Plan, by Flickr user Tintern
Last year when we embarked on our redesign (still in progress!), we tried to prioritize. We asked, “If we could redo only one component of the site, which would it be?”
We didn’t pick graphic design, or information architecture, or even our aging publishing platform. We thought the best way to improve key metrics was to re-think the site’s content. To us, that meant not only the text of the articles, but the use of images, videos, micro-copy, interactive graphics and features — all the material on the site that helps convey ideas.
That led us off in search of a different kind of redesign. Along the way, we learned a new phrase, “content strategy,” and met a few “content strategists.” This approach has become a powerful tool for us, so I thought I’d share how we got here.
Tired of the same old problems?
The reason we picked content as our top priority is that my team has built a lot of sites for EDF, and we’ve redesigned the main site a few times, too. As much as we’ve learned, these problems persisted. We were determined to find a better way!
Wait, how do we update that content? This could be the photo spot sized weirdly so only the designer’s sample photo looks good in it, the news slot that requires a photo that you don’t have, or the text block that’s always too long (or short) for what you have to say.
What do I do with this content? Sometimes, perfectly good pieces of content don’t really fit anywhere. Over the years, we’ve tacked on material where it sort of fits, and our information architecture has sprawled. With the new site, we wanted to better accommodate and organize new material.
We can’t put that content there!! This is about the technical report that only three people in the world need to see, but that still has to go on the home page, or any number of other well-intentioned but illogical requests. EDF staff have learned well what we can do where, but the new design could stir up new confusion. So we wanted to explain up front what areas would be used for what purposes.
We need this content! Who can make it? One of the times this can happen is when news breaks — typically, we don’t assign someone to write specifically for the web site. We can draw from a press release, email announcement or the like, but then the content isn’t tailored to meet the site’s goals.
In the context of site redesigns, Jeff MacIntyre describes all these as the “Day Two Problem.” You just launched a shiny new web site. It looks lovely, but all the designers and coders are gone and you can’t use Latin text anymore. Now what?
So what’s in a content strategy?
We didn’t know exactly what content strategy was, and but it sure sounded like it would help. Or, as Kristina Halvorson wrote, “A content strategist sounds like just the sort of person to save the day, even if no one’s clear about what exactly that person will do.” She wrote the book on content strategy, and her post on A List Apart gives a good conceptual overview of content strategy.
As you might expect for an emerging field, there are many definitions of content strategy. After months of wrestling with this, I’m thinking of content strategy in three chunks:
Plan what content you need to meet your goals. This seems obvious, but it’s harder than you would think! First, this requires you to articulate your goals and metrics really clearly. Then, you have to know your audiences well enough to figure out how to lead them to your goals.
Figure out how to get the content you need. Again, this sounds straightforward, but many teams aren’t staffed to create content specifically to meet the site’s goals. How can you line up your needs and resources better?
Be ruthless about keeping content aligned with your goals. For most, this means a deep re-evaluation of how content is updated, added and measured. For example, we’re developing a comprehensive site testing plan and a new metrics dashboard. This also means having a way to say “no” to good content ideas that don’t fit the goals.
That sounds pretty plain, but none of it’s actually easy. That’s why we’ve never quite gotten rid of all the same old problems I listed above. But now that we have a strategy outlined, I’m optimistic that at the very least, we’ll have a new set of content-related challenges to work on! We’re already feeling relief at the sense of focus, and the sheer number of unimportant pages we’ll be able to jettison when we build the new site.
We ended up doing a lot of this content work in-house, so in my next post I’ll share some of the resources we found helpful.
Content is still king, and for good reason — really, it is the raison d’être of your web presence. As you point out good content strategy can inspire visitors and convince them to convert to your goal and bad content strategy can create such a cacophony that users bounce.
I too have found myself struggling with the fact that we don’t necessarily have the perfect content for our site — the ideal content that speaks to the web visitor. Instead my organization’s advocates and program staff create the content they use in their off-line work: news releases, reports, testimony, media hits, etc.
Our solution is to draw a bright line between two kinds of content: “packaged” content that the communications team gets a hand in shaping and “uploaded” (I need a better word for this!) content that the program staff contribute as part of their daily work. The packaged content is where we can put our best foot forward for the typical web visitor, and the uploaded content is what should keep the site fresh. A lot of inspiration for this came from the ACLU website — http://www.aclu.org
So our first hurdle will be to execute this type of content strategy — make sure our packaged content doesn’t need updating beyond once a year, and that the uploaded content keeps coming in. Then we can drill down and improve both types of content, from A/B testing what helps to convert more visitors to helping our program staff write SEO-friendly news releases (a tip I stole from you, Kira! http://goo.gl/PoY2E)
I’ve found myself backing into a content strategy rather than carving out time to create one from scratch. Unlike creating a new design, it seems to help to take things as they are, and craft a strategy that maximizes those inputs, rather than start from the blue-sky ideal content strategy scenario.
I think a critical point in your post is about keeping content aligned with your goals. It is so easy to slip off your template. I think having a rigorous style guide will be a critical part of our plan, and that’s what gives you the ammo to say “no.”
Jesse, I’m not surprised at all to hear you’ve got a solid plan.
I like your split between the two types of content. We’re coming to exactly the same split, though we’re using different (also unsatisfactory) names — “member-focused” content and “program” content. Whatever you call it, it’s useful to just accept that not all material has to meet the same standards of “packaging “that the most high-profile member-focused material will.
We do plan to have member-focused (packaged) content that’s pretty fresh, but still not nearly the volume that program staff creates.
Thanks for all the good thoughts!
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