Content Strategy: When Should a Business Think About Content?

When Does Content Matter?

Before anything else.  Before a design, a color, or a wireframe is ever decided on, content has to be established.

What Dictates Content?

Your desired audience. Not who you think your audience is based on what you, the business owner, thinks they know, but who your audience actually is. How do you find out who your audience is? You will need to speak with everyone that currently works in your organization about their perceptions and about their interaction with your customers. You will need to speak with your customers and find out their perceptions of your business and their lifestyles. How does your business fit in their lifestyle?  What do they do on a daily basis and how did they come to select you?

Are you thinking all this sounds good? I think it sounds good. So why do so few businesses do this?

We start our projects lofty and with great intentions but then things get in the way and content gets thrown in at the last minute in the middle of the night because the next day is a deadline. Time is a bastard, isn’t it? Also, what about budget? How many businesses actually want to pay for the research it will take to find out about your audience? If businesses knew the return on investment for planning and executing a content strategy, they would probably be more likely to do things in an organized, meaningful way.

I am studying Content Strategy at Work by Margot Bloomstein and one of the things I am hoping to get from this book are case studies with measurable results that I can discuss with my clients.