Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment. Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis can reveal when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture. Join this workshop to build out your content strategy toolkit: Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget

1. 1 #ConfabINT | @mbloomstein
BRAND-DRIVEN CONTENT STRATEGY:
DEVELOPING A MESSAGE ARCHITECTURE
Confab Intensive
September 19, 2016
#ConfabINT
Margot Bloomstein
@mbloomstein

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The key to saying more is saying no.

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Good communication is the product
of tradeoffs and opportunity costs.
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Content demands attention

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Because we all want the same thing,
but content keeps getting in the way.
(CC) http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking
Content requires time

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Content dredges up politics
©Margot Bloomstein

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Good communication is the product
of tradeoffs and opportunity costs.
7 #ConfabINT | @mbloomstein

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Tradeoffs pay off.
©Margot Bloomstein

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Content and design—
and processes to create them—
complement each other in
content strategy.

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Content and design—
and processes to create them—
complement each other in
content strategy.
But first: a foundation.

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What is content strategy?
Planning for the creation, aggregation, and
governance of content that’s useful, usable,
and appropriate in an experience.

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Message
architecture
Content
audit
Content
types
Content
model
Editorial style
guidelines
and calendar

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Deliverables are merely punctuation
in the conversation.
They can’t replace the conversation—
and too often, we’re afraid to talk.

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Why? Politics—and participation
©Margot Bloomstein

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Why? Politics—and participation*
©Margot Bloomstein
*until the blog launches,
readers require engagement,
FAQs demand integration…

16. Beat ’em to
the punch

17. “More like Apple”

19. 19 #ConfabINT | @mbloomstein
More like Apple’s message architecture
Confident but approachable; accessible
Simple
• Minimal detail
• Streamlined and anticipatory
Inviting, friendly
• Supportive but not fawning

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Message architecture
Cheeky
• Witty and fun
• Young without being childish
Customer oriented and responsive
• Approachable, friendly, and empowering
Helpful
• Accessible

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From: Little MOO | Print Robot <noreply@moo.com>
Subject: MOO | Order 0629312615 | Confirmed
Hello
I'm Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order with
moo.com. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who will print it
for you in the next few days. I'll let you know when it's done and on its way to
you.
Remember, I'm just a bit of software. So, if you have any questions regarding
your order please first read our Frequently Asked Questions or contact customer
services (who are real people!)
Thanks,
Little MOO, Print Robot

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Cheeky
• Witty and fun
• Young without being childish
Customer-oriented, responsive
• Approachable and friendly
• Empowering
Helpful
• Accessible
Message architecture vs. brand values
Design
Innovation
Community
Excellence

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What’s a message architecture?
A hierarchy of communication goals
that reflects a common vocabulary

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What’s a message architecture?
A hierarchy of communication goals
that reflects a common vocabulary—
versus brand values, which are the
ethics a company espouses

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First things first.
Why add video testimonials, maintain
a blog, conduct an audit, or launch a
new Facebook campaign…
if you don’t know what’s most
important to communicate?

28. If you don’t know
what to communicate,
how will you know if
you succeed?

29. what to communicate
when
where

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Serious, technical, and rigorous?
• Annual reports
• Articles on your site
• Articles on other sites
• Blogs
• Books
• Branded tools
• Case studies
• Digital magazines
• eBooks
• Email newsletters
• Facebook posts
• Games
• In-person events
• Infographics
• Licensed/syndicated
content
• LinkedIn posts
• Microsites
• Mobile apps
• Online presentations
• Podcasts
• Print magazines
• Print newsletters
• Research reports
• Twitter
• Videos
• Virtual conferences
• Webinars/webcasts
• Whitepapers
Excerpted from Content Marketing Institute & MarketingProfs Content Marketing Survey
Not all channels fit all goals.

31. 31 #ConfabINT | @mbloomstein
Engaged, fun, and relevant?
• Annual reports
• Articles on your site
• Articles on other sites
• Blogs
• Books
• Branded tools
• Case studies
• Digital magazines
• eBooks
• Email newsletters
• Facebook posts
• Games
• In-person events
• Infographics
• Licensed/syndicated
content
• LinkedIn posts
• Microsites
• Mobile apps
• Online presentations
• Podcasts
• Print magazines
• Print newsletters
• Research reports
• Twitter
• Videos
• Virtual conferences
• Webinars/webcasts
• Whitepapers
Excerpted from Content Marketing Institute & MarketingProfs Content Marketing Survey
Not all channels fit all goals.

32. How could we prove this is a car not
like anything else out there? It’s a small
car, but it’s premium. You get a Porsche
911 ride for a fifth of the cost. It’s got
history… but in Europe.
You need to give people content to give
them history.”

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A little thing with big impact.

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A little thing with big impact.

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Message architecture
Premium technology
• Assertive; ready to perform as a driver’s car
• Proactive and supportive of spontaneity
Classic design
• Experienced and savvy
Cheekiness
• Smart, “punny,” hip
• Fun, gleeful

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If these emails are boring you
and you don’t mind missing out
on all the lip-smackin’ stuff
we’ll be sending in the future,
simply send a message to owner-
unsubscribe@insiders.miniusa.com
and include “Unsubscribe” and
your favorite fruit in the
subject field.

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Message architecture drives content
Nomenclature
Calls to action
Content types
Sentence structure
Diction

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Message architecture drives design
Photographic angles
Background colors
Headline typography
Density of information

42. Content strategy
can create harmony
from cross-channel
cacophony.

44. Your turn:
Encourage tradeoffs
that pay off

45. • Engage in a tangible way
• Encourage conversation
“What do you mean?
“Are these concepts synonymous?”
• Identify pain points and debate:
“How can we be innovative and traditional?”
• Force prioritization
• Encourage ownership
• Prevent seagulling

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What’s a message architecture?
A hierarchy of communication goals
that reflects a common vocabulary

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What’s a message architecture?
A hierarchy of communication goals
that reflects a common vocabulary—
concrete, shared terminology,
not abstract concepts

48. “welcoming but elite”

49. “traditional but edgy”

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51. Words are valuable,
but meaningless
without context and
priority.

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• Who we are
• Who we’re not
• Who we’d like to be
Go with your gut!
Step 1: categorize

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Who we are  Who we’d like to be
Be aspirational. What needs to change?
Step 2: filter

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• Form groups: what goes together?
• Prioritize the goals or groups
• Tell the story of those aspirations
Step 3: group and prioritize

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• Follow up on hesitation, smirks, and grimaces
• Push back on participants to resolve their questions
• Expose nuances in meaning and connotation
“You put ‘traditional’ but not ‘conservative’—why?
“You hesitated as you put ‘cool’ here. How come?”
“Are ‘strategic’ and ‘tactical’ on a continuum?”
Dig in to ensure clarity

56. • Choose content types to manifest the
message architecture
• Gain standards for a qualitative audit
• Prioritize CMS changes and metadata to
support content types
• Reallocate budget and resources across
channels

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58. 58 #ConfabINT | @mbloomstein
Premium
• Lindt embodies quality, in product, marketing, & company interactions
• Approachable: Quality indulgences are more accessible
• Trusted in brand and quality
Empowering
• Entrepreneurial: Innovating, championing individuals and successes
• Market driving: strategic and proactive
• Professional and consistent through experience and being responsive
Community-minded
• Engaged with the Lindt family
• Customer-oriented
• Socially conscious
Message architecture

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Elegant layout and typography
• Spread-to-spread sightlines and flow
• Wider borders
• Layered background images
• Italic titles with initial drop caps

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Imagery of individual impact
• People engaged with product and service—
not just product or just results of service
• Diversity of role, gender, ethnicity, and age

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Accessible, informative copy
• First-person plural
• Frequent rhetorical asides
• Shorter sentences
• Clear, concrete explanations

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Editorial calendar “schedules”
the message architecture

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Message
architecture
Content
audit
Content
types
Content
model
Editorial style
guidelines
and calendar

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But first things first:
Understand what you need to
communicate—and why.

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Thank you!
Margot Bloomstein
@mbloomstein
margot@appropriateinc.com
Content Strategy at Work: http://amzn.to/CSatWork
BrandSort: http://cards.appropriateinc.com
Talks: http://slideshare.net/mbloomstein
All photography © Margot Bloomstein unless noted.
Screen grabs property of their respective owners.