I’ve always fancied myself as a bit of a therapist. My friends who come to me with problems (you know who you are) only fuel the fantasy. And now that I’m in a new role here at iCrossing UK as Content Strategist, I’m off to buy a chaise lounge and a posh-looking clipboard.
Just a couple of weeks into the job and I’ve seen it already: A client has lots of great content, but it’s not quite doing what they want it to, like engage readers, generate social activity, lead to registrations or subscriptions, etc. But just like in therapy, the first step toward recovery is acknowledging you have a problem in the first place.
Before therapy begins, however, we’ll need to do a full assessment of your content history, an audit, really that’s a quantitative and qualitative review of your content, the types (video, blog) and where can it be found. Does it help you achieve your goals? Is it useful to your audience? Is it up to date? This can be therapeutic in itself as it will make issues transparent that are often messy and nebulous.
After this thorough assessment, it’s time for more in-depth therapy to begin, but don’t worry, I’m a professional. I’m here to listen, not judge. You’ll talk me through where it hurts. So you launched a blog but it didn’t get many readers or comments? Tell me more. How does it make you feel when you send your content away from your own site—somewhere it gets more attention, but where you have less control? Does it stress you out?
I’ll want to know the history and complexity behind your pain. What path brought you here? I’ll listen with my clipboard in hand, occasionally rubbing my chin knowingly and ask open-ended, probing questions. Then I’ll chat with those closest to you to get their take. How do they perceive and respond to the pain? Are they enablers, or true supporters?
And finally, the audit and therapy notes from all the relevant stakeholders will be turned into a proposed diagnosis and action plan—in other words, a content strategy. Based in research and dovetailing with SEO, and a social strategy, it’s essentially our recommendation and action plan that can help you achieve your goals through content.
Essentially, all of your content should be a valuable business asset that’s findable, shareable, useful and engaging. So, is it time to get on the chaise?
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Jeremy Head on 
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July 14th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
I can assure you that having you on the team has already reduced my own stress and anxiety immeasurably!
Welcome to iCrossing Trisha. Looking forward to reading more of your case notes . . .
July 14th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Great to have you with us Trisha. I look forward to helping give our clients a lovely dose of digital therapy with you!
July 15th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Hi Trisha. Nice post! I like the idea of being a therapist!
The thing that continues to bug me about this is – where does the creative juice come in? As a writer at heart who also has a lot of marketing experience, I think that final output – the words – needs that spark of creative beauty to it to really make it engaging. For me this is the critical difference between an old school copywriter who is writing to a very defined brief with a specific outcome (make the reader want to buy something is usually what it is) and a journalist who is a little less targeted, a bit more into communicating in an attractive, unusual manner. Does too much strategising mean the creative spark gets lost along the way sometimes? And how do we avoid this?
Cheers
Jeremy
July 27th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I think quality, engaging and creative content with a spark is still essential, Jeremy. What content strategy brings to the picture, is it helps hone the content that’s most worth putting effort into, like what will be the most findable, and likely to encourage engagement. Then the creative content can really get the audience it deserves. Just like a hand in glove