“So, what’s your job again?”

Content strategists often face an uphill battle. Finding the right words to create stellar customer experiences is no simple task. But for most UX writers, some of the hardest work comes from internal jockeying as a result of being vastly outnumbered by their counterparts in design, development and product. The written word is challenging enough as it is, but navigating your organization in a relatively new discipline takes practice.

Welcome to Content Strategy Finishing School.

In this fast-paced and humorous talk, Lou will dive into practical strategies to build coalitions with designers and developers, as well as popular theories in behavioral economics and UX that can be called on to win over any room.

Most importantly, as with any good finishing school education, you’ll learn how to maintain poise when faced with the profession’s most frustrating questions: “so all you do is write copy?” and “don’t you know that nobody reads anymore?”

Lou will examine five concepts that any content strategist can use to improve their working relationships, as well as the work itself. First, the talk will cover strategies used to forge meaningful relationships with designers and developers. Featuring anecdotes and verbatims from actual design and development partners, this section will provide practical advice on how to accomplish more when time is at a premium. From there, he’ll dive into leveraging the brain’s chemistry when interacting with web content, and takeaways from behavioral economics that can drive meaningful communication with your customers, as well as your coworkers.

Content strategists and UX writers will find actionable takeaways – and a little catharsis – from this talk. However, designers and other UX professionals will also benefit, gaining a better understanding of their content counterparts as well as theories and lessons that apply to all UXers.