How content strategists use Writer

Once you have a content plan, execution is everything. In content development and management — which can span marketing, product, support, training, and many other teams — common execution challenges include:

• Correcting human error in grammar and spelling
• Connecting writers to the necessary SMEs, editors, designers, and engineers
• Getting time from other teams in order to make the necessary changes/additions
• Keeping up momentum in collaborative efforts

Here’s what customers have said they love about using Writer to execute content strategy and manage their written word:

Content strategists & Writer

1. Style guides: “It keeps content clear, consistent, and on-brand.”

In a world where users expect every experience to be flawless, that includes maintaining continuity in their perception of your brand.

At enterprise organizations where writers are spread across many teams — and even at smaller companies with fewer (but still multiple) writers — content strategists are tackling the challenge of “branding consistency” by creating writing style guides that govern all content.

In Writer:
Once brand style guides are set up in Writer, the content intelligence technology can score every single piece of copy against those writing requirements. It also provides insight into the emotional intelligence of the writing, so writers know if their content skews lively, reserved, formal, informal, etc. Then, natural language generation (NLG) technology provides copyediting and language suggestions to help the writer align their content to match the company voice, punctuation standards, wording preferences, and more.

2. Company support: “It handles the basic review of content from non-professional writers.”

Unfortunately, not everyone who writes is a writer — meaning they don’t necessarily have education in the nuanced impact of word choice. They may not think about the power of persuasive writing, nor evaluate if it’s right to use in the moment.

For example, product microcopy is often created on the fly, when non-writers are confronted with the need to fill in a blank. The text is written, gets published, and then lives unevaluated for months or years until a content expert calls it into question.

In Writer:
For content strategists working with non-professional writers creating user-facing copy, regular feedback becomes all the more important. Implementing the Writer platform has become a fast, consistent way to reinforce writing style guides and help every single employee embody the voice of the company.

3. Workflow management: “It enables us to create a structured, repeatable writing process.”

Content creation is always a multi-step process: draft, review, revise, push to design, push to development, final review, final revision, go live. That’s already 7 hand-offs in a fairly simple process — and everyone knows that handoffs open a lot of room for delays and bottlenecks. Creating a structured, repeatable writing process keeps everyone on the same page, ensures they know what to expect next, and helps unblock content creation processes.

In Writer:
Workspaces help teams organize workflows, including any necessary content reviews and approvals. If copy is written or mocked up outside of Writer (e.g. an engineer writes placeholder text), it can be automatically pulled into the platform to go through the established writing, editing, and approval processes.

4. Content ecosystem: “It connects content development with the rest of the organization.”

Once copy is approved, it’s time to send it to design and/or engineering.

In Writer:
Writer integrations have simplified operations between content, design, and development. As text is approved, changes get pushed out to other teams in their preferred tools, so all they have to do is accept the change as part of their normal process and move on.

Being able to connect varied team technology has freed up the time formerly spent downloading, reformatting, passing, and re-uploading copy that originated in Word Docs, spreadsheets, XML files, Slack messages, and dreaded sticky notes. Customers have connected Writer to their marketers’ CMS, to their designers’ Sketch workspaces, to their developers’ GitHub repos, and more.

5. Content governance: “It makes updating content easier.”

Managing, updating, and deleting old content is an important part of keeping a brand consistent. Perhaps an old button should say ‘Get yours’ instead of ‘Learn more’. Or a process has become redundant, meaning public-facing documentation needs to be updated. Or a typo was found in a product description. Or you’re post-M&A and content must be refreshed to reflect new business realities.

Unfortunately, modifying content is often more complex than expected. Teams could spend the next several months stumbling across outdated information in lesser-known or less-frequented areas, meaning they’re sending in and fielding ad-hoc change requests — and getting those handled in a timely manner all too often requires trading favors with engineers and/or designers.

In Writer:
Content teams are using Writer to keep track of and manage all copy, company-wide. Necessary changes can be flagged across hundreds or thousands of relevant pieces of content in one fell swoop, so completing these types of governance tasks is more efficient and effective.

6. Segmentation: “It allows us to personalize the content experiences of our different audiences in a controlled, consistent way.”

Most organizations have multiple target personas, especially organizations with a variety of products on the market. Speaking the unique language of each prospect or user is vital to establishing trust; if you use language they don’t understand or like, odds are you’ll lose them.

In Writer:
Content strategists use Writer to create and manage multiple style guides, so they can provide personalized journeys for unique audiences or types of content. So, if one audience prefers academic language while the other prefers informal speech, teams can set up rules to catch and replace suboptimal verbiage for each. It’s just a matter of applying the right style guide before publishing audience-specific content.

7. Scale: “It’s like having another person on the team.”

Content is still king, meaning “Wow, I wish we could hire three more Clarks!” is a sentiment often expressed regarding writers and editors.

In Writer:
Writer supports and augments team power by handling the first pass at copyediting for spelling, grammar, and style. It helps scale efforts to manage brand consistency across the company, so content development and approval processes can move faster.

Try Writer today

Writer’s AI helps everyone at a company write with the same style, terminology, and voice — to take control over copy at scale. If you’re interested in seeing the platform and learning more about how Writer can help your team manage content strategy, start your free trial.