August 22, 2008
This week I consulted on web strategy with Forma Design in Raleigh. We worked through all of the concepts that ultimately lead to the conclusion that an effective web strategy depends on a robust content strategy. Most agencies, when they get to this point, begin to feel the weight of regularly creating compelling content for their website. Where will they possibly find the time to do that?
That’s why agency positioning is so crucially important. The only why to consume and create compelling content regularly is have a clear focus. Without focus sustaining a content strategy is indeed impossible. An advertising agency’s content strategy must flow from focused positioning or else blog posts and articles will devolve into commonplace topics that get harder and harder to produce, and less compelling along the way.
Unfortunately, most agencies embrace positioning about a much as a trip to the dentist–sans pain killer. They fear boredom, or the potential loss of opportunities. Fortunately, this is not the case with Forma. They’ve adopted a position as experts in Life Science Marketing. Their work, their experience, their client base, (and soon their content strategy) all back this up.
While digesting all that goes into web strategy, the technology, the concepts, the tools, and the time, it is easy for an agency to feel overwhelmed, and even lose heart. But positioning is a great encourager. It makes web strategy–while certainly hard–definitely possible.
