Content Strategy

Content strategy is the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content to meet both user needs and business goals.

Core Components

Content creation: What to create and why Content structure: How to organize it (IA) Content workflow: Who creates, reviews, approves Content governance: How to maintain quality Content measurement: How to track success

Why It Matters

Without strategy: ❌ Inconsistent messaging ❌ Duplicate or outdated content ❌ Users can't find what they need ❌ Wasted resources

With strategy: ✅ Consistent, high-quality content ✅ Well-organized and findable ✅ Meets user and business needs ✅ Sustainable long-term

Content Strategy Process

1. Audit: Inventory existing content
2. Research: Understand users and needs
3. IA: Organize content logically (card sorting!)
4. Planning: What to create, update, delete
5. Creation: Produce new content
6. Governance: Maintain and update

Content + IA

Card sorting helps:

• Understand how users categorize content
• Design intuitive navigation
• Use user language for labels
• Identify content gaps

IA informs content:

• What content is needed where
• How to structure articles
• What to prioritize

Content Governance

Ownership: Who's responsible for each section Workflows: Creation → review → publish process Standards: Voice, tone, style guidelines Maintenance: How often to review and update Archiving: When to remove outdated content

Measuring Success

• Search analytics (what users look for)
• Task completion rates
• Content engagement metrics
• User satisfaction scores
• Business goal achievement

Use card sorting to build content strategy on user mental models - try it free at freecardsort.com