Explore content strategy's roots, and quickly learn not only how it's done, but how you can do it well.

FROM CONSTANT CRISIS TO SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS BETTER CONTENT MEANS BETTER BUSINESS. Your content is a mess: the website redesigns didn’t help, and the new CMS just made things worse. Or, maybe your content is full of potential: you know new revenue and cost-savings opportunities exist, but you’re not sure where to start. How can you realize the value of content while planning for its long-term success? For organizations all over the world, Content Strategy for the Web is the go-to content strategy handbook. Read it to: Understand content strategy and its business value Discover the processes and people behind a successful content strategy Make smarter, achievable decisions about what content to create and how Find out how to build a business case for content strategy With all-new chapters, updated material, case studies, and more, the second edition of Content Strategy for the Web is an essential guide for anyone who works with content.

Content is king... and the new kingmaker... and your message needs to align with your model and metrics and other mumbo jumbo, right? Whether you're slogging through theory or buzzwords, there's no denying content strategy is coming of age. But what's in it for you? And if you're not a content strategist, why should you care? Because even if content strategy isn't your job, content's probably your problem—and probably more than you think. You or your business has a message you want to deliver, right? You can deliver that message through various channels and content types, from Tweets to testimonials and photo galleries galore, and your audience has just as many ways of engaging with it. So many ways, so much content... so where's the problem? That is the problem. And you can measure it in time, creativity, money, lost opportunity, and the sobs you hear equally from creative directors, project managers, and search engine marketing specialists. The solution is content strategy, and this book offers real-world examples and approaches you can adopt, no matter your role on the team. Put content strategy to work for you by gathering this book into your little hands and gobbling up never-before seen case studies from teams at Johns Hopkins Medicine, MINI, Icebreaker, and more. Content Strategy at Work is a book for designers, information architects, copywriters, project managers, and anyone who works with visual or verbal content. It discusses how you can communicate and forge a plan that will enable you, your company, or your client get that message across and foster better user experiences. - Presents a content strategy framework and ways to implement in both in-house marketing departments and consultancies - Includes case studies, interviews, and lessons learned from retail, apparel, network television, business-to-business, automotive, non-profit, and higher ed brands - Details practical sales techniques to sell content strategy and use content strategy processes to sell other services and larger projects

Content strategy is clearly critical to your organization, but where do you start, and how do you grow it into a true practice? Whether you're a lone content person tasked with creating a content strategy practice from scratch, or a leader struggling to scale one up, From Solo to Scaled is your blueprint for creating and managing a content strategy practice that is sustainable and successful. Who Should Read This Book? This book is for anyone who wants or needs to build a content strategy practice—for example, content writers, UX researchers and designers, Design Operations leaders and program managers, or any team that is focused on the user experience. Basically, it's for anyone who understands that content can make or break a digital experience. Takeaways Use this book to: Create a content strategy practice blueprint and make the business case for it to upper management in your organization. Show what success looks like and how to measure it. Learn how to create a sustainable practice and when to scale it—from solo to mid–sized to enterprise. Take an inventory of your existing tools to see if you need to repurpose or augment them as you prepare to scale your business. Learn how to present the content practice’s work to leadership in language that leaders understand. Use a handy checklist to audit and improve your own practice–building.

If you've been asked to get funding for a content strategy initiative and need to build a compelling business case, if you've been approached by your staff to implement a content strategy and want to know the business benefits, or if you've been asked to sponsor a content strategy project and don't know what one is, this book is for you. Rahel Anne Bailie and Noz Urbina come from distinctly different backgrounds, but they share a deep understanding of how to help your organization build a content strategy. Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between business, brand, and benefits is the first content strategy book that focuses on project managers, department heads, and other decision makers who need to know about content strategy. It provides practical advice on how to sell, create, implement, and maintain a content strategy, including case studies that show both successful and not so successful efforts. Inside the Book Introduction to Content Strategy Why Content Strategy and Why Now The Value and ROI of Content Content Under the Hood Developing a Content Strategy Glossary, Bibliography, and Index

Finally: a real-life, practical industry guide on content strategy and marketing. Practical Content Strategy & Marketing is your go-to guide on a practical content strategy and marketing education, created by author Julia McCoy as a written accompaniment to her new course, the Content Strategy & Marketing Course (www.contentstrategycourse.com). If you run a business, or if you’re trying to break into a top-dollar content marketing career, you need to know the practical concepts involved in content strategy and marketing. The “how,” the “why,” the “where” of content. Content marketing itself involves so many platforms, formats, content types, strategies, tools—and to get the most ROI from your approach to content marketing and strategy, you have to know how to do the most important content marketing practices. Forget FOMO and trying to figure out too many things. This guide will teach you the most important foundations and skills you actually need in order to get far in our booming industry of content marketing. For the first time in the industry, Practical Content Strategy & Marketing lays the “hows” of content marketing and strategy out, in a step-by-step approach, book form. Each section has written exercises built to solidify what you’re reading and learning—you’ll be able to fill these out with a pen. Don’t be afraid to mark up this book! Why is this book different? You’re not going to find corporate, birds-eye, mumbo-jumbo fluff in this content marketing guide. Quite the opposite. The author, Julia McCoy, won her way to the top (awarded as the top 33rd content marketer in 2016) the hard-knocks way. She dropped out of college and built a content agency, Express Writers, on nothing but $75 and the tenacity to go and follow her dream and see it through. Five years later, Julia’s business has served over 5,000 clients and employs over 40 team members, and her content consistently ranks at the top of Google and among the highest-shared for guest publications. Her go-to marketing strategy? A practical, hands-on content marketing approach that has ended up bringing her 99% of the clients her agency currently works with. With Julia as your guide, learn the principles and physical “how-to” behind these six key cores of effective content marketing: Module 1: Core Foundations of an ROI-Based Content Strategy Module 2: Audience Persona Discovery, Sales Funnel Content Mapping, & Style Guidelines Module 3: Understanding Keywords, SEO Opportunities, & Creating Keyword Reports Module 4: How to Build Content Cores (Your Content House) for an Authority Presence Online Module 5: Practical Content Creation (Your Site & Guest Blogging) Module 6: Content Promotion, Setting a Budget, Preparing Your Editorial Calendar, & Maintenance Along the way, you’ll get to build a working content strategy from the ground up, using the Brand Strategy Exercises in each module. Have your pen and thinking cap ready—and a brand you want to build an entire working strategy for! Practical Content Strategy & Marketing is a field guide for the smartest content marketers who know that strategy is the key to thriving in our world of new marketing through content. Bonus: leading business marketing expert Mark Schaefer joins Julia to write the foreword, and guests Sujan Patel, Michele Linn, Steve Rayson and more appear in guest lessons throughout the book.

In this essential guide, Meghan Casey outlines a step-by-step approach for successful content strategy, from planning and creating your content to delivering and managing it. Armed with this book, you can confidently tackle difficult activities like explaining clearly to your boss or client what's wrong with their content, getting the budget to do content work, and aligning stakeholders on a common vision. Having The Content Strategy Toolkit at your side is like hiring your own personal consulting firm. You get a complete array of instructions, tools, and templates for most challenges you'll face. In this practical and relevant guide, you'll learn how to: Identify problems with your content and persuade your bosses it's worth the time and resources to do it right Assemble a stellar team for your content project Prepare your organization for content transformation Make sense of your business environment and understand your audience Align stakeholders on business goals and user needs Set a compass for your content and decide how to measure success Create, maintain, and govern on-strategy content You'll learn how to treat content like the strategic asset that it is. "Quality content increases value. Poor-quality content destroys value. It's as simple as that. Meghan's book has specific, practical, and immediately actionable ideas that will help you increase the quality of your content."—Gerry McGovern, CEO, Customer Carewords "This second edition goes deep into three integral topics for content leaders—assembling cross-disciplinary teams, evaluating processes, and building a content playbook. If you're looking to build a new practice or retool an existing one, this book will help you succeed.—Natalie Marie Dunbar, Author, From Solo to Scaled: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice