5 Tips for Content Management

Robust content management is mission-critical.

Introduction to Content Management at Stimler Advantage 

As part of its services, Stimler Advantage guides organizations in developing policies, systems, and workflows that support robust content management to streamline content creation, storage, and delivery to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. Content management work is informed by the Stimler Advantage 5 S’s Framework. ​

5 Tips for Content Management

Robust content management is mission-critical. Managing your organization’s unique assets and intellectual property is vital. Finding and deploying your assets in the right context and timeframe are keys to engagement and revenue generation. It can also help to build awareness and social capital for an organization’s brand. Content management encompasses document, digital asset, and information management approaches. 

Here are five tips for content management:

1. Define Clear Governance and Operations: Define who creates, edits, approves, and publishes content to ensure accountability and prevent confusion. Build consistency in format, quality, and voice across all content. Create a framework to create, ingest, and manage content in a regular and timely manner to meet demand. Leverage mobile and integrated applications to make it easy for content contributors to publish and manage content in the system.
2. Organize and Manage Your Content Assets: Centralize your content in a dedicated platform, a content management system (CMS), for appropriate access, editing, and organization. Implement a precise categorization system with metadata fields, controlled vocabularies, licensing and rights data, and permissions. Data and digital assets are codependent and equally important components of the content management environment. Leverage version control within a system to track changes made to content over time and identify active, feature, or retired content. Importantly, always have an exit and migration plan for the day you want to or must leave a particular system because of policy, price, technology, or other changes. Be resilient and not be vulnerable to changes from disasters, the market, solution providers, and more. 
3. Contextualize Content for Engagement and Revenue: Align content with your business goals and ensure that your content supports your overall marketing and revenue objectives. Content not on brand, mission, or revenue targets has no place in the CMS or your organization. Optimize content for search engines (SEO) by using relevant keywords and descriptions to improve content accessibility and discoverability. 
4. Measure and Analyze Content Performance: Leverage analytics within the CMS, and third-party platforms, to gain insights into content performance. Ask your stakeholders for feedback on your content's impact to understand its impact and relevance through embedded and regular surveys. Continuously learn and adapt your content strategy based on data-driven insights. Commit to changing your content creation, development, and management strategies, informed by engagement metrics, feedback, and the hard truth of what works and what does not. Do not be complacent. 
5. Leverage Partnerships and Third-Party Distribution Channels: Content rarely performs well in isolation on your own hosted channels and platforms. Different audiences and users will come into contact with it based on their own interests and terms. Make it easy for your audience to find and engage with your content on the platforms and with partners who understand and advocate for your organization and its brand. Build the technology infrastructure to automatically deploy content efficiently, securely and at scale. Partners and platforms require ongoing measurement and monitoring to be successful. Be ready to adapt partnerships aligned with brand awareness and engagement changes. 

By following these tips, you can build a robust approach to content management that supports your organization’s mission-critical needs and operational sustainability.

Here are some further considerations for content management:

• Accessibility: Ensure content is accessible to users with disabilities and meets regulatory guidelines. 
• Legal: Proactively audit, manage, and track relevant copyright and intellectual property matters within the content management system in consultation with licensed legal counsel. 
• Security: Implement robust security measures to protect content from unauthorized access, modification, theft, or ransom.
• Training: Content management systems do not operate or use themselves; develop user training guides, knowledge bases, frequently asked questions, and videos to help internal and external users be self-empowered to utilize the system best. 
• Work with Risk Management and IT: Develop a content management program and system within the policies, procedures, and requirements of your organization’s risk management and information technology environments and teams to support compliance and continuity. 

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You can build a dynamic, resilient, and sustainable organization with the five content management tips and additional considerations. 

Connect with Stimler Advantage to discuss your executive management consulting needs.