‘Business needs’ refer to the internal content needs of your company, organisation, team or program – whichever is responsible for the subject matter or message of your content. 

All content has an underlying business need – for example, to sell, to inform, to drive behaviour change, to start a conversation or to give a call to action. Business needs also include the overarching goal of your content and any limitations such as budget, capabilities and resources, tools and timing.

Identifying the business need

This is done at the start of a content strategy, alongside user research. Business needs and user needs should be balanced to set the most effective approach for content development.

In larger organisations, there may be different levels of business needs, from the high-level mandate of the organisation to the specific outcomes that a project is trying to achieve. Knowing the whole context will help you identify how content can help meet these goals. 

You can identify your business needs by:

  • reviewing corporate documents such as strategic plans, corporate plans, annual reports and communication strategies
  • identifying and interviewing key stakeholders, such as the organisation’s executive, key decision makers and subject matter experts.

Aligning business goals with content goals

When interviewing stakeholders, you want to find out about:

  • organisational goals that impact content
  • who they see as the priority audience (and nonpriority audiences)
  • their vision for the content initiative
  • what is and is not working about the content right now (how it is or is not supporting business goals)
  • specific problems or opportunities that can be addressed by the content.

For example, you might ask:

  • Why is the content (the website or publication) important for the organisation?
  • Who do you think uses your content and why? Who is the most important audience?
  • What would a successful website or publication look like for you?
  • What are the top 3 opportunities you see from this project?
  • What outcome are you most looking forward to from this project?
  • How is your content published now? What can be done better?

Tip for complex information. Involve subject matter experts early when identifying business needs. For example, if you are creating web content about climate change, your meeting or workshop about business needs should involve your organisation’s:

  • decision makers of climate change teams and programs
  • representatives from communications, web, engagement, and product or service design teams, where relevant
  • climate scientists or relevant subject matter experts.

This sets up the project for regular involvement from subject matter experts to ensure that content is communicated accurately and appropriately throughout.

Working within business limitations

Every project has limitations and constraints. Once you understand the business goals and user needs, you need to understand any constraints. This includes:

  • resourcing – how much funding can you allocate to the content? Do you have inhouse capabilities for user research, content strategy and content production?
  • timing – how soon do you need the content? Is there a requirement to publish at a certain time?
  • technology – what platforms will you be publishing your content on? Do they have the functionality you need? What software and tools do you have to create the content?
  • roles, governance and workflows – what internal processes do you need to follow? How will you best work with other teams to produce and publish the content (e.g. web, communications and design teams).

You can find out many of these things during stakeholder interviews, or you can facilitate a workshop with key representatives from the organisation.

Business needs and user needs can inform your content vision and principles.