Content strategy guidance

Sharpening the story you tell through your website and marketing content will make a big difference to your business, but how do you get it right?

Your content opportunity

A new brand, website or content marketing drive is a significant investment. If you’re going to spend time and money, you need a sound brief and a strategy aligned with your goals that everyone buys into – one that’s set to deliver.

Being clear on what to say through your content is vital, but it’s hard to get to the nub of this on your own.

Advice & guidance for your content

I’ll help you figure out what to say about your business, pinpointing your unique content opportunity and direction. I provide practical coaching, advice and editing support to set your project up for success and drive the results you need. Using an approach rooted in deep listening and research, we’ll find the right way forward together.

The outcome of my work is a stronger business: more of the right inbound enquiries, an easier, joined up sales process and a confident team.

“I hired Sonja and her team to help me develop the new website and content marketing strategy for The Get Real Project - one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Sonja is thoughtful, conscientious, resourceful, and insightful. I’m absolutely thrilled with what we created together.”

— Andrea P. Howe, founder of The Get Real Project

I hired Sonja as a consultant to lead the design and development of the University’s first content strategy. Sonja brought deep content strategy and content marketing expertise and an outside-in view to drive real change. The work facilitated an improved collaboration between offices, for a joined up strategy that cut across internal silos, delivering an approach to our content which was truly student-first.

Urfan Ali, Web and New Media Manager, University of Bristol
I've worked on many website projects throughout my career, but this was the largest and most complex to date. We needed to reach diverse audiences across two nations and multiple locations, conveying a consistent story while respecting local nuances. It's been an enormous task. Engaging Sonja as our content lead was a game-changer!

Stephen McCulloch, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, WithYou
More than ever, organisations big or small need re-assurance, insights and direction to help navigate through the markets they operate and reach their audiences. Sonja has a unique ability to articulate and provide clarity as to the right direction an organisation needs to go. Not only does Sonja provide the content strategy, but she also takes a practical approach as to what needs to happen day to day and how it meets the needs of an organisation, its employees and winning over the wider requirements and objectives.

Simon Swan Digital Transformation Leader, Met Office
Sonja's insight into content strategy is invaluable, but what strikes me as her greatest strength is her keen sense of context. She truly understands what it means for an organization to redefine itself, and her unique blend of warmth, empathy, wit, and intelligence make her the perfect guid. I would recommend her in an instant to any organization needing a perspective on content and digital marketing.

Chris Butler, Program Director, HOW Interactive Design, Chicago

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How I can help

The content challenges I help solve for my clients have been many and varied, including:

Define your brand message and pinpoint your content opportunity with the help of feedback from your clients and customers.
I help your to see you understand what to say from the outside in. This give you the clarity you need to devise the right message, website brief and content strategy, based on evidence, not assumption.
- Find out more about my research and insight service here.
"Content IS web design, and it matters to the success of your site - don’t make it an afterthought. Get to work on your web content early. The content effort takes leadership, organisation, & close collaboration throughout."
You want your new website to fit perfectly this time around, reflecting your refreshed brand, personality and values, and delivering on your strategic aims. It needs to be useful, usable and inspiring for your audiences, so you attract the right people and motivate the right action needed to meet your goals.
Websites are primarily a vehicle for the delivery of content, so it makes sense to prioritise the content alongside visual design and functionality, to ensure the project launches successfully on time, without placing undue stress on internal teams. The best projects I’ve been involved in see content, design and tech working together iteratively, hand in hand - a productive creative partnership. Designing around the words helps refine your thinking, and makes for smarter decisions, and less rework later on. Your website will be all the stronger for it.
I act as a Website Content Lead, taking charge of the content aspects of the site build, with overall responsibility for strategy and the quality of the final content - from concept to production. Elements of this role include:
Content strategy and planning
- Content workflow and governance
- Identifying and leading the writing team
- Gathering information from across the organisation
- Supporting your subject matter experts to provide the information needed
- Responsibility for delivering high quality written content from concept to production
- Responsibility for the upload of the content to the new website platform
- Training and mentoring your team, as required
- Project management and reporting
Without strategy, content is just stuff, and the work has enough stuff.
I'll help you define or refine your content marketing strategy so you know what to talk about, when, where and how. This strategic approach will ensure the content you work so hard to create is valuable to you (delivers your business objectives) and to your audience (answers their questions, helps them reach their goals) - a win, win.
I provide advice and guidance to help ensure your content marketing keeps on track.
Subject matter experts in the business are often keen to write about their field of expertise but struggle with confidence and clarity - how do you get your ideas across in a way that resonates?
I provide supportive coaching and group writing workshops and coaching for experts in your organisation. The aim is to help build their writing confidence and inspire better writing practices, so they’re motivated to create valuable content that connects and gets your story out more widely.

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About me

I am a consultant, trainer and research partner, helping leaders and teams to figure out what it is they want to say and showing them how to create valuable content to get the word out.

After an early career in business development, I founded and ran Bristol-based content marketing agency Valuable Content for 20+ years, co-authored the first UK book on content marketing - Valuable Content Marketing - how to make quality content your key to success (Kogan Page 2013, 2015). More recently, I was Head of Content Design for Nationwide Building Society.

My practise is drawn from 20 years of research and successful on-the-ground strategic website and content projects, delivered for B2B firms and charitable organisations small and large - including the Met Office, Google, Sustrans and universities across the UK.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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