Content Strategy for the Web Book Report

Michael Garcia

Professor Monseau

MKT 370

10/21/18

Content Strategy for the Web Book Report

The idea of content strategy within marketing is very important to understand and learn. Content strategy can take up many different meanings and interpretations but typically it focuses on the planning, creation, and overseeing of content. This content does not necessarily mean just words or text but could also refer to media such as images too.  A book that covered the topic of content strategy well was Kristina Halvorson’s, Content Strategy for the Web. The introduction of this book gives the reader an idea of what to expect and not to expect from their time reading the book. The author makes it firm that the book’s purpose is to provide a solid introduction about the emerging practices of content strategy for those looking to create a content strategy. They emphasize on the idea that it is indeed simply an introduction and not a complete guide to everything that content strategy is and has to offer.

            The beginning of the book covers how important it is to focus on quality over quantity. More does not always mean better. It is much easier to run a smaller website with less content than that of a larger website. Simplicity allows the user of the website to feel more comfortable. An example is provided within the text where the websites of Allstate and State Farm are compared. Allstate’s website is seen to have more clutter and has more of a chance to confuse the user. When using State Farm’s website, one can see how much easier it is to use the website because it is very simple and straight to the point. The website does not reach out of its boundary and try to do more than it is capable of. The author really pushes for the idea of less content and simplicity, not only just for the consumer’s ease of use but also for those managing the content. It is less to worry about and also is cheaper. Focusing on what content would be best to use allows money and resources to be placed elsewhere where they may be needed more.

            The book then begins to dive into the problems with content strategy. One main issue that the book covers about content strategy is the idea that finding content simply is just not that easy. There is a long process that a business must go through to discover if the content they choose to publish reflects the motivations of the company while also relating to that of the user. Many businesses choose to side more towards one or the other but rarely both and sometimes even neither. Content must constantly be checked and audited to serve as a reference to everything that is really being used. On top of that, the content must also be consistently revised and edited to ensure it does what it’s supposed to be doing in the most efficient way it can. The complexity behind all of the logistics is a necessary evil to ensure that content is being used properly and efficiently. Another issue that arises is that there is usually no clear-cut individual that is in charge of content. This becomes an issue because there are always a bunch of departments who would require something be added or be revised. Without one clear department or individual in charge of content, it becomes a mess to manage. All of these problems take time. Time itself is its own problem. Many businesses have certain deadlines to meet for content and the amount that would need to be reviewed could be large. It would simply not be possible to have a thorough review of a large amount of content within the short amount of time given by these deadlines.

            After explaining the issues, the book decides to give a fine cut definition to content strategy and how to properly plan one out. The author describes how content strategy can be defined as releasing a series of educational articles, having a sponsored YouTube channel, or even having a Twitter account. They also describe how the process of coming up with a content strategy is placed into three general steps, Audit, Analysis, and Strategy. The first step, audit is important because it displays all the URLs and page titles. It can show stakeholders just how big the content strategy really is and as a result, can help push for funding. Not only can it help for funding purposes, but it also can serve as a reference during content development to see what you are really working with. It gives you a clear idea of what you are working with and can help scope out and budget a project. Going even deeper into an audit, you get a qualitative audit. This shows the effectiveness of the content that is being published. Doing a qualitative audit allows the business to see what is working and why it is working. The author then discusses the next step, analysis. They emphasize that this is, arguably, the most important step when talking about content marketing. This step requires you to ask yourself many questions to be sure that the content being delivered is the best it could be. It requires businesses to look outside of the box and imagine themselves in the position of the user. When they are thinking like the user, they can solve problems that a user may come across when trying to access content distributed by the business. The author then talks about where content can come from and what can influence the users who try to access your content. There could be current events that could impact users such as the current political climate or even advances in the technological sector. Other influencers could be social media sites and bloggers, or even friends and family of the user. The author wants the reader to take in all the potential factors that could influence how users view content and analyze how they could make it better or more efficient. The final step that the author covers is strategy. She begins that section of the book by giving a broad idea of what strategy is and how to get started with creating one. It starts with the type of brand you want to be associated as and eventually leads all the way to how you are going to choose to structure how your content is released.

            After the author covers the three main steps of content strategy, they then begin to discuss other important aspects pertaining to it. Everything matters within the process of creating content strategy, whether it is the people who are in charge of it or the software being used to distribute the content. The purpose of this book is to discover how to create a content strategy. It is designed with the idea that your company already has a presence on the internet and would like to take it to the next level. The one idea that the author really points out within the book is that everyone is already a publisher because of their status on the web, thus meaning that everyone can take something away from this. The book itself sticks to its subject about content strategy and gives a brief crash course about the process that should be taken from start to finish. While reading this book, I learned a few things myself about content strategy that I never would have even thought about in the past. The book covers just the surface of content strategy but does it well. It is very informative and can provide most readers with new knowledge. It brings up different situations for each step of the content strategy, so it gives the reader a lot to consider when going through the book. There are a few issues I see with this book, however. The first one is how brief it is. Topics and situations are covered within the book, but they are only covered for about a paragraph or so each, depending on the subject. The book is very generalized and short, under 200 total pages. The book also seems to be geared more towards well established, high budget businesses rather than smaller ones. It focuses on companies that have a web presence and want to improve on it rather than small businesses that are stating out and do not have a web presence. Another issue with the book is that there are not many real-world examples provided within the text. Sure, there are a few, but for the amount of information being given to you, there should be more visuals to accompany it. In my research after reading this book, I found that it was really difficult to find any real-world examples of a laid-out content strategy online even when I was specifically searching for one. This issue could have been more addressed in this book specifically, so it could’ve stood out from other works pertaining to the same subject. One final issue that I had noticed with the book is the fact that it focuses only on web content. I understand that the title even tells you that it is focusing on web based content but it would have been nice to include even a small section about written content. Now even though there are negatives, I feel as though the positives outweigh them. Even though the book is geared more for larger businesses it can and should be read by anyone who has time to do so. As I mentioned earlier, the book states that everybody is a publisher. Everyone is always creating some sort of content whether it is for themselves or for a company that you work for. Everyone should familiarize themselves with the concept of content strategy and this book does a great job of laying down the groundwork for it. The author even goes into detail about how it is not all about the user experience when it comes to content strategy. I found this to be interesting because, me, being a user, always thought that user experience would play a huge part in interacting with web content. The book then discusses different disciplines that should be covered in order to get the most out of the content, which I found myself to be agreeing with. Having different factors, such as current events, play into how others receive content is something I never thought would be important until I read this book.

            Overall Kristina Halvorson provides a basic outline of what content strategy is and how to take advantage of using one properly. From the very beginning of the book, the author provides an idea of what to expect and what not to expect. With content strategy being so important in everyone’s everyday lives, I would recommend that everybody take the time out to read this book.