Looking for more ways to show what you know? Wanting more tools for your kit? Content strategy can help. This content strategy primer began as an in-person bootcamp. It’s been revamped and is now available online with new material, extra resources, and more examples from the Intuit content teams. Go through the lessons sequentially or pick and choose what interests you.
Topic 1: Content strategy overview
22 min
What is content strategy and how is it different from creating content? How is content strategy like running a bakery? How can you avoid content catastrophes with strategy? If you’re a writer or content designer and want to kick your work up a notch, start here.
Resources
Content Strategy for the Web, Second Edition by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach
The Content Strategy Toolkit: Methods, Guidelines, and Templates for Getting Content Right by Meghan Casey
New Thinking: Brain Traffic’s Content Strategy Quad by Kristina Halvorson
Tips for writers getting into content strategy by Jennifer Schmich
Topic 2: Inventory and audit
19 min
Inventories and audits are the first place(s) to start with any content strategy project. Jen Schmich covers what they are, why they matter, how to approach them, and shares some examples done by the content team at Intuit.
Resources
Content Audits and Inventories by Paula Land
Content Heuristic (an example) by Ahava Leibtag
ROT: The Low-Hanging Fruit of Content Analysis by Rick Allen
Situation Analysis by Kristina Halvorson
Content Inventory and Auditing from Nielsen Norman Group
Topic 3: Closing the gap
15 min
You’ve done an audit and inventory, what’s next? In Topic 3, Jen Schmich goes over discovery work and how to map a way forward, with plenty of examples from the Intuit content team.
Resources
Content Gap Analysis by Paula Land
A Comprehensive Guide to Content Gap Analysis by Mike Wagaba
Competitive Analysis: Understanding the Market Context by Jason Withrow
Topic 4: Making a test plan
18 min
Testing is a great way to prove out your strategy with data. In Topic 4, you’ll learn how to test your strategy and get buy-in from stakeholders.
Resources
A/B Testing: Test Your Own Hypotheses & Prepare to be Wrong by Stuart Frisby
Data Sets You Free – Analytics for Content Strategy by Jonathan Colman
User Test Content Before You Start Design by Amy Grace Wells
Testing your content: What’s the best approach? by Matt Fenwick
Topic 5: Strategic partnering
15 min
Being a content strategist means being strategic about all kinds of things beyond the content itself. In Topic 5, we start to move away from the “what” of content strategy to talk more about the “how” of thinking like a content strategist.
Resources
How to Pitch an Idea by Scott Berkun
How to Pitch a Project by Mike Monteiro
A mentality for content strategists by Jennifer Schmich
What I wish I knew when I was younger by Derek Muller
Topic 6: Content and systems
20 min
When you widen your view of content, you start to see gnarlier, messier problems. In Topic 6, you’ll learn about systems thinking and how to see your content through a different lens.
Resources
From design thinking to systems thinking by Valerie Chanal
A Systems Story (Systems Thinking) by BEE Environmental Communication
Tools for systems thinkers by Leyla Acaroglu
Maintaining Design Systems by Brad Frost
Topic 7: Architecture
20 min
Content architecture is the iceberg below the surface. It’s an important part of content strategy and an invisible force that has a huge impact on your content. In Topic 7, we continue our chat from Topic 6 and use systems to unravel the mystery behind content architecture.
Resources
Designing Connected Content by Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane
Metadata Basics for Web Content by Michael Andrews
IA lenses: Helpful perspectives for content strategists by Dan Brown
Why Taxonomies by PoolParty (Semantic Web Company)
The beauty of content architecture by Jennifer Schmich
Outro: Doing content strategy
8 min
You’ve made it this far! Now you know about content strategy—what’s next? Where do you go from here? Part of strategy work is figuring out how to be strategic.
Jen Schmich is a content strategist known for building new things from scratch and scatter to solve big problems, whether that’s a team, platform, body of content, or voice of a brand. As a leader, she believes in a “lift all boats” approach. Jen also finds leadership lessons watching RuPaul.
