The idea of "content marketing" has become, for a lot of people, just “marketing”. The idea that a government, or any public institution, could have services that were not available online, is rapidly becoming an accessibility issue. These services require a lot of people to create large amounts of content.
For business and enterprise, good quality content is essential if they are to compete. In effect, if an organisation fails to create this 'good quality content', Google will quickly make them non-existent, regulatory risks open up, user needs go unmet, and related business objectives fail. All of these things will stunt growth opportunities.
‘Good content’ is a very clear competitive advantage.
And when you add to the mix how the world is adapting to the way we work —from small business to enterprise— our reliance on ‘good content’ is growing exponentially.
I think we can agree:
Having ‘good content’ is important; content that truly connects you with the customers, buyers, communities and users you serve, and perhaps more importantly:
—it connects you to the outcomes you are looking for.
Even writing a simple point of view in an article like this one can be difficult.
So what about the multiple teams of people... responsible for creating large volumes of high-stakes content... in complex business environments... that need to be published to an increasing number of channels and customer touch points— using a mish-mash of different tools and technologies?
Makes you lose your breath, doesn’t it?
Think about these stats for a moment— at the time of writing this:
That’s a lot of content— then consider that content is:
It’s 2021, and the expectations of content, and the people responsible for it are high. Very high.
It’s critical to successful digital transformation.
Writing this article suddenly seems quite straightforward...
A bit like the process of looking for a house— what seems on the surface to be an obvious set of requirements quickly reveals itself to be fairly complex and demanding.
Requirements for content are intense.
We hear a lot of sweeping statements, many of which are true for a large proportion of us:
I'm sure we could further elaborate on this list, but I think we all get the idea that ‘good content’ is anything but simple.
💡 See also: The essential guide to Content Creation: Practical advice to help you create effective content
There is clearly a need for dedicated roles and technologies that can facilitate content collaboration, production and approval across an organisation.
When the usage of technology increased for most companies, we saw a move away from generalist "webmaster" or "website manager" roles, to more sophisticated roles and processes.
CTOs became more common in large enterprises, and DevOps became a widely adopted way to talk about this new approach to technology and infrastructure. More importantly, we developed ways to ensure the technology worked for us, was reliable, and delivered value. Technology quickly became a business asset.
I think you know where this may be going...
We are now entering an era where content is truly being realised as a business asset, and with that move, we’re seeing huge shifts in investment— the people, the processes and technology— everything required to make sure content, too, is delivering value.
Here are just a few interesting ways we’ve seen this manifesting:
Building on the points above— to support effective organisation-wide content operations we should consider three core components:
People: Building teams with the right specialists
Defining stakeholders, roles and permissions for broad collaboration, implementing training programmes, establishing approval processes and governance responsibilities. As a starting point.
Process: How good content manifests
Production workflows, policy, style guides, content design principles, audit trails, measurement and reporting. As a starting point.
Technology: Delivering good content to the end user
A stack of well integrated tools for creating, publishing and measuring the impact of content. Scheduling, personalisation, automation. As a starting point.
Colleen Jones, CEO of Content Science, and former Head of Content at MailChimp says:
So, how do you match up?
Colleen even went as far to create a great "Content Operations Maturity Model", where you can see how your organisation is performing. More importantly, this can help you prioritise where to get started in improving.
It seems that the organisations that are adapting to the digital shifts most effectively— especially in response to the pandemic— have a different way of viewing content.
These organisations don't see content as a side-hustle, and they don't have a few isolated people pushing for the importance of content, screaming "content is King!", hoping someone will listen. They have truly embraced it as a part of their way of working, and above all else, they understand that content is a product.
Deep focus on content— good content, and the way it is manifested is a surefire way to better your chances of succeeding in whatever market you serve.
Establishing and investing in the way your organisation navigates content workflow seems like the most sensible way forward in giving your organisation the good content it needs.
I’d wager that this has never been more important.
The idea of "content marketing" has become, for a lot of people, just “marketing”. The idea that a government, or any public institution, could have services that were not available online, is rapidly becoming an accessibility issue. These services require a lot of people to create large amounts of content.
For business and enterprise, good quality content is essential if they are to compete. In effect, if an organisation fails to create this 'good quality content', Google will quickly make them non-existent, regulatory risks open up, user needs go unmet, and related business objectives fail. All of these things will stunt growth opportunities.
‘Good content’ is a very clear competitive advantage.
And when you add to the mix how the world is adapting to the way we work —from small business to enterprise— our reliance on ‘good content’ is growing exponentially.
I think we can agree:
Having ‘good content’ is important; content that truly connects you with the customers, buyers, communities and users you serve, and perhaps more importantly:
—it connects you to the outcomes you are looking for.
Even writing a simple point of view in an article like this one can be difficult.
So what about the multiple teams of people... responsible for creating large volumes of high-stakes content... in complex business environments... that need to be published to an increasing number of channels and customer touch points— using a mish-mash of different tools and technologies?
Makes you lose your breath, doesn’t it?
Think about these stats for a moment— at the time of writing this:
That’s a lot of content— then consider that content is:
It’s 2021, and the expectations of content, and the people responsible for it are high. Very high.
It’s critical to successful digital transformation.
Writing this article suddenly seems quite straightforward...
A bit like the process of looking for a house— what seems on the surface to be an obvious set of requirements quickly reveals itself to be fairly complex and demanding.
Requirements for content are intense.
We hear a lot of sweeping statements, many of which are true for a large proportion of us:
I'm sure we could further elaborate on this list, but I think we all get the idea that ‘good content’ is anything but simple.
💡 See also: The essential guide to Content Creation: Practical advice to help you create effective content
There is clearly a need for dedicated roles and technologies that can facilitate content collaboration, production and approval across an organisation.
When the usage of technology increased for most companies, we saw a move away from generalist "webmaster" or "website manager" roles, to more sophisticated roles and processes.
CTOs became more common in large enterprises, and DevOps became a widely adopted way to talk about this new approach to technology and infrastructure. More importantly, we developed ways to ensure the technology worked for us, was reliable, and delivered value. Technology quickly became a business asset.
I think you know where this may be going...
We are now entering an era where content is truly being realised as a business asset, and with that move, we’re seeing huge shifts in investment— the people, the processes and technology— everything required to make sure content, too, is delivering value.
Here are just a few interesting ways we’ve seen this manifesting:
Building on the points above— to support effective organisation-wide content operations we should consider three core components:
People: Building teams with the right specialists
Defining stakeholders, roles and permissions for broad collaboration, implementing training programmes, establishing approval processes and governance responsibilities. As a starting point.
Process: How good content manifests
Production workflows, policy, style guides, content design principles, audit trails, measurement and reporting. As a starting point.
Technology: Delivering good content to the end user
A stack of well integrated tools for creating, publishing and measuring the impact of content. Scheduling, personalisation, automation. As a starting point.
Colleen Jones, CEO of Content Science, and former Head of Content at MailChimp says:
So, how do you match up?
Colleen even went as far to create a great "Content Operations Maturity Model", where you can see how your organisation is performing. More importantly, this can help you prioritise where to get started in improving.
It seems that the organisations that are adapting to the digital shifts most effectively— especially in response to the pandemic— have a different way of viewing content.
These organisations don't see content as a side-hustle, and they don't have a few isolated people pushing for the importance of content, screaming "content is King!", hoping someone will listen. They have truly embraced it as a part of their way of working, and above all else, they understand that content is a product.
Deep focus on content— good content, and the way it is manifested is a surefire way to better your chances of succeeding in whatever market you serve.
Establishing and investing in the way your organisation navigates content workflow seems like the most sensible way forward in giving your organisation the good content it needs.
I’d wager that this has never been more important.
Angus is Co-founder and VP of Product at GatherContent, where he focusses on the product and research areas of the business – looking into the future of content management, and trying to improve the way organisations create and deliver information. A board member of the European Information Architecture Summit, he has been heavily involved with the Content Strategy, CMS, and product management communities for several years, and frequently writes and speaks around the intersection of these disciplines.