Kevin Nichols and Paula Land

DEVELOPING AN OBJECTIVES-BASED CONTENT MODEL

INTRODUCTIONS & EXPECTATIONS

About us

Paula Land

• Owner, Strategic Content (strategiccontent.com)• Co-founder, Content Insight, home of the

Content Analysis Tool (CAT) (content-insight.com)

• Author, Content Audits and Inventories: A Handbook

• 25+ years in editorial and content strategy• @content_insight, @plland

Kevin Nichols

• Co-Founder, Executive Director Experience, AvenueCX

• Author, Enterprise Content Strategy: A Project Guide and UX for Dummies

• 23 years experience in the digital industry• Key clients: MIT Open Courseware, Hewlett

Packard, Verizon, Target• @kpnichols

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Key takeaways• Introduction to the concepts of objectives-based content

• Understanding how to establish objectives and plan content to achieve them

• Measuring results and building processes for ongoing quality

• Key considerations for getting it right

• Hands-on activity to practice what you’ve learned

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DEFINING OBJECTIVES-BASED CONTENT

Defining objectives-based contentIdentifies objectives for content that drive business impact and customer satisfaction

Ensures you can plan for future content needs and priorities, based upon performance against objectives

Sets content up for success by positioning it as an asset to the business and customer

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ESTABLISHING OBJECTIVES

Define objectives: Step 1

Review all inputs to show trends, findings and requirements:

• Ensure a cross functional team can speak to each

• Talk to brand, analytics, customer experience, content teams

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Define objectives: Step 2

Align inputs with business goals and objectives, e.g.:

• Revenue

• Conversions from prospect to customer

• Loyalty of existing customers

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Define objectives: Step 3

Translate into goals, e.g.:

• Increase engagement in the website experience

• Gain an understanding of who the user is (profile the user)

• Identify content that will move the user through the customer journey to conversion and loyalty

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BEST PRACTICES FOR SETTING CONTENT OBJECTIVES

Best practice #1

Don’t replicate the business requirements.

Think about what you want the content to accomplish to support your business objectives.

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Best practice #2

Think about the end-user needs and the tasks necessary to fulfill those needs.

Ask which content is required to support each step in the process?

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Best practice #3

Look at conversions as not the end, but as a process, with a series of micro-conversions to get the user to the next point in the process.

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Best practice #4

Get the stakeholders who understand the customers best into the conversation. Ask:

• How do the customers behave?

• What would their needs be?

• What do we need them to accomplish to fulfill our business objectives?

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Sample website objectives• Release weekly content for home page, landing page and high priority

pages, publishing four articles each week; new featured content for thought leadership for multichannel and multi-format distribution.

• Inspire loyalty of existing and new customers by providing timely, quality, unique and thought-provoking content.

• Increase email newsletter satisfaction by listening to subscriber needs and feedback and providing personalized content per identified user interests.

• Increase awareness of brand to win new customers in known and new targets through campaigns, better SEO, and more social content offerings (videos, infographic, and thought leadership)

• Emphasize user engagement by offering new mechanisms for social engagement and user generated content.

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Example goal: Personalization Goal

Amplify engagement of the user to showcase the brand and drive the customer down the purchase funnel.

Organizing principle for initial stage

• Use behavioral analysis (click-stream) to determine the segment and market category of the user, upon which more specific content can be tailored for their needs.

Objectives

• Determine the market category of user based on behavior for high-priority market categories, leveraging the assumed browse-paths for each.

• Increase product detail page views by 20% per unique visitor over 3 month period.

• Increase overall site engagement of measured by page depth, duration spent on site, a decrease in bounce rates or exit rates prior to conversion completion, and repeat visits.

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Example goal: Brand exposureGoal

Increase the engagement with the brand of potential customers

Organizing principle for initial stage

• Content performance is predicated on usage, so leverage engagement principles and metrics to build a more compelling content experience for the end-user

Objectives

• Increase the overall duration spent on the site, and repeat visits. Decrease bounce or exit rates prior to conversion.

• Increase product detail page views by 20% per unique visitor over 3 month period.

• See positive impact on the following: page depth, duration spent on site, a decrease in bounce rates or exit rates prior to conversion completion, and repeat visits.

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SELECTING METRICS

Metrics and analytics: Soft metrics• Primary research

– Focus groups

– Secondary research

• Marketing trends

• Social listening– Behavior, sentiment analysis

• Surveys

• Customer satisfaction

• Customer feedback

• Reviews

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Slide adapted from Rebecca Schneider and Kevin Nichols Fundamentals of Omnichannel Content Strategy Workshop

Image source: Samuel Mann at this Flickr URL.

Metrics and analytics: Hard metricsQuantitative measurements• Conversions

• Page views

• Time on site

• Click-throughs

• Keyword search

• User journey

• Social metrics (Likes, shares, subscriptions)

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Image source: Laurie Carodonna at this Flickr URL.

Best practice #1

Tie metrics to objectives:

• Review each objective

• Think about how to measure success or failure of the objective and content performance

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Best practice #2

More than one metric may be required to measure an objective.

For example, increasing engagement may be measured by:

• Bounce rates

• Exit rates

• Time on site

• Etc.

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Best practice #3

Use the SMART approach:

• Specific

• Measureable

• Assignable

• Realistic

• Time-related

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Best practice #4

Look at multiple channels

• Social

• Email

• Web

• Brand,

• etc.

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Source: Rebecca Schneider and Kevin Nichols Fundamentals of Omnichannel Content Strategy Workshop on OmnichannelContentStrategy.com

Best practice #5

Think about each customer touchpoint and desired result

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Source: Rebecca Schneider and Kevin Nichols Fundamentals of Omnichannel Content Strategy Workshop on OmnichannelContentStrategy.com

Measurement examplesObjective Measurement

Release weekly • Meeting all production and distribution dates; 4 articles per week online; two monthly thought leadership pieces in all targeted distribution channels; with all required associated content.

Increase subscriber satisfaction

• Increase subscriber satisfaction by audience measured by semiannual subscriber surveys. Receive a ranking above 4.0 (out of 5.0) in all categories.

Inspire loyalty of existing customers

• Leverage the following KPIs: Note a baseline is required; measure for initial six months and then create new targets for:• Visit duration • Clicks through to articles• Number of articles viewed• Number of articles downloaded• Scroll depths on long-reads

Increase awareness • Measured by 20% increase of new users within six month of launch with 40% increase within 12 months from 2016. Also track the following:• Unique visitors• Amount of social shares• CTR (Click Through Rate) from social media or email to journal

Emphasize UGC and social

• Social media metrics for sharing, commenting, and referring. (TBD with the Social Requirements meeting in Jan)

ESTABLISHING USER GOALS

Tools for understanding user behaviorKey inputs:

• Personas

• Customer journey

Additional inputs:

• User research, user insights, segmentation models, competitive intel, etc.

• Usability testing

• Card sorts

• Search log analysis

• Customer support logs

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PersonasIllustrations of user profiles

Personas answer:• Who are your users?• How do they behave?• What are their motivations?• How do they make decisions?• What are their pain points?

Note:• Continue to test and evolve• Requires UX expertise

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Persona Example taken from Content Strategy Alliance’s Free Tools and Templates Handbook.

Customer journeys

• Based on typical progression of customer engagement

Discover -> Consider-> Decide -> Advocate

• Used to capture business goals, user goals, and content needs

• Shows content gaps

• Customize to personas

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Customer journeys—example

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Persona User State User Journey Channel Content

Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step

One: searches for

product in Google

Website (Desktop)

Mobile (App)

Product information

in home page

carousel

Soccer Mom Anonymous Buy a Product – Step

Two: clicks on

product in carousel

goes to product

detail

Website (Desktop)

Mobile (App)

Product detail page

Soccer Mom Anonymous But a Product – Step

Three: Add to cart

Website (Desktop)

Mobile (App)

Shopping cart

Source: Rebecca Schneider and Kevin Nichols Fundamentals of Omnichannel Content Strategy Workshop on OmnichannelContentStrategy.com

Customer journeys—example

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Best practice #1

Align on high-level steps within the user journey and the purpose of each

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Best practice #2

Map the objectives to the high-level steps within the journey; identify any missing objectives

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Best practice #3

Leverage customer / brand experts in a workshop to validate assumed user path

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Best practice #4

Leverage testing when necessary or proof of concept approach with a lower priority product or service prior to rolling out to larger brand experience

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Best practice #5

Complete for each persona or segment

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ANALYZING CONTENT AGAINST OBJECTIVES

Tools for analyzing content

• Content inventory

• Content audit

• Gap analysis

• User feedback

• Performance analytics

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Why inventory?

• Establishes current-state content landscape

• Aids in scoping project

• Acts as basis for audit

• Provides initial patterns of issues to guide audit focus

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The content inventory

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Content inventory – web site data

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Standard Data• URLs — Location of all assets

• File types — Formats

• File size

• Level — Site depth

• Images/media/documents — Number, format, location

• Metadata —Title, description, and keyword metadata

• Links in and out — Links to and from each page

• Word count – Word on the page

• H1s — Text of the H1 tag

• Analytics — Pageviews, conversions, bounce, entrances

Custom Data

• Content owner

• Content type

• Audience

• Status

• Template

• Etc.

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The content audit

"If you know your content, you can control your content."

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—Ann Rockley

Why audit?

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• Shows whether content supports business and user goals

• Incorporates metrics for performance analysis

• Informs strategy for improvement

• Ensures that content consistently follows brand, editorial, style and metadata guidelines

• Establishes a basis for gap analysis between content you have and content you need

• Prepares content for revision, removal and migration

• Uncovers patterns in content to support structured content plans

• Supports decision-making

• Reduces project risk

How to audit• Establish business context

• Establish scope

• Select tools

• Choose audit criteria

• Map content to persona and journey step

• Incorporate analytics and user data

• Evaluate against objectives

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Establish audit context

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Content objectives Customer journeys

Analytics and metrics Customer data

Business requirements Personas

Editorial and brand guidelines Search data analysis

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Scoping your audit• Go horizontal or vertical

• Focus on high/low performing

• Content most related to conversion or other goals

• Content related to most important audience

• Content related to most important product/service

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Audit tools

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Typical audit criteria

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ConsistencyDoes the content present a unified message?

Depth and breadthIs there sufficient high-quality content to support the user’s information needs?

FormatIs the content in the right format for optimal use?

PerformanceHow effective is the content?

AccuracyIs the information correct?

AccessibilityIs the content consumable by all users?

ContextIs the content available when and where they need it?

CompetitorsHow does your content compare to your competitors’?

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Map content into journey

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Leverage competitive analysis

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Competitive Analysis Template from Content Strategy Alliance’s Free Tools and Templates Handbook.

• Audit your competitors just as you would your content

• Identifies opportunities and gaps in your own experience

Incorporate user feedback

• Social listening

• Surveys• Customer feedback• Reviews

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Gather and analyze performance data• Focus on your most

important content

• Look for the lows but don’t forget the middle

• Matrix the data

• Account for factors like seasonality

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Auditing against objectives

• Review the objectives gathered from business and users

• Evaluate content effectiveness at meeting goals, using metrics selected in content planning

• Identify where content is under-performing

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Gap analysis

• Identify what is missing

• Plan for content creation

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What to do with findings

• Plan and implement content improvements

• Future content planning

• Content to leave as-is

• Content to optimize

• Content to sunset

• Derive implications for governance

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MAINTAINING YOUR MODELGovernance and Organizational Change

Governance: Benefits• Provides a structure for content creation and maintenance

• Sets, enables, and enforces standards

• Provides clear roles and responsibilities

• Provides a forum for content-related issues

• Group members can collaboratively define success measures

• Ensures predictable processes

• Lowers risk

• Conserves resources

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Governance requires organizational change

• Getting organizational buy-in

• Preparing for changed or expanded roles

• Training on new skills

• Documentation of policies and workflows

• Tools implementation and adoption

• Communication across silos

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Set a strategic foundation

• Begin with understanding of current state

• Define goals, priorities, use cases for future

• Define success metrics

• Create organizational structures

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Plan operational aspects

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Tactical plans for implementation and ongoing maintenance

• People

• Processes

• Tools

Operational aspects

• Defining a team model to support governance

• Establishing and documenting roles and responsibilities

• Training

• Procedures, policies, guidelines

• Communication

• Ongoing optimization

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Set team model

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Governance Team

Working Groups

Social Analytics Legal Content TechnologyBrand

Operations Technology Marketing Publishing TaxonomyStrategy

Executive Sponsor

Product

Define roles and responsibilities

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• One model: RACI

• Other models may exist in your organization – key is choosing what works

Source: Content Strategy Alliance Tools & Templates Handbook http://contentstrategyalliance.com/csa-best-practices/csa-handbook/

Training

• Map people to roles

• Assess existing skillsets

• Provide training on tools, processes

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Policies and Processes• Describe governance tasks and schedule

• Define how decisions are made

• Define content lifecycle management and workflows

• Channel-specific workflow

• Content-specific workflow

• Routine maintenance

• Change management

• Updating content

• Archiving content

• Create a schedule of content review based on the quantity and frequency of publication

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Communication and training

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Message/Campaign

Audience Objective Distribution Format Frequency Responsible

• Create communication plan to schedule project communications

• Plan and implement team training on processes and tools

• Use in conjunction with RACI model

Tools for Governance• Rolling audits

• Gap analysis

• Editorial calendar

• Optimized workflows, content lifecycles

• Tracking and reporting

• Ongoing assessment of performance data to feed back to content planning

• Process automation

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Editorial calendar• Central area for content planning and production

• Should align with other calendars (technical implementations, marketing campaigns, product releases, etc.)

• Include go-live dates, dependencies, responsible party

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Source: Content Strategy Alliance Tools & Templates Handbook http://contentstrategyalliance.com/csa-best-practices/csa-handbook/

Optimized content lifecycles

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Source: http://contentstrategyalliance.com/csa-best-practices/csa-handbook/

• Tracks content from planning through distribution

• Provides a way to ensure consistent process

• Allows for identification of optimization opportunities

Governance workflow• Can be used in conjunction with a

RACI chart

• Provides clear steps in approval process—people-focused rather than tools-focused

• Shows hand off points

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Source: Rebecca Schneider and Kevin Nichols Fundamentals of Omnichannel Content Strategy Workshop

Dashboards• Provide information on

content creation (or other) progress

• Helps to identify potential roadblocks

• Helps to plan for future initiatives

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Source: Rebecca Schneider and Kevin Nichols Fundamentals of Omnichannel Content Strategy Workshop

Performance-tracking dashboard

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Source: http://contentstrategyalliance.com/csa-best-practices/csa-handbook/

Process automation

• Automated workflows

• Content expiration

• Version control

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Operationalize excellence

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Build audit findings into your content plans so you are creating new content

to the standards and guidelines

planRegularly audit content

to monitor for issues that will affect

customer experience

auditFix issues with content and update guidelines, processes, and goals to maintain quality over

time

improveEnsure everyone in the

organization knows what is expected of them and

how to do their part

communicate

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Final thoughts• It takes a village—to effectively implement an objectives-driven content

initiative you need organizational buy-in, cross-functional support

• If at first you don’t succeed… It may take a few tries to get your plan in place and your processes organized and optimized. Review, revise, repeat.

• Your business and your customers will change over time. Review and adjust your processes, tools, and measurements to keep pace.

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Stay in touch!

Paula• paula@strategiccontent.com

• Web:

• www.content-insight.com

• www.strategiccontent.com

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paulaland

• Twitter

• twitter.com/content_insight

• twitter.com/plland

Kevin• kevin@kevinpnichols.com

• Web: kevinpnichols.com

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kevinpnichols

• Twitter: twitter.com/kpnichols

• YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/kevinpnichols

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THANK YOU!

APPENDIX

Suggested reading• Havas Worldwide. Prosumer Report. Building Brands That Matter: The Sweet Spot Between Trust & Dynamism. 2013.

– http://www.prosumer-report.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/11/HWW-Prosumer-Report-Brand-Dynamism-Hi-Res.pdf

• Welchman, Lisa. Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design. Rosenfeld Media: Brooklyn, NY. 2015

• Kevin P Nichols’ Enterprise Content Strategy: A Project Guides (XML Press, January, 2015) Everything in this Webinar is detailed much more in by book. Whilst my book is not specifically on performance driven content, that approach underlines the structure and all of my recommendations.

• Paula Land’s Content Audits and Inventories (XML Press, October, 2014)

• Redman, Tom. Data-Driven Marketing, How to Engage your Customers (Harvard Business Review Webinar Series, 15 January 2015).

• Forbes Insights: The Rise of the New Marketing Organization (January 2015).

• Content Strategy Alliance Handbook: This new repository contains nearly 40 free templates and leverages a closed-loop structure to position the effort.

• Rebecca Schneider and Kevin P Nichols’ Omnichannelcontentstrategy.com and Kevin P Nichols’ website: kevinpnichols.com

• NGData The Fifty Top Data-Driven Marketing Blogs

• Jones, Colleen. Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content. New Riders: Berkeley, CA. 2011

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