Developing Your Voice &

Defining Your Strategy

Content Strategy for Nonprofits, Part 2

Michaela HacknerDirector of Content Strategy, Forum One

Brett MeyerLead Strategist, ThinkShout

Direction Setting

Define Goals and Measures

● What are our website goals?

● How can we measure our impact to know if we

were successful?

Web redesigns are like a science experiment….

Define and Prioritize AudiencesWho are we speaking to?

● Who are our audiences?

● Which are the highest priority?

● What’s their tolerance?

● What are there motivations?

*Methodology derived from John Schneider

Know Feel Find ActWhat experience do we want to create with our content?

● What do we want our audience to know about us?

● What do we want them to feel when they read our

content?

● What kinds of content / information do we want them to

find?

● What do we want them to do?

Identity PillarsWhat do we want to say and how do we want to say it?

*Methodology derived from Ahava Leibtag

● Organizations define how they are perceived now and

how they would like be seen in the future.

● Result in a high-level framework for organizations to

communicate their brand.

● Defining and adhering to Identity Pillars helps ensure

organizations stay true to their ethics and goals.

Identity Pillars

Current

Brand

Attributes

Future

Brand

Attributes

False Brand

Attributes

Identity

pillars

How we see

ourselves now.

How we want

to be seen in

the future.

How we don’t

want to be

perceived.

How can we

best

communicate

our brand.

*Methodology derived from Ahava Leibtag

Messaging ArchitectureWhat do we want to say and how do we want to say it?

You have about 2 seconds to capture your audience’s

attention.

● Messaging architecture defines and articulates your

organization’s key messages in a clear and consistent

way.

● As information architecture defines the blueprint for a

site’s functional and visual design, messaging

architecture defines the blueprint of all site content.

*Methodology derived from Karen McGrane

Primary message

Should capture the essence of “what” and “why”.

Secondary messages

Provides supporting information answering “who”,

“how”, “when”, and “how much”.

Triggers / change in beliefs desired

What should the user feel after absorbing your

messages, what change should happen in their

mind based on seeing this information?

Messaging Architecture

*Methodology derived from Karen McGrane

This is hard.

But worth it.

Vision / Product BriefHow do we maintain this vision?

● Develop a brief document that clearly articulates these

outcomes.

● Share it with the rest of the organization, and use it to

keep your content and communications decisions

consistent, and on track.

Content Production Planning

Cores and PathsHow does our content relate to our goals – and our audiences?

* Methodology derived from Boxes and Arrows

Cores and Paths helps us:

● Focus on the content & functionality that your users want

● Consider the varied ways a user might arrive at this piece of

content

● Explore how we can engage users in supporting your

organizational goals in the context of a core offering

● Consider where we might want our users to go from there

based upon your organizational goals

Inward Paths

User Goals Organizational Goals

Outward Paths

Search Terms Elements of the Core Calls to Action

Core Content / Functionality

Supporting Information

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Journey MappingWhat is the journey we want our visitors to take?

*Methodology derived from Donna LiChaw and Lis Hubert

Explore the “journeys” key audiences take as the become

more deeply engaged in your organization. Mapping out

this experience helps us:

● Achieve a shared understanding of user needs and

goals and how they relate to the content.

● Identify what content is strong, where the gaps are, and

derive an approach to strengthen conversions.

Content Creation TemplatesHow can we ensure consistency throughout our content?

Once you’ve defined your messaging architecture, you

need to apply those ideas to all your content.

● Content creation templates help you outline your story

before you start writing.

● Doing so ensures you weave an appropriate,

persuasive, and deliberate story across your website

and communication channels.

Editorial CalendarHow do we ensure our content stays fresh?

Content gets stale! Doing all the strategy work upfront is

for naught if you don’t have a plan to maintain it over time.

● Plan out the content you’ll need to write / refresh, identify

owners, and keep track of the status.

● Use this opportunity to re-evaluate older content (6+

months old).

Governance Planning

Asking the 11 questionsHow do we ensure our content governance is successful?

*Methodology derived from GatherContent

1. Do you know how much content you have on your current site?

2. Have you (or will you) audit the content on your current site?

3. Are you archiving outdated or poor quality content on the

current site?

4. Do you know who is going to (re)write all the content for the

new site?

5. Does someone have overall responsibility for content quality

during the project and beyond launch?

Asking the 11 questionsHow do we ensure our content governance is successful?

*Methodology derived from GatherContent

6. Do you know (roughly) how many hours per week will be

dedicated to maintaining content on the new site?

7. Does the current site have dedicated (subject expert) content

owners?

8. Do you know if any current content is syndicated

9. Will you have a (digital) content style guide

10.Do you have analytics running on your current site?

11.Can content be published in phases after the site launches?

Developing a governance strategyHow can we ensure our content stays fresh?

● Interview content stakeholders.

● Identify the good.

● Out with the bad.

● Generate buy-in from senior stakeholders.

● Establish content roles and owners.

● Formalize a plan.

● Train staff.

Resources

• Epic List of Content Strategy Resources | Jon Colman

• The Digital Crown: Winning at Content on the Web | Ahava

Leibtag

• Content Strategy at Work | Margot Bloomstein

• Storymapping, A Macgyver Approach to Content Strategy | Donna

Lichaw & Lis Hubert

• Nicely Said | Nicole Fenton & Kate Kiefer Lee

• GatherContent’s Blog

• Content First User Experience | Steph Hay

• How to Implement a Content First Workflow | Chromatic

• MailChimp’s Style Guide

• A Great Content Strategy’s Anatomy | Search Engine Journal

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