Channel Neutral Content

The Future is: Form-Free Content

We all want to work smarter not harder. That should go for our content too. As artificial intelligence gets better one way to do that is by creating channel neutral content (sometimes called structured content).

What is channel neutral content?

First there was multi-channel marketing, then omni-channel. So is channel neutral the next evolution? Not really. While multi- and omni-channel focus on how content is published and promoted, channel neutral content is about creation.

Channel neutral content is a way of creating content so it’s ready for, but not necessarily connected to, any specific platform.

It’s all about tagging

Creating channel neutral content is about recognizing the standard parts of any piece of content and then separating the content from that format into a predefined structure that can be fed to any channel.

The purpose is to make the content more readable and findable by machines. So for example, if you the same content lives in an ebook, an email campaign, a webinar registration page and Facebook, there is a central place where that content lives.

Content can be tagged for parts of the content (e.g. hero image, introduction, tagline, etc.), for topic, for audience or a number of other components.

The way channel neutral content is tagged is dependent somewhat on the technology you use and can be high or low tech. Some organizations simply use a standard Word document to apply consistent styles, while others use more advanced database-style technology.

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Benefits of channel neutral content

Tagging content in this way has many benefits. In the future as machine-run algorithms dictate where content lands on search engine results and social media feeds, structured content is a way of making sure content is readable by machines and findable by humans. Plus, when machines start taking over day-to-day administrative tasks for humans, structured content will also give them a shared language.

In the nearer term, channel neutral content can offer these advantages:

  • Personalization. Tagging content by target audience can help consistently customize an experience for potential customers, without having to write two or more versions.
  • Omnichannel Delivery. One single piece of content will be ready for a website, social media channels, influencer outreach, etc. without duplicating efforts.
  • Synchronizing Content. Changes to a piece of already created content can be time-consuming. But with channel neutral content, a regulatory change or an updated set of data can be made in the central source and will be automatically changed everywhere that content appears.  

Get smarter about channel neutral content: Additional reading

Kara Schlabaugh