Get that content strategy funding: show them the money
When you ask management to fund your content strategy initiative, you need to show them the money.
Content strategy
Learning to love nesting in structured content
Nested content is one of the biggest differences between structured and unstructured content.
Conference recap: STC Summit 2018
I’ve been working at Scriptorium for almost four years, but last week was my first opportunity to attend a conference. I spent a good amount of time on the exhibit hall floor, but I was also able to attend presentation sessions.
Content strategy proof of concept: don’t forget training
A proof-of-concept phase is often the key to unlocking the budget for an entire content strategy project. When defining the scope and goals for a proof of concept, don’t forget your team will still need training.
Phases of a successful content strategy
In 2015, we talked about a vision to tackle, lead and map out an enterprise content strategy. Today I wanted to provide an update on making that vision a reality, and how to expand it beyond a singular team and into other parts of an organization.
The rollout of an enterprise content strategy can be done in phases to define content goals, clean up existing content and then expand to additional departments.
Content strategy commandment: Know thy audience
A misfire by a German grocery chain entering the US market reminds me of a very important content strategy commandment: Know thy audience.
Content strategy contingency plans
When winter weather makes commuting to Scriptorium’s NC office difficult, we work from home. We have set up a cloud-based infrastructure to support remote employees (hello, Bill Swallow!), and it works well for the rest of us during weather events and business travel.
Best of 2017: content strategy, localization, DITA, and more
Scriptorium wraps up 2017 with a look back at posts on content strategy, localization, DITA, and other content conundrums.
It’s never too late for content strategy
We often talk about building content strategies from the ground up: first, coming up with a strategy to address your content problems, and then implementing a solution. But not all implementations happen that way. If you’ve already started implementing a new system, it’s not too late to think about content strategy—in fact, it’s crucial to make sure your new processes will be sustainable.
Defining a content strategy
The scope and practice of content strategy is ever-expanding. From marketing to user experience to technical content development, the need for a strategy governing content creation and production grows. With this growth, the definitions of content strategy can vary, but they all recognize that the need for effective and targeted content is critical.
Back to school: measuring content strategy ROI
Here in the United States, the summer is now officially over and students are back to school. For many, this means a change in routine and a fresh outlook on the remainder of the year. This is an excellent time to direct that fresh outlook to your content by measuring your content strategy ROI.
Tools are not a content strategy
This post is part of Scriptorium’s 20th anniversary celebration.
Content creators love their tools. So much, in fact, they sometimes mistake selecting tools for developing a content strategy.
Classic content strategy mistake: re-creating old formatting with new tools
This post is part of Scriptorium’s 20th anniversary celebration.
A common content strategy mistake is duplicating the look-and-feel of existing content when you’re implementing new tools and processes.
Structured authoring and XML
Coauthored by Sarah O’Keefe and Alan Pringle
First published in 2001.
Structured authoring and XML represent a significant paradigm shift in content creation. Implementing structured authoring with XML allows organizations to enforce content organization requirements. The addition of hierarchy and metadata to content improves reuse and content management. These benefits, however, must be weighed against the effort required to implement a structured authoring approach. The business case is compelling for larger writing organizations; they will be the first to adopt structured authoring. Over time, improvements in available tools will reduce the cost of implementing structured authoring and make it affordable for smaller organizations.
Warning signs: localization strategy needed
Without centralized localization processes, you will pay more for translated content, provide inconsistent translations, and possibly expose your company to significant legal liability. Here are warning signs your company needs a better localization strategy:
Content internationalization (it’s not just for software)
This post is part of a series on the value proposition of localization strategies.
When people think of internationalization (IF they think of it), software labels often come to mind—buttons, menus, and other user interface text. But content development can benefit from it as well.
2017 content strategy trend: the rise of the machine (translation)
My 2017 trend is the impact of machine translation on content strategy.
The horror! More content strategy monsters!
The ghoulish nasties I depicted two years ago in Content Strategy vs. The Undead continue to haunt content strategy implementations and information development projects.
They just… won’t… DIE!
However, they are not the only monsters that can terrorize your content strategy implementation.
Easy ways to undermine marketing with content strategy
Does your content deliver on your marketing promises?
Glue strategy: connecting web CMS to CCMS
Web sites are fantastic at content delivery and generally terrible for content authoring. If you’re old enough (like me), you may have experienced the pain of hand-coding HTML or even editing HTML files live on your web server.
Going for the gold with your content strategy
Now that the 2016 Olympic Games have come to a close, countries are tallying up their final medal counts. Athletes are assessing their performances, celebrating their victories or mourning their losses. After you’ve implemented a content strategy, you should also assess the project to determine how successful it was.
Content strategy after mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions often result in a new content strategy. In a typical scenario, the merged company needs to align disparate content organizations. Before the merger, the companies had different tools, technologies, workflows, deliverables, and content culture. A goal of the merger is to unify company products, and therefore, the merged organization must also unify content development.
Your content strategy easy win
You have a content strategy plan. Management has agreed to fund implementation. Time for the happy dance, right?
A little celebration is in order. But you still have to prove your new strategy will work in the real world. Showing early success with an “easy win” during implementation will give you momentum.
Is your content overhead or a customer delight?
Delight is the difference between what you and your team cost, and the revenue you directly (or indirectly) produce (or protect). This concept is as important to charities as hedge funds.
You may not think that “delighting” customers is part of your content creation responsibilities. But when customer delight is defined in terms of revenue and costs, it suddenly becomes a critical part of your job.
