Here’s how this dreaded request usually surfaces: toward the end of a project, a surprise stakeholder announces that some paradoxically insignificant and yet urgently important content must now be added to the scope, without changing the timeline or resourcing of course. How is this possible, you ask? Because we’re just going to port it over. Sort of like if I set my purse down in the kitchen and then simply pick it up and move it to the bedroom, right? Um, no. That’s the idea, for sure, but it’s highly unlikely that anything that gets ported over completely intact from an old experience STILL DESERVES TO BE ON YOUR SITE.

Everything old is not new again
Faced with a port over, your content team will start scraping that dusty content from the live site or an archive and begin dropping it into a deck. A number of things may happen next: First, they’ll inevitably be unable to hold their noses and just let really bad content move through unchallenged. They may point out that the as-is content doesn’t have the same tone or is three times as long as the new content they’ve been developing. Next, they may notice that the new templates require subheads, which this old content doesn’t have, necessitating that new subheads be written. (There go any hopes of pushing the content live again without having to pass through legal review.)

The content team may also point out that the copy was developed before the current SEO initiative, or that there are references to discontinued products, or even to people who have since left the company. On the other hand, if the content team is on the lazy or inexperienced side (or if you don’t have a content expert on the project), you’ll soon be facing this Frankenstein of a copy deck and all of the above issues yourself.

Whether it happens in-house or with a consultant, the prospect of a port-over should activate one of the primary responsibilities of content strategy: to say that all of the content in question is not created equal. A photo gallery in one context cannot necessarily (and perhaps should not) be reproduced in another.

By any other name
So when someone proposes a port over, what should you do? Turn to the power of language to underscore the importance of continuing to conduct a formal evaluation of all content. I once worked with a stellar Account Director who refused to even use the term “port over,” insisting that the team and the client call it a “migration” instead. If you encounter resistance, a gentle reminder that you’ll need to evaluate content within the newly agreed-upon interactions, rules, and strategies should suffice.

Content strategy is not about accommodating present assets and practices. It’s about determining the right content within the right context for the right audience at the right time, and then planning for management and updates of that content. And there are no shortcuts to doing this correctly. Or at least there shouldn’t be.

I like learning things. I’ve played guitar for 20 years.  I am an artist, musician, documentary filmmaker, user experience designer, park advocate and published writer. Way back when, I was also student of rhetoric and language. It’s all related.

But I’m pretty new to any kind of serious programming. I’ve been doing web work for about 10 years. I’ve worked with talented programmers from Yahoo!, Topspin, Google, MySpace and Facebook for quite some time. I really only know enough programming to hack and reverse engineer what others have already done.

I can’t create anything ‘original’ on my own and I want that to change. I want to create new web products like I create songs. To think of an idea and be able to implement it. I have tons of ideas and I need another tool for my toolkit. These new codes let us create and invent at a pace and scale like never before.

But Why Blog About This?

When’s the last time we had an account of someone learning how to program from scratch? I think the discipline of documenting this will be valuable for a couple reasons:

Let’s get unemployed Amercians to work in the new engineering sector: web engineering.”

1) Non-programmers, especially at tech companies, don’t have a clue what engineers spend their time doing. Stupid. For everybody. This needs to change. When I worked in Spain, I learned to speak Spanish very well. Now it’s time to learn to speak software.

2) Engineers have been doing their craft so long, they forget how it was to start programming. They might even forget what they are fundamentally doing. This happens to all of us. I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years. I don’t remember at all how I learned, and I can’t recall what it was like to think about the guitar as something I couldn’t just pick up and play. I imagine engineers also have alot of assumptions in their process and work? Maybe I can shake some new ideas loose? Fresh eyes and all that.

3) All codes are similar. Learning Python isn’t just learning a “different language”, it’s a relearning of basic language. I’m very interested in how Python and English seem to be just a couple of approaches to the deeper thing.

4) Finally, America needs jobs. We keep focusing on how we keep losing factory jobs. But you know, if we really want a new New Deal, lets get Americans to work in the new engineering, web engineering. No job is in higher demand, more well documented and available for people to learn. Yes, it’s skilled labor. Yes, it’s hard, but not impossible.

I’m using a great course called “Learning Python The Hard Way” by Zed Shaw, as a baseline for exercises and tutorials. It’s a great series and a good balance of hand-holding and sink-or-swim. I’ll also be doing my own implementation of Django, a web framework, later on.

I’m taking the all-in immersive approach, working on some new app ideas I have, against deadlines a couple months out, while also learning how to build it! This is sort of akin to taking a car apart without knowing how to put it together again. Now I HAVE to learn. ;P

Link to Part Two: coming soon

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We also worked with the Razorfish Seattle and SF teams on developing the new strategy for the Nike Women Blog. What comes after the cover slide shown below is confidential, but trust us, it’s pretty cool.

At SUBTXT, we think that if you can’t easily translate a business goal into a user goal, it probably doesn’t belong on your website. Apparently we’re in good company. Erin Kissane, in The Elements of Content Strategy, says, “Fundamentally…’right for the business’ and ‘right for the user’ are the same thing. Without readers, viewers, and listeners, all content is meaningless…” (emphasis ours)

Why Business Goals Must Be User Goals

SUBTXT once had a client who said we needed to arrive at a balance between business goals and user goals. Really? Why? What about arriving at the understanding that your business goals need to be rephrased as user goals or they need to be seriously reconsidered? In fact, doesn’t a business goal require user participation in order for it to be successful?

For example, your business goal could be to “promote the automatic savings program,” but if you just do that, most of your users won’t care, unless they are specifically looking for an automatic account. However, if you rephrase that goal to, “help our clients automatically save money,” you have a business goal that aligns perfectly with the common user goal to “find easy ways to save more money.”

User Goals Inspire Creation

This frame of mind helps your company view yourselves as partners and advisors to your clients, instead of salespeople. Continuing in this mindset, this business goal might inspire you to create an educational series, such as case studies or testimonials that align with this goal. On the other hand, if you stick with the goal of “promoting the automatic savings program,” the mindset is not helpful to users, so it likely won’t inspire the same type of new content.

At SUBTXT, we’re aware that a business can have goals that the customer may not be aware are theirs as well. For example, I didn’t to go the Apple store online looking for Father’s Day gifts, but when I saw their Father’s Day Gift Guide, I wasn’t surprised that it featured some cool options that I happened to be interested in. I was receptive because I know that Apple doesn’t abuse my trust or my time. Also, Apple’s long-standing commitment to clean, quiet, informative design and their technological leadership give them credibility:

Here are three ways to move your digital marketing team from business goals to user goals:

1)    Rephrase your goals so they begin with the words, “Find an easy way to…”  and end with a real-life task your customers want to—and can—accomplish from your website. For example, “Increase weekly craft project email signups,” becomes, “Find an easy way to learn about new craft ideas that make me a better artist.“

2)    When a new business goal is handed to your digital marketing team, ask yourself “Why?” until the word “customer” is the main subject of the answer. So, if your business goal is “Promote the weekly craft project email,” start by asking “Why promote this weekly email?” If the answer is “Because it’s a marketing priority,” keep going. And don’t stop until it sounds like, “So customers can become better artists and think of our company as the place where that happens.”

3)    Think of your digital marketing team as a matchmaker. Your company wants something, and your customers do too, so you’re in charge of creating opportunities for those desires to intersect. For example, your company wants to increase email signups and customers want to be better artists. It’s time for you to get creative and think of all the ways your website can make this match.

We aren’t saying that businesses shouldn’t have business goals. Business goals are necessary for motivating teams, engaging shareholders, and measuring performance. What we’re saying is that most business goals just need a mental shift to become user goals. However, if you’ve gone through the above exercises, and your business goals still don’t, can’t, or won’t align with what your customers are looking for (whether they know it or not), they just don’t have a place on your website.

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