Behind every successful product, lies a well-thought-through UX content strategy. It’s no secret that a great content strategy can help UX professionals tick all the boxes when it comes to an exceptional user experience. How?
UX professionals equipped with powerful data about user needs have the power to craft a UX content strategy that aligns content with user expectations; creating a cohesive narrative that guides the users through the intended user journey.
In this jumped-packed article, we have collated everything you need to know about crafting a finely honed UX content strategy along with some industry-approved templates to get you started.
Key Takeaways
✅ Content strategy in UX is about strategically planning and managing the content of your digital products
🔥 It involves conducting in-depth user and keyword research, setting goals for your content as well as creating and delivering it.
💡 Content testing is an integral part of content strategy in UX
🐝 You can conduct content research using all-in-one tools like UXtweak
What is a content strategy in UX?
Content strategy in UX is about strategically planning and managing the content of your digital products. It revolves around deeply understanding your intended users and either auditing existing content or crafting a strategic plan for creating new valuable content for your audience.
This encompasses conducting in-depth user research, setting goals for your content as well as creating and delivering it. Implementing a UX content strategy can have a host of advantages for your digital product as it can help you optimize the user experience while hitting business goals.
Why is having a UX content strategy important?
It goes without saying that having a well-crafted UX content strategy can make or break your digital product.
Here are the main reasons why you need to get started on your UX content strategy now:
Clear communication
A well-defined and executed UX content strategy can help in clear communication and transmission of information to your users.
When writing content based on a UX strategy you can ensure that it is structured in a logical manner where key information is being prioritized and the appropriate language is used to ensure users comprehend the intended messages.
By following these principles, you can help reduce the users’ cognitive load and help them make decisions easier.
Enhanced Usability and Findability
With information architecture and content strategy in UX going hand in hand, another great advantage of a well-executed UX content strategy is that it enhances overall usability and findability.
When building content in a hierarchical and intuitive way that leverages filtering and search options, UX professionals can really up their usability game. In this way, users can find the content that they are looking for in a more efficient and effective way.
To ensure that content strategists and UX designers use tools like card sorting and tree testing to help with content organization.
Learn more about information architecture and how it influences findability:
Consistency and Coherence
Creating consistency and coherence across your website and across the entire user journey is another great advantage of a well-implemented UX content strategy.
By leveraging your UX content strategy you can ensure that your messaging and tone of voice are consistent across the board.
This in turn creates a cohesive user experience without friction and confusion. Consistent content also helps you build a stronger brand, build likability and a sense of trust.
User Engagement
When deploying a user-centric approach to your UX content strategy, you can’t really go wrong. By leveraging UX content that is tailored to the unique needs and expectations of your intended users, you can optimize your website or digital product for the ultimate user engagement.
A well-crafted UX copy and strategy will set you apart from the competition, grab your users’ attention, and encourage desired user behaviors. For instance: signing up for a free account or sharing content on social media.
Measurable Results
Like with any other type of strategy, a well-thought-through UX content strategy can help UX professionals really pin down the results of their efforts when it comes to UX writing and planning.
By tracking changes in your content and how those affect the user interaction and behavior you can make informed improvements in an effort to enhance the user experience.
What are the responsibilities of UX content strategists?
It goes without saying that the responsibilities of UX strategists can and will vary from organization to organization, depending on the team size and resources available. Worth noting is that a big part of the UX content strategist’s role is to collaborate with cross-functional teams and various stakeholders to ensure goal alignment and get their buy-in.
Here are some of the most common tasks that a UX content strategist can take up:
- Content Research & Analysis: UX content strategists thoroughly research and understand the target users as well as the goals of the content. Conducting content research on the already existing content to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement is one of their main responsibilities.
- Content Planning: UX content strategists are also responsible for developing content plans that are in alignment with the business goals and the wider UX goals. This can be translated into defining content goals, mapping user journeys as well as creating content hierarchy. Collaboration is a key word here as all of these are part of the wider UX strategy.
- Content organization: UX content strategists are the ones that structure and organize the content in a logical manner taking into consideration the principles of information architecture and the wider UX goals. This encompasses website tagging and website labeling as well as categorizing content to optimize for usability and findability.
- Content Creation: UX content strategists are in constant collaboration with UX writers, designers, and subject matter experts so that they can translate their strategy into high-quality content. They are responsible for establishing the UX content guidelines and rules when it comes to messaging and brand voice. They also need to ensure that the content adheres to accessibility and usability guidelines.
- Content Governance: UX content strategists are also accountable for creating and establishing processes for content creation but most importantly for content maintenance. As part of this, they also need to constantly coordinate with cross-functional teams to make sure that the content aligns with the overall objectives of the team.
- Content Optimization: Another critical responsibility of every UX strategist is to monitor and gather user feedback on the content. They then need to analyze this data to pinpoint areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions when it comes to iterating the content.
How to create a content strategy in UX?
You can get started on creating a robust content strategy in UX by following these 7 steps:
1. Conduct some user research
Start by conducting user research to better understand the needs, wants, and expectations of your target audience. This can include looking at research that has already been done by a UX research team in your organization or by deploying some research techniques yourself.
2. Complete a keyword research
The second important step of a successful UX content strategy is conducting thorough keyword research. This will help you identify the keywords that you need to include in your content strategy as well as the user intent.
Find out what your audience is looking for online, what questions they are asking, and answer those queries with your content.
Here is when an SEO specialist can also come really handy!
3. Audit the existing content
The next step on your list should be auditing the existing content to identify gaps and areas for improvement.
At this step, you could use a session recording tool to gain some quick insights into how users interact with the existing content. Additionally, conduct content testing to find out how existing pieces appeal to the users.
4. Plan your information architecture
Next up, is to thoroughly plan your information architecture from scratch or decide on informed improvements based on the insights that you gathered from the first two steps.
Start by using UXtweak’s card sort tool to come up with potential IA models and get insights on how users expect your content to be labeled and structured.
Then, conduct a tree testing study to evaluate the intuitiveness of your information architecture and choose the optimal structure for your content organization.
See Card Sorting and Tree Testing in action in these demos:
5. Create your content
When your information architecture is done and dusted then it’s time for you to create the actual content!
Using a free AI video generator can help you produce high-quality videos that align with your content strategy and engage your audience effectively.
This includes crafting concise and compelling copy that aligns with user needs and the insights that you identified in the research stage.
6. Maintain & update your content
This is one of the most neglected yet critical steps in creating a winning UX content strategy. Establishing processes to make sure that the content is updated and maintained in line with the content guidelines and standards is of utmost importance.
Doing so will allow for ongoing content optimization that meets the ever-changing user needs.
7. Measure & optimize
The final step is to monitor the performance of your UX content strategy using specific UX metrics like conversion rates, time on page, and other. Based on those insights you can always work towards further optimizing your content for an enhanced user experience.
UX Content strategy templates
Here are some tried-and-tested templates to get started on your UX content design strategy:
- Moz has put together a highly detailed and easy-to-use UX content strategy template. This is a comprehensive UX content strategy template that breaks down the process into actionable steps for you to follow.
- Semrush’s Content Strategy template is another great free resource to get you started on your first content strategy in UX. This fee template comes with step-by-step instructions for optimal usage.
- Baclinko’s Content Strategy template provides a simple-to-follow template on how to start building a successful UX content strategy. This template gets extra points for being comprehensive and easy to follow.
The sum of it
Formulating a killing UX content strategy is critical for creating a flawless user experience. While design plays its role, being strategic about your content can make or break the success of your website or digital product.
A well-crafted content strategy involves planning and delivering content that aligns with user expectations while hitting those business goals. Clear communication, greater usability and overall enhanced user experience are just some of the advantages that a great UX content strategy has to offer.
Although UX content strategists are the ones to lead the way when it comes to content research, planning, organization, and optimization don’t forget to take advantage of tools like UXtweak that can help you plan, create and evaluate a winning UX content strategy.
Register for your UXtweak account and let’s work on your content strategy together!
