A Method to the Madness: Strategically Use and Reuse Your Content

By Sarah Sain

An education session on content strategy isn’t one you would think would start off with a straightforward math equation, but that’s what Mandy Moody of the Austin-based Association of Certified Fraud Examiners did at the 2019 ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition. It goes something like this:

Audit + Strategy + Metrics = Happy Content Team, Happy Executives and Happy Members

Moore said the content audit is one of the most vital actions a content, marketing or communications team needs to take. Without one, you’re creating content without knowing if it’s what your members need or want. A content audit will help you make smart decisions about your future content and make sure that it aligns with your association’s strategic goals. She laid it out in five steps:

Step 1: Audit content – Customize and prioritize this process for your association, but keep it simple. Evaluate all your content, including online, offline (printed) and email.

Step 2: Analyze the data – Do the results align with your team and association goals? Where are you versus where you want to be?

Step 3: Make some decisions – Create short- and long-term goals, and get everyone on board with your new direction.

Step 4: Share the findings – Present high-level findings to your executives with statistics but also by telling a story. Make sure your content team has access to the detailed findings.

Step 5: Repeat annually – A lot can change in a year, so it’s important to keep re-evaluating what you’re doing and where you’re headed.

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