The Business Value of Content Strategy

[Andrew Kaufman]

Hi all! 

As a recent transplant to the agency world, I've been thinking a lot recently about how to make a business case for content strategy to our clients, many of who don't really understand what it is or why it matters. 

Since we haven't really "sold" content strategy as a service before, part of what I've been trying to do is not only find a way to explain to our clients the benefits of content strategy, but also to our internal business development and account services teams so that they have the information they need when they're scoping out projects. 

One of the challenges I've faced is trying to describe Content Strategy without just describing the tactics and deliverables that result from the process. But it's often hard to communicate that CS is more about the overall process than any one specific output.   

To that end, I put together a post that tries to do just that: http://www.brightercollective.com/content-strategy/the-case-for-content-strategy/

I'd love any and all feedback on what I have so far, as well as to hear about how others have dealt with these challenges. 

Thanks in advance!

--
Andrew R. Kaufman
andy...@gmail.com
Twitter: andy2001
AIM: volumes2001
Freelance Content Strategist
310-845-5375

[Karen McGrane]

Hi Andrew,

I gave a talk on "Selling Content Strategy" at Confab a couple of years ago. Here are the slides:

http://www.slideshare.net/KMcGrane/selling-content-strategy

-k

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[Andrew Kaufman]

Thanks Karen, this is really helpful!

I especially like the idea of selling both through logic and emotion. 

One other thing we've been running into is that clients seem to be enamored with "Content Marketing" now, but they don't understand that they need to start with a well thought out content strategy in order to make their content marketing efforts worthwhile. They just want to start producing content right away. 

[Hilary]

Andrew,

I just gave a talk on this topic too:

http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/hilarymarsh/selling-content-strategyhilarymarsh-17756758

I hope this helps.

Hilary Marsh  |  312-806-7854  |  hil...@hilarymarsh.com

Content strategy for associations, real estate, nonprofits, corporations:

websites, blogs, social media, e-newsletters

http://www.hilarymarsh.com 

also hilarymarsh on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Slideshare, etc.

[Laura Creekmore]

Oh, do we feel your pain. Our efforts are complicated by the terminology, for sure, as well as content marketing (done properly) also requiring a good (wait for it....) strategy!

When I run into that kind of confusion, I try to focus less on the terms and more on the benefits and results. If they WANT content marketing -- perfectly legitimate tactic -- they will NEED a strategy and the operational and technical systems to make that program work. 

Good luck!

Laura Creekmore

615.500.4131

la...@creekcontent.com

http://www.creekcontent.com

[Hilary Marsh]

Andrew,

I want to build on what Laura said -- it's so important to adjust your message to what the audience is interested in knowing about (we need to apply a content strategy for management or any other audience. ;-)). Talk about ROI, quality, time savings, etc. In other words, focus on the "why" and less on the "how."

--Hilary

Hilary Marsh  |  312-806-7854  |  hil...@hilarymarsh.com

Content strategy for associations, nonprofits, corporations:

[Sara Fraser]

Hi Andrew,

Piggybacking here on previous point. Your client wanting to create content (now, now, now) is a great thing. For many of us, getting that initial buy-in is a challenge. The key to strategy is simply common sense. It's asking: What is the point of the content? It's the sweet spot between what the business wants to say and what the user/prospect/reader wants to hear. There they'll find relevance. Publishing before nailing down that concept is just... silly.

Good luck!
Sara Fraser

[Andrew Kaufman]

Thanks to everyone for your great responses! It seems like we're all facing similar challenges when it comes to communicating the value of what we do to stakeholders who aren't used to "investing" in content as much as they do the other parts of their business. 

Hilary, I really like in your presentation how you start by framing the "challenges" that clients may not even think of as being "content strategy" challenges. I think that helping people understand how many aspects of their business are affected by content can really help us make our case. 

In my article I tried to go a step further and actually put a dollar value to ignoring some of these challenges. In my brief, ignominious career in sales, they stressed the importance of showing potential customers the exact price of inaction. By comparing how much money they were wasting by not buying our product, the actual cost of the product seemed quite reasonable. I know that we as content strategists don't often like to see ourselves as salespeople, but I think that we need to put on that hat sometimes.