Developing an Effective Content Strategy

By Chris Butler, July 2008

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Developing an Effective Content Strategy

»	What is a Content Strategy?
2.	Refining Your Positioning
3.	A Great Example
4.	Effective Blogging
5.	What Does it Take?

I do most of my best work in the morning. In fact, I'm writing this at 7:00 am from my desk in our currently quiet, empty office. I don't get here early to "show up" my coworkers; I do it because I know that I am going to do my best thinking and highest quality writing first thing in the morning when the office is empty, the phones aren't ringing, and my inbox isn't growing by the minute. Since the creation of this newsletter is central to our content strategy as a company, I have chosen to work on it at a time at which I know I'll be able to do it to the best of my ability and without interruption. Likewise, I hope you've found a quiet and comfortable corner of your workplace to spend a few minutes reading this. Believe me when I tell you that considering these practical issues of time and place is critical to the success of your strategic pursuits, whether on or offline.

This month I want to focus in on the most important aspect of your online presence: Content Strategy. I'll first briefly review what I mean by content strategy, then cover how positioning directs it, and once you've identified what yours should be, how to put it into practice.

What is a Content Strategy?

Put simply, content strategy involves identifying the type of content that will best enable you to communicate your positioning and achieve your online goals, then planning for the creation of that content by allocating time and resources to the effort. next >

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Comments

Lori Davenport	July 29, 2008 5:50 PM I really enjoyed this article and am using it to stimulate conversation amongst our staff about critical changes that need to be made to make our site work for us.
Chris	July 30, 2008 7:40 AM Lori, Thanks for your comment. Are you part of a creative agency? If not, I just posted a short article on a successful content strategy for a non-agency company. Chris
Mark Shipley	August 10, 2008 1:41 PM Great article, Chris. It will help us a lot in developing our content strategy for wanderlust and keep smithandjones.com up to date.
Chris	August 11, 2008 6:48 AM Mark, Thanks for reading! I'm looking forward to seeing the new and improved smithandjones.com that you've been working on with Mitch. Chris
stev Jennings	September 3, 2008 1:36 AM Very nice article, content is king!
Tim Hill	October 16, 2008 7:55 AM Great article! Would love to know how the 'What we are reading' addition to the site worked for them. I am sure there are plenty of ideas like this, but how much extra value / insight into the company do they provide i.e myspace - What are we listening too? Tim
Chris	October 17, 2008 8:54 AM Tim, I tend to think that having those kind of cultural additions strengthens the personal credibility that a firm can build online. Though that's not directly related to the bottom line, it does help to share that kind of information if for no other reason than to show who the people are behind the service. Of course, depending upon what is listed among those books and music, they could have a potentially alienating effect, too. So, it would probably be wise to choose those items carefully. Thanks for reading, Chris
Russ	October 23, 2008 1:10 PM Content is without a doubt, should be a priority and is king. Brings value to end user. Nice Article!
Chris	October 28, 2008 11:20 AM Russ, Thanks for reading. I couldn't agree more! Chris
Chad	May 5, 2009 5:56 AM A nice article indeed Chris! It got me into an introspecting mode... I couldn't agree more to what you said about how positioning plays an important role in directing ones content strategy. Lack of a strong and persuasive content can only prove detrimental for the growth of a site in the long run.
Search Engine Optimization	May 5, 2009 5:59 AM Hi. great article. Could you throw some light on the rate of adding new content to ones site.. How frequently should we do that and is it a good idea to hire a professional for doing so.
Chris Butler	May 28, 2009 10:13 AM @Search Engine Optimization, This all depends upon the kind of content you're creating. For newsletters, we like to publish them monthly since they are much longer and developed than a blog post. As far as blog posts are concerned, we recommend to our clients that they plan to post at least several times a week to their blogs. We have multiple people blogging for the Newfangled blog, so we're tending toward once a day on average. I don't generally recommend hiring a professional for content creation because I feel that the person who is best suited to create appropriate content for your website is probably you, not someone else.
Steve	June 5, 2009 1:15 PM Well apparently all the blogging in the world didn't do much as they seemed to have gone under.