Content Strategy 2: Content Formats and Guidelines and Brand Tone of Voice

  • New York: Monday, February 27
  • Edinburgh: Thursday, March 22

Catherine Toole
Full-Day Training Course

As you go through the process of creating a digital content strategy for your organization there will come a point where it’s time to stop thinking and start producing samples of the kind of content you’d like to see on your website, emails, mobile apps and social media platforms.

Not only does this content need to be usable, accessible, follow web best practice and achieve your commercial objectives – it also needs to be recognizably and consistently ‘on brand’. Perhaps it also needs to be content which can in the future be sourced from multiple stakeholders, non-professional writers and at the very least, from time-poor, overstretched content editors.

So how do you set about doing this? Taking your content strategy from a theoretical document to an online reality? The answer lies in the creation of strong, repeatable copy formats; clear, foolproof execution guidelines and a strongly-established online tone of voice that is explained in a way everyone can follow.

What You’ll Learn

  • How to take content strategy from theory into practice.
  • What makes a great content format for the web, email, mobile and social media.
  • How to write a sample format and execution guideline.
  • What other guidelines, training and support you might need to implement your strategy
  • Brand tone of voice online – the principles and commercial value of it.
  • How to develop a tone of voice for online and ensure it is employed consistently.
  • Online tone of voice guidelines – what they look like and how they’re used.

Course Outline

  • Taking your content strategy from theory into practice
    • Implementing a new content plan
    • ‘Keep, kill or cure’ – identifying content improvements and new content needs
    • Briefing in new content types
  • Formats and guidelines
    • What’s the point of formats – the usability and business cases.
    • What makes a great web copy format?
    • What copy formats work well on email, mobile and social media?
    • Rolling out new formats using execution guidelines
    • Identifying the guidelines, training and support you might need to publish better content
  • What is tone of voice and what is its value? The 3 guiding principles of tonality:
    • Messaging strategy
    • Information design
    • Language choices
  • Practical tips and useful examples of companies and brands using tone of voice well — and badly:
    • On websites
    • In email
    • At key customer touch points
    • In social media.

Format

This full-day tutorial includes lectures, discussions, and exercises.

Course Materials

Copies of the presentation slides.

See Also:

Content Strategy 1 takes you step by step through a process for creating a digital content strategy. It has a specific focus on how to conduct a qualitative content audit as part of that process.

While both Content Strategy days can be attended in isolation, Content Strategy 1 is recommended if you are thinking about formalizing your content strategy, or want to discover a process for improving your organization’s digital content.

Instructor

photo of Catherine Toole Catherine Toole is the founder and CEO of the British digital copywriting agency Sticky Content. A former press journalist, she has spent the past 13 years specializing in Web, email, mobile, and social media content projects for a wide range of clients, agencies, and government departments. In 2010, Sticky Content provided content strategy, web writing training, auditing and copywriting services to clients such as Sony, Nokia, the UK Post Office, Lloyds TSB, Orange Business, Hilton Hotels, Europcar, IKEA, Lufthansa, Shop Direct, John Lewis, British Gas and British Telecom. A well-known speaker in the UK, Catherine has an expert content blog on econsultancy and sits on the executive committee of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA).