Why is content modeling important?
Maybe you don’t think it’s a big deal. You may have worked on several projects and know how to structure content in the CMS of your choice. It is effortless to copy generic structures, such as products, and recreate them anywhere. This may suffice, but will a generic setup highlight the crucial aspects of your product?
7+ reasons why content modeling is important
Drive the company goals
Generic settings, programs, or plans seldom support the execution of the current and future plans, let alone do it effectively. Quality content models are unique to support that project’s or company’s needs. There will be similarities, but using a generic approach will probably get you generic results – not something typically aimed for.Outlast quickly passing trends
Creating a content model based on the current trend also leads astray. For example, as a developer, you might have already broken down your project into individual components in your single-page application. However, this on-the-fly modeling usually causes the app’s layout to be embedded into your content model, locking it in place. While this approach seems great for now, every trend passes, and development trends usually pass quickly. This type of modeling will only require content model adjustments, code rewrites, and potentially even a content migration. Generic content models are rarely future-proof. Quality content models are agnostic to technology and much more ready for changing trends.Support messaging consistency
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a set of reusable content chunks to support your next article? You’ve already written that “Humans sleep 1/3 of their lives”, and you already know this one piece of content would fit perfectly into this new article to get your point across, so why not reuse it? Content reuse supports consistency, unified (brand) messaging, and higher quality of the content you produce. Quality content models facilitate and even enforce content reuse.
Simplify and speed up development
Content reuse isn’t only important for content creators but also developers. More often than not, projects require dozens upon dozens of templates. Wouldnʼt it be much easier to create a universal set of components that could be reused over and over for the whole website instead of debugging all those templates individually? Models supporting content reuse are easier to transform into the desired front-end representation. Quality content models help break down content into components (chunks) that are accessible through APIs.Personalize the experience with relationships
Content often has semantic relationships, yet they are often not part of the content model and are unused. For example, a particular mattress is excellent for left-side sleepers, and an article describes the benefits of sleeping on the left side. But there’s no semantic connection between this content. During content modeling, you’ll discover metadata that will create relationships within your content that will pay off soon. Quality content models uncover relationships between content and enable you to personalize your visitor’s experience.Unlock the authoring potential
It would be fantastic for all marketers to have access to all written content in your newsletters. Creating a CTA for left-side sleepers featuring the mattress you recommend would be great. The same content used in the CTA could be reused in newsletters, on social media, or on third-party display panels. Sufficiently chunking the content during content modeling will enable your marketers to do that, likewise with similar scenarios for other roles. Quality content models unlock the potential to be served without adjustments.Migrate for the last time
No one likes migrations. Migrations and re-platforming are not cheap – they hinder your execution readiness, and for developers, it’s mostly unattractive mundane work. Migrations are often executed when the company outgrows the underlying CMS. That usually means you can’t execute your business plan due to system limitations. Quality content models are extendable, adaptable, and future-ready, making migrations obsolete.Build a house of bricks
So, when it’s time to start building the foundations of your future house, beware of the material you use for the foundation. Otherwise, you may end up like the little pigs from the famous fairytale.
Grow inside, have fun
Content modeling should be a collaborative effort. Stakeholders throughout the company can collaborate, give inputs, and have their requirements met. This exercise will bring all your teams closer together and can help everyone invested in your content operations. Imagine enabling everyone to contribute to content creation. With proper governance in place, you can exponentially extend your content creation team and give a voice to everyone. The content modeling process will tangibly evangelize your business values, goals, and mission internally and empower your employees to contribute to your business.What do you want your house to look like?
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