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What is Content Strategy?

What is Content Strategy?

As I set out to write about Content Strategy, I did not want to write a blog article that was mysterious, overly technical, deep and out of touch. The last thing we need is an incomprehensible understanding of something that is not meant to be overly complex or hard to grasp! At the same time, as I have studied Content Strategy, a series of questions, basic and complex, began to flood my mind. What is Content Strategy? Why is it important? How is it created? Who creates it? What happens when you have a Content Strategy? What are the tactics to implement the strategy? Where does content fit into a Content Strategy? How do you manage Content Strategy? Over time, I would like to cover all of these questions and more, but I will start with…

What is Content Strategy?

The more I looked at Content Strategy, I see it as the bringing together of two subjects that, if understood and appreciated, can foster the creation of better content, better experiences and better results, for content consumers and content distributors alike. In trying to keep with a less complex approach, I think it is best to parse these words to appreciate what happens when they are joined together.

What is content?

In simple terms, content is “… is any information that is being distributed.” Taking this simple definition, content is information. When we look online, content can produced in the form of text, audio, video and images and it is then formed into various platforms as articles, blogs, reviews, press releases, case studies, etc.

What is strategy?

While the origins of the word ‘strategy’ have roots in the military , businesses have adopted the terminology and applied the principles into business, thereby creating an entire industry around strategy. Unfortunately, with this expansion and use of the term, it has become layered in definitions that are more complex. In short, strategy is the method by which one accomplishes goals.

A Beautiful Combination

When you bring these two terms together, Content Strategy can then be defined as, the creation of a content methodology to meet your goals. Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach, further expand on this in their book, Content Strategy For The Web, stating that,

Content strategy guides your plans for the creation, delivery, and governance of content. – Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach

Well, now that this is over! Happy Writing! Fortunately, it is not that simple! Having this clear concise definition in hand, opens up the door to the next questions, why is content strategy important and how do you get started?

Unfortunately, I’ll have to tackle that subject and more in my next blog article.

Have a question or want to post a comment, feel free to respond below! I would love to hear what you think and whether you agree or disagree.