Pierpont Communications, Inc.

Think of your online brand as a pyramid with five levels. The bottom level, or your foundation, is content. Great content is the fuel driving everything else. Next is usability/design and the third level is search engine optimization (SEO).

 

Now that you have built a strong foundation of content, usability/design and SEO, the fourth level is the fun stuff — your social media strategy. Capping off your pyramid is pay-per-click (PPC). Depending on your business, PPC may play a major role. Obviously, all this isn’t chiseled in stone — over time the size of each layer may shift based upon your business needs.

 

Let’s put content strategy in perspective. What is it, and why is it significant? Content strategy is a crucial part of a user’s online experience and includes planning, creation, publication and governance. Good content engages the user, promotes you as a thought leader and increases search engine rankings and traffic. Otherwise, it isn’t effective at all; rather it’s just a glorified production line for content nobody really needs or wants.

 

Content strategy can be akin to the story of the blind men and the elephant. A group of blind men touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the tail or the tusk. Then they compare notes and learn that they are in total disagreement.

 

Most people agree that managing content is difficult. It can be complex, costly, overwhelming and time-consuming. Content can be new, out-dated, user-generated, sacred, off-brand, off-message, static, print-to-web, text-to-video and much more. Many businesses feel their content is in ineffective. And regrettably, many “solve” the problem by handing it over to their IT departments. STOP! Content must be managed by your communication experts, not your technology experts.

 

·      What content do we have that’s usable?

·      Does our site use terms that users understand or are we using jargon?

·      Do we use keywords that users are searching?

·      Is our content specifically written for the web in short, digestible chunks, or is it recycled from a marketing brochure?

·      Who are the content sources?

·      What does the content creation process look like, and is it working?

·      What are the content channels? External (website, email, social media, webinars), internal (intranets, seminars, staff feedback, training sessions) and traditional (public relations, print, events, advertising, direct mail, referrals).

·      What are our competitors doing?

 

 

Work smarter, not harder. In Kristina Halvorson’s book “Content Strategy for the Web,” she suggests that “less is more.” Generally, your content is ineffective unless it does one or both of the following: first, supports a key business objective and second, supports a user in completing a task. Halvorson suggests that less content is easier to manage, more user friendly and costs less to create.

 

Determine which direction to go by knowing where you are starting. In other words, audit the content. The objective is to learn what you have/need and how content is used, reused and delivered to users. Look at two views: first, an inventory (what’s there) and second, an assessment (what’s good). Ardath Albee, author of “eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale,” recommends the “Rule of 5” for content creation. She says, “If you can’t think of five ways to use a piece of content, then you shouldn’t create it.” There are many ways to re-purpose content, such as turning a blog post into a series of tweets, a video or a brief. The idea is to use content in multiple ways, so you always can reach who you want while staying relevant and adding value.

Learn to listen. We were born with two ears and one mouth, so we could listen twice as much as we talk. Make content educational, not promotional. You can have the best advertising, the most Twitter followers and the hottest design. But for your messages to stick and gain momentum with users, you must have content they want. Users will not tweet about your website or click that Facebook “Like” button if you don’t have anything worth sharing. Content is about what users want, not about what you want. Address pain points and provide solutions. A good friend says, “You bait the hook to suit the fish – not the fisherman.”

 

Think lifecycle, not launch. It is crucial to have regular, ongoing maintenance of your content’s accuracy, relevance, timeliness and uniformity. Put one person in charge and create a content calendar. While no one owns the content, someone must be accountable for the day-to-day oversight of the content creation, delivery and governance – like an editor-in-chief who manages the team of reporters, writers and contributors.

 

In the end, your content must be:

·      Sound —base your decisions on business strategies and user objectives.

·      Practical —make it realistic for your business and the resources you have.

·      Planned —focus on the long-term and who will manage the who, what, when, where, why and how.

·      Measured —find the pay-off in results, sales, bottom-line.