Content Lessons Learned from Hamilton & the Schuyler Sisters
“Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story. ”
– Christopher Jackson as George Washington in Hamilton
As the credits rolled on the screen after watching Hamilton for the first time, I completely geeked out. My husband patiently listened as I recounted my favorite songs, ooh-ed about the set and aah-ed about the genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda. It didn’t matter that we had finished the movie at 1 am, I was going to listen to the soundtrack before going to sleep.
I’m not ashamed to say that since then I’ve streamed Hamilton on repeat and as I watched it for a second time (or was it the third or fourth?), I realized Hamilton can teach us some valuable marketing and content strategy lessons.
So, how does content, a flyer, a document, or research paper grow up to be a website and lead generator?
Looking for a revolution? I’ve got a revelation
Better content can lead to better design. Website content should be accurate, reflect your brand’s voice, and provide value to your customer. The clearer your words and call-to-actions are, the easier it is to design layouts and content patterns that best support and highlight it. Getting content aligned is a crucial step in turning your website from informational to engaging.
Get your right-hand man
If you’re starting a website redesign or just overhauling your content consider yourself the General Washington of the project. Trying to make sense of all the parts and pieces of your website may make you feel a little out-numbered and out-planned. You’re going to need a right-hand man to help you organize and strategize so you can successfully update your content.
That right-hand man is a content inventory and audit. In order to understand how to update the content on your website, you first need to take stock in what you have and then decide what to do with it all.
Not sure how to start? Here’s a great article for how to do a content audit.
Harmony is key
Once you’ve finished your audit, get your content team together. Take a lesson from the Schuyler sisters – harmony is key.
Gather your subject matter experts and editors and create a content workflow. Assign roles and streamline the process of researching, editing, and approving to make the process of rewriting and creating content easy.
Each sister sounds great individually, but when all three sing together? That harmony is powerful. That’s your content team and workflow. If you sing together, you can produce great, valuable content.
Never satisfied
Take a page from Angelica’s book – you should never be satisfied with the content on your website. Your website is the source of truth for customers who are searching for you online, missing or wrong information affects customer satisfaction and their perception of your brand. Don’t settle when it comes to your content.
We recommend reviewing your website at least twice a year for outdated or inaccurate content. Also, rely on your right-hand man, your content inventory, to flag pages with date-specific content so you know exactly what needs to be updated.
A fraction of your time
Eliza had a simple request for Hamilton, if she could share just a fraction of his time, it would be enough. As a marketer, you’re wearing a lot of different hats. If you have just a fraction of time to focus on website content then make it count. Don’t underestimate small changes like updating your title tags or meta descriptions.
Case in point, we optimized the title tags and meta descriptions on key pages of the Darigold website and saw a 168 percent increase on its FIT Milk product page and a 109 percent click increase on their About page.
Don’t throw away your shot
Focus on creating and maintaining valuable content and your website can be the shining star of your marketing strategy.
