inventory to insight to action with paula land
DESCRIPTION
Introduce the concepts and value of the content inventory and audit and get practical, tactical tools and experience in conducting an audit, extracting insights, and presenting the findings.TRANSCRIPT
Inventory to Insight to ActionContent Auditing WorkshopPaula Land
Content Insight
IntroductionsPaula Land
Co-founder and CEO of Content Insight
Owner and Principal Consultant at Strategic Content
Today’s goalIntroduce the concepts and value of the content inventory and audit and get practical, tactical tools and experience in conducting an audit, extracting insights, and presenting the findings
Introduction to content inventories and audits
What we’re going to talk aboutThe
WhoWhatWhenWhereWhy*How
What next?
*Not quite in that order
Content inventories and auditsEarly steps in a content project
Form the foundation for the larger initiative
StrategyGap
AnalysisAuditInventory
Inventory vs. auditInventory - Quantity Audit - Quality
Another way to think of itInventory - Data Audit - Analysis
Yet another way to think of it
Some rights reserved by phil_g
"Not doing an inventory is like starting to bake when you don't know what ingredients you have in the house.“ – Rahel Bailie
Why?
Why inventory?• Assess as-is landscape of a site or content set
• Scope a project for resource estimation
• Identify patterns in content structure
• Set a baseline to measure to-be site against (ROI)
• Establish a basis for migration tracking
If you don’t know where you are, how do you map to where you’re going?
Why audit?
• Assess current state of content to inform strategy
• Identify whether content consistently follows brand, template, editorial, style and metadata guidelines
• Assess whether content supports business and user goals
• Establish a basis for gap analysis between content you have and content you need
• Prepare content for revision, removal and migration
• Uncover patterns in content to support structured content initiatives
• To develop a deep understanding of the content
Business Goals
User Goals
Content
“When you take the time to understand the content that already exists, not only will you be able to ensure that it’s supported in the new design, but you’ll actually make the entire design stronger because you’ll have realistic scenarios to design with and for…. chances are there’ll be stuff out there that you’ve never thought about, much less designed for. ”
–Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Organizational value of auditsBecome the content expert
Be the content advocate
Drive change forward
Image by Thibault fr (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
“[Use] the content audit as a platform for facilitating often-difficult conversations with stakeholders about the purpose of the site, the priorities of users, and the operational constraints and opportunities.”
– Christopher Detzi
When?
When do we inventory and audit?• Planning and executing a content strategy
• Website redesign
• CMS implementation
• To guide a governance initiative
• Ongoing
Who?
Audits aren’t just for content strategists
Content strategists
Information architects
Project managers
Site managers
Everyone who interacts with your content
Where?
Where do we look?
How?
How do we create a content inventory?
Automate your inventory using CAT, the Content Analysis Tool. Free trial available at www.content-insight.com.
What goes into a content inventory?
Data captured by CAT:• URLs — How many pages are there on the site?• File types — What are all of the formats?• File size — How large are the files? • Level — How deep does the site go?• Images — How many of them, what format, where do they live?• Media — How many audio and video files exist, what format, where do they live?• Documents — How many, what format, where do they live?• Metadata — What title, description, and keyword metadata is on each page?• Links in and out — What links to and from each page?• H1s — What is the H1 text (matters for SEO)• Analytics — What traffic is each page getting?
How do we turn an inventory into an audit?Scope the audit
Gather information
Analyze
Scoping the auditWhy are you auditing?
• Scoping a project
• Content strategy initiative and/or site redesign
• CMS implementation
• Ongoing
What do you need to learn?
Who is your audience?
How much time do you have?
What’s your project timeline?
Assembling the audit ingredientsInformation to gather before beginning:
• Inventory data
• Business requirements
• Analytics data and other metrics
• Editorial and brand guidelines
• Personas
• Customer journey maps
• Customer feedback
• Search logs
Example: Business goals
• Increase sales by x%
• Achieve a high level of content engagement
• Decrease customer service calls by x%
• Create brand loyalty
Example: Guidelines and standardsEditorial
Brand
Legal / Regulatory
SEO
Example: Voice and tone guidelinesAttribute Content characteristic
Friendly Written clearly and conversationally
Uses short, simple sentences
Uses familiar, common language
Approachable Gives users ways to contact you
Content is easy to scan
Conversational Written as if you’re speaking to a friend, and want
your friend to know what you know
Written informally
Uses contractions
Written in the second person: “you,” “your,” and
“yours”
Energetic Uses the active voice
Empowers the customer with action verbs: Find,
Search, Explore, Get, Shop, and so on
Example: Voice and tone table
Source: Kevan Gilbert, https://blog.gathercontent.com/a-simple-tool-to-guide-tone-of-voice
Examples: Tone MailChimp
We’ll start by getting a few definitions out of the way that should help you understand this policy. When we say "we," "us," and "MailChimp,” we’re referring to The Rocket Science Group, LLC d/b/a MailChimp, a State of Georgia limited liability company. When we say “you” or “Member,” we’re referring to the person or entity that’s registered with us to use the Services.
Microsoft
This privacy statement applies to Microsoft.com and Microsoft websites, services and products that collect data and display these terms, as well as their offline product support services. It does not apply to Microsoft sites, services and products that do not display or link to this statement or that have their own privacy statements.
PersonasFictional characters based on real users
Represent key characteristics, motivations, goals
Example Persona: VolunteerName: Sonya Role: Volunteer Occupation: Former Tech Worker
Quote: “I really try not to spend a lot of time online, I focus on the face to face stuff. Last year we went on a trip to Montana and there were forest fires. This is what Twitter was made for!”
Wants: To grow as a person and give back to the community.
Pain Points: Doesn’t think the website is useful or updated. Sometimes there are closures due to weather, she’d like a way to be informed without being inundated.
Motivations• Find volunteer activities that keep her
active and outdoors and working with horses.
• Originally had no history of working with children and was intimidated by the idea. Little Bit gave her an opportunity to become more comfortable with working with youth.
Goals• Continue to learn about hippotherapy and be a useful volunteer• See that it’s a good use of volunteer time• Spend more time doing and less online in general
Behaviors• High usage of smartphone, Twitter and Facebook judiciously. “It bothers me
to have to be on Facebook to get something. So, I just won’t go on it.”• Reads the newsletters. Doesn’t visit the website, doesn’t think it is updated.
“I imagine people go there when they start, then don’t go back.”
Example: Customer journey map
Source: Adaptive Path
Customer actionsContent engagement
Customer feedback
Search logs
What we audit forQuality
Breadth and depth
Performance and effectiveness
Competition
Auditing for content qualityWhat to assess:• Content is relevant• Content is current• Content is accurate• It is easy-to-read/scan• Tone is audience-appropriate• Content communicates key messages• Content facilitates key user activities• Content is engaging• Content presentation is consistent• Nomenclature is clear and consistent
What to assess against:
• Editorial style guide
• Brand guidelines
• Voice / tone guidelines
• User research
• Personas
• Customer tasks
Auditing for structure and functionWhat content elements and interactions exist on the site?
How well do they perform?
What are the implications for redesign or migration?
Auditing for breadth and depthWhat to assess:
• Range of subjects covered
• Comprehensiveness of coverage
• Format
What to assess against:
• Competitor sites
• Business requirements
• Personas
• Customer journey map
Auditing for content performanceWhat to assess:
• Analytics data
• Site metrics
• Search data
What to assess against:
• Business goals
• Personas
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Search rankings
Auditing against competitors What to assess:
• Audience(s)
• Type and quantity of content
• Formats
• Language (tone and voice)
• Contributors (numbers, names)
• Community features
• Frequency of publication
• Overall impression
• Stand-out or differentiating features
What to assess for:
• Breadth and depth
• Consistency
• Completeness
• Currency and frequency
• Findability
Example: Scorecard
Turning insights into action
Presenting audit findingsKnow your audience
Choose your focus
Select format
Presenting audit findings – contextWho are the stakeholders and what will persuade them?
What decisions need to be made?
What change are you trying to drive?Context
Content Users
Presenting audit findings – focusWhat are the most compelling data points?
What is the call to action?
Presenting audit findings – formatPresentation
Document
Graphics
Example: Audit infographic
Source: Christopher Detzi, uxmag.com
Delivering the news
Stay in [email protected]
@content_insight https://www.facebook.com/content.insight Content Analysis Tool (CAT)
www.content-insight.com