What is content development? (And why is everyone talking about it?)

Content
Written By kit warchol

I get asked what I do a lot — at parties, over networking coffees, and even recently at a funeral. Nunc Studio is a content development agency, but let’s face it: that doesn’t mean much to the average person.

After 15+ years working as a content strategist, copywriter, ghostwriter, and more, I’m well-versed in all the content marketing jargon, but that’s not particularly useful. So this guide goes out to all of you — the people who (sometimes) hire people like me who have enough going on that you want someone to break it down for you.

It includes:

  • A breakdown of just what content development is (and what it isn’t)

  • Types of content that professionals like me, well, develop

  • Ways to improve your content development processes

  • A couple of examples of ways I’ve worked with clients to develop content that blows minds — because these days, people expect any writing you do to delight.

  • What AI has to do with it — and why it might not be your answer

What is content development?

Content development involves brainstorming and developing and publishing various types of content that will help you reach the audiences and/or readers your brand needs. When I started in the field, people often used “content strategy” and “content development” interchangeably, but a decade-plus later, there are some distinct differences.

It’s not (exactly) content strategy

Think of content strategy like a web or map. It’s what ties your blog, emails, SEO strategy, social media posts, you name it, together. A great content strategy considers all stakeholders, quarterly and long-term goals, and where you currently stand (through content audits and comparative/competitive analyses) to create a plan for how you can reach your audience across all channels. NPR’s 2009 announcement of Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE), which focused on modularizing content so you could use it on air, on a blog, on Instagram, etc. without reinventing the wheel over and over, is an excellent example of a bold content strategy. Content strategists are still talking about it to this day.

It’s more like the fun that happens after the strategy

Content development is where things get more creative — or at least, can if you let them. It’s the writing and media you can create once you know your goals, where your audience spends its time, and have isolated some clear strategies. And, when they get creative with how they speak to their audience(s), it’s what sets brands apart. In 2024, content development doesn’t only mean two-dimensional writing work, such as blogs or white papers (although it can — and even two-dimensional writing work can blow minds, by the way). It can also mean limited edition print magazines developed in tandem with another brand. Or it can mean a Substack newsletter that becomes the industry standard for new ideas. Or it can mean a free online creative writing class that leads to an email list you can use for future sales marketing (that last link is an example of one I developed for a small writers’ workshop in New York).

Who Needs Content Development?

Well, everyone — even this journal I write for Nunc Studio counts as content development. It’s my way of screaming into the void about topics I love so that maybe, just maybe, you find your way to me and my work.

But content development is particularly essential for brands, especially now, in an AI era where content has gotten…mediocre. As soon as ChatGPT arrived, brands started using it to cut content corners in all directions. And they promptly flooded the internet with milquetoast listicle articles meant to bring in more SEO traffic (and more income via affiliate links) but wound up boring intelligent and discerning potential customers and readers.

Fortunately, creative content development is a potential balm to our AI times. It’s perfect for:

  • Small businesses trying to compete with big companies online. Use content development to tell your story and show audiences how much better it feels to support a business that cares.

  • Leaders and “thought-leaders.” (I hate the word thought-leader, simply because leaders wouldn’t become leaders if they didn’t have thoughts, but that’s another article). Use it to bring a unique voice to your newsletters or LinkedIn.

  • Brands that realize the winning answer isn’t the generic answer. You’re not going to stand out if you play it safe all the time — or publish the same AI-developed content on your blog as everyone else.

  • People seeking passive income. Everyone talks about monetizing these days, and to do that, you need to have content that feels distinct and worth paying for. That’s creative content development at its finest.

How to Develop Great Content

Step 1. Make sure you understand your goals.

I’ve worked with many clients who think they need to publish on every platform all at once. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard the question, “Should we be on TikTok?” to which I reply, “You’re asking the wrong question.”

Long before you hire a content marketer or a freelancer like me, you should get straight on your goals for the quarter, the year, and the coming five years — at least in terms of reaching new audiences. Start with those questions. If you plan on hiring outside help, isolate three main goals that you think require content and bring them to your first meeting with a content development expert.

Step 2. Get to know your audience and what they want, need, love, and hate.

I say this often to clients out of love: Your content shouldn’t be about you. It should be about what you can do for your potential client or customer. People coming to your site don’t care how special you think your brand or products are, but they do care that your brand or products can have some sort of positive effect on their lives.

So, you need to understand your audience before you put a content strategy into place and start developing a blog, podcast, TikTok series, white paper, or whatever else. If you don’t already have target personas, a content strategist can help you get that squared away through research and stakeholder interviews. These personas should go deep and not avoid the granular details that make your audience unique — when I worked on a massive rebrand for Schedulicity, a scheduling app directed mainly at barbers and stylists, I even made Spotify playlists for each of their three personas.

Step 3. Audit and clean up what you have already.

I’d say that every 3 out of 4 projects I work on involves a content audit and clean-up on some scale. If you have a live website and publish content regularly to your blog or social media, you probably have old content that’s doing exactly zilch for your traffic. In some cases, such as SEO, outdated or crappy content that’s not related to your target audience (see Step 2) can actually work against you. So, before you start talking about new content development projects, update or remove anything on your site that doesn’t align with your brand, audience, or goals. That might mean cutting a blog’s content down by 80% or more for many brands. If that’s scary, work with a content strategist or agency who can walk you through the process, including their reasoning for cuts.

Step 4. Don’t do what everyone else is doing.

If your competitors are already doing it, why would you? That’s not to say you should abandon social media or a blog strategy because another brand has those. But those are channels, and many brands will use the same ones. The key to original and creative content development is to consider how you can surprise and delight your audience with ideas they’ve never encountered. What’s something that will make their collective jaws drop? It could be an unexpected brand partnership (think St. John and Edie Parker), an online journal about weed-friendly creatives, private one-on-one sessions in your area of expertise a la Sophia Amoruso, or free resources on career changes that naturally promote your online courses (fun fact: I’m one of the copywriters they featured in that last link — and they found me organically!).

Step 5. Start small, assess, adapt, rinse, repeat.

Only do as much as you have the resources to sustain. That might mean only publishing blog articles two times a month. Or once. As you think of content projects you’d like to develop, ask yourself whether you can keep them going for six months, a year, or more. When in doubt, start with one idea, then develop content in advance to publish over three or six months. At the end of six months, check your numbers. Does that data align with your goals? Are you seeing the fruits of your labors? If not, it doesn’t mean you need to — this expression always grosses me out — throw the baby out with the bathwater. But it might be time to go back and tweak, edit, improve, optimize. If that still doesn’t work, start exploring new content development ideas.

And if the content is working? Mazel! Keep going.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because this content development strategy largely echoes James Clear’s concept of “explore/exploit.” As he put it in Atomic Habits, “If you are currently winning, you exploit, exploit, exploit. If you are currently losing, you continue to explore, explore, explore.”

Step 6. Consider content development an investment.

Content takes time. Either that time is your time — which is worth money! — or you’ll need to outsource it to someone else. If you’re not a professional writer or content strategist, chances are that hiring someone to run your content development for you will pay off big time. It won’t be cheap — writers are not AI, for good reason (see the section above: Who Needs Content Development?) — but it will count.

A few years ago, I worked with a tech startup that had almost no organic traffic to its site. They were paying nearly $20,000 a month in ad spend to bring in new potential customers. By the time I left 18 months later, they were receiving what SEMRush (a beloved SEO tool) estimated was $50,000 per month in organic traffic. They promptly cut all their ad spend.

Some of my favorite content development examples (mine & others I admire):

So, why can’t I use AI?

It’ll bite you. After an influx of sites started publishing spammy content written by AI in order to increase affiliate link income, Google released an update in an attempt to punish the behavior. It’s early days, so we don’t know what exactly is coming. Still, most content developer folks, even AI experts, agree that we’re about to go full circle — right back to people wanting messy, human, authentic content that doesn’t follow an algorithm. I mean, don’t you?

kit warchol
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