Content strategy
The plan for what content you make, who it's for, why it exists, and who keeps it alive after publishing.
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What it is
Content strategy is the decision layer above writing: who the content is for, what job it does for them, what the business gets back, who makes it, and who keeps it true after it ships. Kristina Halvorson's framing splits it into four parts: substance (what you say), structure (how it's organized and reused), workflow (who does what, when), and governance (who decides and who retires things).
Reach for it when you have more content ideas than time, or when your site has 400 pages and nobody can say which ones matter. The output is usually boring and useful: an audience and job-to-be-done list, three or four content pillars, formats per pillar, a publishing cadence you can actually keep, and a named owner per pillar.
Gotcha: most 'strategies' are creation plans with no maintenance plan. Content rots. Pricing changes, the product renames a feature, the screenshot is two redesigns old. If the doc has no review date, no retirement rule, and no owner, you are writing a publishing schedule and calling it strategy.
Ask AI for it
Write a content strategy for [product] aimed at [audience]. Structure it as: (1) three audience segments with the specific job each one is trying to finish, (2) four content pillars tied to those jobs, with a one-line rationale each, (3) two formats per pillar with a realistic monthly cadence for a team of [N], (4) how each pillar connects to a business outcome, (5) a governance table with owner, review interval, and retirement rule per pillar. Keep it to one page. No filler topics, no generic 'thought leadership' pillar, and skip anything the team cannot sustain for six months.