 Good afternoon So today we are talking about content first the approach Things that are wrong with that I think and things that are right with that, but first I have a question for you How many people play the game of telephone when you were a kid? You'd all line up in a line, right? And one person would say something in the first person's ear and it'd get repeated all the way down the line And by the time you got to the last person and they said it out loud The message the first person had had completely Changed or been misunderstood along the way by the time it was Regurgitated and repeated over and over down the line the last person didn't have the same message But yet they were trying to say the same thing Right never hardly when you ever played the game of telephone Did it ever come out where the the person at the end had the same intent and meaning as the first person that started? Which was kind of why the game was fun? But this can be really problematic when you experience the same thing when you're talking about business concepts so the idea of Working content first in a website design project in any kind of design project ah is similar kind of what happened to that message is Similar to what happens in a game of telephone, right? Very rarely have I seen people communicate The truth of what the idea of content first what the intention of the content first approach actually meant so The original intention if you look back It was like 2008 ish when the first few people Leaders in the design industry people who were blogging before blogging was a huge thing Posted some blog posts they shared some articles about Using a content first approach and Then what happened was all the sheep In the design industry said yes, that's so right and they all started regurgitating that same message And we've seen it in blog posts and on social media and at events And we see all of these people talking about content first But the problem is most of those people didn't actually read the original articles They saw the tweet or they heard the idea content first and over time What that intent was? Had eroded and now we have lots of people who completely misunderstand what that means and it's causing problems right the idea of Working content first has all of a sudden become an avenue for other people to tell you that you're doing it wrong And I think that that's crap right that's not okay I have had people tell me and I've been doing client work for 20 years I've had people tell me as recently as last week. You're doing it wrong. I Kind of think there were loads of testimonials and happy clients. I have say otherwise but people still want to say you're doing it wrong and Part of the reason why I wanted to submit this talk and talk about this today Is because I'm tired of people telling other people that they're doing it wrong because they're not doing it their way And I'm tired of people telling you that you're doing it wrong because of something They misunderstood in the first place So we're talking about Content first, but first we have to address the giant misunderstanding here in that most people read Content first and thought that meant I'm not going to start design until the content is done Content first doesn't mean content done first Right, that's not that was never the intention of what using a content first approach meant Now I read these things online. I read all the stuff. I went to the conferences I listened to the people talk about how you should do content first and how they said that meant you should have the content done First and occasionally I run into designers and I run into people that there's like I don't even start the website until I get Final content from the client. I was like, I'll give it a try. I'm willing to try anything, right? And I gave it a try and I thought I'll try it on like three client projects and we'll see how it goes They are the worst three projects. I've ever done in my entire career They were the crappiest the clients had the worst experience and I lost my butt and Here's the problem Right when I've made clients Get their content done first like I'm not even to start working with you unless you have your content done The clients are like what do you want me to boop it out? Like I'm not a copywriter. I don't know what I'm doing. I've never done this before. I don't build websites for a living I don't know what to put on my about page. I don't know what to put on my homepage I don't know what pages I even need you're telling me that I need to have it done first So what happens they procrastinate and they procrastinate and they procrastinate and all of a sudden you took a deposit for a Project and four months have gone by five months have gone by and you still haven't even started because they haven't finished their content And it's because they don't know what to say There you're having to make it up Case scenario one the other issue I ran into get your content done first then I'll talk to you Client puts tons of effort into getting their content done They give it to me and I'm like based on the goals. We just talked about this and go work Right based on the goals. You're telling me you want to achieve with your site Based on the priorities of actions the things you want people to do on your site if we use this content You're not gonna achieve your goals And I had to go back and say well, I'm glad you did all that work But I actually need this instead or I actually need you to do more work I need you to write something different or we have to change this and The client would get so mad. Why didn't you tell me this up front? Right, so I gave it a fair shot the idea of content done and Because it was such a massive failure for me and my clients were so unhappy and one we actually parted ways and never even actually built The site I Went back and started looking at where the idea of getting content done first actually came from and how on earth people can Do this successfully Right, so I started looking at it and again. I told you I've been shamed for this approach every time I talk about the fact that I don't get content from clients first They're like you're doing it wrong Twitter last week totally happened Today we're dispelling those myths. We're squashing all of those Misunderstandings we're setting things straight, right? We're talking about what the original intention was What content first actually means and how it applies to your projects and how it applies to web design and Client work and providing extraordinary client experiences So content first does not mean content done first Most of the time I Also a firm believer and there's no one way is the right way So there's no general approach that says this is the only way that's ever gonna work But for the sake of today, I'm saying content first doesn't mean content done first and it wasn't the original intention So there's a quote if you look there's a smashing magazine article from several years ago And there's a quote from a guy named Mark Bolton And he says content first is not about writing final content before doing anything. It's about knowing the structure of the content You're designing for You can create good experiences without knowing the content But what you can't do is you can't create good experiences without knowing the content structure So content first means the strategy and the structure Comes first because to create good content you have to have context for that content You have to know what you're creating it for So there's a quote that goes out all the time design in the absence of content is not design. It's decoration Right people say this when they're appreciating the content first, right? If you don't have content first, you're not doing web design You're just decorating things. I Want to change that my preference would be design in the absence of content strategy is Not design. It's decoration Right when you're when you're designing something with no clear strategy Then you're just designing it to look pretty content strategy and a clear structure of How the content is going to flow on what's going to be on each page of what the different content types are right that provides the critical context needed to both content and design So excuse me Content first approach isn't design with content. It's design based on content So it's how you can get started with the design of a site without having final content because you've mapped out the strategy You understand the structure of what you need. You know what you're designing for You might have an idea of headlines and certain things like that. You're designing based on What has been outlined and done? So I design sites without completed content all the time But I don't design sites without a content strategy in place Right, you have to understand what you're designing for it's why we talk with clients at the beginning of projects about What goal do you have for this site? Right? What's the purpose of us doing this project? What results do you want to see and then what do you want people to do when they get to that site? Right if they come to your site and they only do one thing. What is it that you want them to do? If they love you and they stay longer and they do two things What's the second thing you want them to do before they leave? If they absolutely fall in love with your brand and they stay longer, what's the third thing? Right and then the question from there goes Based on each page that they're on how do we get someone to take that first action from this page? In the next page, how do we get someone to move from here to take that action from this page? When you understand those things and you have that strategy you have that context design makes sense and When you do that work upfront The client can be working on the content at the same time you're working on the design because you're both working from the same strategy So again design needs strategy Without content strategy and understanding of that the design is not effective. It's just pretty Strategy gives context right so strategy first content first it means think about the content first create the plan Give people direction of what they need to write of what needs to be created right Now design brings visual content or visual context to the content strategy So you have a strategy in place design makes it visual it brings it to life Now semantic HTML it gives meaning to the content for search engines and and and things like that right that HTML the way that you're tagging things the way that you're coding things That's giving it meaning as well CSS dictates the appearance of the content and the design when you have a clear strategy in place Not only could the client be working on content not only could the designer be working on design But a developer could get started at the beginning of a project not waiting all the way until design is done But a developer could get going at the beginning of the project Understanding what the content structure is going to be and start getting the basic HTML the semantic HTML done of the structure of the site They won't be able to do the CSS yet because the design is not done But if you're working on rush projects more projects with tight timelines doing a Content-first approach with strategy and structure first allows Multiple facets of your team to all be working towards the same goal at the same time So what this means for you New websites if you were working on a brand new website with the client This will help you right one of the very first things that you have to do with a content-first approach is Understand the goal of the site Prioritize the actions like we talked about you need to document the buyer journey right? How do they go from a blog post to a conversion? How do they go from the services page to a conversion? How do they go from the home page to a conversion? You want to look at documenting the site map you want to look at the overall content structure What is the structure of the content on the actual page itself? Right, and that's where we talk about wire framing So all of these things done first all of a sudden Creating your content gets much much easier creating the design gets much easier if you have had projects where clients have Procrastinated and delayed and you've run into delays where the site hasn't launched on time because the client never got their content done on time Or you waited and waited and waited for content Doing this first will help eliminate those problems Will help eliminate those delays because clients don't do their content when they aren't sure what to do When they have a clear road map of what needs to be created and how it's going to be used then all of a sudden It feels easier and they get it done If you're redesigning an existing site the process is similar But there's a couple other things you've got to look at you have to do an audit of all existing content on the site You also want to look at the analytics what pages are people visiting and what pages are no is nobody going to Right if people are nobody are going to some of the pages on the site if the traffic is super low It either means nobody cares about that or the content on that page isn't very valuable So you have to audit the content that already exists and you want to look at the analytics and find out What's going on and how people are using the site so you can make educated decisions about how to move forward Another one that's a little bit different is Outlining content structure and content types that's looking at what do we have that? We're going to keep what do we have that needs to be refined and what do we need that's new Right understanding those things up front again Creates context for moving forward Now you can't use the same approach for content strategy design Development you cannot use the same approach For a $3,000 project as you can for a $13,000 project as you can for a $30,000 project as you can for a $300,000 project and here's the problem those people That started talking about a content-first approach Those thought leaders That were looked up to and revered and looked at as their word being gospel They said content first and like I said all the sheep said yes, you're right And then they all started writing about it misunderstanding the whole point Here's the problem Most of those people worked with enterprise level clients Most of those people worked with clients that had in-house marketing teams and copywriters and at agencies and account reps And all kinds of things like that guess what strategy doesn't work for the mom-and-pop shop on the corner The same one that works for an enterprise level company with an in-house creative team Right, so you have to look at who yeah, I always In raising my children We're trying to make them more self-aware of themselves and the people around them right know your audience Understand your surroundings, but we're also trying to teach them To know where your content is coming from right to be aware of Where the message their hearing is coming from right and that it may not always apply to them Or you might have to not take it word for word. You might have to not take it So literally you might have to look for the part that is relevant to you So wireframes are kind of a perfect example of this You have a lot of designers and a lot of developers that work at the enterprise level I've talked to I've talked to friends that work in the enterprise and I work with small businesses and we've had discussions and they're like You don't wireframe every single project. You're doing it wrong Has anybody been told that I can't be the only person that's heard that are you serious all right? We'll all own it. Yes. Thank you So no, I don't wireframe every project people don't have enough money for me to do that on every project Right like it'll come down to their budget So if you take the three thousand thirteen thousand thirty thousand three hundred thousand dollar project for three thousand dollars You cannot afford to have me wireframe out your whole website like that's a joke. I'm not doing it for 13 Totally, I will wireframe it out But more than likely I'm doing it on graph paper while I'm watching Netflix And then I'll take a picture of it on my phone and I send it to you and I'm like Let's talk about this or I pull up the pictures that I took of it on my kitchen floor like on my giant graph paper And then we're looking at them on zoom Because for that budget range, that's what makes sense for a thirty thousand dollar project I'm an illustrator and I'm like dialing in good official wireframes like the legit ones For a larger project like that. I have not I don't do those But my friends that do their wireframes are not only legit and done But they're talking about and outlining the pattern libraries the styles the tight faces They're looking at those things all in the wireframing phase somebody at three thousand dollars can't afford that Right, so that's a small snapshot of looking at content and of looking at design and of looking at People in the industry in general who are talking about how things should be done right if you are serving a a If you are serving a freelancer if you're serving small business if you're serving the enterprise if you're serving that Enterprise so you don't have to deal with all the bureaucracy Lots of people have opinions on how you should be doing business They write blog posts about it. They speak about it They're gonna tell you all the ways that you should be doing things and all the things that you're doing wrong But here's the deal. They're not always right because They may not serve the same client base as you They may not have the same you may not have the same resources. They do they may not have the same background that you do Right, so when you're listening to somebody who creates some Mantra like content first go back and look at what kind of clients do they work with? Are they the same as yours? No? Okay, well, let's look at what their message is and instead of just taking it for gospel look at what their message is and See what piece is relevant to your business and your clients and what you do Because they're not wrong It just may not be the right advice for your clients and your business But it said earlier. There's no one right way to do Anything there are lots of different ways to get things done. There's no one way. That's the right way and one way That's the wrong way Right, but you have to look at what's the best way for you. So when we talk about content first when we talk about the idea of Building projects From not from design, you know, we look at most of the time people outline their design process on their website And they're like discovery design development deployment like every site ever, right? Contents not in there anywhere So for years and years and years designers and developers talked about we do discovery and then we do design But I want to look at that content first approach needs to be we do discovery We do strategy We do design and content Right when you have a large business that has in-house teams that has copywriters that have budgets to hire copywriters Content process is a little bit different You can totally do content done first at that level because the people you're playing with understand what they're doing The mom and pop shop around the corner the freelancer who starting their very first business Other small to medium-sized businesses that don't have in-house teams. They don't build websites for a living They don't write content for a living the extent of their writing is usually emails or maybe proposals or internal memos So asking them again to get their content done up front causes problems But asking them to get their content done with a strategy mapped out with structure already defined All they have to do is create according to the plan that you come up with together All of a sudden that becomes easier Now I talked about how I don't wireframe projects at three thousand dollars Content-first approach and content strategy changes based on budget as well Right the kind of strategy you do for a three south three thousand dollar project isn't the same kind of strategy You're gonna do for a thirty thousand dollar project because their budget just doesn't allow it and you also are gonna look at the technical expertise of your clients Some clients are gonna understand all that and some clients aren't I'm sure maybe you have worked with I can't imagine that you haven't Clients where if you sent them a wireframe, they'd be like what is this? My website is blank. I Don't understand and it would cause you more of a pain and more heartache Then it was even worth it to do the wireframe in the first place Those people you wouldn't do a wireframe for because they don't even understand what they're looking at Some projects are simple enough where you don't need to do that Content strategy is sometimes is the same thing So sometimes I'm talking with other freelancers I teach a course called profitable project plan and I get a lot of questions about content and we were talking about it I wanted a live Q&A calls the other day and I said well some clients like I do content strategy for in my head or on paper But I don't actually talk to the client about it because they wouldn't understand anyway Because they're just not at that level right they want it done But that's not something there that they're into it's not something I want to dive into in their budget range Right, so sometimes I'm doing it internally. I'm documenting it for my own process and being able to do A design that does them justice and their goal justice But it may not be something I dive into deeply with the client Because they simply don't have the budget or the technical expertise and understanding Right, so in a lot of those cases one of the things that we do in our in our agency is when design is over all of the approved mock-ups go in a content checklist and I number every piece of content in the mock-ups that they Approve and next to the mock-up in the PDF is the number and instructions This is what I need. This is how many characters it should be. This is how many lines It should be and we give the client a content checklist and they look at the mock-up and they look at the numbers And they look at the instructions and they get a word doc that matches it and they just fill in the blanks And the sense I started doing that. I've never had a project not launch on time because of content But it's figuring out what worked best for me because I talked to my other friends and they're like I would never do business like that. I'm like right because you don't work with the same kind of clients that I do So there's only one thing that I want you to remember from this talk today is That there's no one singular right way to do anything You have to do what's best for you. So when people are out there if you hear people talking about content first Remember it was never intended from day one to mean content done first It was meant to be Think about the content first Think about the strategy think about the structure of the pages Think about the goal of the site and the conversion and how to move people From where they're at on the site wherever it may be to that conversion and What works for you may not work for somebody else right? If you're reading a blog post and someone's telling you how to do it their strategy may not work for you Ultimately you have to look at your business your skills your systems your processes and your clients and you have to do what's best for you So I am Jennifer Bourne That is it for today. These are all the places that you can find me And I believe we have time for Q&A absolutely questions perfect do we have any questions? Anything related to content? It looks like you nailed it Yes, there's one I was gonna say there can't be no questions You said it kind of quickly if you mind saying it again about the Before they do the fill-in-the-blanks. What was it that you gave them? Oh, yes go through that again So the question was can you tell us a little bit more about the content checklist? So if you've heard about a piece of software called content snare It's the software version of my process I just figured out this software existed a few months ago, and I was looking at it And I called the guy that built it and I said it's like you read my mind This is the entire thing that I do but in software So when we finish design The mock-ups that the client approved of the custom page templates the home page all the templates that they saw and approved We drop them into a PDF. We I use in design So I drop them into an InDesign file and I number each piece of content on every mock-up And I do that for a couple reasons so I number them Next to the mock-up are all the numbers and instructions What that piece of content is and what I need from the client if it's in a divine space? And we haven't already mapped we haven't already covered what the headlines are I give them a character count Now I said I number them for two reasons the pieces of content for two reasons the first reason is that in the word Templates that I give them and I've tried it in Google Docs and other things and just everybody knows Microsoft Word so the word templates are tables and In the tables there's fields and they're labeled with the numbers and the labels of what the content is that I need and Then blank a blank space and they just fill it all in so when I need to put their content into the site I open up the word doc for the about page and it's number one Headline and they put it in it's number two and it's this and they put it in it's number three three boxes box one headline some headline 100 word text button text. I just have to copy and paste copy and paste the numbers sorting through a mess of content That's totally disorganized So that's the first reason why I number it because it matches what's in my word doc The second reason I number it is because when a client calls and they're like I have questions about this piece of content I'm like, what are you talking about? Like I'm not even sure where what page are you talking about? I'm like, just tell me the number 17 yes, okay. I know what you're talking about here. Let's get this done and we can get it done way faster right so From the first thing on the home page to the last thing on the last template I go from number one to as many as I need I don't start over at number one for each mock-up because then when the client has questions I'm just like one number are you working on? Yep, okay. Let's get it done and it just makes it faster for me like I'm like How can I get everything done as fast as possible so I make as most money as possible? So yeah, so that's that's what we do The first one took a long time after that it takes about an hour to create each one Anybody else any other questions? Yes? Thanks for your presentation. Have you ever worked with a copywriting company and Coordinated with them your project around kind of also their process of helping write copy for the client Yes The question was have you ever worked with copywriters to help get content done for clients in the past? I've worked with copywriters for a couple reasons I've referred clients to copywriters, and I'm like you are not getting it done like you need to go on hire somebody so there's Copywriters and copy editors so sometimes I refer them to a copywriter Sometimes I'll refer them to a copy editor if they have a night they can get stuff done, but it's just not good I Don't do that anymore because for the last two or three years. I've written all the content for all the sites we've done so Which I actually don't even build websites anymore. I only do content but But yeah, so in terms of working with copywriters I find bringing them in on the very very first kickoff call when the project starts is the way to go Right as soon the sooner you can bring them in the better it's going to be so Ideally, I like to if I'm working with a third-party copywriter with a client because sometimes they come to me And they already have a copywriter in place. I'm like you should be on the strategy call, too Right that way if you have questions about content We can nail it all and get it all ironed out as well. So yeah No problem Yes over there. There's not a question. It's more about sharing what I do so On a kind of a 3k website. I often ask the client to do the wireframe So after we have the discovery and we discuss their business and what their goals are and their objectives And I've never had a client reject that idea. They've always been happy to do it Oh, yeah, most they do the version where it's on a piece of paper with a marker And they take a shot of it with their phone and they send it to me, right works really well for me Oh, yeah her so she didn't have a question But she wanted to share that her clients write their own content They're on wireframe They're on rough wireframe. They do their own wireframe. Well, I this is after we've had a strategy discussion and that's Interesting, if it works for you really do it And then I advise them if I think there's something wrong with it But it really helps because they understand their own business really well Wow, I'm talking about a 3k You must work with better you must work with clients who understand conversion strategy much better than mine So that's awesome that that works for you. That's great. Did anybody else have one question before we wrap up? No, great. Thank you. No round of applause