Key Takeaways
1. Identify content problems and turn them into opportunities
Problems are depressing. Opportunities, you can work with.
Uncover content issues: Start by documenting your hypotheses about what's wrong with your content. Common problems include:
- Misalignment between content and target audience
- Outdated or inaccurate information
- Poor readability and organization
- Weak calls to action
- Difficulty finding relevant information
Gather evidence: Use a combination of methods to prove or disprove your hypotheses:
- Content audits: Evaluate content objectively for factors like audience, purpose, and accuracy
- Analytics review: Examine metrics such as pageviews, user paths, and search terms
- User testing: Gain insights on findability, comprehension, and user sentiment
Transform problems into opportunities: Reframe identified issues as potential improvements. For example, "Outdated content" becomes "Opportunity to provide fresh, relevant information that builds trust with users."
2. Make a compelling business case for content strategy
Budget holders will find it pretty tough to say no to a project with a maximum risk of $5,000 and a potential gain of almost $3 million.
Think like a business person: Focus on return on investment (ROI) and risk vs. reward. Demonstrate how your project will:
- Increase efficiency
- Eliminate costs
- Boost sales or other key performance indicators (KPIs)
Quantify opportunities: Use data to create compelling projections. For example:
- Calculate time and money wasted on inefficient content processes
- Estimate potential increase in conversions or customer satisfaction
- Project cost savings from reduced support calls or improved self-service
Calculate risks: Present a balanced view by acknowledging potential downsides:
- Estimate maximum potential loss (project cost)
- Assess probability of success
- Compare risk of action vs. inaction
Consider non-monetary costs and benefits: Address factors like organizational change, improved brand perception, and employee satisfaction.
3. Engage stakeholders and align on project objectives
Stakeholder involvement and alignment will make or break your project.
Identify key stakeholders: Map out individuals who can affect or are affected by your project:
- Roles: Project owner, decision makers, champions, influencers, derailers
- Types: Strategic, expert, implementer, user proxy
Craft your approach: Tailor your communication and engagement strategy for each stakeholder:
- Prepare discussion guides for interviews
- Plan workshops or working sessions for collaborative input
- Develop a communications plan to keep stakeholders informed throughout the project
Set and align on objectives: Facilitate a session to get everyone on the same page:
- Present project context and discovery findings
- Define business goals and content objectives
- Identify challenges and opportunities
- Agree on next steps and stakeholder involvement
Use techniques like facilitative listening, group decision-making frameworks, and consensus-building exercises to ensure all voices are heard and alignment is achieved.
4. Understand your business environment and user needs
To make strategic recommendations about content, you need to understand the business.
Investigate internal factors:
- Offerings: Products, services, history, lifecycle
- Customers: Target segments, problems solved, interactions
- Revenue: Sales channels, pricing, goals
- Expenditures: Technology investments, operational costs
Explore external factors:
- Competitors: Direct and indirect, differentiators
- Legal and regulatory environment
- Industry trends and current events
- Customer behaviors and expectations
Conduct user research:
- Market research vs. user research: Understand the difference and value of each
- Methods: Interviews, observations, surveys, analytics review
- Key areas to explore: Attitudes, concerns, experiences, behaviors, motivations
Document and synthesize findings: Use tools like discovery insights workbooks to organize information and identify patterns that will inform your strategy.
5. Create a content compass with core strategy and messaging framework
The core strategy statement is the central component of your content compass.
Craft a core strategy statement: Answer four key questions:
- What content will you produce?
- For whom?
- For what user need?
- To achieve what business goal?
Example: "To reduce customer service center costs, we will provide user-facing, task-based support content that makes our professional customers feel confident when configuring products for their clients."
Develop a messaging framework: Clarify what you want audiences to know and believe about you:
- First impression: Initial feeling or understanding
- Value statement: Key benefits or unique selling proposition
- Proof points: How you demonstrate your claims
Use collaborative exercises like Mad Libs or card sorting to gather input from stakeholders and create alignment around your content compass.
6. Design content prioritization, organization, and presentation
Prioritization helps you cull that content down to the truly useful and relevant bits and pieces.
Prioritize content:
- Plot content on two axes: Business impact and user need
- Use techniques like Top Tasks Analysis to identify user priorities
- Create content prioritization matrices to guide decision-making
Organize content:
- Develop sitemaps to visualize content hierarchy and relationships
- Create taxonomies to classify and connect related content
Present content:
- Use the core model to identify key pages and their components
- Create content models to define reusable content types and their attributes
- Develop specifications like content overlays and page tables to guide content creation
Collaborate with designers, developers, and content creators to ensure your content design supports both user needs and technical requirements.
7. Implement roles, processes, and tools for on-strategy content creation
Everyone working on content in your organization (including outside resources you bring in) should know what your content strategy is and understand how it affects content.
Define roles and responsibilities:
- Editor: Strategic and brand integrity
- Owner: Content accuracy and updates
- Writer: Content creation based on strategy and requirements
- Subject Matter Expert (SME): Expertise and accuracy review
- Reviewer: Compliance and guideline adherence
- Proofer: Grammar, typos, and formatting
- Publisher: CMS entry and content publishing
Establish content creation process:
- Assign content
- Create content (including research and SME interviews)
- Review content (SME, editor, legal/compliance)
- Revise content
- Proofread
- Publish
Provide content creation tools:
- Content production inventory
- Style guide (voice and tone, writing best practices)
- Feedback forms and checklists for reviewers
Ensure all team members understand their roles, the process, and have access to necessary tools and guidelines.
8. Establish governance, maintenance, and planning for long-term content success
You can't just set it and forget it.
Assign content authority:
- Strategic: Overall responsibility for content strategy and success metrics
- Implementation: Day-to-day content management and quality control
Implement maintenance processes:
- Planned: Regular content audits and updates (at least annually)
- Unplanned: System for handling urgent content change requests
Develop content planning practices:
- Content product planning: Strategic decisions on new content initiatives
- Editorial planning: Tactical decisions on content topics, promotion, and distribution
Continuous improvement:
- Regularly review content strategy and performance metrics
- Adapt to changes in business goals, user needs, and industry trends
By establishing clear governance, maintenance, and planning practices, you ensure that your content remains relevant, effective, and aligned with your strategy over time.
Last updated:
FAQ
What is "The Content Strategy Toolkit" by Meghan Casey about?
- Comprehensive Guide to Content Strategy: The book is a practical handbook that provides methods, guidelines, and templates for planning, creating, and maintaining effective content within organizations.
- Step-by-Step Framework: It walks readers through the entire content strategy process, from identifying content problems and getting buy-in, to articulating strategy, designing content, and ensuring ongoing governance.
- Toolkit Approach: The book is structured around a toolkit of downloadable resources, checklists, and templates to help readers apply the concepts directly to their projects.
- Real-World Focus: Meghan Casey draws on her experience at Brain Traffic to offer actionable advice for both beginners and experienced content strategists, emphasizing flexibility and adaptation to different organizational contexts.
Why should I read "The Content Strategy Toolkit" by Meghan Casey?
- Practical and Actionable: The book is filled with real-world tools, templates, and step-by-step instructions, making it easy to implement content strategy in any organization.
- Addresses Common Challenges: It tackles the most frequent content issues organizations face, such as stakeholder alignment, content audits, and governance, providing solutions that work in practice.
- For All Experience Levels: Whether you’re new to content strategy or a seasoned professional, the book offers value, serving as both a manual for beginners and a reference for experts.
- Industry-Endorsed: The book is praised by leading content strategists and digital professionals for its clarity, practicality, and depth.
What are the key takeaways from "The Content Strategy Toolkit" by Meghan Casey?
- Content Strategy is Purpose-Driven: Effective content strategy is about delivering the right content, to the right people, at the right time, for the right reasons.
- Stakeholder Alignment is Critical: Success depends on getting buy-in and alignment from all relevant stakeholders early and throughout the project.
- Tools and Templates Matter: Using structured tools—like audits, matrices, and checklists—streamlines the process and ensures nothing is overlooked.
- Governance and Maintenance are Essential: Content strategy doesn’t end at launch; ongoing governance, planning, and maintenance are necessary for long-term success.
What are the best quotes from "The Content Strategy Toolkit" and what do they mean?
- “Content strategy helps organizations provide the right content, to the right people, at the right times, for the right reasons.”
This encapsulates the book’s core philosophy: content must be purposeful and user-focused. - “Problems are depressing. Opportunities, you can work with.”
Casey encourages reframing content issues as opportunities for improvement, making them more actionable and appealing to stakeholders. - “Measurement is useless if you don’t act on what you learn; meaningless metrics are worse than not measuring at all.”
The book stresses that analytics and measurement should drive real improvements, not just generate reports. - “The lack of a formal or documented strategy is still a strategy. It’s just an unintentional one that may or may not help achieve business outcomes or address user needs and expectations.”
This highlights the importance of intentional, documented strategy over ad hoc or accidental approaches.
How does Meghan Casey define content strategy in "The Content Strategy Toolkit"?
- Purpose-Driven Definition: Casey defines content strategy as helping organizations provide the right content, to the right people, at the right times, for the right reasons, with a strong emphasis on understanding the “why.”
- Quad Framework: She uses Brain Traffic’s “quad” model, which includes substance (what and why), structure (organization), workflow (process), and governance (decision-making).
- Lifecycle Focus: Content strategy is seen as a continuous process, involving planning, creation, publication, and ongoing governance.
- Not Just Tactics: The book distinguishes between strategy (the plan and purpose) and tactics (the actual creation and management of content).
What is the overall process or methodology outlined in "The Content Strategy Toolkit"?
- Five-Part Framework: The book is organized into five main parts: Get Budget and Buy-In, Set Up for Success, Dig In and Get the Dirt, Articulate Your Strategy, and Put Your Strategy into Action.
- Discovery and Diagnosis: Early chapters focus on identifying content problems, understanding business goals, and learning about users and current content.
- Strategy Articulation: The process includes creating a core strategy statement and messaging framework to guide all content decisions.
- Implementation and Governance: The methodology emphasizes the importance of roles, responsibilities, workflows, and ongoing maintenance to ensure content remains effective.
What are the most important tools and templates provided in "The Content Strategy Toolkit"?
- Content Audit Spreadsheet: Helps systematically evaluate existing content for quality, relevance, and gaps.
- Stakeholder Matrix: Identifies and categorizes stakeholders by role and influence, ensuring comprehensive engagement.
- Strategic Alignment Summary: A document template to align stakeholders on business goals, user needs, and project objectives.
- Core Strategy Statement Mad Lib: A fill-in-the-blank worksheet to collaboratively define the core content strategy.
- Editorial Calendar Templates: Tools for planning and tracking ongoing content creation and publication.
- Many More: The book includes over 20 downloadable tools covering every phase of the content strategy process.
How does "The Content Strategy Toolkit" by Meghan Casey recommend getting stakeholder buy-in?
- Identify Problems and Opportunities: Start by documenting content issues and reframing them as business opportunities.
- Quantify Value: Use data and projections to show the potential ROI of content improvements, including cost savings and risk reduction.
- Use Toulmin’s Argument Model: Structure your case with clear claims, supporting data, warrants, backing, qualifiers, and rebuttals.
- Engage Stakeholders Early: Use tools like the Stakeholder Matrix and communications plans to involve and inform all relevant parties from the outset.
What is the role of measurement and analytics in "The Content Strategy Toolkit"?
- Define Success Early: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs), objectives, and metrics aligned with business goals and content objectives.
- Use Multiple Methods: Combine quantitative analytics (e.g., pageviews, conversions) with qualitative methods (e.g., heuristic assessments, user feedback).
- Action-Oriented Measurement: Emphasize that measurement should inform decisions and drive continuous improvement, not just report on activity.
- Tools for Reporting: The book provides templates for content scorecards and reports to communicate findings to stakeholders.
How does Meghan Casey address content governance and maintenance in "The Content Strategy Toolkit"?
- Content Lifecycle Model: Governance is positioned as central to the ongoing content lifecycle, which includes strategizing, planning, creating, maintaining, and auditing content.
- Assign Authority: Clearly define strategic and implementation authority roles to ensure accountability for content decisions and standards.
- Planned and Unplanned Maintenance: Establish processes for regular content reviews and for handling urgent, unplanned updates.
- Editorial Planning: Use editorial calendars and planning sessions to coordinate content efforts and ensure alignment with business priorities.
What are the key concepts and frameworks unique to "The Content Strategy Toolkit" by Meghan Casey?
- Brain Traffic’s Quad Framework: Substance, structure, workflow, and governance as the four pillars of content strategy.
- Strategic Alignment Summary: A pre-strategy document to ensure all stakeholders are aligned before moving to execution.
- Core Strategy Statement and Messaging Framework: Tools for articulating and communicating the content strategy’s purpose and key messages.
- Core Model and Content Modeling: Methods for designing content around user tasks and business objectives, ensuring content is purposeful and well-structured.
Who is the ideal reader for "The Content Strategy Toolkit" by Meghan Casey, and how should they use the book?
- Aspiring and Experienced Content Strategists: The book is suitable for those new to content strategy as well as seasoned professionals seeking to refine their approach.
- Managers and Team Leaders: Those building or leading content teams will find frameworks for stakeholder alignment, process design, and governance.
- Cross-Disciplinary Professionals: Designers, developers, marketers, and communicators can use the book to integrate content strategy into their workflows.
- Flexible Usage: Beginners are encouraged to read sequentially as a manual, while experienced practitioners can use it as a reference or toolkit for specific challenges.
Review Summary
The Content Strategy Toolkit receives mostly positive reviews, with an average rating of 4.15 out of 5. Readers appreciate its practical approach, valuable tools, and templates for content strategy implementation. Many find it helpful for both beginners and experienced professionals, praising its organized structure and clear guidance. Some criticisms include its focus on web-based content and limited applicability for small businesses. The book is considered a valuable reference for content managers and strategists, offering insights into planning, stakeholder management, and overall content strategy development.
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