
– Specifics:
• 2-3 hours
• Stakeholders + facilitator (you)
• 100+ index cards with adjectives
• 3 category cards: Who We Are, Who We’re Not, Who We’d Like to
Be
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

23. Workshops and Exercises (cont.)
Core Model
– Core pages = business objectives + user tasks
– Defines inward paths, core content and forward paths
– Shows how different pages are connected and prioritizes core content
and modules
– Specifics:
• 3-4 hours
• Stakeholders + project team (UX, content, design, etc.)
• Handouts of user tasks and business objectives
• Core model worksheets
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

24. Workshops and Exercises (cont.)
Mad Libs
– User Stories: Establishes what product is and why people use it
• For [target customer], who has [customer need], [product name] is
a [market category] that [one key benefit]. Unlike [competition],
the product [unique differentiator].
– Project Direction: Establishes high-level goals, users and content needs
• Our content should help [target users] [user goal]. To do this, our
content must be [descriptive phrase]. The content should make
users feel [adjective]. We’ll know we’re successful when users
[desired action], which will help us [business goal].
– Specifics:
• 1-2 hours
• Stakeholders + facilitator (you)
• Mad lib worksheets
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

25. Tips
Avoid Lorem Ipsum Like the Plague
– Write real copy (even if throw-away).
– Use draft copy, existing site copy, competitor copy or descriptive copy.
Map Content to Personas
– What specific content do personas need to solve their problems?
– What format do they prefer or need?
– Where and how will they access it?
Test Content Efficacy in Usability Tests
– What does the content say?
– How does it make users feel?
– Is it readable, usable and clear?
– Do users know what to do with the content? Does it have clear CTAs?
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

26. More Tips
Think Like a Content Strategist When Performing Audits
– Assess quality (ROT), language, labels, messaging, content types,
sources, etc.
Apply the Brand Voice and Tone to Your Process
– Think about the look, feel and sound of a product.
– What is the visual lexicon that will convey the brand personality
(colors, typography, visual style)?
– What emotional interactions methods should you use to support it?
– Apply vocabulary and tone to user flows, CTA buttons, journey maps,
sitemaps, error pages, form fields, storyboards, etc.
Content Strategy Southern California
@ContentSoCal

27. Transforming User Experience
with Content Strategy
Content Tips, Tactics,
and Tricks for Great UX
10.21.2015 @ContentSoCal