If there has been one very constant trend in 21st Century communications, it's that content is getting pushed to more places, and in greater quantities. While today, you can still get by with writing your blogs separately from your Twitter feed, in the future, it's likely that you will need a comprehensive content strategy that allows your content to be truly portable. If you start pondering these questions now, you'll be ready when the time comes.
So, in the latest installment of our series on content strategy, we're going to talk a bit specifically about future-proofing your content and being ready for it to go anywhere.
Understanding What Your Content Does And Why
In a previous post, we talked about creating buyer personas to understand your market, and having a content audit that catalogs all the content on your site. These were stepping stones towards the future-proofing we're talking about today.
Consider the challenges involved in making your website compatible with small-screen mobile browsers. These need content that's reformatted to fit on a screen that only has, say, one-fourth the resolution of a computer monitor. Elements need to be cut or relocated to create a smooth mobile experience.
But, how do you decide what gets cut? Will turning your sidebar into a footer to make room for text discourage exploration of your site? Will cutting out graphic elements encourage visitors by making the site lean and mobile-friendly, or cause you to lose unacceptable amounts of meaning that's required to understand the written content?
You need to intimately understand your content to be able to adapt it to new platforms.
Expanding The Audit
Your content audit is a fine place to begin exploring these issues. Along with the established values such as content type and subject matter, start making new notes on topics such as “relevance to the whole” and “how this enhances communication.” Really break down what function each piece of content on your site performs.
Once you do this, you can start making intelligent decisions about which elements are most vital, and which are not. If you have the resources, you can start doing focus testing on how audiences respond to different layouts and content types. This will allow you to decide what stays and what goes as your content moves from one platform to another.
Organizing Your Content
The next step, and arguably the last until the future arrives, is to start using these discoveries to organize how your content is stored. Many future-focused websites already store their content in hierarchical databases that treat every element as being discrete. Headers have their own field. Graphics are stored separately, ready to be linked to when there's room for them. The text is held apart from the rest of the article, so it can be used alone, if need be.
Creating this robust, data-focused environment will make it easier to move your content from one platform to another in the future. You can develop a standardized content strategy for each place your content might go, and which pieces of content should be associated with each place. This process will allow you to be ready to move your content anywhere it needs to be, while being assured that it will be comprehensible and effective wherever it goes.
Playing the Long Game
Obviously, we don't know what platforms will be the content magnets of coming decades. You can't plan for any specific technology. However, by evaluating and properly cataloging your content today, you can give yourself an edge to make it easier to embrace the future, whatever it may hold.
Call DeepSky Marketing to find out how you can create a meaningful and profitable content strategy for your company. DeepSky Marketing is a company that provides businesses with profitable marketing systems and verifiable return on investment (ROI). To schedule a brief no-cost consultation call 707 823-3888.
