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From Solo to Scaled: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice
Content strategy is clearly critical to your organization, but where do you start, and how do you grow it into a true practice? Whether you’re a lone content person tasked with creating a content strategy practice from scratch, or a leader struggling to scale one up, From Solo to Scaled is your blueprint for creating and managing a content strategy practice that is sustainable and successful.
- GenresDesignNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
Published July 25, 2022
About the author
Natalie Marie Dunbar
1 book11 followersNatalie Marie Dunbar is a UX-focused content strategist with a unique blend of skills as a journalist, content writer, and user experience researcher. Taken together with her curiosity for technology and her passion for engaging consumers, Natalie excels in balancing the creation of delightful user experiences with strategic content that supports the needs of a business or organization.
Natalie has worked in various roles as a content writer and strategist for brands that include Anthem, Farmers Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, Walmart, and YP.com.
She’s also produced original content for federal agencies that include the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Centers for Tobacco Products (CTP), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Veterans Affairs (VA).
Natalie is also an active member of Women Talk Design and was a founding member of the Content Strategy Los Angeles meetup group.
From Solo to Scaled: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice is her first book.
Natalie has worked in various roles as a content writer and strategist for brands that include Anthem, Farmers Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, Walmart, and YP.com.
She’s also produced original content for federal agencies that include the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Centers for Tobacco Products (CTP), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Veterans Affairs (VA).
Natalie is also an active member of Women Talk Design and was a founding member of the Content Strategy Los Angeles meetup group.
From Solo to Scaled: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice is her first book.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 5, 2023
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I was a little torn on how to rate this at first because it wasn't super useful to me, personally, but I think for other people it will be an easy five-star rating. I found it a little too dry, which makes sense since this is intended to be more instructive, but I read this other Rosenfeld publication recently I liked a little better because it had so many examples in the text. I wish there had been more samples of what good copy/content looks like in this book.
The author clearly knows her subject well and is very passionate about that and I admired her in-depth knowledge of her subjects. I also appreciated the reminder to be familiar with and able to define specific terminology, and the emphasis on being diverse and inclusive. She talks about something called The Culture Trap, which is basically how an industry's "culture" can actually gatekeep against diversity because people are more likely to cater to people who resemble themselves.
Also, she includes little mini-interviews/blurbs from other professionals working in the tech sector. Two of the companies represented were Bumble and McAffee.
If you're in tech, I think this has principles and ideas that will help you no matter what part of the org you work in. However, this book is written assuming that you already 1) work at a rather large and successful company and 2) know your work already and simply want to become better, so I would not recommend this to people who are new or small.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
3 to 3.5 stars
July 25, 2022
As Stevo’s Novel Ideas, I am a long-time book reviewer, member of the media, an Influencer, and a content provider. I received this book as a free review copy from either the publisher, a publicist, or the author, and have not been otherwide compensated for reviewing or recommending it. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
This book was Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 7/24, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet and Stevo's Novel Ideas. Content strategy is clearly critical to your organization, but where do you start, and how do you grow it into a true practice?
As Bill Gates said in 1993, "Content is King." The phrase has never been truer today, as the pervasiveness of Internet websites has made us all publishers and storytellers. The words we publish must also meet the demands of our brand and our demographic of users and they must also be optimized for search engines such as Google and Bing.
I've been a content creator for over 30 years, primarily as a thought leader and book reviewer, and have watched with amazement and fascination as the online world has changed copywriting as a commodity to content marketing as a strategic practice. In her new book, Natalie Marie Dunbar takes me further, into how to successfully and sustainably build out that practice.
"From Solo to Scaled" helps content strategists, alone or as a team manager, help companies (or their clients) develop practices to create and deliver useful and reusable content when it is needed, with a specific focus on UX (User Experience) content.
Dunbar's engaging book is full of blueprints and tools for each phase of building your practice. Like the Habitat for Humanity house where she assembled her first UX team, she visualizes the structure, assembles building materials, builds the core, measures its success, retools and expands, watches it mature, and prepares for inspections by leadership. Throughout, she measures, celebrates, and markets the benchmarks of success that secure more business.
Filled with infectious enthusiasm, this guide is a must for all content strategists and marketers who want to take it up a notch, or several.
Find more Business Books of the Week on my Goodreads Listopia page at https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9..., and find many more reviewed and recommended books and products by searching for me on Google.
This book was Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 7/24, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet and Stevo's Novel Ideas. Content strategy is clearly critical to your organization, but where do you start, and how do you grow it into a true practice?
As Bill Gates said in 1993, "Content is King." The phrase has never been truer today, as the pervasiveness of Internet websites has made us all publishers and storytellers. The words we publish must also meet the demands of our brand and our demographic of users and they must also be optimized for search engines such as Google and Bing.
I've been a content creator for over 30 years, primarily as a thought leader and book reviewer, and have watched with amazement and fascination as the online world has changed copywriting as a commodity to content marketing as a strategic practice. In her new book, Natalie Marie Dunbar takes me further, into how to successfully and sustainably build out that practice.
"From Solo to Scaled" helps content strategists, alone or as a team manager, help companies (or their clients) develop practices to create and deliver useful and reusable content when it is needed, with a specific focus on UX (User Experience) content.
Dunbar's engaging book is full of blueprints and tools for each phase of building your practice. Like the Habitat for Humanity house where she assembled her first UX team, she visualizes the structure, assembles building materials, builds the core, measures its success, retools and expands, watches it mature, and prepares for inspections by leadership. Throughout, she measures, celebrates, and markets the benchmarks of success that secure more business.
Filled with infectious enthusiasm, this guide is a must for all content strategists and marketers who want to take it up a notch, or several.
Find more Business Books of the Week on my Goodreads Listopia page at https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9..., and find many more reviewed and recommended books and products by searching for me on Google.
November 28, 2022
Chock full of figures, tables, and links that explore the viability of content strategy in organizations of all sizes, "From Solo to Scaled" is a useful repository of tools need to inform that discussion internally and externally.
Natalie Marie Dunbar seeks to help content strategists advocate for the value of their practice and to argue for the scaling of that service to projects and needs of all sizes. Using construction metaphors, the author develops a fairly rigorous punchlist to follow, providing the guardrails needed no matter where you be in the timeline of ensuring content is baked into your organization's marketing practice.
Short case studies from various practitioners helps break up the dense text, and while there is nothing earth-shattering here from the standpoint of content strategy revelations, "From Solo to Scaled" is ideal for those who have felt outnumbered and under-represented in stating the content case within their discipline.
Natalie Marie Dunbar seeks to help content strategists advocate for the value of their practice and to argue for the scaling of that service to projects and needs of all sizes. Using construction metaphors, the author develops a fairly rigorous punchlist to follow, providing the guardrails needed no matter where you be in the timeline of ensuring content is baked into your organization's marketing practice.
Short case studies from various practitioners helps break up the dense text, and while there is nothing earth-shattering here from the standpoint of content strategy revelations, "From Solo to Scaled" is ideal for those who have felt outnumbered and under-represented in stating the content case within their discipline.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews