It’s your words, photos, videos, downloadable documents, etc.

It’s also the number one under-estimated element of web projects in terms of time and resources required for success.

That’s why, as a thank you for joining us at Rachael’s session at either NERDSummit 2019 or OU User Training Conference 2019, we’re sharing the 3 tools you’ll need for laying the foundation for an effective, easy to maintain content management strategy.

We’re also sharing the slides from Rachael’s presentation as well as the content worksheet we use with our clients that helps them find their brand voice and plan what kind of content will help them reach their goals.

And remember: content management is for humans

While technology provides tools that will make managing your website’s content easier, you still need human operators making smart choices behind the scenes.

STRATEGIC MINDSET & FLEXIBLE PLANNING

Be intentional—always know WHO you’re speaking to and use content to further specific goals, like increasing enrollment or promoting events.

Create messaging around what you want your audience to know, what you want them to feel, and what you want them to do after interacting with each piece of content you create.

Don’t guess, test! Track your results in order to be able to repeat your successes and adjust if the outcomes didn’t meet your goals.

Embrace failure as a learning opportunity and switch gears when your approach isn’t working.

DOCUMENTATION & ORGANIZATION

Audit What You’ve Got: Make a master list of all your page + URLs. Then mark each piece of content as either: “keep” “revise” or “remove”. Make another category for “create!” when you find content is missing or doesn’t exist.

Use A Green Machine: These spreadsheets are great for tracking progress and assigning ownership for specific content tasks. They help you maintain momentum by allowing you to identify key team members—who’s the best at writing? Who’s the person to ask for details about key pages?

Content Tracking + Editorial Calendar = #ContentManagementGoals

TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

Technology can’t solve your challenges, but it can help. Your CMS will make managing your content quick and easy.

You’ll be able to enter content in one place and display it in as many areas on your site that you’d like as well as relate types of content by topics or site areas.

CMS platforms are easy to connect to Google Analytics, so tracking your successes and failures will be incredibly simple. You’ll be able to track the data that will let you know if your message has resonated with your target audience and encouraged them to take the action you want them to take—the ones you chose based on your strategic goals.

Managing SEO considerations like page titles and meta descriptions is straight forward and accessible for non-technical users.

Creating consistent, ADA compliant templates that control for things like color, font, responsiveness, heading hierarchies, and meta descriptions means you don’t have to worry about anyone creating content that doesn’t fit your brand standards.