Content strategy deliverables

Content strategy is a newly visible job description, right at the heart of web and intranet development and management. So when pitching to a client, exactly what might the content strategist agree to deliver?

Rahel Baillie has begun a series of blog posts around these challenges, starting with the big picture — how much to share with your peers? And how realistic can generalizations be when the answer is often, It depends on the particular job. In other posts on the Intentional Design blog Rahel Baillie discusses deliverables one by one: the content inventory, matrix, types, templates and brief.

Patrick Walsh in ManIA discusses content deliverables beyond Information Architecture: content inventories, personas, reviews, modules, journeys, and maps.

But there's more, and where do you stop? Below I list some other suggestions mentioned by content strategy group members. These give a hint of some other deliverables that content strategists may see as important—and perhaps neglected. The list shows just how all-encompassing the role of a content strategist can become, if you let it.

• Editorial guidelines and other content guidelines.
• Measurement of sales, including sales content alignment to the customer.
• A deliverable that's tied to analytics, especially one correlated to customer intent and voice of the customer.
• A deliverable that's tied to metadata strategy, enterprise and web search optimization.
• Considerations/constraints when publishing to multiple platforms.
• User research as it applies to the more 'technical' aspects of content strategy.
• The big strategy presentation or document: the brief, findings and recommendations of the content strategist.
• Governance issues: summary and recommendations.