My presentation of Content Strategy and Content Strategist responsibilities to the team of the Division Director of The Creative Group, a Robert Half company. The team was made up of 40+ Account Managers and Recruiters from TCG across the country. Note: When I give a presentation, I don't read my slides. I have an entirely separate script prepared with additional information, and real life examples, to go with each and every slide.

1. CONTENT STRATEGY
Katherine Dallas Hammond
Content Strategy Consultant, Fafoutee Films & Media
July 25, 2017

2. Content is…
• information: practical, functional or tactical
• data with context
• a business asset
• any medium designed to execute a message
• the sum total of the freshness, readability, relevancy, and usefulness
of the information presented, and the manner in which it is presented
• the essence of a communicated message or discourse, as
comprehended or received by its intended audience.
7/25/2017
http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/03/what-is-content/
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/content.html
2

3. Content strategy is...
• a comprehensive approach that will assess an organization’s current
state, understand its ideal future state, recognize where the gaps are,
and develop an implementation roadmap.
• focused on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance
of content.
• useful and usable content, that is well structured, and easily found.
• vital to improving the user experience.
7/25/2017
http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/content-strategy.html
3

4. Creating a content strategy
1. Define your goals
• Are you are creating content to boost brand awareness, generate leads, convert users, attract past
customers or improve search ranking results?
2. Research Your Audience
• Your content strategy can only be effective if you know your audience
3. Focus on Your Niche
• The more specific you are and focused on your niche, the greater your chances of establishing
yourself as an authority in your field
4. Measure Your Results
• You need to know what your audience liked as well as what they didn’t like, and why
5. Listen to Your Customers
• Your customers need to know they are being heard on social media, so ask them for feedback and
suggestions
6. Amplify Your Content
• To amplify your content, determine the places your audience is frequenting online, and then
publish on those channels to reach them
7/25/2017 http://blog.kissmetrics.com/content-strategy-a-development-guide/ 4

5. Content strategy core concepts & terms
• Lifecycle: the process that defines the series of changes in the life of any piece of content
• Accessibility: the extent to which content is available, understandable, and usable by all
• Optimization: the process of refining language to improve its readability, accuracy, clarity,
consistency, tone and voice
• Quality Assurance: the process to ensure content meets specified requirements before publishing
• Findability: the quality of being able to be discovered and retrieved through search or browsing
• Metadata: attributes to structure, define and target content
• Search Engine Optimization: designing content that will rank well in organic search
• Personalization: targeting content to specific users; the right content to the right user at the right
time
7/25/2017 http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/ 5

6. Content strategy core deliverables
• Content brief: a summary that aligns everyone involved around the same vision
or goal, and the approach to achieving it
• Content inventory: an organized listing of every existing content asset
• Content audit: the qualitative study of the content inventory
• Content analysis: the quality of content against objective benchmarks
• Content flow: a map of content from input to multiple outputs
• Persona: a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience
• Taxonomy: a hierarchical classification of categories, vocabulary of terms, to
describe a specific area of knowledge or subject matter
7/25/2017
http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
6

7. Target audience
• 1st things 1st
• Immersed comprehension of the product or service your client is selling
• Don’t assume, analyze the existing audience
• Talk to people
• Survey customers
• Analytics data currently being collected
• Dive deeper
• Industry research, market research, business analysis, industry trends,
statistics and forecasts
• Check out the competition
7/25/2017 http://www.digitalcurrent.com/digital-marketing/9-steps-to-find-your-target-audience/ 7

8. Personas
• A Persona is a composite sketch
of a key segment of your
audience
• Personas help you deliver
content that will be most
relevant and useful to your
audience
• Persona development is a
customized process, as it is
meant to address unique
marketing challenges and
opportunities
7/25/2017 http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2015/04/content-marketing-personas/ 8

9. Content brief
• Strategists aren’t always the ones actually writing or producing
content.
• A content brief is the most important place to exert leverage and
make an impact on their writing.
• It is a guideline for them to reference and is often a part of the Brand
book.
7/25/2017
http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
9

10. Inside a content brief
• Goals: Thought leadership, money…
• Ambition: What do you want to achieve? What is a success?
• Outline key points: What is the essence of what you want to say?
• Support them: Why should anyone believe you?
• Target Audience: Who? Get specific. Connect brief to Persona.
• Emotion: What should they feel? Know their beliefs, biases, loves &
hates.
• Tone of voice = How should you speak to your audience?
7/25/2017 https://velocitypartners.com/blog/how-to-write-a-great-content-marketing-brief/ 10

11. Content brief continued
• Key insight: Great content is
always built on a crystal of
insight. Create an “Aha!”
moment.
• World view: A clear, compelling
big picture view to create
urgency
• Story arc: Tell a story
• Competition: Gather what
content is out there and show
your team of writers what’s
good and what falls short
7/25/2017
http://velocitypartners.com/blog/how-to-write-a-great-content-marketing-brief/
11

12. Content distribution
• Owned media includes the channels that belong to your client, where
you control the content.
• Blog, website, email newsletter and social media profiles.
• Earned media involves others sharing the content.
• Social media shares, guest posts, media coverage and product reviews.
• Paid media is the exposure you pay for
• Pay-per-click ads, display ads or social ads
7/25/2017 https://blog.bufferapp.com/content-distribution-tools 12

13. http://blog.bufferapp.com/content-distribution-tools 13
Paid, earned and owned
7/25/2017 13

14. Tactics and templates for execution
Guides to document a content strategy &
streamline creation through:
• Alignment - matching marketing priorities to
business objectives
• Collaboration - content classification and
content workflows
• Accessibility - clearly defined publishing
channels and centralized digital asset
management
• Insights - metrics that matter to understand
your content operation and improve future
strategy
7/25/2017 http://resources.kapost.com/essential-b2b-content-templates-thank-you.html? 14

15. Content
calendars
• The schedule for publishing
content for a given period of
time
• Often annually or during a
specific campaign period
• Ensures important publishing
milestones are recognized
and planned
7/25/2017 15

16. Digital content
• Digital content is any content that exists in the form of digital data,
also known as digital media
• Digital content is stored on digital or analog storage in specific
formats
• Forms of digital content include information that is digitally
broadcast, streamed, or contained in computer files
7/25/2017 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_content 16

17. Digital content file formats
• Image: .jpg/jpeg, .png. .gif
• Audio: .mp3, .wav
• Video: .mp4, .mov, .avi
• Microsoft Office: .doc, .docx,
.xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx
• Portable Document Format:
.PDF
7/25/2017 http://pardot.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2629745-supported-content-file-types 17

18. Content management
• Content is a key business asset that effectively drives business growth
by enabling smart decision making
• Effective content management is mandatory to leverage the power of
content
• The explosive growth of content from various channels in varied
forms and formats can be a challenge for the content handling
capabilities of conventional content management systems
• Content strategists should be familiar with a variety of content
management systems
7/25/2017 http://www.htcinc.com/it-services/records-and-content-management/ 18

19. Track, measure and adjust
• Consumption - How many people viewed, downloaded or listened to
this piece of content?
• Sharing - How resonant is this content, and how often is it shared
with others?
• Lead generation - How often does content consumption result in a
lead?
• Sales - Did the client actually make any money because of this
content?
• ROI – ( a bit tricky) measure each program that can then be rolled up
to determine the overall
7/25/2017 http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/a-field-guide-to-the-four-types-of-content-marketing-metrics 19

20. Thank you
7/25/2017 20

21. Index
• http://hannondigital.com/how-content-marketing-can-help-a-recruitment-agency/
• http://www.toprankblog.com/what-is-content/
• http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/content.html
• http://thecontentwrangler.com/project/language-content-strategy/
• http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/content-strategy.html
• http://blog.kissmetrics.com/content-strategy-a-development-guide/
• http://www.digitalcurrent.com/digital-marketing/9-steps-to-find-your-target-audience/
• http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/content-marketing-personas/
• http://velocitypartners.com/blog/how-to-write-a-great-content-marketing-brief/
• http://blog.bufferapp.com/content-distribution-tools
• http://resources.kapost.com/essential-b2b-content-templates-thank-you.html?
• http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/how-to-build-a-content-calendar
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_content
• http://pardot.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2629745-supported-content-file-types
• http://www.htcinc.com/it-services/records-and-content-management/
• http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/a-field-guide-to-the-four-types-of-content-marketing-metrics
7/25/2017 21