Structured Content Approach
As broadband cellular technology continues to evolve and become quicker, content has become more interactive and media-rich. The emergence of social media platforms has made creating and managing content more difficult as it's the best practice to keep content consistent across all content platforms and devices. Traditional content management systems only cater for one type which means content creators have had to update content on multiple content management systems for each platform. As highlighted in the Future of Content Management Systems post, I highlighted content management systems are evolving to store content centrally and distribute it to many channels available to users.
What is the Structured Content Approach?
Structure content can be defined as content that is planned, developed, and connected outside an interface allowing content to be ready for any type of interface. A structured content approach means breaking down content into the smallest reasonable pieces that can be organised and classified so computers and humans can understand them.
Structured vs Unstructured Content
Structured content is primarily concerned with what the content is about and not how the content is presented making it easier to adapt to different platforms. Structure content relies on classification and being organised. Unlike unstructured content which lacks classification and descriptions, the content is often tied to a certain template. This will often mean it cannot be reused as the content is tied to a single presentation and hard to keep the content consistent on multiple pages and channels. When it comes to project work, creating unstructured content can require a lot of time and attention from multiple teams because content must be added as a whole piece and will require designers and developers to create new templates for a new type of content.
Why Use Structured Content?
A major benefit of using structured content is that content creation and management are more efficient. Information is sustainable because it is easier to maintain as content can be created once and published everywhere (COPE), and decrease content duplication. Structured content will allow you to do more with content you already have without the need for more people, investing more time or spending more money.
The approach can free up time for content teams to innovate, adapt faster, work more efficiently, and focus on new content. The approach also enables content to be updated in one place to reduce errors and increase trust by always showing the most up-to-date and correct information. The approach will enable you to reuse content to build an omnichannel presence. For project work, structured content provides the building blocks for making new things without having to start from scratch every time, thereby decreasing the building time of new platforms or refining existing projects.
Summary
As new platforms emerge for marketers to spread their messages, the variety of platforms can make it difficult for any digital marketer to keep their messaging consistent across all platforms. A structured content approach can help businesses to develop a strong omnichannel presence. By using a structured content approach marketers can create and maintain content in one place and publish updates across multiple channels. By having a structured content approach set up marketers can easily reuse content for new digital products and enable teams to quickly innovate new content that can adapt to emerging trends. A structured content approach has many benefits that can allow marketing teams to focus on new innovative content.