By Scott Abel | Senior Member
There’s been a lot of talk about content strategy in the field of technical communication over the past decade. It’s a hot topic at conferences, on the Web, and in magazines like this one.
Despite the attention being paid to content strategy by technical communicators and other content professionals today, we lack a common understanding of the term. Content strategy means different things to different people. And the differences in definition often are a matter of vantage point. It is not uncommon for those who come from the technical communication world to think of content strategy differently than those who hail from marketing, PR, user experience, information architecture, or mobile interaction design. As a result, confusion abounds.
This is in part due to the absence of an organization to declare what content strategy is—and what it isn’t—and to act as a clearinghouse for information about the discipline, its best practices, lessons learned, case studies, and events. We lack an organization designed to bring all those concerned with content strategy under one big tent. In short, there is no Society for Technical Communication for content strategy.
What is content strategy?
Let’s start with a simple definition. Content strategy specialist and technical communication guru Rahel Bailie says, “Content strategy is a repeatable system that governs the management of content throughout the entire content lifecycle.”
That’s true. And it’s concise. But content strategy is more than that.
It’s about envisioning the future of content—its development, management, and delivery—and creating a plan that helps us leverage content to achieve our goals. It’s about creating a flexible, responsive roadmap that can be quickly adapted to the challenges that will undoubtedly interfere with our well-intentioned plans for success. It’s just as much about our ability to respond quickly to changes, threats, and opportunities as it is about being able to stick to rigid and rules-based processes, follow standards, and meet project milestones.
Too many content strategists miss the mark when talking about strategy. A content strategy must serve both the needs of external audiences (customers and prospects you hope to dazzle with your content) as well as the internal audiences (people who are involved in creating, managing, and delivering your content). And a solid content strategy must be informed by what you know about your company (internal information) and what you know about others (external information such as the competitive landscape, socio-economic and business climate, laws and regulations, and, in some situations, changes in global weather patterns, pandemics, migration, war, availability of broadband mobile, labor, and myriad other factors).
Content strategists are concerned with actions, resources, costs, opportunities, threats, and timetables associated with producing content that helps us meet our goals and that supports our vision. Strategists do not get lost in the weeds of minutiae. What font is best for use in your mobile documentation app? What tone of voice do you plan to use in your Web content? What should be included in the style guide? These are all considerations of various importance, but usually not the domain of the content strategist.
It should be noted that a content strategy is not a deliverable or a document, although it’s imperative that you write it down, deliver it to others, and make sure they understand and follow it. It’s also critical to revisit it often. That’s because content strategy is a living thing. It needs to be used, reviewed, revised, refreshed, and reconsidered regularly. Reviewing your strategy several times a year (at regular intervals or after important milestones) allows you to determine if the content you are creating (and the way you create it) helps you meet your goals. It also allows you the opportunity to think critically about how you do the work you do and whether your actions are helping to drive your business forward or not.
At its most basic, creating a successful content strategy is about mastering the art of the possible. It calls for us to reimagine the future. To declare what we’re going to do to harness our resources (human, financial, and technological) to create content designed to help us accomplish things tomorrow; things that may be impossible for us to accomplish today. To do so, we’re going to need to get creative. We’re going to have to become, as Bailie frequently says, “business consultants for content.” And we’re going to need vision (and plenty of it).
Vision: The secret ingredient in every successful content strategy
“Vision and strategy are both important,” says business leadership expert Michael Hyatt. “But there is a priority to them. Vision always comes first. Always.”
Vision is not a description of what your company is or what it does. Your vision is what you want your organization (or division or department) to become or to do. It’s a goal. It’s a clear, concise, and easy-to-understand description of the future-state you desire.
Before you start conjuring up your vision, be sure to avoid confusing it with your mission. Although many business strategists mistakenly use these terms as synonyms, they are not. A mission statement describes the primary purpose for your business (“makers of durable medical goods and precision surgical supplies”), whereas vision statements offer a clue to the future direction of the organization (“to introduce the world’s first $20 wireless tablet computer to serve the developing world”) and it usually includes some language describing corporate values (“make a difference in the lives of families impacted by HIV/AIDS on the African continent”).
If you are creating a content strategy for a department or division of a company, your vision should still map back to the company vision and mission, but can (and should) be specific to your domain. If you work for the “makers of durable medical goods and precision surgical supplies,” perhaps your vision is “to create an amazing customer-support experience” that allows you “to deliver the right content, to the right customers, at the right time, in the right language and format, on the device of their choosing.”
Whatever you decide your vision of the future is for your department, remember that your vision is your goal (or set of goals). Your content strategy is the high-level master plan you intend to follow to help you reach your goals. Goals are things like “create source content that is capable of being translated by machine with 90% accuracy in the target languages,” “improve customer satisfaction scores by 30% amongst our best customers,” and “get our product approved for sale in Germany by end of 2014.” Tactics are the actions—“purchase component content management system,” “hire software trainer,” “convert legacy content to XML,” “look for new office space in Spain”—you will take to meet your goals.
The vision plays a critical role in content strategy development. Vision not only provides us with motivation (“to become the first ‘zero-waste’ city by 2020”), it also supports critical business decisions (“moving our software—and your information—to the cloud”), and is what we measure against to determine if we’re making progress (“to become the largest provider of smartphones to Latin Americans living in the southwest United States by 2014”).
While your vision should include long-term goals, considering the speed with which technological advances are changing our industry (and the world around us), it might be a good idea to limit your long-term vision to three years or so. This approach allows you to set some goals for the future, but also allows you to set yourself up for some quick, achievable victories.
Conclusion
Vision is a critical (yet often overlooked) success factor in many content strategy projects. Well-crafted vision statements are designed to guide strategic decisions and can serve to energize and motivate others. Your vision can also help you establish a standard of excellence, stimulate quality improvement programs, and orient you toward the future. When paired with a solid content strategy, keeping your vision in sight will ensure you get from where you are now to where you want to be in the future. γi
Scott Abel, aka The Content Wrangler, is an internationally recognized technical communication expert and content strategy consultant. Follow Scott on Twitter @ScottAbel.
