Less Content. More Strategy. (KCDC 2014)

Less Content. More Strategy.

17 May 2014 @dgcooley #KCDC2014

Danielle Gobert Cooley

[email protected]

@dgcooley

15 years as a UX Specialist BE, Biomedical and Electrical Engineering – Vanderbilt University MS, Human Factors in InformaNon Design – Bentley University

hPp://linkedin.com/in/dgcooley

Selected Work

(Less) Content. (More) Strategy.


Conten

t

Stress

Expe

nse

Value to End

User

Revenu

e

Expenses and stress increase with content. While end user value and revenue ulNmately suffer.

SO WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY?


Uh-‐oh!


You probably already do it!


Aaaah. Clients.


I need a wireframe. Uhhhhh… OK?

Which one?


?

KrisNna Halvorson’s definiNon


““Content Strategy is the pracNce of planning for content creaNon, delivery, and governance.”

-‐ KrisNna Halvorson

Rahel Bailie’s definiNon


““Content Strategy is the development of a repeatable process that manages content throughout the enNre content lifecycle.”

And that means, from planning to creaNon to management within the CMS, to publishing, to post-‐publishing acNviNes, and back through the next iteraNon of planning, and so on.

What content are we talking about?


Graphics

Audio

Video

Photos

PDFs

Blog Entries

Copy Tweets

hPp://www.site.com Links

spacer.gif

Content creaNon

•  Who’s going to create it? •  How oien? •  What kind of content will it be? •  Tone?


Don’t forget about maintenance!

Content delivery

•  Is this going on the website? •  TwiPer? •  Facebook? •  Email? •  Annual Report?


Technical consideraNons can be huge!

Content governance

•  Who reviews & approves new and updated content? •  Who determines and enforces removal and archival rules?


Who gets to (has to?) say “No!” to the boss?

(LESS) CONTENT


The long neck


hPp://www.gerrymcgovern.com/

80%

The Pareto Principle


E-‐commerce site: 714,716 pages and 12,125,733 pageviews

36% 71 pages (0.01%)

677,848 pages (94.8%) were viewed fewer than 25 Nmes each

The Pareto Principle


B2B IT Soiware Company: 211,318 pages and 9,025,793 pageviews

68% 21 pages (0.01%)

205,775 pages (97.4%) were viewed fewer than 25 Nmes each

Content’s long neck


Required quadrant map


Bene

fit

Cost

Logo & Branding

FAQ

Culture Video

Contact

LePer from the CEO

It Depends J

Content is expensive


Intermediate Copywriter $51,358 Webmaster $66,169 Java Developer $80,858 Art Director (Web) $102,526

Salary.com (2011)

Signal to noise raNo


www.jolyon.co.uk

Signal to noise raNo


hPp://www.electronicink.com/a-‐bePer-‐system/Embracing-‐Brevity-‐Pays-‐Off

The psychology of cluPer


The psychology of cluPer


At Your House On Your Website

Insecurity “I might need that someday!”

“A customer might need that someday!”

Keeping up with the Joneses

“The neighbor has new landscaping. I need new landscaping, too!”

“My compeNtor uses video. I need to use video, too!”

HecNc pace of life “I’ll just put this mail here for now and deal with it later.”

“I don’t have Nme to meet about that. Just check with legal before you put it up there.”

DusNn CurNs gets it


hPp://www.dusNncurNs.com/dear_american_airlines.html

AA is even starNng to get it


2011


2013

This person got it.


Everything Else

Enter your tracking number Track My Package

Reference unknown.

GoDaddy Didn’t Get it.


hPp://www.heathbrothers.com/posts/2011/04/gone-‐godaddy-‐gone/

And it cost them a (high profile) customer.


vs.

Lane Furniture.com doesn’t get it.


hPp://www.lanefurniture.com/Contact-‐Us/FAQ.aspx

(MORE) STRATEGY


The most important thing


Your content is the most important thing about your website.

Let me repeat that…


Your content is the most important thing about your

website.

Take care of important things


Treat your content with love.

Yell at anyone who doesn’t.

Lorem Ipsum must die!


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec nunc enim, volutpat ut malesuada sit amet, aliquam eu orci. In quis mauris at enim fermentum vulputate et sed enim. Suspendisse tempor ligula et libero iaculis quis tempor erat imperdiet. Vivamus adipiscing nunc vel odio dictum tempor. Nulla mauris nibh, laoreet nec lacinia id, feugiat eu eros. Curabitur faucibus gravida lectus, sed faucibus felis maws nec. Duis interdum placerat urna sit amet posuere. Aenean in ligula at enim convallis sagiws. Nam ac fermentum augue. Curabitur sollicitudin, lorem vel tempus malesuada, tellus quam loborNs risus, id dapibus odio leo eget orci. Morbi eu augue mi, eu porta arcu. Donec massa leo, blandit quis viverra vitae, fringilla in augue. Cras condimentum, nibh ut varius lacinia, metus quam faucibus tortor, sed posuere lacus risus in diam. Donec leo orci, fermentum vel suscipit eget, tempus in leo. Vivamus ante justo, posuere at sagiws at, consequat vel leo. VesNbulum rutrum commodo lorem, non varius nisi venenaNs nec.

Bacon Ipsum, however, is awesome.


hPp://www.baconipsum.com

(No! Not really!)

See also:


hPp://www.rikeripsum.com hPp://www.slipsum.com

(Stop it!)

SEO


SEO is important and should be considered as part of your strategy.

<Ntle> tags

Link text & placement

Copy volume

Video


Video is expensive, and its use should be considered very carefully.

“I’d rather just read.”

“Video takes too long.”

81% of users leave video if it buffers even once.

hPp://www.tubemogul.com/research/report/99-‐Online-‐Video-‐Delivery-‐SNll-‐Nowhere-‐Near-‐TV-‐Quality

InformaNon architecture


Whatever content is included needs to be organized very well.

hPp://www.ondigital.co.za/what-‐we-‐do/website-‐design-‐agency/website-‐informaNon-‐architecture/

More content might be OK. Maybe. Some@mes.


Further Reading


Erin Kissane TwiPer.com/kissane

KrisNna Halvorson TwiPer.com/halvorson

Karen McGrane TwiPer.com/karenmcgrane

“Content Strategy “Group Content Strategy meetups in many ciNes

More from me?


September 12 at AJI Soiware in Kansas City!

Recap

•  You are (probably) already a content strategist. •  Content is expensive. •  Let go of what no longer serves you. •  OpNmize what does.


Less Content. More Strategy.

lesscontentmorestrategy.com

Less Content. More Strategy. (KCDC 2014)

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