King Content

Every marketer talks about the importance of content. I believe that it's the most important (and hardest) part of any project. But what does good content look like and how is it generated?

As we're now deep into the development of our new website I thought I'd share the method we've been using for business orientated outcomes. The main aim, as always, is to be as useful as possible to any future visitor.

By using the core content model (devised by someone far cleverer than me and introduced to us by our web agency) we begin by auditing the content we have. This involves cross referencing our top 20% search engine ranked pages with our top 20% visited pages. By doing this we identify what content we need to keep before rewriting it.

We pick out the keywords for each of these pages which we need to keep for SEO purposes being sure to keep the user in mind at all times. For example, visitors to our 'About Us' page will have clear questions in mind such as 'Can I work with these people?' 'Why are they better than the last 5 companies I've looked at?' By answering these user questions in a conversational (i.e. no jargon) way it's much easier to show the personality of our brand. We've even tried recorded interviews with colleagues answering these questions to ensure the writing style is more personable.

Next we need to involve our editorial council to generate the new content. To do this we've created a helpsheet which identifies the cores. Each representative of the business first lists their 'Business Goals' and 'User Tasks' for their proposed page. For example, these could be 'To help increase knowledge of BIM' and 'To see projects utilising BIM'.

An example of our new content template
Then we ask them to plan the inward paths to this page (i.e. how will users find it). These could be 'By Googling BIM' or 'By clicking on a homepage link'.

After this they need to determine the core content. To do this they need to think about what content is needed for the user to achieve their goals. The format of this can be defined as anything from either text, video, an infographic or a quiz.

Finally, they need to set the forward paths - where does the visitor go next? This could be either looking at other modern building techniques or getting in touch to find out more.

By looking at everything in tandem with a well researched list of keywords, and in the context of tasks, all content will be written with the user in mind. It also means that editors are forced to think about the real business case for everything that is published on the website. This process ensures nothing is published on a whim but that the purpose of each webpage is clearly documented.

We've started using the excellent tool 'Gather Content' to collect what we need from the business in the correct format. We can set module types for consistency along with character and word limits. Editors fill in the form and it is all ready to populate the CMS via the existing integrations. I've found tools like this (which allow us to work on project tasks in tandem) are essential when on a tight schedule!

Whilst I'm on the subject of content I spent last Friday at interviews for the CIPR Excellence Awards where our Shaping Your World campaign is shortlisted for 'Best Use of Content'. This was a great experience and we discover if we've won for either this or Best B2B Campaign (for which we're also shortlisted) on 6th June.

We've also achieved another ambition by being shortlisted for the Best Integrated B2B Campaign at the Drum Marketing Awards. This is for the same campaign and is a massive achievement given we're up against companies list Spotify and Dropbox! The awards for this are the previous Wednesday, 30th May, so it should be a great fortnight of celebrations.
Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment