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A Beginner’s Guide to Content Strategy

Using content as part of a marketing strategy requires time, expertise, planning, and proper management. Don’t produce bad content. Plan for the publication and distribution of unique, relevant, and engaging content through the implementation of a content strategy.

What is a content strategy?

There are a number of definitions for content marketing floating around the Internet. Here are a few good ones worth pondering:

  • Content strategy has been described as “the practice of planning for content creation, delivery, and governance” and “a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project” (Wikipedia).
  • Content strategy is using “words and data to create unambiguous content that supports meaningful, interactive experiences.” (Rachel Lovinger, Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data).

Kristina Halvorson, author of the book Content Strategy for the Web explains content strategy in the following way:

“It plots an achievable roadmap for individuals and organizations to create and maintain content that audiences will actually care about. It provides specific, well-informed recommendations about how we’re going to get from where we are today (no content, or bad content, or too much content) to where we want to be (useful, usable content people will actually care about).”

A well-thought-out content strategy takes into consideration the culture, approach, and end goal of delivering information about your company, product, service, or brand. Where should you publish content? When? How often? What kind of content is best suited for this purpose? When done properly, content can be used strategically as an asset and a quantifiable ROI.

Why do I need a content strategy?

Many companies think they can simply “wing it” when it comes to creating content. A couple of articles here, a press release or infographic there — easy, peasy.

Not quite.

Think of it this way. You wouldn’t try to cook a complicated meal without the help of a recipe. Nor would you try to drive to a remote destination without the aid of a GPS or Google Maps. A content strategy acts in a very similar way. Not only does it provide you with an end goal to work towards, but it also enables you to outline detailed instructions for achieving these results.

What should my content strategy contain?

Before you plan your content strategy, check out Kristina Halvorson’s article The Discipline of Content Strategy. In this post, Halvorson explains that every content strategy should start with the following elements:

  • key themes and messages
  • topic recommendations
  • purpose (how will your content close the gap between what your audience is looking for and what your business is offering?)
  • content gap analysis
  • metadata frameworks and any necessary content attributes (including various search engine optimization techniques)
  • any implications of strategic recommendations on content creation, publication, and governance

These basics will then lead to a more in-depth analysis of editorial strategies, content management, content delivery and distribution, ongoing optimization goals, and key performance metrics.

And you thought you were just publishing a blog!

Putting together a content strategy will help ensure that you have the right resources in place to produce the content you need to set your company apart from the competition.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: inbound marketing, management

How to Learn Proofreading

You can learn proofreading from home with an online course

You don’t need to go to a university or community college to learn proofreading. Plenty of options are available online, which means you can fit your studies around your schedule. Not everyone can afford to take time off from work to take an intensive course, and that is probably the main benefit of the online method if you want to learn proofreading.

Home-based career

Proofreading is an ideal career choice for those who want to, or need to, work from home. You don’t need to commute to the big city to make a living in this career, and a training course that you can do at home to qualify for these home-based jobs is a natural choice. Just about everyone has an Internet connection these days; that, and a computer, are all you need to learn proofreading from home.

Who should learn proofreading

Proofreading skills are useful in many walks of life. You might be a teacher or a professor who needs better guidance on how to mark course work. Proofreading is an essential part of editing, and writers can benefit from learning ways to proofread their own work. Of course, if you learn proofreading, you’ll also open up the career path to becoming a professional proofreader.

How to learn proofreading

Taking a class in proofreading can be a little frustrating. People learn at their own pace, and that means that some want to race ahead while others learn slowly and steadily. You will find it easier to learn proofreading if you are able to learn at a pace that suits you. Online proofreading courses are faster to work through than correspondence courses because they offer quicker responses to queries and submissions than courses that rely on mail.

Backup

You could learn proofreading by buying a book on the subject, but then you would not have anyone to turn to for clarification on the parts of the book you don’t understand. An online training course is more than just class notes because you have access to a tutor who can explain sections of the course that might confuse you. This support is an essential element of any course you take to learn proofreading. You can better understand the material if you have the opportunity to seek explanations the moment you have questions, rather than waiting until the end of class or waiting for the mailman to bring a reply.

In your own time

If you want to learn proofreading, consider taking an online course so that you can study in your own time and at your own pace. The professionals who put these courses together have years of experience in proofreading and will make it as easy as possible for you to learn proofreading thoroughly.

 

Filed Under: Editing and Proofreading Tagged With: proofreading, rw

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