Your content is one of the most important elements of your website.
Your content sells your services, it captures the interest of potential customers, guides users through your site to achieve their goals and introduces customers to the positive experience they get dealing with your business.
So why do many organisations take little notice of their content? Why do many web agencies take little notice of a clients content and are willing to just copy and paste old content or content from a marketing brochure onto a new website?
The answer I believe is education. A lot of clients are not educated in how to write copy for the web, or how to create a content strategy across multiple channels for their business. Also a lot of Web Agencies are inexperienced and do not offer content strategy as one their services and are happy to focus on designing a website that looks good.
In this post I am going to interview Brisbane based Content Strategist Mikey Oliver to get a deeper understanding of what a Content Strategy is, What a Content Strategist does and also the benefits a Content Strategy can have on a businesses objectives.
In your own words, what is content strategy?
Content Strategy overseas the care and creation of web content in order to achieve pre-determined goals.
When delivering a web site for customers and clients content is very often given the least attention. Once the site is designed, sometimes the content is just jammed in with little thought.
There are five main types of web site, determined as they are by the content on their site. The aim of content strategy is to provide the right amount of content for your site, and make sure all that content is relevant, useful and doesn’t waste a word. We want what is just right – what I call Goldilocks Content.
Five types of web site content:
- Not enough – Informative
- Too much – Informative
- Not enough – Not informative
- Too Much – Not informative
- Just right
Tell us what a content strategy does
Often, web sites are treated like filling a brand new colour bond tool shed to the brim with tools and other sorts without any order or method. In the rush to get a site live, it is often easy to forget what we want or even settle for less.
It is my role, hopefully not to stretch the analogy too far, to make sure that all the tools have their place, useful items are near the front and that all tools are labelled so they can be found by anyone. Otherwise, no matter how good your shed may look from the outside, it is practically useless.
Content is king in the online world. Bad content at best leaves the customer frustrated. At worst it can led to many lost customers and a loss in reputation. Good content can lead to the opposite, with more frequent visitors, more sales and a better reputation.
As content strategist, my role is to define not only which content will be published, but why it is being published at all.
Any content strategy that doesn't have a plan for the future is a poor content strategy. A good content strategy plans for how the content will be updated and managed after launch, and for a long time after I have left the project.
A content strategy not only provides initial content for launch, but provides the guidelines for how to choose content, how to write content, and how to generate content into the future.
What is your process for formulating a content strategy for an organisation?
Discipline is the key. Discipline is about remembering what you want!
What is content strategy for again? The strategy is so we can design and implement content that helps achieves the clients’ goals. Whether that is increased traffic, or increased sales or brand awareness, before any content strategy work can commence there must be a clarity in what is wanted.
Once I have determined what specific goals the clients want to achieve through their web site I can commence proceedings with a thorough audit and analysis of existing content to see how much change is necessary and to see how the current content is working, if at all, towards the clients' goals.
Once I know what the client wants, what resources they have, and where their web presence is presently, I can move onto the plan.
Any content plan needs to define:
- Key themes and messages:
What are the key phrases and themes running through the clients objectives? What is the best way to persuade an audience? Use of which phrases is likely to get the site found by the most people through search engines. - Recommended topics
These may be issues that are mandatories, such as contact us, or terms and conditions. But more specifically, these recommendations relate to the clients’ particular product, or cause or attraction. It is at this point that we determine what is the client’s point of difference on the web. - Content Purpose
What is the purpose of this content? Is it to sell or persuade, or merely inform? Is it to raise awareness or brand recognition, or does the site act as a shop front? Different rules apply to different situations, and this content purpose is kept in mind at all times. Are the words being used active or passive? Do they convince and call to action? Are the words gentle and alluring or do they shock and excite? - Search engine optimisation (SEO)
All content should be created with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind. SEO should never be the sole criterion for deciding the nature of online content. That is a very good way to make a bad web site. Content should always be written with people, and not machines in mind. But keeping an awareness of key phrases, and SEO principles while creating content will lead to a better page ranking for the clients’ web sites. Good content is the single biggest determining factor in any web site’s ability to be found through search engines. - Implications of strategic recommendations on content creation, publication and governance.
Is the content plan feasible? Does the client have the resources to keep updating the site in the manner outlined? Have I failed to keep things as simple as possible? Do I obey all rules and regulations for online publishing? Are there any specific needs of governance if the client is say, a charity, or online promotion? Content, no matter how good it may seem, fails the test if it is unable to meet all relevant governance and legal requirements, or if it can’t be carried out effectively because of a lack in resources. A grandiose and unachievable content plan satisfies no one, least of all the site user.
What are the benefits for organisations that invest in a content strategy?
A good content strategy does three things. It gets people to visit your site. It gets people to stay on your site once they are there. And finally, once the site user leaves, they leave with a sale, or convinced, or have an favourable opinion of your brand. They will want to come back.
Once on your site, users should be able to find all the information they need in a timely and effective fashion. Users shouldn’t have to click ten times to find any info they want. They shouldn’t have to sift through many pages of irrelevant information to find what they want. Users should have enough information to find out all they like before picking up the telephone.
A web site is like having another worker in customer service. Often, your web site will be the most voluminous point of contact between your business and the customer. Just like any other customer service professional on your staff, you need to ensure your site is informative, polite, welcoming, sells the message and doesn’t waste the customers’ time.
Content is often regarded as someone else's problem. Dealing with content is messy, it's complicated it's painful and can be expensive if not carried out properly. It is not something to be thrown to the 'shitkicker' in the office. It is often, the most vital component of your businesses success or failure in its online strategy,
The web is content. Content is the web.