[Book Review] A First-Rate Guide to Optimizing the Value and Performance of Content

Source:  Content Science

Effective content has become critical to business success, as companies have faced successive waves of disruptive digital technologies. Therefore, the planning, creation, and management of content needs to be a core business competency.

This is the central message of Colleen Jones' new book, The Content Advantage, Third Edition:  Succeed at Digital Business With Effective Content (Content Science Publications, 2024).

The Content Advantage provides a detailed, evidence-based roadmap that business leaders and their teams can use to formulate a compelling content vision and strategy, design and implement efficient content operations, and optimize the performance of their organization's content.

Colleen Jones can speak with authority about content-related topics. She is the founder and president of Content Science, a professional services firm that works with companies in diverse industries to successfully implement content-dependent initiatives such as AI-enabled digital transformation, marketing automation and content technology selection and implementation, and customer experience improvement.

Before founding Content Science, Jones served as the fractional head of content and Mailchimp, and she has also led teams at Cingular Wireless and AT&T to improve customer experience across various touchpoints.

What's In the Book

The Content Advantage is about planning, creating, and managing all forms of content, or at least all forms of customer-facing content. It's not a book that focuses on content marketing per se, nor does it focus on specific types of functional content - e.g. marketing content, sales content, or customer success content.

Colleen Jones forcefully argues that content needs to be a core business competency and that content management should be a distinct business function.

Jones makes her views on this subject absolutely clear when she writes:

"This point bears repeating:  every company will need content as a core competency. And that competency will frequently cut across business functions . . . I now believe strongly in content as its own competency and that, at ideal maturity, it does not belong in other competencies or functions. Content is not design. Content is not marketing. Content is not product. Content is not information technology or engineering. Content is not support. Content is not public or media relations. Content is important to such competencies and functions, but content ultimately belongs in content." (Emphasis in original)

The topics covered in The Content Advantage will be familiar to readers with extensive content experience, but Jones brings a fresh perspective to many of these topics. Here's a brief overview of the major topics covered in the book.

Chapters 1-2 - How digital technologies are continually changing the requirements for business success, why many traditional approaches to content don't work, and why effective content is essential if a company wants to survive and thrive in a digital world.

Chapters 3-5 - Why having a vision for your content is important, and how to construct a compelling content vision and effective content strategies and tactics.

Chapters 6-7 - Understanding and leveraging the five dimensions of content effectiveness, and how to use principles of rhetoric and psychology to make your content more influential.

Chapters 8-9 - Why "content intelligence" is important, how to set up a content intelligence system, and how to use your content intelligence system effectively.

Chapters 10-11 - How to model the maturity of your content operations, and how to take your content operations to the next level.

Chapters 12-13 - What a "content system" is, why content systems matter, the three content systems that are critical for all companies, and how to successfully start an end-to-end ("E2E") content initiative.

Chapter 14 - An overview of the types of artificial intelligence, and a review of the important issues to consider when incorporating AI into your content operations.

My Take

The Content Advantage is an excellent book that will be a valuable resource for anyone involved in planning, creating, or managing content for their company.

Colleen Jones speaks authoritatively about content, and the book includes several graphics and tables that contain findings from research conducted by her firm, Content Science.

The book is well-organized and clearly written. It isn't exactly "light reading," but Jones' writing style makes the material approachable and easy to understand. She also includes several real-world examples in the book, which makes the material more engaging and relatable.

Jones makes a strong argument for placing content management in a separate organizational function with dedicated leadership and resources. However, this approach will create some challenges.

The most significant challenge is determining how the relationships between the "content department" and other functional business units will be structured and managed. For example, how can company leaders ensure that their content strategy is aligned with their marketing strategy? Who ultimately decides what types of content will be developed, and what messaging will be embodied in those content assets?

These types of issues are critically important, and they aren't easy to resolve. If anything, this reveals the vital role that content plays in business success. And that is the core message of The Content Advantage.