Ahead of our ‘Content Creation Special - Q&A’ webinar this coming Tuesday (not yet registered? Register here), I thought I would whet your appetite with a top tip from each of our panelists:
- “Invest in interoperability, not reinvention. Changing your entire CMS can be expensive and disruptive. But staying still isn’t an option either. A better path is to choose solutions that connect with what you already use – like plugins or connectors to WordPress – so you can upgrade your workflow without starting from scratch.” (Sara Forni, product manager, innovation, Atex)
- “Hold your nerve and focus on the long-term goals. Focus on the content you know your most engaged readers really value and try to resist going for cheap and easy wins when you are having a sluggish day.” (Ian Carter, chief operating officer, Iliffe Media)
- “Ask yourself, is this piece of content genuinely useful, inspiring or entertaining?” (Loma-Ann Marks, editor-in-chief, Reclaim)
- “Utilise hidden tags to analyse the events that have occurred throughout the journey to and through the content to align with content and commercial strategies. Internal markers for content events uncover valuable insights.” (Stewart Robinson, managing director, Full Fat Things)
- “Include only one clear call to action to guide your audience on how to engage with your branded content feature. More than one CTA (eg. shop the product, sign up to newsletter, enter the competition) can muddy the waters and confuse your audience, resulting in weakened results. Keep things simplified, streamlined and focus on the most important KPI.” (Arianna Chatzidakis, creative content director, Hello!)
- “Be best-in-class at something. When evolving a content strategy, it’s important not to spread yourself too thinly and end up doing an ok job across the board. Whether it’s exclusivity and accessibility of content, use of multimedia, or even something like content-led campaigns, be clear on the areas you are best-in-class at, and protect those areas as you grow.” (Luke Nicholls, publisher of edie, Faversham House)
- “Categorise images by editorial value. Not all images require the same treatment. Prioritise human expertise for high-impact visuals (eg. covers, exclusives), and deploy automation for the high-volume, lower-sensitivity content. This maximises both quality and efficiency.” (Derek Milne, commercial pixometrist, Pixometry)
- “Adopt structured content. Creating content in modular components – such as headlines, introductions, body text, and visuals – facilitates layout automation and simplifies content reuse across all platforms, now and in the future. It improves speed and efficiency and supports personalisation and localisation, without duplicating effort.” (Jeroen Goemans, managing director (EMEA), WoodWing)
You can hear more insights from our experts and put your own questions to them at the webinar – look forward to you joining us on Tuesday.
You can catch James Evelegh’s regular column in the InPubWeekly newsletter, which you can register to receive here.
