Janice (Ginny) Putting the Content into Content Strategy September 2012

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 2 Linguistics Usability / UX Content Strategy Writing for the Web 2 nd edition, 2012

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 3 Topics for this hour  Focusing on content  Planning:  purposes  personas  conversations  Meeting your goals by satisfying site visitors  Evaluating drafts to assure success All photos without another attribution are © iStockphoto.

Focusing on content within a content strategy Chapter 1 Interlude 1

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the WebSlide 5 Halvorson and Rach, 2012 Develop and follow a content strategy Content strategy =  Thinking strategically about your content  Aligning content with business goals Ahava Leibtag who blogs at

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the WebSlide 6 Content strategy = governance Content must be  planned  coordinated  reviewed  managed and maintained  removed Break down those silos!

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the WebSlide 7 Content strategy = resources People  Who will write? edit? illustrate? produce?  What skills do these people need? Technology  What systems and templates will you use?  How will people be trained to do what they must do?

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the WebSlide 8 Content is everything you have on the web site  text  illustrations  charts  graphs  tables  forms  pdfs  videos  podcasts  blogs  forums  other social media − and in all your other communication channels

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the WebSlide 9 Content strategy = message and more Messages Tones Styles Right content in the right amount to the right person at the right time in the right medium Media

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 10 Why do you go to web sites? People just want to  answer their question  do a task  solve a problem  engage in a social conversation To satisfy their goals Content Information To do a task

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 11 Navigation and search are critical

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 12 Good, clear design is critical

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 13 Technology that works is critical

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 14 But they all support the content

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 15 Every use of your web site is a conversation that the site visitor starts How well does your site converse with your site visitors?

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 16 Your site converses well only if… your site visitors can  find what they need  understand what they find  act appropriately on that understanding in the time and effort that they think it is worth FindUnderstandAct

Planning: Purposes, personas, conversations Chapter 2

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 18 Plan at every level Strategy requires data, analysis, and clear thinking. Why? (your purposes) Who? (your site visitors) When, why, and how? (your site visitors' conversations)

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 19 Why? (your purposes)  Align with the business' overall strategy and goals.  Be measurable.  Focus on your site visitors.  Be specific. $$

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 20 Focus on your site visitors to sell shoes people to buy shoes from us to tell people about … to answer busy, anxious site visitors' questions about … We want

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 21 Be specific Kenneth W. Davis

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 22 Who? (Your site visitors) Create personas to write to Ann

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 23 When, why, and how? (your site visitor's conversation)  Story, scenario, context, situation, conversation  Visualize the persona coming to your site. Jordan Bob and Lisa

Meeting your goals by satisfying site visitors Chapters 4 – 12

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 25 Hear the conversation As you select, organize, write, and illustrate the content, "hear" your site visitors' questions. Flickr cc photo by Polandeze

Jim and Sally use Mint and love it. But I don't know what it does. What is Mint? Mint.com converses well

Here's more about what Mint is.

Is that safe? Absolutely! Safe and secure. Here's why and how. That sounds safe. Let's sign up.

This site could converse better

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 30

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 31 8 keys to great content as conversation 1.Cut! Cut! Cut! 2.Make it scannable. 3.Break it up with informative headings. 4.Write the conversation. Use pronouns. 5.Put the action in the verbs. 6.Use your site visitors' words. 7.Converse in forms, too. 8.Make links meaningful – not click here.

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 32 1.Cut! Cut! Cut! Challenge: Make your key points with half as many words. I make jewelry. If I want to sell through Etsy, how does it work? Paula

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 33 2.Make it scannable  Purpose?  Persona?  Persona's conversation? QXZ Company provides usability services to help companies make or select software products that are easier to use. In particular, QXZ specializes in telecommunications, medical software, and banking applications. For example, for the past 18 months, we have been working with a major company in the banking industry, HomeFirstBank (HFB), which happens to be the country's fifth largest bank that operates in 25 states. We've given several workshops on usability to their software developers and helped them with comparative usability tests of applications they were thinking of bringing in house. We've also helped test developers' prototypes

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 34 QXZ Helping you make or choose applications your employees love Need usability services? We can help. We specialize in äbanking ämedical ätelecommunications Banking Client:HomeFirstBank [HFB] 5th largest in U.S.; 25 states Time:November present Work:  workshops for developers  comparative usability tests of apps for HFB users  usability tests of prototypes TestimonialsImages Amanda, IT Project Manager New Bank Would QXZ be a good choice for a usability vendor for our bank?

A

B

Don't hog the conversation. Take turns. Headings are the site visitor's turns in the conversation. 3.Break it up with informative headings

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 38 4.Write the conversation. Use pronouns

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 39 When you finish renewing online, you can print your registration card. Upon successful completion of the online renewal transaction, printing the registration card will be an option. 5.Put the action in the verbs Print your registration card

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 40 6.Use your site visitors' words Search engine optimization Your keywords must be words people search on. We're worried about high blood pressure. I've got a great article here about hypertension. Betty and Walter

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 41 7.Converse in forms, too Jarrett and Gaffney

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 42 8.Make links meaningful – not click here See more examples Click here to see more examples. The only text that is linked is "Learn More." Which product does this "Learn More" apply to? Chapter 12 – links Chapter 3 – design

Chapters Evaluating drafts to assure success

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 44 Review, revise, and edit your own work All good writing is rewriting.  Think  purposes  personas  conversations  Work within your group's content strategy.  Put it away for a while (even just a few hours).  Revisit and revise. Read it out loud. ✔

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 45 Share, collaborate, help each other  Content strategy crosses silos. Flickr cc photo by wakacheeka ego You succeed when your readers succeed.

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 46 Do usability testing

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 47 Walk your personas through their conversations What questions are Mindy and her mom asking? Is the site answering those questions in a way that works well for Mindy and her mom?

Redish & Associates, Inc. © 2012, Janice (Ginny) RedishContent Strategy SummitSlide 48 Janice (Ginny) Redish Redish & Associates, Inc. Bethesda, MD Ginny Redish Thank you 2 nd edition, 2012 Now: Your questions