Why You Need a Content Strategy for Your Development Communications

Premise:  A good communications strategy is based on a well thought out content concept.  Here is what you can do to enhance your content systematically! 

Recently I attended a very informative webinar with Scoop.it's CEO Guillaume Decugis where he outlined a practical approach to getting the most from what you spend on your content. Below I lay out my adaptation of his advice, angled towards the specificities of communications for development. 

Development Communications Often Lacks Strategic Thought

Before I start, I want to stress a personal observation. Not claiming to have any sort of scientific evidence base, I am under the impression that many development cooperation outfits―for lack of a better term―base their communications efforts on strategies that are not synced in an advantageous way with their institutions' corporate goals, leading to a lack of strategic focus.

Another issue seems to be that comms strategies often simply put into writing what development organisations are planning to do anyway, which tools they want to use, or―worse―what they are implementing already. In short, with tools decided upon beforehand, strategies resemble more of a run-sheet than a strategy. (More on that at Why Your Development Communications Needs Independent Advice)

Clearly, this is not a very gainful approach. How come that it so widely spread in development cooperation? ―  To some degree, I think, it has to do with decision-makers being of the belief that the substance of what is to be communicated was by and large obvious, needing no further thought.

Why is it not plain obvious which content to choose from for your communications?

• It is simply not a good idea to work with a broad communications goal such as "convey what is produced inside your shop." Let's face it, not all of your themes will be of particular relevance to your target groups. Especially operational news are usually not interesting to outsiders besides a handful of sponsors. If not framed with another story angle, who was appointed the new chairperson or which document was signed is ultimately non-strategic by nature. If you don't quite believe it, ask your web manager to get you the visitation numbers of these kinds of stories and compare them to thematically based stories.
• Most development organisations are full of so-called subject matter experts. So if one thing should be clear, then it is that there is enough content because it is catered for by these experts, isn't it? ― Well, maybe, but even if there is, this shouldn't lead to the conclusion that it is by itself clear which content is worth being communicated, especially not from a strategic point of view. It is also an illusion to think that subject matter experts would be of much help with the selection of content. They might be aware of the institutional priorities, but they are also prone to have vested interests in promoting themes close to their professional specialisation. 'Harvesting' existing information for communication purposes is typically difficult in organisations that develop policy or other types of complex information―at least more difficult than what the managers typically believe.
• Despite all the talk about web 2.0, in development cooperation communications it remains a tenacious reductionism to consider it the purpose of communications to simply relay information produced by the subject matter experts. In other words, to take what is already there. In this view communications has a clear-cut support part, not allowing for it to play a more constructive role within a complex cognitive interaction scenario.To my knowledge in communications science, the classic sender-receiver models are pretty much out by now. Adding comments fields underneath your story won't crack it. For it to be strategic one will have to look at creating content for its intended use―maybe not entirely from scratch, but with an open mind in terms of where to start from or how to remould it for the intended user, bringing in comms specialists into the process early on.
• Going along with that comes also the prevalent conception of communications consultancy expenses being largely avoidable overhead as well as ignoring that hours spent by internal staff needing to find their way around materials will have to come into the expense calculation somehow―especially if these colleagues have to fiddle with apps for a long time because they are not trained for this job or don't have access to adequate technical equipment.
• If communications pros are brought into the process early, they will add positively to your outcome, providing valuable feedback loops with your subject matter experts. Even the process of rewriting parts of your content before communicating it can offer valuable insights for subject matter experts. Pointing to a PDF generated from a copy that was laid out for print is pretty much the opposite. Here is an example of a communications professional working in climate change communication. 

Susan Hassol says that we’re stymied in solving the climate change problem because of an underlying challenge – a communication failure – rooted in language and ideology. Aspects of this failure included how scientists communicate.

• The idea of content being readily available for comms is often exacerbated by the fact that thematic experts fear runaway communicators who not only add fancy fonts and colours but seriously distort the meaning of the submitted texts. This fear is not entirely unfounded. Often projects only hire very junior communications officers who don't know the intricacies of the subject―or the idiosyncrasies of the authors for that matter. Lead authors rightfully want to retain control over what is communicated. Managers―in development cooperation usually also subject matter experts―want to avoid lengthy back-and-forths, which put stress on resources and lead to mutual frustrations. Managers often don't appreciate these back-and-forths for what they are, a negotiation for the true meaning and the best output. They are common in news editorials. Though there they usually follow a strict routine procedure. In many development communications outfits the trouble is that this haggling is not endured for the benefit of a better outcome. Especially in smaller organisations or project-based comms, coordinators often aim to sort out the conflict once and for all with an internal policy. Usually, this boils down to the texts staying mostly untouched by the comms person―nothing that could seriously be called editing. What you want to establish is an integrative process not a subsequent!
• Going hand-in-hand with the common misconception of content selection being obvious and easy to produce is the idea that awareness on the side of the reader was achieved with maximum factual correctness or at least critically based on it. Though surely one would not want to deliberately create incorrect information, it is still far-fetched to think that awareness or understanding on the side of the recipient would convince them in some way or even translate into some kind of action, all simply because it was presented in correct and logical manner. Needless to say that it is quite common in development cooperation for comms tactics to leave it undefined what concrete action they actually want a specific target group to do. Calls-to-Action (CTAs) and conversions (i.e. the act of the audience to actually do what you want them to do) don't just belong to the world of consumer product marketing. Admittedly, there  they are usually quite annoying but that doesn't mean you should disregard them as useless for comms4dev. 

 What You Can Do to Enhance Your Content Approach 

1. Set clear goals

Your content can be used to support many different aspects of your communications strategy. It can:

• Drive awareness on an issue
• Engage audiences for a particular purpose
• Generate leads towards other content
• Nurture prospects and donors

One should be as clear as possible on the actual goals. For any content chosen it is conducive to make up your mind about concrete objectives and how tangible they are. You need to know where you are at with each of your target group in terms of awareness status around each of your themes.

2. Creating content is an investment

Content creation and marketing cost money, especially if you want to produce high quality, unique content on a regular basis. In some organisations staff doesn't record their time, then the real costs of producing content remain largely unknown.

Indicative content production cost overview

The costs vary substantially depending on the actual content you produce. With Corbecoms we find that a well-researched blog piece can take well over 10 hours when you include the research, production of charts and images, writing of the post, getting client feedback and editing it into the post.

Given these costs, it is critical to track the performance of your content. Tracking is the basis for your assessment of how much 'return' you get. Though in non-profit environments the ROI will remain rather fictitious, the exercise does provide a good indication of where you're at and allows you to further develop your content strategy to maximize your 'returns'.

3. What is ROI in the development cooperation sense?

Normally, in a business setting the return on your investment is simply the value of the goals you achieve relative to the costs of your content production. Basically, you balance your costs for creating content against the returns. The returns to measure will depend upon the content marketing ROI goal. For example, driving awareness on a specific theme is very different from driving sales conversions for a company. Typical measures are mentions, shares, links, visitor traffic, leads and conversions.

Since devco outfits are usually not-for-profits who rely to a substantial degree on donors, they don't have 'returns' from sales as a direct proof of the contents' worth. So I suggest you decide beforehand on specific Euro figures you want to place on specific indicator values you aim to achieve. It is fictitious but should serve you as a good indication of where you are at. Ask the question: how much is it worth to the organisation, and maybe its donors, if one additional person of the target group knows about your cause, or better, does perform a particular action. It is also a humbling exercise in a way.

A good understanding of your 'returns' relative to the investment cost can help your strategic decision making. A common mistake is to just look at the returns and ignore costs. A good white paper can generate most leads overall but it may not create more leads per hour of investment in the content. In the case of Scoop.it they found that white papers and ebooks generated less leads relative to the cost of investment than short form and curated content. 

Interestingly the owners of the online content analysis tool BuzzSumo found that well researched, long form content is usually more cost-effective than shorter forms of content and drives significantly more leads, especially over time. Plus, long form content is more likely to be evergreen than short posts.

This is pretty much the opposite of what I usually hear from clients. Often they demand content, especially video, to be as short and snappy as somehow possible. I assume that they base their demand on their observation that no-one seems to have time to read. Well, the researched numbers show that in many cases long form content has more traction. Actually, people seem to look for in-depths information. Long form content allows you to better convey more complex information.

4. Research and planning

A typical mistake in development cooperation is rushing content production without at least some basic research, for example in the form of mini focus groups, or to start the production internally and bring in graphics designers, science editors or strategic comms advisors at a late stage.

Maybe this is due to the fact that people working in the development context are usually subject matter experts who do know their fields in and out, but have the tendency to underestimate the communications-related implications, which need to be researched with their own set of scientific tools, scientific communications research tools. Sometimes I joke with communications colleagues that it feels like being an architect who was called to the building site to construct a house after the foundation has been laid and all building materials delivered.

Researching the content that resonates with your audience helps take away the guesswork about the content you should be producing. One simple way to do this is to search for the most shared content on your topics on BuzzSumo. You can also enter the domains of your competitors to see what is working best for them. In the development context they might not be competitors in the business sense, but still they are to some effect competing for the limited amount of attention span and donor money available for certain subjects with your target groups.

Clearly, it is important to use your content to respond to the questions your audience has, as Guillaume Decugis stresses. The digital marketing & PR strategist Lee Odden goes beyond this and advises that your content should be the best answer out there. A good start for research is an online search for the most shared posts in your thematic area and gauge how you can improve upon those posts. If you can’t, then it would be better to look at other areas and topics where you can deliver the best answer.

Surely everyone's content budget is limited. So you need to balance quality and quantity. Is it better to produce many average articles or fewer higher quality pieces? Hubspot research suggests that publishing more regular content generates more leads. In other words, you should produce a minimum level of regular content. Scoop.it publish three posts each week, whereas BuzzSumo creates just one post a week, focusing on longer research-driven posts that provide unique insights. However Guillaume Decugis pointed out in the webinar, there are ways in which one can increase content production through curation and repurposing as set out below.

Beyond this, it is critical to come up with at least a basic content schedule and for it to include content with longevity that can drive a compounding return on your investment over years. A news-type post on a recent development has a very limited shelf live.

Whatever your content plan you should schedule and manage the process. This doesn’t have to be complex if you are not producing lots of content. It can be just a simple spreadsheet that sets out what is to be produced each week over the next couple of months. For those who have larger amounts of content to be produced or ambitions in that direction, Scoop.it offers Content Director, a tool to plan, source and schedule content.

5. Make your content production process efficient

One way to maximise your returns is to reduce your investment costs by being more efficient in your content creation, for example:

Content curation_ In the webinar I attended Decugis made a strong case for content curation as this may help you produce more content consistently at lower cost. It is hard work researching and producing original content, so curation can help. This can take a number of forms, for example, curated social sharing, curated posts or curated emails.

But remember, you need to make your curated content unique and helpful, as I am doing to some degree with this post. The fact you are curating means you are doing the heavy lifting for your audience. For example, you can provide a summary of the key points so that your audience can decide if that is all they need or if they want to delve deeper. You can also include links to related articles. 

One important aspect is that as a curator you should provide a commentary and your personal viewpoint, this helps make your curation unique and original. It can be as little as a small introductory sentence.

Repurposing content_ can help you cranking up your output figures. For example, you can take the slides from a webinar and repurpose them for Slideshare. You could also write up a webinar as a blog post. Both are efficient ways to create more regular content. Or you can re-edit a seminar video recording to a punchy two-minute piece, with a snappy intro moderation. 

Co-creating content_ Working with partners to create content has many benefits. Production tasks are shared and you can improve your content amplification by leveraging the audiences of both parties.

Content hub_ You can use a content hub if curation is a key part of your strategy. This is how scoop.it organize their content. 

6. Think of distribution and means to amplify

Last year Buzzsumo surveyed 1 million online articles. Surprisingly they found that half of them were shared eight or less times. Surely this is a shocking waste of resources, at least partly due to poor distribution and amplification.

Before you think of creating content you need to consider who will assist you distribute and amplify it. Who will share your content on their social networks and who will link to your content on their sites? In simple terms, you need a distribution and amplification strategy to generate maximum content marketing ROI.

All renowned communications firms will confirm that one needs to invest as much time and money in distribution and amplification as you do for content creation. Producing content is just half of the game.

This insight is something that is sorely missing from many of the comms for development work, especially on project level. Here the idea prevails that the project cannot afford proper outreach, not realising that you cannot skip half of the equation. Rather produce less content and invest more in distributing and amplifying what you have. No matter how much the project lead thinks higher of the experts who wrote the piece than of the communications people. One cannot ignore that low readership and public recognition figures undermine your efforts to justify the content production towards your donor in the first place. 

This logic is even truer for amplification than for distribution. For comms4dev amplification is a highly undervalued or probably even quite unknown tool―and maybe a bit discredited for the wrong reasons.  

An amplification strategy can include a range of approaches from paid promotion to influencer marketing. Paid doesn't have to mean that somebody says or writes something that they don't believe in. It is highly credible to allow an influencer, who you asked to write about your project, to be critical of your initiative. It takes some guts to risk having to explain to your donors why they paid for something that they might view as their public bashing, but in the long run you can gain immensely in terms of a credible reputation. But don't worry, usually it won't turn out that bad! You should actually encourage constructive criticism!

Buzzsumo, for example, previously set out their approach to influencer marketing which is supported by their new outreach lists and engagement tools. In general, you should not only regularly share your content on social networks, but also reshare it, particularly evergreen content. This can be made more efficient by using scheduling tools such as Content Director, Agorapulse and Buffer. Not every project is big enough to look into all these tools and make efficient use of them. Consider asking comms professionals such as Corbecoms to assist you with this. It'll make your life easier and your project comms more efficient!

7. Analyse 

The final part of the Content Marketing ROI process is analysing your returns, meaning interpreting your technical reports. It can mean tracking the performance of every piece of content, including leads and conversions. A conversion is not necessarily a direct conversion but a next step, such as subscribing to an email list or attending your next event.

By tracking and reviewing the performance of each piece of content you can make informed decisions on your content plan. Though frequently done, it is dangerous to make assumptions. For example you can’t assume that because short form content delivers the best returns for one company that it will equally deliver the best returns for your own content investment. You'll need to undertake your own analysis and see what works best in your part of the 'development industry' and with your particular audience.

Source

If you want to get deeper into the subject, here is the summary of the webinar I attended. I have drawn substantially from the blog post that Steve Rayson drew up after the webinar. He looks at Decugis' advice to help you generate the maximum returns from your content marketing in 2016: How To Generate Maximum Content Marketing ROI.

Scoop.it's content marketing best practices from 1000+ marketers.

Beyond that Scoop.it asked marketers from SMBs to take their Content Marketing ROI grader: a test to get a content marketing score and additional resources to improve your strategy. Over one thousand marketers took the test, and after analyzing the data, they're publishing the results and giving you insight on the habits, challenges and goals of marketers.

Read Scoop.it's report.

Want support for your project's communication along those lines?

Make sure to speak to me at contact@corbecoms.com