Facing feature creep and disagreements among stakeholders? Does your CMO prize modernity and innovation, while the CEO insists on passive voice… but can’t wait to start blogging? Sounds like you need to get a grip on content, the people who make it—and the brand they want to establish. Brand-driven content strategy can complement your user-centered design techniques, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. You’ll gain practical, hands-on experience by taking sample organisations through a website redesign engagement. First, we’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritise communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you’re designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Discover how a brand attributes cardsort can help you identify potential pitfalls in the engagement and points of disagreement—and then improve organisational alignment around the brand and content. Next you’ll use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality content. You’ll leave with confidence, savvy, and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking back to your own organisation. - 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 minimise distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update. - Use a content audit to evaluate content against the message architecture. - Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget. - Inform your work with an air-tight approach to better user experiences. Presented as a workshop at CS Forum 2012, Cape Town South Africa; #CSForum12, October 24, 2012.

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© 2012© 2011
The secrets of brand-driven
CONTENT STRATEGY
Margot Bloomstein
CS Forum October 2012
@mbloomstein

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© 2012
Unless you understand what people are
trying to do with your content you cannot
know if it’s working or not.”
Gerry McGovern
“

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Your serve.
And who are you again? 

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

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Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines

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Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines

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Deliverables are
merely punctuation in
the conversation.
Don’t let them replace
the conversation.

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Why content strategy?

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Why content strategy?
Because we all want the same thing,
but content keeps getting in the way.

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First things first.
What do you need to communicate?

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First things first.
Why even do this…

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging,

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging, audit the
content,

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging, audit the
content, start engaging on Twitter,

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging, audit the
content, start engaging on Twitter,
consolidate the current site architecture,

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging, audit the
content, start engaging on Twitter,
consolidate the current site architecture,
add video testimonials,

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging, audit the
content, start engaging on Twitter,
consolidate the current site architecture,
add video testimonials, incorporate user
reviews,

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging, audit the
content, start engaging on Twitter,
consolidate the current site architecture,
add video testimonials, incorporate user
reviews, develop new brand guidelines…

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© 2012
First things first.
Why even do this…redesign this website,
let the CEO start blogging, audit the
content, start engaging on Twitter,
consolidate the current site architecture,
add video testimonials, incorporate user
reviews, develop new brand guidelines…
if you don’t know what you need to
communicate?

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

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

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A little thing with big impact.

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A little thing with big impact.
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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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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© 2012

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© 2012

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© 2012

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© 2012

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© 2012
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
the user experience

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Nomenclature
Calls to action
Instructional content
Sentence structure
Diction
…in content

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Photographic angles
Dark backgrounds
Bold headlines
Thick stroke weights
…and in design

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…and in the choice of features
and content types

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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?
Concrete, shared terminology,
not abstract concepts.

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Welcoming,
but elite.
Selective?

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Accessible,
open, and
premiere.

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Words are valuable,
but meaningless without
context and priority.
(In a few minutes, we’ll
give them context.)

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Why do this?
Words are cheaper than comps.

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Why do this?
Let creative colleagues refine the concept,
rather than confirm the purpose.

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How?
• Engage in a tangible, hands-on way
• Encourage debate and conversation
• Identify points of disagreement
• Prevent seagulling
• Force prioritization
• Encourage ownership & investment

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Cardsorting
• Groups of 7
• Pick 2 people to represent the brand
• Everyone else: put on your content
strategy hats!

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Cardsorting
Step one:
• Who we are
• Who we’re not
• Who we’d like to be
Go with your gut for about 20 minutes.

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Cardsorting
Step two:
• Who we are  Who we’d like to be
Think aspirational.
What needs to change?
~10 minutes

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Cardsorting
Step three:
• Form groups: what goes together?
• Prioritize the goals or groups
• Tell the story of those aspirations
~10 minutes

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Why do this?
Gain standards by which to conduct
a qualitative audit.
(What is “good” anyway?)

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Why do this?
Sell new content types to manifest the
message architecture—not just because
they’re trendy.

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So where to from here?
Content audit: measure quality against
the aspirational attributes in the message
architecture.

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So where to from here?
New content types: prioritize features
against the new communication goals.
Experience? Portfolio.
Trust and responsiveness? Testimonials.

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Audit time!

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The organization
Established and premiere
• Founded in 1896
• International reputation for depth in several areas
• Not really a “destination” for tourists—but definitely for
academics and researchers
Trusted
• Known for research among competitors, but not local audience
• Target audience is loyal, but places greater appreciation in its
tradition and history than modern updates
Kid-friendly
• Seen as ideal for family visits, school field trips, but relatively
unknown for adult applicability within the local target audience

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Message architecture
Engaged and curious
• Creating knowledge by supporting rigorous scientific research
and disseminating information
• Driving the public discussion to promote stewardship
• Comprehensive in questions, open-minded in answers
Welcoming
• Accessible“for ages 5 – 95”
• Relevant, tailored
Applicable and relevant
• Practical; engaged & empathizing with the community
• Immediate, cutting-edge, and “in touch”
Innovative
• Ends > means in research, development, and engagement

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© 2012Engaged & curious? Welcoming? Applicable & relevant? Innovative?

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© 2012Engaged & curious? Welcoming? Applicable & relevant? Innovative?

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© 2012Engaged & curious? Welcoming? Applicable & relevant? Innovative?

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Audit to understand what you
have and what you need.
Don’t just do it for fun.
Before you can start, you need
to know why.
What are you trying to learn?

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Each section* gets its own tab.

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Every tab tracks the same data
Quantitative:
• Head count: what do we have?
• Is it consistent?
• Are similar content types
consistent in size and structure?
• Is there parity of length, level of
detail, and tone?

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Every tab tracks the same data
Qualitative: is it any good?
• ROT analysis: redundant, outdated, trivial
• Current, relevant, and appropriate
to the message architecture
• Does it serve the communication goals?
• Does it speak to the target audience?

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Each piece of content gets a row
Set up dropdowns to constrain data
• Data  Data validation  List  Sources

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What will you learn?
• What do we have?
• Is it any good?
• Do people even like it? (Check analytics!)
• What do we need to update?
• What do we need to translate?
• Where do we need more?

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© 2012
What will you learn?
• What do we have?
• Is it any good?
• Do people even like it? (Check analytics!)
• What do we need to update?
• What do we need to translate?
• Where do we need more?

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© 2012
Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines

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© 2012
Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines
Gap analysis

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© 2012
Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines
Gap analysis
How

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© 2012
Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines
Gap analysis
How
By whom & when

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© 2012
But first things first:
What are you trying to
communicate?
What content do you have and
what do you need to do that?

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© 2012
Thank you!
Margot Bloomstein
@mbloomstein
margot@appropriateinc.com
slideshare.net/mbloomstein
amzn.to/CSatWork
Title image: http://flickr.com/KandyJaxx
All other images property of their respective owners or public domain.