Jeffrey Zeldman famously tweeted back in 2008 “Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.” I’d like to add: Purpose precedes content. Content in the absence of purpose isn’t content, it’s masturbation. Books have purpose. Writers don’t give readers a bunch of pages and then hope they’ll put them [...]
Tag Archives: content strategy
Prologue: Habits of highly effective web content
I sometimes get the feeling that the world of content strategy is perpetually obsessed with strategy, and less with content. Discussions quickly speed past content creation on their way to talking about managing it. For each PowerPoint slide describing the different forms of content you get a dozen more on how to slice and dice [...]
10 reasons to be kind to European content strategists
This post is a follow-up to a recent tweet in which I said: “The biggest enemy of CS in Europe is the budgetary bloat caused by localization requirements. Right tech ends up being too expensive.” I’m a lucky guy. In the past few weeks I’ve been pitching and/or working on projects that involve serious content [...]
Pre-flight checklist: Is the client ready for content strategy?
Clients are increasingly open to content strategy. So are agencies. But does being open equal being ready? The success or failure of a content strategy project depends on a great many things that are totally out of our control. So before starting a project (or providing a quotation), I try to get a feel for [...]
Je ne suis pas content: Do cultural attitudes to writing affect content strategy?
I’m convinced that cultural attitudes to writing can have a big impact on content strategy, especially when you’re trying to produce web writing in English for non-English organizations. I’m going to use my experience in France to highlight some issues that I’ve encountered. Please note: I’m going to make sweeping generalizations about the French language [...]
Naked clients: the paradox of brevity and its cause
Two hours into a site redesign meeting I looked up to discover that my client was naked. Rewind. I’d been brought in on the project to develop the content. We were basically starting from zero, which was good, or so I thought. After interviewing a gaggle of execs, we’d come up with a site map [...]
Can I get some creativity with that content strategy?
I have confession to make. I’m struggling with content strategy. Specifically, the strategy part. Let me walk you through what’s been niggling at my brain. Uncomfortable with the definition The Content Strategy Knol says that “content strategy is an emerging field of practice encompassing every aspect of content, including its design, development, analysis, presentation, measurement, [...]
Separating Content Strategy Needs from Wants
Most of my clients are in the business of making money. Their purpose in life isn’t to own a website. They have a site because they’re convinced they need one — just like in the old days when every company thought it needed a corporate brochure. This concept of “need” has always intrigued me. It [...]
Going Japanese with your content: CS meets 5S
Through pure coincidence I recently worked on two content strategy/development projects that had the same subject: workplace organization. Both of my clients wanted to explain to their employees why and how to adopt a methodology called 5S. I’d never heard of 5S before. For those of you who haven’t either, here’s the abridged version. 5S [...]
Content strategy’s dirty secret
Shhh. I’ve discovered that content strategy has a dirty little secret: Most companies (i.e., your clients and mine) aren’t publishers — and they probably never will be. Let’s face facts. The vast majority of companies are in the business of selling products and services. Understandably, they see content as something that should support their business [...]
