Work
What we do, what we offerGood, nutritious digital content has many ingredients. But it’s not just about what you put in the pan. To make delicious meals the raw materials must be good and so must the recipes, the tools and the chefs.
We’re a content strategy agency. We help people use content to change the web, and to change the world. We’re user-led and content-driven. We believe in doing digital experiences differently and doing them better.
Here are five digital dishes to whet your appetite. You can also peruse projects we’ve done before. If you’d like a regular order of high quality content expertise, or to order something off-menu, let us know: we’d love to discuss it, on the phone or over a coffee and a cake.
The Contentious menu
A content strategy
Website unloved by users and editors? Hard to see what needs updating and when? Fighting against the limitations of your CMS? Creating great content more difficult than it should be?
We’ll plot a path to a sunnier future.
A content-first website
Website unloved by users and editors? Hard to see what needs updating and when? Fighting against the limitations of your CMS? Creating great content more difficult than it should be?
New websites often start with a new design, or a new platform. Instead, we start with the people and the content.
We’ll transform the needs and wants of users and editors into user-experience principles. Then we’ll design and develop an amazing content-first website that everyone will love working on, engaging with and coming back to.
A content style guide
No shared sense of voice and tone? PDF of print-centric guidelines gathering dust on a shared drive? Separate style guide that defines grammar and spelling lost somewhere else? Brand guidelines that stop at visual identity?
We’ll build a stylish online style guide that’s a useful tool.
Content creation and care
Dull content and impenetrably long sentences scaring people away? Social media and campaigns in need of engaging words and pictures? Inconsistently edited text undermining people’s opinion of your organisation?
We chisel, sand and polish. We take text, images, audio and video and craft them into high quality, accessible content that people will understand, enjoy and share.
We make social media toolkits (or tool sheds) and long-form content. We write and edit blog posts. We animate statistics. We exercise lots of brain cells to find just the right words for microcopy.
Content training and mentoring
We run half- or full-day workshops on various aspects of content and content strategy.
You get practical tips to take away, interactive exercises, interesting conversations and a generous supply of the famous Contentious homemade brownies.
We can tailor our training if you’d like us to come to you. Alternatively, send us your details and we’ll let you know when we have an open workshop scheduled.
We also offer on-going content mentoring, where we check in with you regularly and offer guidance, feedback and moral support.
Why work with a content strategy agency?
Sometimes it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. External eyes and ears, especially when they come with expertise and insight, can be an excellent investment.
Content creation is well worth investing in too. But we recommend working on content strategy first and foremost. Sorting out all the strategic elements will save time and money in the long run, making you more efficient and effective. And happier.
Contentious really helped us to visualise and to transform the whole website and made sure that our content was clear and consistent.
Daisy Houghton, head of secretariat and corporate services, Fundraising Regulator
Projects: some things we’ve done
Pack
We needed to explain how Pack works and to get people to sign up. Clarity was vital, and we needed to hit exactly the right note.
30 things to think about
We needed to kickstart debate and conversations about the future of the charity sector, without a lanyard in sight.
The Fundraising Regulator
We needed to shape the Fundraising Regulator user experience and new website so that people can find what they’re looking for quickly and intuitively.
