The content strategy question cycle

When organizations want to get more strategic about their content – when they want it to be more effective, more efficient, and advance their goals, they turn to content strategists.

The core of what we do is to help the organization ask and answer key questions. Organizations often start with what sounds like a simple question: What kind of content should we create? Inevitably, this one question leads to more – as it should. The answer to the question of what to create is this:

You should create content that

• addresses the needs of your top-priority audiences
• speaks in your organization’s voice
• uses terms that the audience knows
• is findable
• is in a format that works for them
• that you know is likely to be successful
  

This is actually, then, multiple questions:

1. What kind of content should we create?
2. How will we get it done?
3. What will we do after the content is created?
4. What structures do we need to support the content work?
5. How will we know it’s successful?

But here’s the thing: These questions are not in a linear order, and we need to keep asking them. That’s why it’s a question cycle!

Each of the questions has multiple considerations:

What kind of content should we create?

It depends on

• What your organization does
• What information your highest-priority audiences want from you
• What formats they respond to most

How will we get it done?

This is about

• Establishing consistent processes and tools for collaborative content planning
• Understanding your people’s skills, or researching external options
• Getting a handle on the time and effort to execute all the content you have planned
• Deciding on the technology and tools you’ll use to produce content

What will we do after the content is created?

You’ll need to create policies and processes for

• Reviewing content for accuracy, voice/brand
• Publication in your platforms
• Promotion/marketing
• Management/lifecycle, including retiring content based on established criteria

What structures do we need to support the content work?

• Buy-in for the time and effort
• Oversight
• Operationalization
  • Including content responsibilities in people’s job descriptions
  • No workarounds
• Socialization
  • Awareness
  • Share success stories
  • Communities of practice
• Change management

How will we know it’s successful?

• Audience/goals
• Metrics collected
• Metrics shared, used to inform decisions

 

And based on what you learn, the questions start anew!