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September 11, 2017

Defining a content strategy

The scope and practice of content strategy is ever-expanding. From marketing to user experience to technical content development, the need for a strategy governing content creation and production grows. With this growth, the definitions of content strategy can vary, but they all recognize that the need for effective and targeted content is critical.

Content strategy in a nutshell

squirrel with walnut

A content strategy can be a hard nut to crack. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
[image: Pixabay/Arcaion]

The essence of content strategy is simple: make a plan for your content to achieve a specific result. Your strategy could be small in scope, such as targeting web copy to a specific audience or tailoring your authoring process to suit multiple delivery formats. Or your strategy could be large in scope, aligning all content with a new brand or updating content infrastructure and workflows changes to improve localization accuracy and time to market.

Regardless of the scope, a content strategy must have a goal. That goal needs to be measurable and attainable. “Make content better” is not a goal. What does better mean, and how can you measurably attain a better state of “better?”

Better goals could be to improve market penetration by 20% over the next 12 months, cut technical support calls in half over the next 3 years, or release all language versions of a product at the same time within the next 5 years.

A goal should have deadline with a measurable means of tracking progress. If you can’t measure your progress, you can’t predict whether the goal is attainable.

Our content strategy approach

At Scriptorium, we focus on enterprise content strategy, which involves multiple groups or departments responsible for content.

Common client goals include the following:

  • Expedited time to market
  • Reduced localization spend
  • Increased language and regional market support
  • Multiple content delivery formats
  • Integration of content and product
  • Increased consistency in all produced content
  • Improved content findability
  • Reduced support calls

Each of these goals have specific deadlines and measures of success, such as simultaneous delivery to all language markets within 2 years or a 30% reduction in support costs over the next three product releases.

We approach content strategy as a means of solving business problems with content. Our approach is highly collaborative. We align our knowledge of content management, authoring, translation, and publishing with our clients’ industry and market knowledge to achieve business goals.