The Formula For Ridiculously Good Website Content Examples
The Formula For Ridiculously Good Website Content For A
The Formula For Ridiculously Good Website Content List
The Formula For Ridiculously Good Website Content Example

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Content strategy is a relatively new niche discipline in the digital space. It shares common ground with user experience (UX), interface design, web development, SEO, content marketing, public relations and traditional “offline” marketing.

This article highlights some of the leading concepts of content strategy for the web, how it fits in with its neighbouring disciplines, and shares some practical guidelines that anyone in the digital space – especially those new to content strategy – should consider before embarking on their own content strategy.

These findings were inspired by industry experts who presented at the Content Strategy Forum 2012 in Cape Town.

Below are 10 things you need to know to meet a content strategy’s ultimate goal of (1) fulfilling users’ expectations and (2) meeting business objectives.

1. Content strategy requires teamwork

We’ve all heard the maxim “content is king” over and over. But content alone cannot bring a digital project to life. Content has to work closely with its peer-disciplines.

According to Kristina Halvorson, CEO of BrainTraffic and founder of ConFab, teamwork is essential when it comes to content strategy. The peer-disciplines that should crucially be consulted during the content strategy phase are:

User Experience
Design
Information Architecture
Copywriting
Development
Search Engine Optimization
Marketing
Public Relations and Brand Building
Business stakeholders

As with most things in life, this egalitarian approach can lead to the “too many cooks” problem.

Rachel Lovinger from Razorfish described how their digital agency addresses this problem: “For digital projects, we first assemble a ‘CRUX team.’ We assign one, or more, senior person from Creative and one, or more, senior person from UX. They work with the Strategy group to lay the foundation for the overall digital concept, including the content strategy. Once that’s defined, we broaden our focus and bring on specialists from various peer-disciplines.”

Whether you’re a large or small team, it is essential that a holistic view of content creation and implementation is taken.

Bottom line: Good content strategy requires team effort from all peer-disciplines.

2. Consider content AND the people that create your content

As mentioned, the main objective of an effective content strategy is to meet users’ expectations and fulfil business goals.

Halvorson, co-author of Content Strategy for the Web and one of the web’s first content strategists, developed a framework that not only focuses on the actual content, but also the people that create the content.

Her belief is that by keeping the workflow and governance factors in mind when developing a content strategy, we can deliver more useful and more usable content to online audiences, whilst meeting business objectives.

Halvorson’s content strategy framework “The Quad” includes Content Components and People Components.

Content Components:

Substance – topics, tone, style, what message we need to communicate
Structure – how we prioritize and break up the content into building blocks

People components:

Workflow – the process, tools and resources we need to create and maintain content
Governance – consistency, integrity and quality of the content

Bottom line: Considering content AND the people that create the content will help in meeting users’ expectations and achieving business objectives.

The Formula For Ridiculously Good Website Content Examples

3. Match your writing to your audience’s literacy level

Angela Colter from Electronic Ink did a series of user tests with people of varying literacy levels. The results of her research shows that users with low literacy levels struggle to complete basic tasks on websites that have content written for people with high literacy levels.

When using websites that require a low literacy level, lower literacy users completed their tasks faster and with less frustration. That seems fairly obvious, right?

One incidental discovery from this research, however, was that users with high literacy levels also scored much better when the language on the website was of a lower level.

Bottom line: Keep your language simple and clear. Your low and high literacy users will thank you for it.

4. The Five W’s (and H) of content marketing strategy

Anyone schooled in journalism will be familiar with the Five W’s and H of journalism: Who, What, Why, When, Where and How.

Purists argue that a story isn’t complete unless all six questions are answered. Yondo webinarsoffer webinars & online classes. It’s certainly valid in a journalism sense, since omission of any of these questions will leave a hole in your story.

So how does this relate to content strategy for the web? Rick Yagodich of Think Info has reshuffled the sequence of the Five W’s (and H) to provide a checklist that online content strategists can use to ensure their content strategy is watertight:

Why – Know the business case and objectives. Why are you embarking on this project?
What – What is the message?
Who – Who is the audience?
Where – Where will the message be read (location, device, context)?
How – How should we present/structure the content?
When – Timing of the process to create and publish the content.

Bottom line: The Five W’s (and H) provide a checklist to ensure your content strategy covers all bases.

5. Voice and tone matter

Voice and tone are extremely powerful “front line” tools in the content strategist’s toolkit.

A brand’s voice reflects its personality and identity. It should be consistent across all content. Tone on the other hand, can, and should, adapt according to the context of the content.

According to Kate Kiefer Lee, content curator at MailChimp, a brand’s tone should vary depending on the emotional state of readers. For example, humour on a welcome page can build likability and loyalty. But in a warning message, it can result in exactly the opposite.

MailChimp is so passionate about voice and tone that they have created a website called www.voiceandtone.com. The website shows their writers how to use the MailChimp voice for the brand’s various content types (blog posts, tweets, “compliance alert messages” and even their mascot’s jokes). It’s a great resource for their team and very useful for anyone who wants to create a voice and tone guide for their own brand.

1000 points to you, MailChimp. Oook oook.

MailChimp’s voice is consistent, while its tone varies according to the user’s emotions in different contexts.

Bottom line: Creating a style guide that defines your brand’s voice and tone will enhance your users’ experience and strengthen your brand image.

6. SEO is not dead

With recent Google algorithm updates like Panda and Penguin, people from various digital genres have been claiming that SEO is dead. The general consensus is that it’s getting harder and harder to game your w