Content Strategy for Small Business Bloggers (part 1)

(Reading time: 15 – 24 minutes)

Content strategy is far more than adding pages and blog posts to a web site. Content strategy incorporates the entire lifecycle of content conception, development, publication, and maintenance or retirement. Content strategists draw from information architecture, curating, editing, copywriting and marketing, while retaining a distinct role in website development.

Before we begin, here’s a few notes on what this article is and what it isn’t.

Primarily, this article has been written, and will be maintained, as one of the pillar content or cornerstone articles for Website In A Weekend. It covers basic concepts of content strategy for blogging from a high level point of view, while dipping into some useful tactics and providing a few tips and techniques. There are exercises, and you should do them.

This article is not another “blogging about blogging” article containing rewarmed material you have read countless times elsewhere.

This article supports “Website”-in-a-weekend, not “New Media Personality WordPress Marketing Blog”-in-a-weekend. There is a difference. These principles apply to blogging on any platform, whether stock WordPress or custom, hand-rolled Ruby on Rails.

Marketing professionals may recognize large parts of what follows, as content strategy subsumes marketing, and blogging is an element of marketing.

Which brings me to the following disclaimers: I am not a professional content strategist by occupation. It’s just one aspect of blogging. By “small business,” I’m specifically targeting business people as blogger, not bloggers as business people. Please understand the difference.

1. Introduction to content strategy

Naively, content strategy is creating content relevant to readers and publishing that content on web sites.

Exactly what content for which readers, and how that content is published, constitutes a rapidly growing enterprise in the publishing industry.

As a small business website owner and operator, your content strategy supersets your marketing; marketing is part of content strategy.

Content strategy is not the same as information architecture, which considers problems of site design and information delivery. Think of it this way:

• Information architecture: how the menus and links are arranged on your website.
• Content strategy: what the menus and links deliver to the reader.

Granted, this is a much simplified explanation, but we’re starting here because it’s easy to understand, and menus and links are ubiquitous. While it seems simple, simple is hard enough, and too few websites get this right.

Before going any further, blogging is not content strategy. Blogging is a specific tactic of your marketing strategy. A powerful tactic, to be sure, but something to keep in mind.

2. What is content, anyway?

Simply put, content is all the stuff which gets delivered on a web page. According to Erin Kissane, the long time editor of A List Apart:

In the web industry, anything that conveys meaningful information to humans is called “content.”

This quote is the first line from Erin’s excellent handbook The Elements of Content Strategy, from which I’m going to draw upon heavily through this article.

Going a little deeper, content is all the intellectual property assets owned by a business (or person), which may be deployed to achieve specific business (or personal) goals. Content may include:

• Necessary boilerplate all websites must have.
• Articles written as web pages or blog posts.
• Electronic documents such as Microsoft Word or PDF files.
• Images, including targeted output formats such as png and jpeg, and in-house assets such as Illustrator and Photoshop files.

  For example, images might get posted on the public website, while the source files in Photoshop made available on the internal website for repurposing.

• Linked content from related or associated sites. For example, presentations may be hosted on services such as Slideshare, and delivered either by linking to the external site, or embedding the relevant display code.
• All manner of audiovisual content such as screencasts or podcasts for instruction, entertainment or information.
• More: fill in your special content type here. For this author, that would be programming source code for WordPress plugins.

That’s a wide range of content types, which isn’t going to get any narrower in the foreseeable future. Workable strategy dictates choosing exactly what should be done with each type and piece of content to achieve the goals of the website.

Fortunately, we’re focusing on small business and personal entreprenuerial websites instead of Fortune 500 enterprises. Obviously, there is a quantitative difference: we’re more concerned with websites with perhaps as much as 10,000 pieces of content served primarly to readers external to our enterprise, whereas a Fortune 500 company may need to serve hundreds of thousands of different pieces of content (or more) to readers both inside the company and outside the company.

A slight digression here, aimed at bloggers who insist on WordPress’s efficacy as a content management system. WordPress is better understand as a website content management system (CMS). A full blown enterprise CMS may include, for example, hideously expensive products for managing HIPAA compliance. That’s definitely a job for a CMS, and it’s most definitely not in the WordPress bailiwick.

There is also a qualitative difference.

You are going to serve as your own content strategist, as well as serving as your own webmaster, perhaps your own bookkeeper, etc.

You won’t need to work out the political and departmental boundaries (not always the same) to determine who is charge of what, and How. Things. Are. Done. Around. Here.

That’s the beauty, right? You get things done the way you want. (Also the curse, you have to do the work.)

Now that we know a little about content, let’s add on the strategy.

3. Content strategy from 50,000 feet

We’re going to dig deeper into Kissane’s “The Elements of Content Strategy” and focus on how these general principles apply specifically to blogs and small business websites. I’ll be using her headers, and quoting her leads. There’s just no way to say it better than she says it.

The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane

3.1 Good content is appropriate

Publish content that is right for the user and right for the business.

As bloggers, we’re hammered from every direction to keep ourselves “niched down,” which is marketing-speak for appropriate content. There are hundreds if not thousands of blog posts on the topic, and countless ebooks and courses ranging in price from free to thousands of dollars.

For our purpose here, let’s agree that appropriate content agrees with Erin’s teaser: good content is right for both reader and for business. Your content should further your business goals, and it should further the reader’s goals.

3.2 Good content is useful

Define a clear, specific purpose for each piece of content; evaluate content against purpose.

What’s the difference between useful and appropriate?

That’s an excellent question. Here’s my opinion. Appropriate refers to content-as-a-class, useful refers to specific pieces of content.

For example, if you’re selling potted plants, writing about potted meat is inappropriate.

Writing something useful about potted plants requires understanding the goal of the writing. As Kissane notes, for any piece of content, you have to make a decision: Are you selling just any old potted plant? Or, are you selling specific rooted cuttings from a Hoya obscura?

For bloggers, business or otherwise, the purpose may be to increase traffic, gain newsletter subscribers, or create discussion in a comments section.

For all cases, “useful” can be considered to mean the same thing as “specific.” Say it plainly in the blog post, ask it plainly in a call to action.

3.3 Good content is user-centered

Adopt the cognitive frameworks of your users.

Getting into your reader’s heads can be one of the most difficult tasks of all, especially if, like me, you’re more comfortable with technical rather than emotional writing.

In some cases, your users may not be ready for your content, regardless of their need. For example, several WordPress plugins now emit structured data for resumes, recipes and reviews. This structured data is search engine friendly, and helps the WordPress blogger provide consistently formatted content, with consistent information.

But it turns out that creating structured data is very difficult to engineer for an untrained person. Without understanding the context of structured data, people (i.e., the bloggers using the plugins) are left in frustration trying to navigate any of many different user interfaces, all of which produce semantically identical content.

In this case, it’s simply not possible to meet the user where the user is now.

Instead, create content to draw the user in.

SEO provides another example. Surely, there can be nothing on earth as tedious as mastering the intricacies of SEO, yet most bloggers, once they understand how SEO is in their long-term interest, will spend the time and energy to master at least the basics. Without effort on the blogger’s part, there is no hope for the blogger.

As a small business person writing for prospects and customers, meeting the user where they are doesn’t necessarily mean dumbing down content. It does mean creating a desire in the user to learn what’s in their best interest.

3.4 Good content is clear

Seek clarity in all things.

Good advice. Easier said than done.

3.5 Good content is consistent

Mandate consistency, within reason.

Consistency comes in several flavors, but can be roughly classed as consistent in quantity, consistent in quality, and consistent in both.

In blogging, the content pendulum seems to swing between writing short, “snackable” scannable articles very frequently, to writing “epic” articles somewhat less frequently. A difference between publishing daily and publishing a few times per month.

Both strategies work, and both are consistent.

Which strategy is best for you and your business depends on what your goals are.

If you are looking for a lot of short term traffic, perhaps to rapidly build an email list, frequent publishing might be best.

For longer term results and search engine traffic, lengthy, definitive articles may provide the best results.

These are guidelines; exceptions are rampant.

Consistency may mean different things at different stages. For example, as a blogger you may post daily for a while, then cut your publishing back to weekly or less.

In the end, you have to define what consistency means for you, and practice that.

3.6 Good content is concise

Omit needless content.

Needless content… probably 99% of the web is needless content (what’s the carbon footprint of that?). Don’t be part of the problem.

For example, how many blog posts on “10 Best WordPress Plugins” are necessary? Since most people seem to agree on about half these top 10 anyway, not too many.

While your business needs may dictate your writing “globally” needless content, that is, content available elsewhere, there is certainly no need to write needless content on your own website. If you must write an article on “10 Best WordPress Plugins” or “10 Best Lizard Leashes” or whatever, please, write only the one, and update it as your opinion of the “10 Best” changes. That is, practice “local” needlessness.

And truly, if someone else has written the canonical article on a topic, perhaps consider reviewing that article and linking to it rather than conceptually duplicating it.

Note: concise doesn’t mean short. Remember, we’re dealing with content strategy, not blogging tactics. Take this article, for example. It’s being published as a series of 2-4 very long blog posts. From the blog post perspective, these are massive. From the a content strategy perspective, the series is definitive, no need to write dozens of filler blog posts all saying about the same thing in different ways.

The world burns a lot of fossil fuel delivering web content. Needlessness could be considered a moral issue…

3.7 Good content is supported

Publish no content without a support plan.

If there is one aspect of content strategy which bloggers fail to implement, it has to be the support aspect. Bloggers typically do not maintain content, preferring to write a new blog post instead.

This probably isn’t unique to bloggers. Any form of maintenance work, from working on jet engines to sweeping floors, takes a back seat to creation.

Yet, maintaining a website for relevance and accuracy is critically important for maintaining trust and credibility with readers. This isn’t saying that older web pages are bad. It is saying that web pages with wrong information, of any age, do not help the reader, hence, probably do not help you achieve your goals.

Supporting content is not easy. For a small business or personal blogger, you have to make the time for it. This includes ensuring the existing content remains correct, ensuring it’s as complete as necessary, ensuring outgoing links still work and are still relevant.

You can’t rely on automated link checkers either. Quite often, if you have linked to website which is no longer in service, the hosting company will park their own page on that site. A page which is filled with sponsored advertisement links with no contextual relevance to your blog post or page. In others, you’re linking to spam.

The upshot for bloggers: your support plan can be as simple as committing to reviewing one blog post for every blog post you publish. Or every third post you publish, or Sundays after 6 pm; it hardly matters. Making the commitment to maintain your work is far more important.

3.8 A load of common sense…

As stated above, the headings and leads are lifted word-for-word from Erin Kissane’s “The Elements of Content Strategy,” then applied specifically to blogging and small business websites.

Erin’s exposition on these same points is more general, but more detailed with respect to web publication as a whole. In other words, she provides governing principles for websites of arbitrary size and subject matter, while I’ve interpreted these principles to provide specific guidelines for small business and blogging sites.

“The Elements of Content Strategy” is one book I categorically recommend to all bloggers and small business website owners.

4. Bloggers as content strategists

In the big, bad world of web publishing, content strategists may include editors, copywriters, information architects, information analysts and scientists, marketers, and content curators of various sorts. A large design firm, such as Razorfish, may have one or more content strategists on staff. Smaller firms may roll the information architecture into the content strategist, or vice versa.

In the roiling microcosm of blogging, the content strategist is you.

Specifically, it’s you wearing all of those hats, while working in the role of the content strategist. Your main job as a blogger in the content strategy role is to determine

• What to publish
• When to publish
• Why you are publishing
• For whom you are publishing

Take this article, for example, “Content Strategy for Small Business Bloggers.” It’s useful for bloggers and appropriate on Website In A Weekend. Content strategy is a very fast growing industry web-wide, hence the timing is right. Furthermore, this article positions Website In A Weekend as a definitive resource for bloggers interested in learning more about content strategy.

In the best case, your site design (which also means your information architecture, not just your graphics) should reflect your current content strategy. This is much easier said than done. The medium of blogging facilitates, if not encourages, highly organic and evolving material. It can be hard to stay on track when the medium itself seems to promote digression.

When your motivation or purpose for blogging changes over time, your content strategy must evolve as well.

4.1 Case study: Website In A Weekend

For example, Website In A Weekend has gone through at least three phases. Initially, the site was built to create and promote a (literal) website in a weekend workshop. From that initial experience, the site became a platform for building credibility as a blogger and WordPress consultant and programmer. Next came support for consulting based on the previous round of content. Now, Website In A Weekend is come full circle to promote the weekend workshops again.

During each of these phases, content publication
reflected underlying strategy.

1. Pillar content creation focusing on workshop syllabus creation.
2. Content and relationship marketing to build traffic and trust.
3. Showcasing consulting work demonstrating expertise (vs. authority).
4. Pillar content renewal and content updating to support upcoming workshops. New content creation to stay current with the state-of-the-art.

4.2 Case study: New Media Copywriting

Buckle up, we’re about to get wonky.

If you are not familiar with Kelly Diels and Ashley Ambirge, please take a few moments (or a few days) and read up. Consider it due diligence.

Both Kelly and Ash are copywriters, guns for hire in the new media arena of blogging and social media marketing. Their content strategy is publishing personality as proof by demonstration. Both Kelly and Ash have a tremendous talent for tapping into shared experience and shared emotion, bringing you (as a prospect) into their world. Conversely, both establish relationships positioning themselves in your world.

Both use personality-based marketing as a vehicle for building their businesses. Their writing demonstrates their skill.

This is much harder than it looks.

On the other hand, demonstration by publication is an excellent content strategy, provided you know exactly what you’re attempting to demonstrate.

While shared emotion and shared experience can help build tight bonds, missing the mark will derail your business. There are a myriad blogs out there best described as ongoing train wrecks. Lots of personality, lots of emotion… but way too much information. High risk, high reward.

As noted above, compared to Kelly and Ash, this is all a bit wonky. Their copy is exciting! alive! and emotionally compelling. Our analysis is a bit on the dry side. But that’s congruent for me. I’m credentialed. I’m supposed to be wonky once in a while.

This concludes Part I of Content Strategy for Small Business Bloggers. Parts 2 (Practice of Content Strategy) and 3 (extended case study) are currently about half as long (1600 words) each… but only half finished. I’m expecting the entire piece to run about 10,000 words. There is a PDF in the works, which will contain material not covered in the series, and it will be free once the entire series is finished.

You are most welcome to answer any of the exercises in the comments!