Four Essential Elements of Content Strategies

There is no generic plan for content strategy that you can apply to all projects and clients. Instead, there are general principles and theories you can use to create a meaningful and effective message. The principles may seem basic but following them will guarantee you create information that is useful.

1.  Content Is Appropriate
Select content that is appropriate for your business, your users and in the right context. Content appropriateness takes into account users emotions, cognitive conditions, and their goals. Remember how the message is going to be delivered, which can affect the style, structure and amount of information that you publish. For example, wording is much different for a flyer versus an email. Another example, a user is looking up your company on their phone versus the full website. One good rule to follow is to always allow users the option to see more content if interested.

2.  Good Content Fulfills Goals
No one who writes content sets out to write information that is ineffective, boring or confuses people. Any web search will bring up lots of pages that never get read. In order to avoid this, make sure the content that you’re providing accomplishes something. Typically, content that is specific will produce better information. Evaluate your subject against its purpose and make sure you have an overall goal in mind with what you want to accomplish with your content.

3.  Center Your Content On Your Users
Think about the wording, jargon, and the graphics being used within your writing, and double-check to make sure it fits your users and not your internal team. Mission statements, heavy-laden industry terminology or internal organizational charts aren’t very useful to many users. With so much information available to consumers, your content has to be able to grab the customer’s attention and keep it.

4.  Use the 3 C’s When Writing Your Content
Clear, consistent and concise are three words to keep in mind when strategizing what information you’re going to use. Make sure your writing is clear and free from grammar and spelling errors; and is easy to understand. Consistency comes from keeping the tone and style similar. Concise is one of the most important elements. More is not always better. This goes back to evaluating the intentions of your subject and if there isn’t a purpose for the content, then you probably do not need it.

Creating effective content can be challenging and overwhelming. Contact us for assistance. TwoGirlsConsulting will help you develop, evaluate or edit your content.