Content Strategy Template

1. Content Strategy Template Making Victorian Government web content easier to find, understand and use Owner ?October 2016 Insert your agency name

2. Content Strategy Template contents Content Vision Statement Summary of insights from audit, interviews, research Content principles Activities to get to future state

3. Content Vision Statement Examples: Insert user quote including type of user e.g. ‘comment” Type of user

4. Summary of insights from audit, interviews and research Summarise the results for these major categories: (see next pages for examples) What do our users want? What internal problems are we trying to solve? What do our users need to make their journey easier? What aren’t we going to do? Summarise the approach taken to extract this information Survey on <insert website> Survey on <insert website> User interviews Google Analytics Reports (e.g. Studies) Review of email and Was this page useful feedback

5. What do our users want? What are our users looking for? • Document the most popular content categories in text, chart, table, or even word cloud formats (whatever suits) Top user tasks (examples) • latest events • how-to information

6. What internal problems are we trying to solve? Security • Website might be so out-of-date and unstable that it’s not secure and you can’t add new pages Search engine and mobile friendly • Content can’t be found via Google due to poor SEO • Poor navigation setup • Calendar, event and other information offers a poor experience on across mobile devices Not user focussed • Content isn’t written with a specific audience/action in mind so pages may have low page views • Content is out of date or duplicated

7. What do our users need to make their journey easier?

8. Insight example: the people we think are our audience aren’t using our content Insert user quote including type of user e.g. ‘comment” Type of user Insight example: people need a place to get individual queries answered online

9. What are our competitors doing? Include examples Web chat Facebook as a service channel All content is tagged

10. What are we NOT going to do? Examples: Not be a link farm (instead be a source of practical information) Not guide users through a journey by putting up more webpages, it doesn’t make people happy Not tell people about ourselves if it has no practical purpose <insert your comments>

11. Content Principles: every page is our homepage Make sure: News isn’t just our homepage, it filters throughout relevant sections Content can be filtered so all items are displayed in relevant areas e.g. news, grants, events, legislation are placed where relevant not just in their section We have titles and descriptions that use real life language and actions, and entice people in, so we’re discoverable on Google We provide contacts so people know how to reach us Have syndication/APIs so other departments can share our hard work easily and find our content.

12. Content Principles: every page has a purpose Always check the action is real by researching what users want. Tell people what’s happening next as well as how to prepare. Think about the whole process from start to finish and how we can make it easier, even if it’s not online. We are no longer a directory! Don’t just ‘tell people about yourself’ or ‘give them information’. Show service and action. If people can’t complete an action or get involved/meet a need, why are we telling them? Insert user quote including type of user e.g. ‘comment” Type of user

13. Content Principles: be personal Integrate case studies into content to show people this content is meant for people like them. Provide a simple, friendly tone through the style guide. Provide ways to ask questions and confirm understanding (contextual social media, email, contacts, chat services). Insert user quote including type of user e.g. ‘comment” Type of user

14. Principles: be proactive Allow people to sign up for notifications so they know when there’s a change. Be available where they are (Facebook, Twitter etc). Tell them about what they need before they know they need it. Provide our information to other departments so they don’t have to duplicate the content (and the effort). Insert user quote including type of user e.g. ‘comment” Type of user

15. Activities to get you to future state – set Goals and KPIs Increase Was this page helpful rating from 35% to over 50% Over 1,000 signups to notifications in first 12 months At least three websites using syndication in first 12 months All key information tagged/sharable in an audience-specific way without duplication

16. Activities to get you to future state. Every page should…

17. What will our information architecture look like (at a very high level)?

18. What kind of content do we publish? Action (what the user will achieve by using this page). What’s needed to take the action (optional pre-planning). Step through tasks (what to do including options, timelines and dates). What’s next (summary to help them on the journey). ‘News’ area to highlight important content Related content (what other internal pages might be useful to this person). Was this page helpful (so we can keep improving each page). <wireframe to be inserted>

19. What templates will we need? Examples Main homepage Section landing pages General content pages User-generated content pages e.g. blogs Directory pages Events pages Browse pages e.g. publications Data pages e.g. open government data Forms e.g. Contact us etc.