Though it goes against everything my Ma ever taught me, sometimes you have to follow the cool kids. And content strategy is what the cool kids are doing. This isn't a blog post about what content strategy is or what its virtues are. This about the keeping up with Joneses.
The digital space is very competitive, and you have to be on the right side of innovation to succeed. Content strategy will soon become universal best practice, so make sure you're doing it well before everyone else!
There are some very large, very successful and very important organisations who are content strategy believers. There are some not-so-big, but still excellent organisations who are believers. There are also some very small, not-yet successful and unimportant people, like me, who are believers. (Don't let that deter you. I'll probably be a pretty big deal in like, five years.)
It’s a growing industry and more and more people are coming to understand why content strategy is so important.
3 reasons why you need content strategy
1. Jobs and Growth* (for content strategy)
Content strategists are in demand! The Creative Group, an industry-leader in creative recruitment, releases an annual industry report on HR trends and salaries in the creative fields. Their 2016 report listed eight indispensable creative professionals that make an award-winning team. And guess what? Content Strategist was number two.
Another recruitment company, Firehead, found that 74% of surveyed organisations were looking at hiring a content strategist in the next 12 months, and 67% already had one.
Any job search for 'content strategist' will reveal pages of results. There are all sorts of organisations on the hunt: Home Depot, agencies like Razorfish, media conglomerates like Bauer, and even government departments. As the profession gets more recognition, demand will only grow.
*in-joke for Australians
2. The cool kids are doing it
Many different organisations are getting on board with content strategy. Most of them are medium to large businesses. Generally, content strategy is needed to wield large amounts of content, and smaller organisations just won’t have the need.
If an organisation has a digital presence, and they want to do digital well, then there will be some inclination toward content strategy. There really is an incredible spread of organisations who are investing in content strategy.
While the digital natives are of course quick to jump on board, all sorts of businesses are seeing the virtues and are making smart decisions. Check out this (entirely incomplete) list of content strategy believers:
Not only are these organisations users of content strategy, they're also spreading the word – a lot of them speak at content strategy events around the world.
3. Community and events
Content strategists are joining forces. They’re multiplying. They’re becoming sentient. They’re becoming self aware. Soon they will consume us all. Or is that Skynet I’m thinking of? Both AI and content strategists are getting stronger and more important by the day.
There are lots of events, groups and conferences dedicated to content strategy. Now, I know a lot of zany things get conferences (I’m looking at you, BronyCon), but you can’t deny the force is strong with content strategy. Its event calendar includes two major international conferences (CSForum and ConFab), multiple online communities and meet-ups, and even an online summit.
And the best thing is the supporters emerging from the woodwork. Because content strategy is a multidisciplinary undertaking, there’s a realisation from marketers, UXers, developers, project managers etc, that their jobs can be done much better with the assistance of content strategy. That’s why the conferences are about content strategy, but are attended by everyone involved with digital content.
Australia - somehow ahead on the calendar but behind on the times
When it comes to content strategy, those crafty Americans and fancy Europeans are still streets ahead of us in Australia. It seems some things still take a while to traverse the oceans. We’re still explaining what content strategy is in Australia, but that will change.
We really are on the cusp of something here. This is the perfect opportunity for Australians in the digital arena to get the jump on their competitors. Content strategy will soon be in demand from agencies, and content strategists will soon be on every big organisation's hiring wishlist.
So this is your chance, Australians. After all, if there’s one thing Australia likes, it’s an underdog. Go get ‘em, mate.
