Let's assume whatever you publish is responsible for your...

...Online Sales

...Trust/Reputation

...Rankings

...Leads

...Brand awareness

...Performance

...means, for any relevant results -
your Content needs to be...

...in line with your
business goals

...organized & managed

...strategic

...performance orientated

...data based

...client centric

Today, writing & creating the content
is considered the most important step - IT IS NOT !

To get content written or created by any content writer(s) or creator(s) is only the execution of what has been done before. Before you consider to let anybody write/create it, you might want to take care, think about and focus way more on a few of the way more important aspects of Content. Asking for the "Why" and "What" is nothing but Strategy & Tactics. Your created content is only as good as what you have evaluated, strategized and specified before

"Without strategy, content is just stuff. And the world has enough stuff."
Arjun Basu

...otherwise

YOU CREATE JUST STUFF !

Content
Strategy

Content
Marketing

Content
Management

Content
Organization

Content Evaluation

This process is based on provided data from SEO. The better the data the better you can create the topic roadmap. What is your core audience interested in? What are they looking for? What are their pain ponts, demands and needs. This provided data enables Content to create the topics your audience is looking for. The process of Content evaluation will set the pace for all your further coming steps. From here on it gets more detailed when your Strategical Content gets mapped out into single topics with targeted keywords and proper internal content workflows & processes behind it. Therefore it needs a proper, clear and data based Content Strategy.

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Content Specifications

To specify your Content it needs clear definitions of single topics based on a deep research, data and a client centric approach. Analyse the SEO data and create topics out of the provided data is a key element of any Content department. But it needs a clear understanding of the data. From semantic over search intention to KPIs and the importance to break down long tail keywords into single topics. Content Specification means the process of transferring the SEO data to a proper topic collection within different categories. This is a deciding factor for online success. For certain topic requests it is also sometimes useful to ask more for the "Why?" than the "What?".

Content Planning

Content Planning is about content collecting, content filtering and content consolidation. The right planning makes your life much easier, provides a good structure and enables you to maximise your content resources. One of the crucial aspects when working with Content. You increase you Content chaos dramatically without a clear Content planning. So every Content department should spend time in this process. If you already know what is to do in the next week or month, you can use your resources more efficient.

Content Governance

As businesses continue to become heavily content- and data-driven, content governance will be an important and required process for organizations to operate efficiently and effectively. Content governance is known as the structure and policies around how organizations manage content creation, along with proper guidelines for use and distribution of the content, including the implementation of a content strategy and content guidelines. Without properly managing content and data, business can end up in serious trouble for mismanagement. The amount of different content channels & contributors throughout a company can be just overwhelming. Often internal guidelines, governance and good coordination throughout all channels and involved stakeholder are mandatory but in reality way too often simply missing.

Content Workflows

Content is the most important asset in your setup. Why do you need a fluent content workflow? Just like any other business process, content creation is predictable. In order to create content consistently, you take a series of steps, and then rinse and repeat. By documenting and managing your process you can make it more efficient and productive. If it makes sense for your business, you may even decide to automate some of the tasks. Here’s what documenting your content workflow allows you to do: * Keep track of what tasks need to be completed and by whom * Help your team understand how their work impacts other tasks or deliverables * Assign deadlines to ensure that the process runs smoothly * Identify any dependencies or bottlenecks that could impact your deadlines * Ensure your content delivery is on track.

Content Processes

Evaluation. Ideation. Varification. Creation. Adaption. Approval. Implementation. Publication. Measuring. There are these 9 important Content processes to handle within any setup. Certain broken or not existing key processes & workflows within & between Content, Marketing & SEO can lead to enormous costs for companies, to a weak performance and frustration within involved departments. Often the adaption or implementation of easy, simple and clear new processes and workflows can lead to instant performance improvements. There is not really any setup template that can be installed to each company - it is very individual.

Content Coordination

Coordinating content involves all the things that come up within the creation process and can include all the work between internal/external Stakeholder or the interactions between different people during the Content process. Things need to be clarified, approved or adapted during the creation process - crucial steps or todo´s way before any final Content is ready to implement. All the small things that need to be handled and considered during the production process - detail work. Can lead to unnecessary delays within the production process. Another aspect and reason why any dedicated person in charge is needed. Who else is doing it?

Content Ideation

One of the biggest issues in online business setups - especially B2B - is running out of topics and content ideas. That only happens if there is no data based process in place defining what content is needed. As soon as you determined the right data, know your target group and evaluated the relevant content you can start to create single topics out of it. The goal of these topics is to provide answers to your target groups questions, needs and pain points. Running out of Content is not an option.

Content Distribution

There are many types of content you can create to market your business. But not all types of content are created equal (literally), and each type typically requires its own content distribution plan. Any great content is a waste if your audience doesn’t know it exists. So Content distribution is an integral part — probably the most important part — of your content strategy. The channels you use to distribute your content will vary based on your audience and resources. There are three overarching types of content distribution channels that cover a number of more specific distribution channels: * owned content Website, Social Media profiles & Co. * earned content Shares, Likes, Reviews & Co. * paid content Ads, PPC, Social, Search & Co.

Core Content

Beside the 3 well known Content types Hero-, Hub- and Hygienic Content you can also define 5 types of Core Content including all of the content, information and data across your business. By using a mix of the core content types, you improve your content ROI.: 1.) Foundational Content To establish thought leadership & search terms 2.) Customer FAQ Content To be the best answer 3.) Consistent Content To create a regular content consumption habit 4.) Crowd Pleasing Content To attract broad attention & maintain visibility 5.) Curated Content To keep existing content visible

Content Curation

There is a lot of potential in curating content. It is not always necessary to produce everything from scratch again for several channels. Useful & already existing content can be adapted, improved and updated based on data research - using this data about what your potential visitors are interested in. Also static Content should be updated on a regular basis.

A few things to consider if want to get your Content strategic:

Stakeholder Management

Stakeholder management is often the key for success in all kinds of projects. In Content it is as well - especially when many different channels are involved. Interacting with all involved internal and external parties. Exchange throughout all involved departments, interaction with all involved people in Content is very important to provide issues during your Content creation process such as timeline problems, communication issues on different levels, and different performance issues.

Site Management

The daily site management is a crucial element within every Content department. A proper Content Management System is in place and most editors work within this system. But the aspects of sorting, updating, amendments and structuring the Content within the CMS is often underestimated. A good site management allows Content to create a system to keep an overview of all content within a site. Plan your content ahead. A proper editorial calendar can get pretty complex quickly depending on what dates, events or industry related features you want to involve. It enables you to plan and coordinate the content creation process. It helps to decide whether you can solve this in-house or do you need any external suppliers? The Editorial calendar also gives a good overview of what comes up soon and allows involved departments and stakeholder to contribute the right things in time.

Editorial Management

Editorial Management needs clear workflows and a structure. Good Editorial Management is important to streamline communication between Authors, Editors and Reviewers throughout the peer review process. Leading a Content Team needs a clear understanding of timelines, deadlines, and clear structure from ideation to publication including all steps in between. Good Content needs dedicated Leadership and guidance.

Goals, Mission & Metrics Definition

Creating a comprehensible "Content mission", defining your Core metrics and S.M.A.R.T. Goals from the beginning on for your content marketing will save you lots of time planning your content strategy and ensure you are moving your business in a positive direction. Without setting up any kind of mission or any core metrics you may find yourself juggling too much work without anywhere to delegate. The data gathered from your KPIs will give you a clear picture of the impact your content marketing strategy has and will also give you measurable information so you can make data-backed decisions about your business.

Content HR
& Recruiting

Good content needs good content people. Finding & chosing the right content people is not easy when you want to set up a proper content team. No matter contractors, in-house or freelancers. A solid freelancer setup in Content is important and crucial, as long as you don't have enough people within your own content department. Managing and coordinating your Content Freelancers can be time consuming. Delegating the right content to the right freelancer, keep track with the time lines, approval processes, making adaptions, validation, coordinate languages and bringing all the contributions in line.

Business Intelligence today is
Content Intelligence

Content production is great at face value, but ultimately, business results are what matter. Content needs to perform and deliver quantifiable business impact. Way too much irrelevant stuff gets published on a daily basis, teams, employees and visitors get frustrated and the Content efforts deliver no results at all. Today, online success simply means planning around people - not around your company, products or services. One of the biggest challenges in Content - no matter B2B or B2C - is being able to create the quantity of high-quality Content needed in a cost effective way, providing answers to the potential target group. Consumers B2B & B2C realize they have any kind of problem, need or pain point - going to search for answers. So you simply have to follow that and provide them the right answers and solutions. We are all aware of that today the consumer is in control - so, as consumers lead, marketers and brands must follow. Otherwise they fall behind.

Get your Content strategic & organized
- always.

Too often Content production in many companies is inefficient and chaotic - without any business relevant results. Creating content for all channels is a daily business and it needs a team, a structure and a plan. Beside technical problems, Content Strategy & Content Organization are the biggest issues in most online businesses. Content is all you have to offer - better treat it right. As long as you keep your Content - the most important asset - unstructured, not properly planned, managed and organized, without any strategic approach or any solid data based and client centric approach behind it, the performance of your online business suffers. Content Intelligence is managing, coordinating and handling Content on a daily basis and it needs people knowing Content. It needs a working Content Management with a proper dedicated Content Leadership, governance & efficient workflows & processes behind it. Broken, wrong, inefficient or even missing Content workflows & processes have huge impacts on online business performances.

"Dealing with content is messy. It is complicated, it is painful and it is expensive"
Kristina Halvorson

Let´s talk Content

Get in touch

E-Commerce / Digital Marketing

Generating Leads & optimizing Conversion needs a good Content structure. Beside the strategy, handling, organization, and management of Content there are a few other factors for performance to be considered

Kay Auster | austermedia®