Leeds Beckett University: content strategy development

Throughout 2019, we worked with Leeds Beckett University to develop a content strategy for the University that would inform the redevelopment of the website, but would also inform offline communications.

To ensure the overarching vision for content was aligned with the University strategy and stakeholder requirements, we started by reviewing the University’s strategic plan, brand and values.

This discovery and consultation phase informed the priority business goals that the content strategy would need to support and the priority audiences that it would need to serve. It also determined the values that should underpin the content strategy, and how content should support those values through the website.

From here, we developed an extensive audience research plan using a range of methods to gather original insights from priority audience groups including prospective students, current students, businesses, alumni and external academics. This research included visiting schools to engage with students early in their decision-making journey, to ensure that the input of low-participation groups was included.

We produced a series of outputs including mental models, customer engagement journeys and personas to inform the recommendations of the content strategy.

The result was a full content strategy which included a future vision for the University’s approach to content, a complete list of content and website requirements as determined through audience and stakeholder research, a content ecosystem map, new information architecture, content model, content types and taxonomy. We also carried out user testing on the new proposed IA.

Based on our strategy and recommendations, a web development agency were identified to bring our strategy to life, and through collaborative workshops and planning calls, we were able to hand over our vision for the website redevelopment.

We’ve continued to support the University with implementation of our strategy through delivering bespoke content design training sessions. This includes an online content design training programme with a full curriculum that LBU staff can follow. Successful completion of the initial phases of this training programme is now a pre-requisite for staff to be allowed to publish content to the University's website. 

If you are interested in developing a content strategy for your institution, get in touch!