Content Insights Blog

Known for its expertise in foot and lower body health issues, FootSmart took a risk by approaching a new market. They debated and discussed the idea of a specialty shop for a while until latching onto the idea of The Running Shop. Focusing on foot and lower body health products for runners, FootSmart knew The Running Shop had the best chance of working if equipped with powerful content.

Lauren Schuman combined her expertise in online merchandizing and promotion with Content Science’s experience in content strategy to formulate a The Running Shop plan that connects to runners’ interests and intense physical activity. Debuting last week, The Running Shop launched with engaging content ready to go.  Read More >

To discover whether content works, we acknowledge the limitations of traditional surveys and focus groups. As fans of qualitative usability testing, we like to understand behavior, emotions, and reactions to content—rather than taking what a person says at face value.

The latest advances in neuroscience continue to reinforce the point that how we think we react does not match how we actually react. Content must tickle the right brain first and let the left brain analyze it afterward.  Read More >

Content strategy creates the foundation for all other marketing strategies. A bold statement? As Chair of the Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG) Marketing Society, I feared a backlash from our fantastic moderator and panelists once they digested this main assertion of our upcoming March 28 TAG Marketing event about content strategy.

Instead, these experts from Google, Forrester Research, SunTrust Bank, Prominent Placement, and ANNUITAS all agreed with the premise—and they are just as excited to make the case for content as a foundational marketing strategy.  Read More >

Exactly 100 years ago on February 22, 1913, Ferdinand de Saussure—father of modern linguistics and structuralism—died. In his wake, Saussure’s lectures revolutionized linguistics and spawned the theory of structuralism. Structuralism sought to uncover the structure underlying everything from psychology to architecture, peaking as a theory in the 1950s and 1960s. While superseded by other postmodern theories, structuralism’s basic principles sound eerily familiar today as we content strategists wade into the field of structured content.

Among the central debates? To what extent do we and should we impose structure on ideas, data, systems, or constructs, and to what extent do we and should we let structure emerge? That debate sounds familiar. Fast forward to today, and you'll hear content strategists, taxonomists, information architects, and designers argue over similar questions. Are we making content more powerful by structuring it in new ways? Or are we reducing its power by forcing it into a formulaic structure?  Read More >

In too many organizations, content and usability are woefully separated. How many times have you witnessed or experienced usability testing where there is a placeholder for content, rather than the actual content? Dr. Carol Barnum points out that usability testing without considering content misses the whole point.

In many organizations, content and usability often operate in different siloes. Why do they need to be working closer together?  Read More >