Content Strategy Templates

The primary objective of enterprise content strategy is to get the right content, to the right user, at the right time.

You can find over 40 free content strategy and marketing templates and tools at the Content Strategy Alliance Tools and Best Practices page to help achieve this objective. As chair of the group, I worked on each template and tool here. Use these tools and templates as you read my book, Enterprise Content Strategy and empower yourself with the most comprehensive set of tools, templates and best practices in the content industry.

Content Audits, Inventories, Matrices & Stakeholder Interviews

Current State Stakeholder Interview Protocol (2015 Version) PDF file

Hailed by many as the best and most comprehensive stakeholder protocol for content strategy and content work, use this protocol when conducting stakeholder interviews to uncover current-state business processes, content scope, requirements, and issues.

This free version includes up-to-date topics such as content marketing requirements and questions to guide omnichannel strategy and intelligent content solutions such as personalization.

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Content Audit/Inventory Template PDF file

The Content Audit captures the content within an organization and its publication channel(s).

The objective of the audit is to provide a current-state assessment of the content landscape. Content strategists use inventories and audits to evaluate the volume (quantitative), quality (qualitative), and the rules of use of content, as well as the systems in which it resides and its creators. An audit also may capture the audience and/or channel for which the content is intended. The resulting document will be a critical foundation as you develop content migration plans and make future-state design decisions, and will inform the future content and publication models.

This template provides several different fields, any of which a content audit might capture. You may use it as a reference point and customize it accordingly per the needs of your project. For a definitive guide on this topic, that is by far the best reference on the matter, see Paula Land’s Content Audits and Inventories.

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Content Matrix Template (2010 Version) PDF file

A content matrix captures each piece of content present in a website design. It is a living document; regard it as the definitive source for all content on your website.

The captured content will include all images, data, and content modules used within the website.

This content matrix will help you catalog and identify each piece of unique content, any rules of use including personalization and character lengths, and references to the appropriate sitemap and wireframes. This template will assist you in tracing content to its origin, and the associated rules that dictate its characteristics.

This template provides several different fields, any of which a content audit might capture. You may use it as a reference point and customize it according to the needs of your project.

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