Content Management vs. Content Strategy – The Same or Different?
Content management and content strategy are two different disciplines, but they can overlap.
Content management is more about the day-to-day operations of creating, editing and publishing content you’ve planned to do at specific times. This includes things like adding new pages, editing existing ones, deleting pages that no longer need to exist, and so on.
A content management system (CMS) is typically a web application that allows you to do all of these things without having to touch any code — so long as your CMS has support for the technology powering your site like WordPress, Wix Shopify.
Content management tools include:
- Editorial calendars like Google Calendar or Trello
- Spreadsheets with editorial calendars
- WordPress plugins for managing blog posts and pages
- WYSIWYG editors for blog posts and pages like WordPress
Content strategy is the planning and execution of a content marketing strategy. It’s about planning and organizing your website’s content in a way that makes sense for users and search engines alike. It’s about creating and promoting a brand that makes your organization standout from all the rest. One whose message is consistent, relevant and impactful. This involves thinking about topics related to your business or organization. Examples:
- How do we group our products/services on our site?
- What topics are relevant to the people who are interested in our products/services?
- How do we target those people who may be interested in our products/services?
- How should those topics be represented on our site – blog, article, call to action, coupons, raffles, quizzes, fundraisers, donations, etc.?
- How should our website be tied to social media? What types of social media are the most important and/or engaging to our target audience?
- How often should the various topic formats we identify as important to our targeted audience be published? Daily, monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.?
- How do we measure the success of our website?
While some companies have separate roles for each discipline, many organizations use a single person or team to perform both functions.
There are a myriad of Content strategy tools. Some are free; some fairly inexpensive and others very expensive. It all depends on your goals. Check out this blog on Hubspot to get detailed information on the The 19 Best Content Marketing Tools.
