Hopefully you’ve noticed our new site design.
We’re not alone in moving to a blog platform. In fact, it seems as if the whole world is moving in this direction. The reasons are simple enough: We needed a more immediate and efficient system for managing our content—be it historic work samples, case studies or opinions like this one.
It’s not about blogging. It’s entirely about content strategy.
And this, we predict, will be at the forefront of marketing in 2009. It’s not about what you say, so much as it will be about how you organize, connect, enable and (re)distribute what you say and what your audience says (i.e. content). 2009 will be about marketing systems. Why?
Them, Not Us
The most obvious reason is our users; or perhaps the better word is viewers, or even audience or participants. We must acknowledge the viewer is more important than ourselves, our agencies, our brands, our corporate ID systems and our budgets. Without them, we do not exist. We do not matter. Therefore, everything we do must be viewer-centric.
Many people said they enjoyed our previous site. But quite a few did not. Such is life. Like any marketer, the alarm eventually rings for something new. Now we’re better able to supply, aggregate and maintain content and hopefully better enable and engage in conversation with our audiences as well.
The most popular web properties (YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) are deeply focused on helping people accomplish something. They are deeply participant-centric. One could argue focusing on your audience’s needs will drive greater traffic and stronger engagement than focusing on your corporate/brand needs.
(I’m curious. Does this new site better meet your needs and expectations of Hello Viking?)
Limited Resources
The second reason in favor of content strategy will be economics of scale—as in staffing, money and time. Marketing used to have generally few and narrow avenues of distribution, which allowed organizations some luxury in their focus and allocation of resources. Not anymore. More media channels and methods for your audience to redistribute your marketing ideas means more attention must be paid, everywhere, all the time.
But who has more of more in 2009?
Content strategy speaks directly to this issue. Doing at least the same marketing with less becomes much more likely if your organization (internal and external) can agree on strategy for managing—not necessarily creating—content. Of course new messaging has to happen. But the world around us has evolved from one that appreciates or even withstands marketing campaigns to one that demands its share of voice in what have become ongoing conversations about your company, products and brands.
Employing a content strategy acknowledges the growing impact of conversation, and allows a marketing organization to better engage with its audiences; even to guide them in ways beneficial to marketing’s goals.
Here’s a hypothetical…
It’s time to launch an update to a beloved product. You’ll no doubt produce the usual mix of broadcast, print, direct and digital materials to get the word out and incite action—the typical integrated campaign. The board of directors expects it. Wall Street expects it. Your retailers/dealers/sales channel expect it. Consumers however, could probably care less, and now have the mechanisms to evade or counteract your best efforts.
Before firing the starter’s pistol to develop your messaging ideas or negotiate your media, think about content strategy. Put the audience first. How, where and why would they converse about your new product? What’s their system for sustaining conversation about your brand? Build on that.
How can your team listen to and engage your audience using existing, open source channels? What channels are your audience(s) currently using? Might your collective team’s efforts and budget be better spent listening and speaking one-to-one versus crafting big budget propaganda? Old methods aren’t dead—far from it. You probably do need TV, print, radio, out of home, etc. to generate awareness. But awareness alone isn’t enough anymore.
It’s about creating feedback loops. It’s about assigning and empowering marketing staff to play active roles as marketing content rolls out, your audience reacts and conversation builds. Think about all this before hand. Work through some best and worst case scenarios. It’s like writing a script for a play leaving room for improvisation—the basic story arc exists because you’ve created one, the production materials, players, budget and other resources stand ready to play out the story, and react when necessary.
This story never ends
The biggest challenge, however, is a way of thinking.
Content strategy requires us to move away from “campaigns” (i.e. finite, encapsulated efforts) and into ongoing, potentially unlimited conversations. Consider your website. Will it ever be finished?
This is game-changing stuff. “Ongoing” and “unlimited” require far different approaches to budgeting and staffing than the marketing and advertising industries have practiced. Collaborating with empowered consumers requires thinking far differently about legal and trademark issues. But it must be done.
Our move to a new design was, in part, an effort to prepare for this future of never being done, of being (as so many have already said), “always in beta.” We’re convinced content strategy will be at the root of marketing systems that thrive in 2009 and beyond.
# # #
Comments
Tim, thank you so much for this post. I’m thrilled to see you including the topic of content strategy in CATFOA, as you know, and to see you championing it as one of 2009’s major focal points for agencies and clients.
Here is one concern I have that I’d like you to explore a bit more deeply. I think it’s a mistake to encourage marketers not to worry so much about creating content. The myth that users are creating all of (or most of) the content FOR us is screwing up product/service websites everywhere … clients are pouring money into launching communities and forums without a) thinking about how they will drive engagement, and b) dedicating internal resources to governing the UGC as it is (hopefully) created.
Content isn’t a commodity. It’s not just about going to find or get the content somewhere in UGC land. Its creation requires serious strategic planning. And content strategy doesn’t equal pushing buckets of content from “somewhere” around the web.
I assume that, generally speaking, you agree. So the bottom line is that I think that content creation requires clearer context in your discussion.
What you’re talking about here, I believe, are sort of two *components* of content strategy that could benefit from better labeling. And the reason I think labeling each area of focus is so critical is that each component is an effort requiring separate but equal consideration from the content creation process, itself.
Content strategy is still really looking for a universally shared definition. The one I recently proposed (http://alistapart.com/articles/thedisciplineofcontentstrategy) is this:
Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.
I’ll now propose that content distribution strategy is:
>> how you organize, connect, enable and (re)distribute what you say and what your audience says (i.e. content)
Now, this piece is key, and I’m with you 100%:
>> It’s about creating feedback loops. It’s about assigning and empowering marketing staff to play active roles as marketing content rolls out, your audience reacts and conversation builds. Think about all this before hand. Work through some best and worst case scenarios.
But THIS is what I’d define as “social media strategy.” I think that label has been oversimplified or even abused: people think it simply means churning out videos content on YouTube, opening up a Twitter account, or advertising on Facebook. What you describe above is, in my mind, true social media engagement for marketers and advertisers.
But, again, successfully engaging in these conversations does, in fact, require serious attention and planning with regard to “what you say.”
Them’s my two cents.
Posted on December 30th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Kristina,
Thank you for the very thoughtful commentary! I do agree with everything you’ve written. Greater clarity and context around the definition of “content” and “content strategy” versus “content distribution” are definitely necessary. Perhaps we’ll figure them out via mutual commenting.
One reaction: You said, ” I think it’s a mistake to encourage marketers not to worry so much about creating content.” I realize now I didn’t express myself as clearly as I meant to. My background is almost entirely devoted to creating content. So, simply stating, “Of course new messaging has to happen” didn’t really do justice to the effort required, as you pointed out.
My issue is that the vast majority of marketers have been focused entirely on new messaging, on content creation, without regard to the greater opportunity so widely evident now. In other words, it’s not just about creating new content—but creating new content that intertwines with, encourages, and elaborates on what the community has to say. It’s about nurturing conversations, versus writing speeches.
Tim
Posted on December 30th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Add a comment