Creating an Effective Content Strategy
When we create a content strategy for your site, we follow a process that assesses where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there. These are typical activities and deliverables created.
Content Inventory
The journey to great content begins with an understanding of the territory to be covered. We begin a content strategy project with a thorough understanding of the current situation. The goal is to understand what content exists (offline as well as online). The content inventory details
- How much content there is
- The format of the content
- Where it is stored and managed
- Who within the organization is responsible for it
- How it gets published (workflow)
This detailed, comprehensive, quantitative analysis forms the foundation for the steps that follow.
Content Audit
Once all the content has been located and catalogued, we do a content audit. In this step, we’re looking at the content from a qualitative perspective, assessing how well the content
- Meets the needs of your business
- Reflects your brand positively
- Facilitates user tasks
- Is current and accurate
- Is engaging and informative
Gap Analysis
In the auditing process, we assess the content against these criteria, looking at the current state vs. the desired future state and create a gap analysis. A gap analysis identifies the areas where content is missing or inadequate.
Content Strategy Brief
Pulling together all the knowledge gained from the previous activities, we create a content strategy brief that details what is necessary to move your content from current to future state—the content that may need to be created, revised, or removed; the processes that may need to be put into place to ensure ongoing review and continuous improvement; and the implications for overall site structure.