There’s something so whimsically delightful about the “hello world!” at the start of a new blog. I remember when blogs first came on the scene. Publishing that first post was enough to get you noticed by others. You truly could address the “world” and expect a response.
How times have changed! Merely having a website doesn’t cut it anymore, of course. To get the attention let alone the buy-in and trust of even a very small portion of “the world” requires a multi-armed octopi-type strategy – regular content in diverse formats, multiple channels, meaningful schema, structured data – and if you’re really hungry, you’ll pay for advertising, collab with influencers, and mine analytics (performing user testing and forming focus groups) to figure out exactly when, where, and how to produce the stuff that attracts a ton of eyes and generates loads of dollars. And what works one day doesn’t work the next.
I’ve witnessed three main ways that companies navigate this demanding, everchanging digital world.
The Big Company Has Big Teams
If you’re a big company, you grow internal teams, hiring more and more highly trained specialists to take on the growing disciplines and skillsets having a vibrant web presence requires. And you hire vendors, consultants to supplement your staff, whose advice lends credibility to decisions you were going to make anyway.
On the plus side, large companies can acquire cutting-edge experts and tech. They have big websites with fancy designs and ROI. The downside? Products and timelines suffer from committee decision making, communication gaps, and an almost manic overengineering that seeks to justify the bloated budget. Leaders believe the resulting bland, unsatisfying user experiences represent the best they can do, neglecting to construct less complicated, more agile processes focused on quality user experiences.
Alternately, the number of expert teams in the company mushroom and split so much that each becomes the ruler of their own little website or social media fiefdom. Silos reinforce egos, splitting and confusing users. And for some reason, there’s a lot of billboards.
Doing All the Things
Smaller companies and organizations who lack the infrastructure and funding to grow teams of specialists head in the opposite direction. They task existing staff to take on new duties. With little training and a lot of guesswork, the hardy souls in these mid and small-sized entities take much-needed shortcuts. They meet their deadlines, even if they don’t understand the point of what they’re doing. Even though they rely on prefab platforms, staff members feel squeezed by unreal expectations and duplicate efforts.
On the plus side, individuals obtain a host of skills and knowledge and can use them without a bureaucracy bogging them down to get things done.
The downside? These companies typically are too overworked on the daily to pay attention to shifting trends or develop thorough, considered strategies that could maximize their efforts with deliberate, right-sized resource allocation. User needs take a backseat to deadline-driven publishing; success often amounts to counting effort and general traffic, disregarding goals and metrics that truly impact and inform business success.
Website as Yellow Page Listing
And then there’s the tiny businesses, whose digital presence is more an afterthought than a money-generator. As AI complicates the search landscape and eases workflows, they continue to rely heavily on in-person networking and traditional advertising. Their website holds down the fort, so to speak. They know they “have” to have it; but really, they could care less.
On the plus side, the web presence for this kind of business isn’t losing their budget or any sleep on keeping up with the internet, leaving more time and resources for the business itself. On the downside, not only does this business miss out on the growth opportunity a robust content strategy could make possible; they also risk becoming redundant and losing revenue on a long-term basis.
How the Right Content Strategy Can Help
No matter the size of your digital operation, a robust content strategy can play a useful role, outlining:
- Reasonable, obtainable goals grounded in user needs
- Workable timelines to frame progress
- The why behind every what and how
- Tactics aligned to objectives
- Targeted, impactful initiatives vs. spaghetti-wall throwing
- Processes that scale while ensuring quality and efficiency
- Repurposing templates to maximize asset use
- Organization that streamlines inputs and outputs
- Key metrics aligned to business goals
- Priorities at every juncture
- Styles, best practices to ensure consistency
- Decision-making rubrics
Content strategy typically includes descriptions of website architecture, topic recommendations, platform placements, and content pillars. According to Wikipedia, a content strategy “guides the planning, development, and management of content.”
Most content strategies I’ve seen or been involved with do this, but to a limited extent. That is, I’ve never seen structural changes to accommodate a content strategy set forth or applied. I think this means the usual strategy lacks an element necessary for ensuring its successful implementation.
Many teams grow to accommodate digital evolutions in reactive, ad-hoc ways that don’t audit and revise roles and responsibilities within and across teams as the expand. To ensure that a big company’s new specialists or a mid-sized company’s newly tasked generalists remain effective, efficient, supported, and invested, leaders and their teams need to, together, set clear boundaries and expectations and share goals and procedures across teams. Transparency and honesty throughout an organization of any size builds trust and eases friction along the content pipeline, boosting productivity and quality.
Language IS the Medium
What exactly am I proposing? The old adage, “Content is king,” has never been more apt. It would take a longer essay to revisit “the medium is the message,” But I will note that, we humans have been communicating with language – oral, symbolic, written -forever. Whether delivered in shamanic song or via an Instagram reel, language itself has served as the medium of our deepest needs, identities, desires. The need to communicate, to connect via words, is itself the defining human drive. The forms may morph, but language is itself the core medium of our connections.
We invented words, you could say. And you could also say: We use words to invent ourselves.
Content Strategy is About Language
Content strategy, therefore, in its aim to formalize and strengthen how various forms and formats of language serve an organization’s needs, isn’t just a niche discipline for website coherence. When you create a content strategy, you’re deciding who you are and how you want to show up for your users. This directly shapes and defines the types of relationships you will form with partners, constituents, organizations, target audiences, and other stakeholders.
Beyond the Screen: The Scope of Content Strategy
For many software proprietors, web-based services, and online sellers, digital “content” is the only embodiment they have, the only manner in which they come to be known. But every entity, even the most Luddite, requires verbal presence of some kind to operate. The ideal content strategy, then, doesn’t pertain solely to a digitized footprint. Consider the messaging of the call center, the sales rep, the flier, the thought leaders, the signage, the packaging, the uniforms. The user experiences all of these as the same entity, the same brand. Content and brand strategy must align to provide the kind of consistency that inspires trust.
Stay tuned for more thoughts on critical alignments that often don’t get the attention they deserve.
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