What is Content Strategy?
What is Content Strategy?
Content strategy is the analysis and planning to develop a repeatable system that governs the management of content throughout the entire content lifecycle.
[Listen] What is Content Strategy?
Why does Content Strategy matter?
by Rahel Anne Bailie
A content strategy provides context so that an organization’s vision can be implemented in an integrated way, to meet business goals and project objectives.
According to Nielsen Norman Group, “companies waste money and resources creating and maintaining content that’s pointless for users and profitless for organizations. And that is because they lack a content strategy.”
Understanding Content Strategy
Strategy is “alternatives chosen to make happen a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem.” A content strategy is the analysis phase of a business problem that determines how content can be improved, either on the editorial or technical sides, to contribute to corporate success.
To understand content strategy, we need to eliminate what it is not.
A content strategy does not include activities that lead to project deliverables, such as a content audit—those are tactical-level aspects of implementation. The strategy is the phase before any of these activities, determining what activities are needed to succeed.
Content strategy is the practice of helping organizations improve their content performance, primarily through analyzing existing content problems and developing plans for improvement. A content strategy will assess an organization’s current state, understand the ideal future state, recognize gaps, and develop an implementation roadmap.
The roadmap defines a content lifecycle specific to an organization’s needs so that the content can meet business goals. Even when a project or contract addresses only a portion of the overall need, the strategy should be designed to allow future projects to become part of a unified strategy.
Learn More About Content Strategy
[Quick Class] Content Strategy 101 (Nielsen Norman Group)
[Online Course] Content Strategy for Professionals: Specialization (Northwestern University)
[Online Course] Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences (Northwestern University)
[Online Course] Content Strategy for Professionals: Managing Content (Northwestern University)
[Book] Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy — Ann Rockley, Charles Cooper (XML Press)
[Book] The Language of Content Strategy — Scott Abel and Rahel Anne Bailie (XML Press)
[Book] Content Strategy: Connecting the Dots Between Business, Brand, and Benefits — Rahel Anne Bailie and Noz Urbina (XML Press)
[Book] Content Strategy for the Web — Kristina Halvorson (New Riders)
[Book] Content Strategy 101: Transform Technical Content into a Business Asset — Sarah O’Keefe and Alan Pringle