Content Strategy and Requirements

Analyze

Strategize

Schedule

Assign

Draft

Revise

Approve

Publish

Create

Requirements

Questions

• We must be able to give a detailed account of all content.
• We must be able to see and understand how all our content is organized on our website and within our content management and file storage systems.
• We must know who creates, approves, distributes and maintains content.
• We must know which tools, agencies and partners we worked with to create, distribute and archive content.

• What marketing content and assets do we already have (print, web, social and "soft," such as presentations)?
• How is our content organized?
• Who creates our content and marketing assets?
• What tools do we use?
• How do we distribute our content?
• Where does it all live?

AUDIT

What do we have?

Analyze

Questions

• What is our value proposition?
• What is our competitive advantage?
• What are our competitors doing?
• What forces and trends are shaping the industry of the future?
• Where is the technology of the industry heading?
• Where are the gaps in the market?
• What are our strengths as a company?
• Where is the market heading?
• What do industry experts say about us vs. the competition?
• What legislation or regulation may affect the industry?
• ...and many more.

Requirements

• Access to company strategic plans and thought leaders.
• Access to industry analyst and industry news.
• Research into competition.
• Research on macro trends and technology
• Economic, academic and industry expert research, opinions and advice.

Market Insight

Message

Questions

Requirements

• What does our content say?
• Is our content conveying our brand message?
• Is our content aligned with business goals?
• What message should we be conveying (to each audience)?
• Where should we change what we're saying or how we're saying it?
• Where should we repeat our message?
• Are we delivering our messages through the right tactics and vehicles?

• Who are our customers?
• What do they want?
• What do they say about us?
• How much do they like us?
• How much do they like the competition?

Requirements

• We must have a message map, tracking which message we're sending to which audience.
• We must align content with brand message and business goals, and use our Audit and Listening analysis to evaluate our progress.
• We must be able to use strategic planning to decide what messages we should push in the future.
• We must use our analysis to evaluate our efforts and decide on changes.

• Direct feedback from customers (via survey, customer service reports, sales reports, etc).
• Indirect feedback from customers (via independent research, social listening, etc.).

Voice of the Customer

LISTEN

EVALUATE

What do we need?

How did we do?

What should we do next?

Requirements

Quality

Analytics

• Metrics and subject matter experts that can determine how useful content is for targets and if it is reaching them.
• User Experience and Information Architects who can judge how user-friendly content flow is.
• Editors and subject matter experts who can judge the timeliness, accuracy, and written quality of content.

Questions

Web Analytics

• What search terms/keywords are bringing people to our sites?
• Which pages get the most hits?
• How do people journey through our site(s)?
• Where is engagement the strongest?
• How are people exiting the site?
• What is our conversion rate?

Requirements

Questions

• Is the content useful for audience and stakeholders?
• Is the content user-friendly?
• Is the content reaching the intended audiences (i.e., findable)?
• Is the content up-to-date and accurate?
• Is the content well-written?
• Is the content interesting and engaging?
• Are our tactics effective?

• We must be able to measure:
• Visitors, unique visitors, returning visitors
• Time on site
• Bounce rate
• Conversions
• We must compare by page and by time period.
• We must be able to to understand how visitors journey through our site
• We must be able to measure hits per keyword

Questions

Social Listening

• What are our customers saying?
• Where is the conversation taking place?
• What are they saying about us? Our competitors?
• How often are we mentioned?
• How often are we participating?

Requirements

• We must be able to find our customers online, where ever they are (Twitter, Facebook, niche forums, etc.).
• We must be able to track and measure their conversations (by keyword, intensity, etc.).
• We must be able to measure engagement with us (mentions, retweets, likes, comments, etc.).

Team Input

Questions

Marketing Analytics

Requirements

• How much impact have ads have?
• What media hits have we gotten? What were the topics and how positive was the press?
• How many leads have we generated?
• How successful were campaigns?
• How much attention did we receive from events?
• How has our collateral (brochures, presentations, etc.) been received?

• We must be able to measure impact and ROI on ads and campaigns.
• We must be able to track and measure press coverage and media hits.
• We must be able to measure lead generation.
• We must be able to track ROI and impact from event participation.

Questions

• What do we think is going well?
• What is not going well?
• What are our goals?
• Where are our problem areas?
• How are our efforts paying off?
• Where are we having poor ROI in terms of time and/or money?
• What relationships are we leveraging?
• ... and more.

Requirements

• We must be able to gather input from the entire team.
• We must be able to compare projects/output to individual and team goals.
• We must be able to see the full scope of skills and resources available within the team.
• We must be aware of all relationships and partnerships that can be leveraged.
• We must be able to measure ROI on team resources, especially time.

Alignment requirements:

• Written documentation of goals and objectives.
• Formal approval from stakeholders.

Monitor for immediate intervention and opportunity.

We must continue to watch for problems, troubleshoot for customers and stakeholders, and capitalize on opportunities.

Monitoring Requirements

We must have a process for continually monitoring our processes and communications to gather and act upon feedback.

We cannot think of content management as a "set it and forget it" process.

Sales

Internal

Questions

Stakeholders

Requirements

• What do they need to know to do their jobs effectively?
• What tools and resources should we provide them with?
• What questions are they asking about us?
• Where does our work touch theirs?
• How are they segmented (LOB, focus, role, etc.)?

Other

• We need to make a clear separation between what these teams need for themselves and what they need for external audiences (e.g., training vs sales materials).
• We need to align planning and production to specific goals related to the wants and needs of these audiences.
• We need to collaborate and track projects that cross team boundaries.

Requirements

Questions

• What key events (trade shows, conferences, product releases, holidays, etc.) do we need to plan around?
• What campaigns or themes do we want to produce, and how should they launch and continue over time?
• What's the ideal cadence for our material to be released?
• What do we see on the horizon?
• How do projects overlap?

• We must be able to see how our releases are timed.
• We must be able to see how campaigns overlap.
• We must have a full view of key dates and how they overlap with publication/release dates.
• We must be able to see project overlaps, particularly in regards to how they impact team members.
• We must be able to see how the releases are cadenced and how that impacts audience perception.

• We must be able to target and track audiences by vertical, segment, buying phase, industry, etc.
• We must be able to

TIMING

TARGET

Schedule

Audience

When should we share our content?

What do they want?

What will get their attention?

Vendors

Partners

Subject Matter Experts

External

Customers

• What are our target verticals?
• How is our audience is segmented and what does each segment want?
• How do our prospects travel through the buying process?
• Do we know how our customers or prospects think about each division or area of our company?
• What do experts in our industry think of us?
• How do our partners understand our message?
• How do our vendors understand our message?

Prospects

Questions

• We must be able to target and track our audience by vertical, segment, industry, buying phase, etc.
• We must know where are audiences will hear our message.
• We must know what our audiences want.
• We must know how we can meet our audience needs.
• We must align with vendors, partners and SMEs on how we relate to our customers.

Requirements

Strategize

TOPIC

TACTIC

Theme

Format/Platform

What should we talk about?

How do we deliver our message?

Questions

Requirements

• We must be able to plan and coordinate across platforms and channels.
• We must be able to measure progress against goals for each tactic.
• We must be able to align tactics with specific goals and audiences.

• Are we matching our tactics to our goals, audiences, messaging, etc.?
• Are we considering all channels available to us?
• Do we know why we are using each tactic?
• Do we consider time when employing each tactic?
• Do we think about how each communication or message can be delivered via each channel?

Questions

Requirements

• We must be able to evaluate and plan communications and content strategies by audience and topic.
• We must be able to compare our efforts to the industries and verticals where we want to participate.
• We must have specific goals for where we want to participate and how we want to influence the conversations.
• We must know how we want to be perceived, and what we need to do/say to influence that perception.

• What key messages do we deliver for each audience? How do these message relate or overlap?
• How do our communications and discussions align with the conversations occurring in our industries and verticals?
• What topics will grow our share of the conversation?
• Where do we need to add our voice to the conversation?
• For which topics do we need to showcase our expertise?
• Where can we offer unique insight or expertise?

Content

Marketing &

Management

Cycle

Engage

ENGAGE

Questions

• Has our content reached the intended audience?
• Are we using our materials to encourage interaction?
• Are we making contact with our audience not just on our terms (our website, community, etc.), but also on theirs (outside venues).

Questions

• Are we starting and participating in discussions about our topics?
• Are we fostering relationships through sustained conversations?
• Are we conversing with multiple audiences, through multiple channels?

CONNECT

Requirements

CONVERSE

• Our distribution and social media plans should be focused on interaction and creating deeper relationships.
• We must have trusted subject and communications experts who can respond and interact with external audiences in a timely fashion.
• We should understand how conversations within and outside our owned communication channels influence each other.

Requirements

• We should provide guidelines and talking points for anyone who will be talking about our materials.
• We must have a plan for discussions that will engage our audience in our online communities, and it should be informed by the editorial calendar.
• We should use these conversations to inform how we continue to engage our audiences, both online and through the creation of new content and materials.

CURATE

Questions

• How are we sharing, bookmarking and distributing our materials?
• Are we sharing and promoting materials and conversations by our partners and affiliates?
• Are we sharing appropriate material on our topics from outside sources?

Requirements

• We must plan not only for initial releases, but also repurposing and sharing material.
• We should know and share related materials that help further develop our conversations with our customers, partners and stakeholders.

Develop an editorial calendar.

The plan should be outlined in a robust calendar that details:

• What is being developed
• When each project should be delivered
• Who each project is for
• How each project is being shared
• Who is responsible

Calendar Requirements

• We must be able to see how all projects align and compare over time in terms of theme, cadence, audience, vehicle, topic, and assigned creators.
• We should be able to not only take a holistic view of all projects, but also to segment by audience, channel, campaign, team, etc.
• Ideally, the editorial calendar would integrate with workflow management.

Develop key performance indicators (KPIs)

Decide on the measures that will determine how well we've met our goals.

KPI Requirements

• We must decide what results we will measure and how we will collect the data.
• We must align our measurements to specific goals.

Creative Workflow

Questions

• What is the publication, release or event date?
• How long will it take the piece to get through the workflow? How long will each stage take?
• What are the roadblocks or conflicts that may cause delays?
• What other projects share key dates (draft due, approval, publication, etc.) with the project?

Requirements

• We must plan not just for the release date, but also for each stage of the creation process.
• We must be able to compare timelines for projects, to see where there are overlaps on resources.
• We must track deadlines and hold people accountable for missing them.
• We must reevaluate the process and scheduling regularly to streamline the workflow for everyone involved.

Questions

• Has everyone who was actively involved in the drafting and revision cycle signed off?
• Have we selected all the correct stakeholders for approval?
• Have we limited the approval process to only necessary people?
• Is our approval process best practice for the project type?

Requirements

• Everyone actively involved in the drafting and revision phase should sign off before the project is released for formal/final approval.
• We should match the approval process to the type of project.
• Approvers should know when to expect the project and the final release date.
• Approvers should have access to appropriate stakeholders for any questions.
• Approvers should have the option of participating in the revision process; they should not be revising during the approval phase as a matter of practice.

Questions

Requirements

• Has the draft fulfilled the project requirements?
• Are we speaking to the correct audience?
• Are we optimized for our delivery method?
• Are the message, tone and style on target?
• Have we met our quality standards?
• Is the content accurate?
• Are we focused on objective, not subjective, revisions?

• Everyone in the workflow must be trained to look for objective revisions (not subjective).
• Editing should be focused on ensuring the project meets its goals.
• Each project should be revised until it accurate, optimized for its audience and delivery mechanism, and meets our brand and audience standards.
• We must be able to look across the workflow to identify projects types, creators or stakeholders that derail or excel at the revision process, and reevaluate the workflow.

Questions

• What resources do we need to complete this project as required by our goals?
• Who needs to be involved as a project manager, creative resource, subject matter expert or approver? Is the list complete but not excessive?
• What are the limitations on team members involved in the project (time, budget, skill level, etc.)?

Requirements

• We need to ensure that all necessary parties are included in the project, and that unnecessary parties do not impact the workflow.
• We need a clear idea of how time, personnel, budget, and other resources are allocated across the entire schedule/calendar.
• We need to identify limitations on team members and resources before starting the project.
• We need to ensure we're identifying the best people and resources for each project.

Requirements

Questions

• Have the project parameters been clearly defined?
• Does the creator know the workflow for the project and all key dates and deliverables?
• Is the project focused on specific audiences, key messages, delivery channels, etc.?
• Are there related projects that overlap in content or delivery?
• Is research or expert input required?

• The workflow and goals should be fully identified before drafting starts.
• Everyone involved in the workflow should sign off on a project brief before drafting begins.
• Research and subject matter experts should be involved early in the process.
• For projects with a complex approval process, a detailed outline/wireframe should be approved before heavy work begins.

Questions

Requirements

• Are all internal stakeholders and partners aware of the new material?
• Has the piece been distributed to the intended audience?
• Do we have channels we can use to share the material beyond the original plan?

• We should have a plan to inform all stakeholders and partners about new material.
• We should have a formal distribution plan for delivering content/material to the intended audience.
• We should have a social media plan that includes all items on the editorial calendar.
• We should have bookmarking and curation plan around each theme or topic in the calendar.