Strategy Shmategy: Why You Need a Content Strategy

January 12, 2009 | by Carrie Hane Dennison | Posted in Web Content, Web Strategy

I recently read a couple articles and corresponding discussions on content strategy in A List Apart. It was refreshing to finally have something to call what I do: Content Strategy.

As I discussed in a previous entry (A Publishing Revolution), the web is really in the adolescent stages of maturity. With budgets being cut across the board, more companies and organizations are turning to the web to get their messages across to the most people for the least amount of money. For many this means going straight to the web for marketing and content publication. But money can be easily poured down a drain when the company doesn’t really know what they are doing and if the results are not worth the money spent.

This is where content strategy comes in.

While the definition of content strategy is still evolving, Richard Sheffield, author of The Web Content Strategist's Bible, content strategy is "a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project[.]"

So what does this mean for the client who is undergoing a web redevelopment process? It means that you need to first think about what will go into the website before you decide what it will look like. Content can no longer be an afterthought, it must be the first and foremost thought throughout the project.

Developing a content strategy will make your content relevant to your visitors, useful to search engines, efficient to produce (having thought it out first will prevent last minute questions and establish rules), and comprehensive (with appropriate labels and references included).

Sure, it will take more time and money at the beginning of the project to develop and implement the strategy, but it will save money and time at the end, when no one is scrambling for content or saying "just put this old content up for now" or deadlines are delayed because content isn't ready. And it just may save you from having to undergo another site revision later this year or next. In other words, doing it right the first time means not having to do it a second or third time. Then you can spend your web budget on new things, instead of fixing the old things.

You may notice some of the most visited sites on the Internet have not changed much since their initial launches: Amazon, Google, Yahoo, EBay. When they add new features, there is no need for a complete redesign and these new features don’t disrupt what is already working. This is because they’ve thought out what they want their sites to be and do and implemented the strategies without straying from the original purpose.

So when you are preparing your web redesign RFP, ask the respondents to include a content strategy as part of the proposal. See who really understands it. Don’t let strategy be optional. Have the discussion early and you’ll be happy with the results and the money saved. As for Balance Interactive? Well, we now include this in our proposals and intend to help our clients through this site-changing practice.

References:
Content-tious Strategies by Jeffery MacIntyre
The Discipline of Content Strategy by Kristina Halvorson
Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data by Rachel Lovinger