OER - Open Educational Resources
Content Strategy Knowledge Base

The Content Strategy Knowledge Base aims to support practitioners, students and teachers of content strategy. It is a growing collection of shareable knowledge about content strategy and related disciplines such as content design, content operations and content marketing. Teaching content of the Content Strategy Master’s programme at FH Joanneum Graz forms its core. The Knowledge Base is developed by a community at and around the study programme. Students of the programme are the authors and editors.

The publication of the first version of the Knowledge Base in February 2022 was intended as a request for comments. We will continue to develop it further. Support, criticism and comments are welcome via [email protected].

The contents of the Knowledge Base are Open Educational Resources and are licensed under the Creative Commons licence (BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Other Open Educational Resources on content strategy: Master Theses

Literature Reviews

Content Audits and Inventories – A Handbook by Paula Land

3 July 2023

This literature review will provide an overview of the core concepts of Paula Land's book "Content Audits and Inventories". The renowned content strategist from Seattle has put together a handbook not only for aspiring and advanced content strategists but also for anyone doing digital projects which deal with an existing body of content. Site managers, business owners, and even experienced content strategists will find this book useful for their content audits and inventories.

Lecture Reports

Effective Governance and Change Management To Achieve Customer Satisfaction: Dave Carroll Experience

19 June 2023

The article provides insight into how companies should approach bad customer experiences. Companies need to offer sincere apologies and investigate claims thoroughly, while customers should be fair and truthful when sharing negative experiences. Additionally, businesses must create policies for crisis management and cultivate a culture of transparency within the organization to ensure trust between them and their customers. Above all, being kind and compassionate will always lead to satisfied customers.

Lecture Reports

The Importance of Placemaking in Information Architecture

15 June 2023

The concept of placemaking has been around for centuries, and it’s becoming increasingly relevant in the digital age. Placemaking is the practice of creating an environment that engages people and encourages meaningful interactions, both between people and with the space itself. It is a concept that reaches far beyond the physical world, extending into the digital realm.

Lecture Reports

The 12 Agile Principles - Keep Track of Your Project Planning

14 June 2023

In a world where knowledge work is more present than ever, the need for a flexible planning process has come to the fore. This is how the agile planning process was created.

Lecture Reports

How to Become a Storytelling Mastermind

9 June 2023

„Once upon a time … “ - four little words with which all great stories begin. Four little words represent humanity's fascination with telling and listening to stories. However, there is much more to consider if you want to write them. When working with content, you will sooner or later stumble across the term "Storytelling". It's the craft of using techniques to create emotional and thus memorable content.

Lecture Reports

The Benefits of Strategic Editorial Planning

31 May 2023

This article focuses exclusively on the advantages of strategic editorial planning, demonstrating how a targeted approach to planning and publishing content can lead to increased effectiveness and success in marketing.

Lecture Reports

Content for Complex Digital Environments: The Basics

30 April 2023

Rahel Anne Bailie shares her expertise on how we can help companies to manage content effectively. Her lecture is about creating a system for content creation in companies with complex digital needs and how we can fix difficulties in the content creation process.

Lecture Reports

HTML for Content Strategists: Why Content Strategists Should Understand HTML

27 April 2023

Why should content strategists know anything about HTML, CSS, and Javascript? At the beginning of his course on frontend technologies, Heinz Wittenbrink justified why we should learn about angle brackets and alt attributes. The discussion is still ongoing.

Message Architecture Header01 c Denise Bures

Lecture Reports

Three Steps to Developing a Brand-driven Content Strategy

20 April 2023

A brand-driven content strategy helps an organization figure out and convey its values and differentiators. It shapes the path for all future content decisions. Boston-based content strategist Margot Bloomstein has developed, practiced, and taught brand-driven content strategy over a long period. In this lecture, Margot Bloomstein presented and discussed the basics of her approach with many examples from her practice.

Lecture Reports

How to conduct a qualitative interview

7 April 2023

Finding out what users or potential customers want or might want, when it comes to content, can be tough and should not be an area to guess at. Susanne Sackl-Sharif is an experienced researcher who showed the Content Strategy master's programme students the basics of qualitative social research, as well as important connections to content strategy.

Lecture Reports

How To Create A Content Inventory?

15 March 2023

Content inventories are an essential part of content audits. The quality of the content inventory highly impacts the quality of the audit. Without a properly established inventory, a content audit is not possible. Paula Land raised awareness in her lectures for the close connections between a content audit's qualitative and quantitative elements. She also explained the dos and don'ts of content audits and inventories. This article is an introduction to content inventories and how to approach them.

How topic planning and strategic storytelling can help your communication. Credit: Scompler

Lecture Reports

Tell me how much you care! The art of editorial and topic planning

7 March 2023

A lot of companies want to sell their products and make profits. They are bombarding customers with special deals and ads. What some of them forget is: People don’t buy a product because you tell them, they buy a product if you show them its purpose and create an emotional connection. Storytelling is the key to successful content marketing. And that is where editorial and topic planning comes into play.

Lecture Reports

Beyond data: using empathy for mapping a buyer persona

2 February 2023

The idea of empathy-based personas goes beyond data. The method can become fundamental for effective content as it helps establish a relationship between an organization and a user. In her workshop, Hilary Marsh explained how to use empathy to understand a target audience and create effective content.

Literature Reviews

“The Language of Content Strategy” – An Essential Reference for Content Strategists

2 February 2023

The Language of Content Strategy, by Rahel Anne Bailie and Scott Abel, provides a set of terms and vocabulary like a lexicon for an understandable explanation of content strategy across the industry, practitioners but also stakeholders. It is one of the most essential lexicons that offers short-term definitions of various leaders in this field.

Lecture Reports

Strategy meets organisational communication: A discussion of 4 approaches

8 June 2022

Peter Winkler introduced the Content Strategy master's programme students in his lectures to the four approaches of strategic communication for a new upcoming world due to changing communication faced by Internet and Social Media. Find out about the four main approaches in this lecture report.

Lecture Reports

The content strategist as a business consultant

5 February 2022

What is a content strategist? In practice and literature, this role is understood in many different and often conflicting ways. In her introductory lecture, Rahel Anne Bailie explained why she considers content strategists to be management consultants specialising in content turnarounds. Content strategists are called strategists because they do not simply execute a task; they discover and define strategic tasks, and look for ways that content can fulfil these tasks.

Strategists finding their North-Star-Metric

Lecture Reports

Knowledge is power! – How analytics and metrics can improve your company

5 February 2022

Knowledge is power. To recognise success, a company must effectively measure and know where in the market it stands and what its long-term investments and goals are. Measuring with the appropriate metrics will help a company make the right decisions for its short and long-term goals.

Literature Reviews

A manifest for content centered web development: Resilient Web Design by Jeremy Keith

5 February 2022

Jeremy Keith describes the design principles of the World Wide Web. He explains why content is at the center of web design and web development. He explains the principle of progressive enhancement, which we use to ensure that content is accessible to all users of the web.

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Literature Reviews

A guided tour through content strategy: Content Strategy at Work by Margot Bloomstein

5 February 2022

“Content Strategy at Work ” is one of the very influential books of the first generation of content strategists. This book introduces the discipline of content strategy and contains a whole series of case studies. Moreover, it describes the brand-oriented approach of its author Margot Bloomstein.

Lecture Reports

Strategy is Dead. Long Live Strategy!

3 February 2022

What exactly is strategy? Why do we need it? How do we create a successful business strategy? And why do some say strategy is dead? Dieter Rappold explained at the beginning of his course 'Business Strategy for Digital Markets', why and how business strategy has totally changed in the digital space, and why strategy is even more important because of these changes. The new landscapes of digital business strategy are the playground for relevant content strategies.