UX London Applying Brand-Driven Content Strategy

@mbloomstein | #UXLondon 1
© 2013© 2011
Learn your ABCs:
Applying Brand-driven
Content Strategy
Margot Bloomstein
UX London April 2013
@mbloomstein

© 2013
Unless you understand what people are
trying to do with your content you cannot
know if it’s working or not.”
Gerry McGovern
“

© 2013
Your serve.
And who are you again? 

© 2013
What is content strategy?
Planning for the creation, aggregation,
delivery, and governance of useful,
usable, and appropriate content in an
experience.

© 2013
Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines

© 2013
Content model
Metadata guidelines

Deliverables are
merely punctuation in
the conversation.
Don’t let them replace
the conversation.

Why content strategy?
Because we all want the same thing,
but content keeps getting in the way.

© 2013
Content demands attention

© 2013
Because we all want the same thing,
but content keeps getting in the way.
(CC) http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking
Content requires time

© 2013
Sustainable content is content you can
create—and maintain—without going
broke, without lowering quality in ways
that make the content suck, and without
working employees into nervous
breakdowns.
Erin Kissane,
The Elements of Content Strategy

© 2013
Content dredges up politics
©Margot Bloomstein

© 2013
to change, empower, support,
advocate, teach, simplify,
consolidate, remind, inform…
You cannot act in passive voice

© 2013
to change, empower, support,
advocate, teach, simplify,
consolidate, remind, inform…
Content demands an owner
& ownership.
You cannot act in passive voice

© 2013
First things first.
What do you need to communicate?

© 2013
First things first.
Why even…redesign the website, let the
CEO start blogging, audit the content,
start engaging on Twitter, consolidate the
site architecture, add video testimonials,
incorporate user reviews, develop new
brand guidelines… if you don’t know
what you need to communicate?

If you don’t know what
you need to communicate,
how will you know if you
succeed?

© 2013
What’s a message architecture?
A hierarchy of communication goals
that reflects a common vocabulary.

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A little thing with big impact.

© 2013
How could we prove this is a car not like
anything else out there? It’s a small car,
but it’s premium. You get a Porsche 911
ride for a fifth of the cost. It’s got history…
but in Europe.
You need to give people content to give
them history.”
“

© 2013
Premium technology
• Assertive; ready to perform as a driver’s car
• Proactive and supportive of spontaneity
Classic design
• Experienced and savvy
Cheekiness
• Smart,“punny,” hip
• Fun, gleeful

© 2013
If these emails are boring you
and you don’t mind missing out
on all the lip-smackin’ stuff
we’ll be sending in the future,
simply send a message to owner-
unsubscribe@insiders.miniusa.com
and include “Unsubscribe” and
your favorite fruit in the
subject field.

© 2013
Message architecture drives
the user experience

© 2013
Nomenclature
Calls to action
Instructional content
Sentence structure
Diction
…in content

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Photographic angles
Dark backgrounds
Bold headlines
Thick stroke weights
…and in design

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…and in the choice of features
and content types

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A hierarchy of communication goals
that reflects a common vocabulary.

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Concrete, shared terminology,
not abstract concepts.

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Welcoming,
but elite.
Selective?

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Accessible,
open, and
premiere.

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Traditional,
but edgy.

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Words are valuable,
but meaningless without
context and priority.
(In a few minutes, we’ll
give them context.)

© 2013
Why do this?
Words are cheaper than comps.

© 2013
Why do this?
Let creative colleagues refine the concept,
rather than confirm the purpose.

© 2013
How?
• Engage in a tangible, hands-on way
• Encourage debate and conversation
• Identify points of disagreement
• Prevent seagulling
• Force prioritization
• Encourage ownership & investment

© 2013
Cardsorting
• Groups of 7 – 10
• Pick 3 or 4 people to represent the brand
• Everyone else: put on your content
strategy hats!

© 2013
Group 1: You’re a multinational bank with a
long history in Europe. To attract a broader and
younger audience, you want to change how
people view saving.
Group 2: You represent a small university
known and respected locally—but you want to
grow in relevance and attract more applicants,
faculty, and funding from around the country
and world.

© 2013
Group 3: You represent an architecture firm
that specializes in historic preservation—but
you want clients to turn to you for clever,
historically appropriate additions too.
Group 4: You represent a pharmaceutical
company. After some issues with lab
contamination and bad press, you overhauled
operations and improved standards—and a
new product release is testament to all that.

© 2013
Group 5: You lead a restaurant group loved for
its family-friendly dining. In one location you’re
branching out to attract business people
brokering deals over martinis—not milk & juice.
Group 6: Your company is a government
contractor that specializes in mobile field
robotics… and thanks to some re-engineering
back home, you’re about to start selling robotic
home butlers too.

© 2013
Cardsorting
Step one:
• Who we are
• Who we’re not
• Who we’d like to be
Go with your gut for about 20 minutes.

© 2013
Cardsorting
Step three:
• Form groups: what goes together?
• Prioritize the goals or groups
• Tell the story of those aspirations
~15 minutes

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Why do this?
Promote new content types to manifest
the message architecture—not just
because they’re trendy or feasible.

© 2013
So where to from here?
Content audit: measure quality against
the aspirational attributes in the message
architecture.

© 2013
Passionate about strategic discovery
• Creative, spirited, inspired
• Visionary, innovative thought leader and industry leader
• Flexible
Tactical and hands-on
• In the trenches, in touch
• Detail-oriented and methodical
Pioneering
• Groundbreaking, trend-setting
• Modern and savvy
People-focused and market-driven
• Trusted by medical professionals, researchers, and media
• Industry news source

Audit to understand what you
have and what you need.
Don’t just do it for fun.
Before you can start, you need
to know why.
What are you trying to learn?

© 2013
Every tab tracks the same data
Quantitative:
• Head count: what do we have?
• Is it consistent?
• Are similar content types
consistent in size and structure?
• Is there parity of length, level of
detail, and tone?

© 2013
Every tab tracks the same data
Qualitative: is it any good?
• ROT analysis: redundant, outdated, trivial
• Current, relevant, and appropriate
to the message architecture
• Does it serve the communication goals?
• Does it speak to the target audience?

© 2013
What will you learn?
• What do we have?
• What are the patterns, elements, & types?
• Is it any good?
• Do people even like it? (Check analytics!)
• What do we need to update?
• What do we need to translate?
• Where do we need more?

© 2013
Where can you go?
• Prescribe new content types
• Advocate for more frequent content updates
• Promote a new editorial calendar
• Reallocate budget across social media channels

© 2013
But first things first:
What are you trying to
communicate?
What content do you have and
what do you need to do that?

© 2013
Thank you!
Margot Bloomstein
@mbloomstein
margot@appropriateinc.com
slideshare.net/mbloomstein
amzn.to/CSatWork
Title image © Margot Bloomstein.
All other images property of their respective owners,
used under a Creative Commons license, or copyright as noted.

UX London Applying Brand-Driven Content Strategy

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