Part 1 – content strategy, providers and producers
Part 2 – content development and deployment overview

Part 3 of this series of blogs will unpack the development and deployment of the overall content process.

Because the content process is ever evolving, this will at least provide a foundation on which to build a process that takes into consideration your team structure and objectives.

The Content Development Process consists of two parts: content ideation and content creation.

Content Ideation – generate ideas for content topics or themes

Content ideation involves generating ideas on relevant topics or themes for your target audience. There are several considerations that will provide the foundation on which to develop relevant and compelling ideas:

General understanding of target

Knowing your target audience is crucial to your being able to provide them content they desire, and this is most effective in connecting them to your product or service. Research to know specifically who you are targeting.

Specific understanding of target

Having a general understanding of your target is essential. It is the basis with which you’ll build a more specific understanding of who they are, how they behave, what they desire–based on you. What is it about who you do/who you are that is appealing to them?

Lifestyle

Content development around how they live will most likely not only be appealing to them, but will be effective in connecting them to your product or service. How does your product or service affect the way they live?

Season

What season of their lives or business are they in?

With this understanding, develop compelling perspectives that emphasize, relate and unveil your content.


Content Creation – develop the content idea and prepare it to be published

Identify potential content sources (articles, stories, advice, experts, personal, etc.). Here you can play the role of the ‘content curator’ by pulling together information that supports the outcome of the Content Ideation process.

To help edit what you’ve collected and shape how you present it, ask these key questions:
- What does your target want to know?
- What does your target need to know?
- What do you want them to do?
- How do we want to make them feel?
- How would we carry on a face-to-face conversation with them?
- Can they trust us to be faithful in delivering on their agreeing to listen or visit–every time?
- Talk to a single person, as a real person.
- Provide as much context as possible.
- Anticipate and answer their questions.
- Respect the time your reader chooses to spend with you. Treat him fairly.

The Content Deployment Process consists of content publishing, measurement and archival. Present content to your target audience in the channels most desired by your target audience.

Content Publishing – publishing content to desired online channel


Structure your content
- Keep it simple, easy to remember and retell
- Keywords: for purposes of archival and SEO, incorporate proper taxonomy. How did you find your sources? That probably is how your audience will search for them, and will reinforce optimization strategy.
- Editorial calendar: who does what, where, and when. Does content need to be archived? Does additional content need to be developed based on customer responses? Can archived content be re-purposed? What new ways can you present archived content? Is there anything related to current events, season, or lifestyle preference that warrants reorienting content toward that need? How can archived content be freshened to meet current customer needs?

Content Measurement – measuring customer interaction with content


Determine key metrics that will be used to track to identify customer behavior and interaction with your content. Considerations include:
- Unique visitors
- Time spent on site
- Sales
- Costs
- Customer feedback
- Bounce rate
- Page views per visit

In addition, suggestions made in conversations with your customers will be weighed for integration into your content innovation (ideation).

Content Archival – properly caring for ‘expired’ content

After the immediate purpose for your content has passed, it is imperative to properly retire content for archival and future re-purposing. This may include removal of the content from public view, removing specific language to time and location, and ensuring the proper recording of the content for future reference.

In my last post, I covered the foundational aspects of the content process. Now that those are in place, I will introduce my two part content process. Both parts are necessary, so no ‘skipping or skimping’. (more…)

I’m going to do something that can be potentially very painful. I’m going to assume. I assume that you’ve worked through the strategy and objectives for content development. *wince* So now, we can talk specifically about the online content process–going from idea or concept to effective online communication. Having developed the strategy and objectives means that you’ve no doubt included key individuals related to the content you want to present, and are aware of those people who will be crucial in supporting the process long-term. This is the second step in the process. Before you even think of uploading anything to your website, you must assemble the team. (more…)