What is content strategy?

First a little background…

I’m a freelance copywriter (with a degree in PR), but I’ve also worked for many years in large organisations (mainly government) who all have massive content assets to manage. Many a time I’ve been giddy with excitement with an idea to improve said content, only to be beaten down with the ‘we don’t have budget’, ‘we’ll think about it’, ‘this isn’t on our program of work for this year’ excuses, or ‘we don’t have time because we are bogged down doing routine operational work’.

Or, I’ve seen wonderful things implemented, then slowly decay as no one takes ownership for ongoing enhancement or maintenance of the feature.

So for me ‘content strategy’ is a concept that is far broader than direct communication with stakeholders. It covers:

• The identification and management of content assets (websites, intranets, libraries, contact centre info).
• The roles and responsibilities of the people who manage these content assets (authors, approvers, champions).
• The proper resourcing and training of these people (in writing for the web, information architecture, usability, UX, etc).
• An overall governance framework.
• Clear linkages with an organisation’s strategic (and operational) plans.
• Clear linkages with an organisation’s strategic (and operational) marketing and communication plans.

Once these foundations of true content strategy (and content management to a degree) are covered, an organisation can really plan and implement effective communication campaigns to stakeholders. Campaigns that have clear messages, are properly resourced, and are measured. No more ad hoc, random activities that don’t fit in with the overall picture.

And that’s where this site comes in. I hope to give you some great resources to help you implement a content strategy for your business. Some books to read, some topics to ponder, so training to attend.

If you don’t want to go it alone, get in contact with me and hire me to help you.