Maximizing your return on content - higher ed edition
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The document outlines how to maximize content success through a strategic approach that aligns content creation and distribution with organizational goals. Key elements include defining clear goals, establishing metrics for success, and ensuring consistency in the message across different departments. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the audience's needs and continuously measuring and refining content strategies to improve engagement and effectiveness.
Maximizing your return on content - higher ed edition
- 1. Maximizing Your Return on Content How to make your content more successful Hilary Marsh, Chief Strategist & President Content Company, Inc. 1
- 2. What is content strategy? The right content To the right person At the right time For the right action
- 3. Put another way…. Content strategy is the practice of planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.
- 4. Three faces
- 5. Multiple parts 1. A strategic statement tying content to business goals 2. Guidelines and policies: Who, what, when, where, why, and how of publishing content 3. The people, power, and processes to execute #1 and #2
- 7. Foundational tenets 1. Content creators & SMEs have a common understanding of what key audiences want, and how their content helps deliver that. 2. Content creators & SMEs have a common understanding of the org’s goals are and how their content contributes to them. 3. Content creators & SMEs share their content in a consistent, effective way
- 8. Principles • The organization creates content that its audiences want • The organization creates content that helps it meet its goals • Content has success metrics and is measured against those • Content that is no longer relevant is no longer available • Content is promoted, surfaced, and cross-linked based on its topic, not its source • Content is created in the organization’s voice • The organization manages content platforms, tools, and channels in a way that ensures their effectiveness
- 14. Content is… My Event My Product My Class My Program My Research
- 15. 15
- 17. 17 Silos
- 18. Different views of the audience
- 20. Consequences
- 23. Lack of understanding of your value
- 24. Organization: Programs, offerings Audience Messages Audience Audience Audience New thinking
- 25. Higher ed institutions publish a LOT of content
- 26. What don’t we publish?? • Course details • Program info • Academic research • News stories • Alumni stories • Faculty bios • Press releases • Financial aid details • Event information • Student health information • Policies • FAQs • Mission statement • Job listings
- 28. Content is the way our work is manifested in the world
- 30. 30
- 31. Just because…..
- 32. Because we did the research Because the dean asked us to Because the faculty member told us to Because we have this program Because we do this thing Because we created the information Because we have no way to say “no” to the request Because we think we have to Because everyone else is Because Because
- 33. If you don’t know what you’re going for, how will you know whether you’re succeeding?
- 35. What I heard from higher ed folks Lots of challenges • We don’t know our business goals • Our content isn’t mapped to our business goals • Folks who give us content don’t have goals • Even if we do know, what can we do to increase success? • How do we help content owners succeed?
- 36. Setting goals is challenging! “There’s a lot of cool stuff happening at the university that no one knows about” • Who would love to know about it? • What would they do as a result of knowing it? • Why don’t they know about it? • How could you change that today?
- 37. Technology is not our friend •“IT is backed up, so we can only do things we can implement ourselves for free” •“There’s a lot of content on our public site for current students because the student portal is a mess”
- 38. Ratio of effort to results •Size of potential audience •Priority of potential audience •What we want the audience to DO •Resources to create the content •Results
- 40. 3 pieces of information 1. Goal 2. KPI 3. Measuring & learning
- 41. Identifying the Goal Why are we publishing this? 41
- 42. Effective content has a goal •It’s published •Lots of people look at it
- 43. What is a true goal? •Meets a business goal •Satisfies a user need •Ideally, both
- 44. 44 Users meet their needs Organization meets its goals Balancing goals & needs
- 49. Remember the content landscape • Course details • Program info • Academic research • News stories • Alumni stories • Faculty bios • Press releases • Financial aid details • Event information • Student health information • Policies • FAQs • Mission statement • Job listings
- 50. Content goals Each piece of content needs a clear, explicit reason to exist
- 51. Page views are not the goal – the goal is the goal. --Mike Powers @mjpowers
- 52. High-level higher ed goals 1. Get students 2. Help students, faculty, alumni succeed 3. Get money to keep doing 1 and 2
- 53. Translated to content… Content Get students • Appeals to high school students • Provides correct, useful information Help students and faculty • Helps students register, add/drop, etc. • Markets the school Get money • Shows the value of the school • Gets donors
- 54. Some sample goals • Attract more qualified students • Encourage applications • Raise awareness and perception of our university • Help admitted students stay • Inspire more alumni to donate • Reassure people about the institution’s stability • Raise the quality of job applicants Others? What about for other programs & schools?
- 56. Photo c/o Beth Kanter, downloaded from https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/3085209738/
- 57. Content is specific, so goals need to be specific too
- 58. Conversely, content with a common goal might benefit from being created differently
- 61. Keep asking “why” • Why are you publishing this content? • Why have you/we invested the resources to create the program that the content is about? • Why would the audience want to know this information/about this program? • Why…? • Why...?
- 62. 62 http://gadling.com/2008/05/01/cash-and-treasures-the-antique-bottle-dig/ The real goal is in there somewhere
- 63. Wrong time to ask “why” The reason is clear here
- 75. Making the goal measurable
- 76. How will you know it’s successful? • Reached the audience in the channel that matched their expectations • The audience took the action you wanted them to take • Users took the next step you wanted them to make • They were more satisfied with your institution • They called customer service less • Donations went up • They talked you up to their friends/family/colleagues
- 77. Answers may be on the page or not… • Google Analytics measurement – unique page views, referrals, etc. • Content audit • User testing • Surveys • Social shares • Measuring the results themselves: more qualified applicants, event registrations, etc.
- 78. Answer the right questions • Executives • Site management • Content owners • Users
- 80. • Content doesn’t exist in a vaccuum • Better content in one area may support a goal in another
- 81. A case study • Site redesign required a news article for each update on the home page • Volume of news articles overwhelmed the site management staff • Viewership to each article was relatively low • Would fewer articles mean fewer views?
- 84. Turning goals into KPIs 1. Benchmark where you are now • Content performance • Pain points • Tie back to business 2. What will constitute success? • Envision the desired goal • Make it measurable!
- 85. Some considerations • Make sure your KPIs cover both organizational goals and user needs • Think about them from multiple perspectives
- 88. Business objective Content goals Goals of this content Ideal process
- 89. What happened What we can learn What to do differently next time Reality Time for a meaningful conversation with content owners
- 90. Doing the measuring, communicating the results
- 91. Measure, tweak, repeat • Who needs to know? • How do they need to know it? • How to tweak it?
- 92. What to do with the info 92
- 93. Next steps 1. Learn what works 2. Use that information to develop goals 3. Create an editorial calendar and templates for review time, roles, and processes 4. Share all with staff 5. Track/measure and communicate the results 6. Use the results to improve future content
- 94. Change the conversation! • Partnership • “We will help your program shine” and help you tell your story better • Before a long-term commitment to something new, try a pilot for a specific subset and then refine based on their feedback • Foster connections between content areas for the benefit of all offerings connect back up to business goals
- 95. Resources • My article and worksheet http://www.contentcompany.biz/2016/04/27/return-on-content/ • Aligning Business Goals with User Goals in Content by Michael Andrews http://storyneedle.com/aligning-business-goals-with-user-goals-in- content/ • Making Content Measurable by Jess Hutton http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/making-content-measurable/ • Why Attempting to Establish the ROI of Content Is a Fool’s Errand by Ronell Smith https://medium.com/dissenting-opinion/why-attempting-to-establish- the-roi-of-content-is-a-fools-errand-d8b4fdfd3a6c#.39kpxyxzs
- 97. Thank you! Hilary Marsh President & Chief Strategist Content Company, Inc. hilary@contentcompany.biz @hilarymarsh