Why Content Strategy Matters
Bridging the Gap
Modules 1 and 2 demonstrate how the field of communication is always evolving and how the line can blur between different specializations. I am going to specifically talk about the merging of Marketing Communication (MarComm) and Technical Communication (TechComm). According to Content strategist Scott Abel, “the future of TechComm is marketing” and he makes the argument that customers are “not well served by the separation of content”. While many have embraced the integration of the two, I worry may be one of the few who is hesitant to assimilate.
Historically TechComm and MarComm operated separately as the former focused on clarity and usability and the latter emphasized branding and storytelling. As someone who aspires to work in TechComm, I am disappointed with the growing expectation that I become a marketing professional. The merging of these roles feels frustrating when my workload increasingly shifts toward marketing-driven deliverables rather than technically-driven ones.
However, once I allowed myself to reassess my biases against marketing, I have a new appreciation for the complexity and importance of content strategy.
Content as a Business Asset
Dr. Kim’s video lecture rightly points out that TechComm pros must have an understanding of business value to be successful in their careers. Guest speaker Lucie Hyde, and Senior Director of User Experience & Design at PayPal, illustrates this understanding perfectly.
At one point, PayPal experienced a drop in conversion rates following a legislative change. In response, lawyers rewrote the content to ensure compliance, but it failed customers and ultimately hurt the business. The language was not user-friendly and customers struggled to understand why they needed the product. After making revisions the content that were more user friendly, the content team at PayPal were able to demonstrate that content was central to success. Ms. Hyde uses her experience to highlight a common misconception: content is often treated as a “cost center” rather than a strategic asset until something goes wrong.
Her experience was the first time I had seen a compelling example of how content strategy can significantly impact the success of an organization. Exploration into the phases of content strategy continued to shift my formerly rigid perspective as I learned not how to create content, but why content matters to businesses.
Phases of Content Strategy
Dr. Kim interviewed Content Strategist Rahel Bailie who outlined a practical framework for approaching content strategy. I found Ms. Bailie’s explanation to be the most straightforward and it consists of three core phases:
Discovery - focuses on understanding the problem and involves interviewing stakeholders, analyzing current practices, and gathering insights.
Gap Analysis - focuses on identifying inconsistencies and shortcomings of content and connecting observed issues to their root causes.
Roadmap - focuses on outlining specific steps needed to improve content and align it with business needs.
Final Thoughts
While the integration of TechComm and MarComm isn’t the most appealing to me, it would irresponsible to ignore the growing importance of content strategy. My understanding is that content must work for both users and business, which means there must be a seamless integration of content that is not only accurate and compliant, but also usable and meaningful.
As a future TechComm professional I don’t need to become a marketer, however, I do need to understand the larger system content operates in and recognize the value these strategist bring to it.
