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Most net content material initiatives have each structural and editorial elements: for instance, the data must be structured to help the brand new responsive design, and the present copy wants an replace so it adheres to messaging and model pointers.
I’m typically requested which is the perfect order to strategy the work: construction first after which rewrites, or the reverse? I didn’t used to have a powerful opinion, as a result of it appeared to me like a chicken-and-egg downside. If the mission begins with construction, I’m constructing content material fashions off of dangerous data. If, as an alternative, we begin with rewrites, the writers don’t know what items we have to fill the fashions, as a result of the fashions don’t exist but. It felt like each instructions had been equally fraught, and I didn’t have any sturdy causes to advocate one over the opposite.
(Be aware that I’m not speaking about beginning with out the editorial foundations of a mission: understanding the enterprise targets, establishing a message structure, and understanding what the work is meant to perform are core items of any mission. I’m speaking as an alternative about rewriting poor content material—modifying and creating new copy primarily based on these foundations.)
Construction the content material first, then do rewrites
I not too long ago completed up the second part of a mission that we organized to concentrate on construction first, and causes to stay with this strategy piled up in my lap like turkeys going to roost. I feel {that a} structure-first strategy does make sense for almost all of my initiatives, and right here’s why.
Content material fashions are primarily based on what content material is for, not what it says
On this specific mission, the prevailing copy was horrible. Jargony, clichéd, and nearly stubbornly unhelpful. How may I construct a helpful content material mannequin off of dangerous content material?
As I used to be working, I spotted that the standard of the copy—even when it’s horrible—doesn’t actually have an effect on the fashions. I don’t construct fashions off of the precise phrases within the content material, however as an alternative I construct off of what objective that duplicate serves. I don’t truly care if the restaurant description reads like teen poetry (sorry teenagers, sorry poets): it’s the restaurant description, and we want a brief, teaser model and a protracted, full model. The banquet amenities ought to embrace well-lit images taken throughout the final decade, and the captions ought to use the suitable model voice to explain how the rooms can be utilized. I don’t truly must see first rate images or sturdy captions to construct area for them into the fashions.
Construction selections affect growth and design path
A posh content material mannequin will assist inform every kind of website selections, from CMS option to information formatting. Builders could make higher structure selections after they have a way of what sorts of relationships exist between content material sorts, and designers can set up a sample library that matches the granularity of the content material mannequin. The sooner the construction work is completed, the simpler it’s to construct built-in design and growth plans.
Cramming dangerous content material into sturdy fashions is an extremely compelling argument for editorial intervention
When initiatives are centered on the structural elements of the work—we wish to recombine content material for various channels, or make a intelligent responsive expertise utilizing structured fields—folks typically begin out satisfied that the present content material is first rate sufficient to do the job. “Certain, it may in all probability use some spiffing up, however that’s simply not within the playing cards proper now.”
I’ve by no means seen a more practical argument for the significance of editorial work than taking present copy and seeing how inadequately it fills a mannequin that we’ve already agreed meets our enterprise targets.
A mannequin I constructed not too long ago had a content material kind for holding gushy snippets concerning the enterprise’s wonderful customer support. After we went to maneuver the prevailing content material into the brand new fashions, the one copy we may discover emigrate amounted to “free ice water” and “well mannered staff.” We had already agreed that telling the story of the model expertise was a key job of the brand new web site, and seeing how completely their present content material failed to do this was the kick within the pants they wanted to seek out funds for an editorial help.
Content material fashions are straightforward to iterate
Waterfall isn’t a terrific match for content material growth any greater than it’s for design and code, so editorial rewrites typically set off changes to the content material fashions. I’ll cut up one massive area into two smaller ones, or the writers will discover a place the place I unnoticed an necessary piece of content material altogether. Refining the fashions is an anticipated a part of the method.
On initiatives the place editorial rewriting has been carried out first, although, I typically find yourself with copy that, though now written superbly, has no place within the mannequin. In the midst of structuring the data, we mixed two pages into one, or are reusing the identical description in three locations, and so the editorial effort that went into fixing that duplicate is thrown out earlier than it ever sees the sunshine of day. That’s discouraging, and might result in content material creators feeling like I don’t worth their time or their work.
What works for you?
It’s good to have some sturdy reasoning behind my structure-first leaning, however after all my experiences could not translate to your mission wants in any respect.
When you’ve labored on a mission that organized construction work first, what benefits or drawbacks did that course of uncover? From a design and growth perspective, are there professionals or cons to both path that aren’t lined right here?
When you’re a author, does creating copy inside a content material mannequin free or stifle your greatest work? When you favor to begin with editorial rewrites, what are the hidden advantages for the structural facet of the mission?
I consider there are actual advantages to taking a structure-first strategy to organizing content material actions, and I’d love to listen to how and if that works to your initiatives as nicely.
