Content strategy, a food analogy

If content is like food, then content strategy is the delivery system, whether a restaurant or a home cook feeding a family. Scriptorium is full of people who like to eat and cook, so food analogies are always popular around here.

Scalability

A recipe and a process that works for a small family doesn’t necessarily scale. I was recently in the position of feeding a crowd of 40 or so. I found myself quadrupling recipes and buying ingredients in bulk quantities that are normally unreasonable. The larger problem, though, was pots and pans. When you normally cook for three people, or a dozen people at a dinner party, you do not have containers in which to prepare forty servings of anything! I ended up borrowing a crockpot from a family member and splitting the meal across multiple large containers.

A small-scale content strategy probably will not work on an industrial level. The available tools and technologies are different, and your tolerance for fussy individual fixes is lower.

Target audience

Who is your audience? What do they like to eat, er, read? In the restaurant world, Michelin stars are considered the pinnacle of achievement, but not every restaurant can (or should) aspire to Michelin stars. Sometimes, you just want an inexpensive, informal (and delicious) meal at the local taco joint.

Acclaimed French Chef to Michelin: Take My Stars, Please (New York Times)

Your content strategy should match your target audience. Do you need to deliver a Michelin experience or not?

Ingredients

Is your audience vegetarian? Do diners have special requirements? Should you provide food and a side of entertainment for kids, like Chuck E Cheese (shudder)? Is local produce a priority?

On the content side, you might look at our hierarchy of content needs to figure out what to deliver.

What’s your take on food and content strategy? I’m headed out to lunch…