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12-step Content Framework

2022 // Steve Bryant

A delightful set of exercises that help you create content ideas that make sense for your brand and also don’t suck.

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Brought to you by Steve

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I help brands and agencies with content and recruiting. You can find all the usual nonsense on my web site. There is also a newsletter. Don’t be chicken.

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That came from the deep!�Steve works with the world’s most recognizable brands

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01. The framework

02. The workshop guidelines

03. Section 1: Who you are

04. Section 2: Who you’re talking to

05. Section 3: What you’re talking about

06. Section 4: Conclusions

07. Resources

WHAT’S IN THE BOX??

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1

The Framework

Exercises to establish who you are, who you’re talking to, and what you’re talking about

2022 // Steve Bryant

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In this deck, I will show you how to develop good content ideas

The tools in this deck are the tools I’ve used throughout my career developing editorial strategy, voice, and content for publishers and brands alike. I believe every good content strategy begins with a good brand strategy. So this deck reveals the exercises to bootstrap both those things. Start with brand, end with content ideas.

It me, silly monkey

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This deck is about strategy, not tactics

Many clients want to jump into creating content without knowing what kind of content they need, or having done the brand work that informs the positioning of the content they want to create. This deck provides a MVP of brand strategy leading to content strategy. It’s not about content audits or channel mix. It’s about learning (or re-learning) who you are, then creating initial content ideas, so you know better what you want to say.

It you, space marketer

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It’s a step-by-step guide with maximum practicality.

Review (or create) your brand core, helping you to make better content strategy decisions.

Begins with brand

When you complete the last exercise, you’ll have a powerful list of ideas to use in any format.

Ends with actual content ideas

A set of exercises you and your team can complete in an afternoon.

One whiteboard session

1

2

3

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We’ll capture your insights in a one-pager.

This one-pager will consist of the outcome of 12 branding and content exercises. It will be the guiding framework that starts you on your content strategy journey and helps you make the best content decisions.��Let’s take a look.

Convenient.

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Persona

Market

Vision

Values

Voice

Principles

Audience

Competitors

Goals

Topics

Themes

Story Ideas

Personality

Purpose

Your reason for being

Your plan for getting there

How you do things

Your human side

How you sound to others

How you feel

Who you’re talking to

Who else is speaking to them

What you are trying to achieve

What you are talking about

What do you want the audience to know

How you’ll influence your audience

1. WHO YOU ARE

Core

WHO YOU’RE TALKING TO

Content

2.

WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT

3.

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Makes sense, no?

What we’re doing here is giving your brand the ability to have a unique point of view. What is a point of view?�

It’s an opinion about the audience you want to speak with.
It’s an opinion about topics that you and your audience have in common

�Your point of view is simply how you speak about the topics to the audience.�

It includes your understanding of who you are, who they are, and what you have in common.

Let’s break it down.

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We begin with who you are

Every creative decision begins with who you are as a brand, organization, or company.

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Then, who you’re talking to

With your brand identity in mind, we turn our attention to who you want to speak to and what your conversational goal is. To account for other messages in your marketplace, we also examine what your competitors are saying.

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Finally, we define what you’re talking about

With the context of your identity and your audience in mind, we turn our attention to what exactly your content topics will be and how to express those topics as actual headlines (or video thumbnails, or whatever) that your audience will click on.

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The result: your very own brand and content strategy framework

All your brand fundamentals, together with your content strategy basics, in one helpful document

Organized and accessible

Enables your creatives, writers, and marketers to make decisions with the support of a common source document

Empowers your teams

A single source of truth that can be shared with any team making content or marketing or brand decisions

Easy to communicate

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2

The Workshop

Get some people together. Dance.

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Guidelines

01. Full attention

02. No devices

03. Airplane mode

04. Be respectful

05. “Yes, and”

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Format

01. Note and Vote

02. Discuss and defend

03. Assign one “Decider”

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Whiteboard encouraged

�Or, use the Miro template

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Four-hour session

Recommended: 10am to 12pm, a half hour lunch break, and then 12:30 to 2:30pm.

You can also split this up however you like! Two exercises a day. One exercise a week. Whatever you want. I’m not your dad.

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Get the right folks together

This brand and content workshop is designed for three to five people. You can always do it with more folks, you’ll just need more time is all.

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Tips for facilitators and participants

First, get consensus from leadership. Brief the primary stakeholders on what's going to happen during the workshop. Enroll them on being a “partner” in the process. Explain what you are going to do and why it is important. Show them this framework and tell them what you're going to be able to accomplish together.

Second, read this guide I created with my friend Leela: The Essential Guide to Hosting a Workshop. It will help you run a workshop that multiplies your creativity. Set your goals. Get the right folks in the room. Set your ground rules. And don’t forget to practice.

Third, you can always ask me to help, or to run the workshop with you. Don’t hesitate to get in touch:

Talk to Steve. He is a good egg.

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Lastly: the workshop slides are available in various formats

If you’d like to skip all the preambles and context, grab the workshop slides from your favorite platform:

�Google Slides (exercise slides)�

Miro (online whiteboard)

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Section 1:�Who you are

2022 // Steve Bryant

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This section sets your foundation

Knowing these core elements of your brand allows you to have more confidence in your creative decisions as you grow.

�Who you are contains two parts:

Core
Persona

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Your core is your brand abs.

Knowing your purpose, vision, and values builds confidence for the existence and direction of your brand. Strong abs are attractive.

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Your persona creates a human connection

Knowing your personality, voice, and principles allows your to make a human connection with your audience and to consistently communicate what you want them to feel and to know. Your persona will be critical when it comes time to develop your content.

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Who you are

Exercise 1�

�Brand Purpose

Who you are

Exercise 1�

�Brand Purpose

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Brand Purpose

Why we’re doing this exercise:�Your brand purpose is why you’re in business and why your customers and team should care. It unites your team and fosters a deeper connection with your audience. We’re going to give people a cause to champion or a reason to believe so that they feel inspired to come to work or to buy from you.

�What we’ll achieve:

Internally: Unite your team. Externally: foster a deeper connection with your audience.

What greater good are you striving towards?

Exercise

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Directions

Write: Each person writes their ideas for what, how, and why (no discussion). When choosing your why, link what you do to a cause that helps others (see reference slides)	Contribution: List stories of when you've felt most proud to do your work. Use action verbs (see references slides) to make your contributions actionable.
Vote: Each person votes for their top three per section.	Impact: What did the contributions of your organization allow others to do or to be?
Discuss: What, how, and why. Decider makes the final call.	Purpose Statement: Combine your contribution and impact to draft a powerful purpose.

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Brand Purpose

Contribution�Specific stories of how you’ve contributed to others’ lives

______________________

Impact�What did your org’s contributions allow others to do or to be?

______________________

WHAT

HOW

WHY

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What greater good are you striving towards?

Golden Circle by Simon Sinek

Activity

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Write your purpose statement

�Combine your contribution and impact to draft something powerful

To	________________________,	so that	________________________________.
	Contribution		Impact

Activity

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Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

To unleash the originality in every child

To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses

Examples

To accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy, so that together we can save our planet

To help all families discover the joy of everyday life.

To empower creative exploration and self-expression.

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Ensure inclusive and quality education for all

Reduce inequality within and between communities

Achieve gender equality and empower women

Conserve oceans for sustainable development

Achieve food security and improve nutrition

Help others achieve joy and happiness

Empower creativity and enable self-expression

Promote economic growth and development

Support clean energy and renewable resources

Combat climate change

Promote inclusive institutions and equality

End extreme poverty

Reference: Causes to Support (Why)

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Understand	Lead	Amplify	Dream	Create
Inquire	Empower	Increase	Fulfill	Design
Discuss	Inspire	Evolve	Give	Modify
Predict	Advocate	Boost	Foster	Develop
Interpret	Champion	Challenge	Gather	Invent
Recognize	Pioneer	Emphasize	Harness	Imagine
Compare	Cultivate	Endorse	Imagine	Inspire
Contrast	Facilitate	Energize	Open	Devise
Classify	Collaborate	Magnify	Optimize	Make
Clarify	Organize	Maximize	Reach	Question

Reference: Action Verbs

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Who you are

Exercise 2��Vision

Who you are

Exercise 2��Vision

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Vision

Why we’re doing this exercise:�We want to create a rough map of where your brand is heading, so we can influence long-term business decisions. If brand purpose is why you exist (to achieve something grand), vision is where you are going (to be the best version of yourself in your category).

�What we’ll achieve:

Internal agreement on your company direction. This helps your people to make decisions that are on brand (without pausing to ask management at every step).

Where are you going?

Exercise

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Directions

Write: everyone jots their prediction for all four dates. Each person reads their answers aloud and adds to the board. No discussion yet.	Aspiration: If everything goes the way you planned, how will you impact your category?
Vote: Each person votes for the top answer for each milestone. Discuss.	Vision Statement: Finally, use your aspiration to craft your brand’s vision statement.
Choose: The Decider chooses her favorite item for each date.

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Vision

Aspiration

_______________________________________________

What is your brand ultimately working towards?

Now

5 Years

10 Years

15 Years

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Activity

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Write your vision statement

�Combine your aspirations and category to draft a vision statement

To be	_____________________________________________________ Aspiration and category

Activity

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To be the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone, everywhere

To be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience

To become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline

Examples

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Who you are

Exercise 3�

�Values

Who you are

Exercise 3�

�Values

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Values

Why we’re doing this exercise:�How do you want your brand to be perceived in the market? This is about how you do things, so it’s more about defining the experience that your customers, suppliers, and the public will have with your brand.

�What we’ll achieve:

A top 3 list of brand values you can use to inform your decision-making.

What do you believe in?

Exercise

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Directions

Write: take turns writing down negative experiences and feelings with brands in your category. Then, take turns writing down a desirable experience and feelings you would’ve preferred to have instead.
Discuss: What values do the positive experiences and feelings evoke?
Choose: With your discussion in mind, pick three to five brand values that embody your organization.

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Values

What are your guiding principles?

Feelings

Experiences

Negative

Positive

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Exercise

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Examples

To be the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone, everywhere

To be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience

Integrity	Doing well by doing right
People	Behind payments are people
Innovation	Pioneering with a purpose
Clients	Keeping clients in focus
Collaboration	Pulling ahead by pulling together
Excellence	Driving results, improving performance

Serve	We put our customers and people first
Inclusion	We open our doors to everyone
Integrity	We do the right thing
Community	We are good neighbors
Family	We get better together

When you look at the values above, you may think at least two things. One, you may think, they make sense for the brands, right? You look at the McDonald’s values and think yeah, i can see that. The second thing you might think is … what a load of bullshit. And you might think this second thing because, like, what do these values even mean? For example, take Visa: There are many ways to interpret the concept of “doing right”. What does “doing right” mean? Who gets to determine what is right? ��I hope you’re asking these questions. You should be asking these questions. Because the answer to these questions is this: values, taken by themselves, aren’t very helpful. That is, they’re not actionable. They’re just broad guardrails. To make them effective. You need to use them in concert with your brand purpose and your brand vision. And, most importantly, once you’ve created your values, you need to make those values actionable so employees can use them to make decisions. Highly recommend you read more here: Don’t Weaponize These Principles.

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Values

__________________________			__________________�One sentence explaining this value

__________________________			__________________�One sentence explaining this value

__________________________			__________________�One sentence explaining this value

__________________________			__________________�One sentence explaining this value

__________________________			__________________�One sentence explaining this value

Pick three to five values. They don’t have to be perfect now. We’ll revisit them in a subsequent exercise.

Exercise

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Wild	Inspiring	Brave	Discrete	Responsible
Bold	Motivated	Charming	Efficient	Righteous
Motivated	Creative	Cheerful	Entertaining	Shrewd
Positive	Imaginative	Confident	Faithful	Sincere
Practical	Collaborative	Courageous	Fearless	Trustworthy
Funny	Pioneering	Cultured	Frank	Warm
Kind	Empowering	Debonair	Generous
Simple	Energetic	Decisive	Gentle
Committed	Ambitious	Determined	Helpful

Reference: Values

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Section 1

Exercise 4�

�Personality

Section 1

Exercise 4�

�Personality

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Personality

Why we’re doing this exercise:�We’re going to give your brand a human side. We begin to do that by selecting a Jungian archetype mix.

�What we’ll achieve:

Internal agreement on your brand’s personality, and a direction for your voice and messaging.

If your brand were a person, who would it be?

Exercise

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Directions

According to Jung, archetypes are inborn tendencies that influence human behavior. Today, they’re visible in movies, branding, and personas: � Captain America: Hero Elon Musk: Jester Oprah Winfrey: Caregiver	Review: Take a look at the Personality Wheel and orient yourself to the brand archetypes. Next, use the archetypes reference to find brands that may have a similar personality to yours.
	Pick: Take turns picking your brand archetype. Tell the group why you made your decision. Discuss some potential personality traits. At the end of the discussion, the decider makes the final call.
	Write: Pick a participant to state your personality and traits. Discuss.

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Personality

______________________

What archetype mix defines your brand best?

Exercise

Who do you think you are?

Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the wheel, and review the famous brand archetypes in the reference slides. Once you’re familiar, your challenge is to select a personality mix for your brand. ��To do this, think about your audience first. As yourself the question: What thing do we give to our audience, and what is the feeling that thing gives them?

For example, if your audience comes to you for education (thing) on a particular topic, then perhaps what they crave most is structure (feeling). That would be a hint that your core personality could be within the “provide structure” quadrant. Are you more a caregiver, ruler, or creator? Once you decide, you may want to select a secondary personality to differentiate. Be careful, you want to keep your personality focused (something like 70% or 80% for your core seems about right, and the remainder for your secondary).

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State your personality

�With your archetypal mix in mind, answer these questions from your brand’s point of view

Personality:	__________________________________________�E.g., “Sage” or “70% Jester, 30% Caregiver”.
We love:	__________________________________________�E.g., “Helping people make better creative decisions.”
We hate:	__________________________________________�E.g., “Wise, intelligent, thoughtful, mentor, guru, advisor.”

Exercise

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To be happy

To help the world gain wisdom

To discover new things and experiences

Pure, young, optimistic, moral, loyal, optimistic

Wise, intelligent, thoughtful, mentor, guru, advisor

Restless, adventurous, independent, pioneering

Companies with strong values, seen as honest

Help people to better understand the world

Exciting, risk-taking, authentic

Sage

Explorer

Innocent

Traits

Niche

Goal

Example

Explore Spirituality

Reference: Archetypes

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Break the rules

Make dreams come true

Save the world, improve the world

Rebellious, iconoclastic, wild

Visionary, charismatic, imaginative

Courageous, bold, honorable, strong, confident

Agent of change, advocate for the disenfranchised

Help people transform their world, inspire change

Make a positive mark on the world, solve major problems

Magician

Hero

Outlaw

Traits

Niche

Goal

Example

Leave Legacy

Reference: Archetypes

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Create intimacy, inspire love

To bring joy to the world

To belong, or connect with others

Passionate, sensual, intimate, romantic, warm

Fun, funny, light-hearted, mischievous, irreverent

Down to earth, supportive, faithful, folksy, person next door

Help people feel appreciated, belong, build relationships

Help people have a good time or enjoy what they are doing

Common touch, solid virtues, gives a sense of belonging

Jester

Everyman

Lover

Traits

Niche

Goal

Example

Pursue Connection

Reference: Archetypes

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To care for and protect others

Control, create order from chaos

Create something with meaning and enduring value

Caring, maternal, nurturing, generous, compassionate

Leader, responsible, organized, role model, administrator

Creative, artistic, inventive, entrepreneur, non-conformist

Help people, serve through health care, education or aid

Restore order, create stability and security in a chaotic world

Visionary, help people express or create

Ruler

Creator

Caregiver

Traits

Niche

Goal

Example

Provide Structrure

Reference: Archetypes

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Section 1

Exercise 5�

�Voice

Section 1

Exercise 5�

�Voice

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Voice

Why we’re doing this exercise:�Your voice is how people experience your personality, and helps your brand make a human connection.

�What we’ll achieve:

By defining your voice, we’ll be able to write specific content and marketing guidelines to guide your creative decisions. This exercise is a first step towards specificity. You’ll need to dial your voice in further in subsequent exercises.

How does your brand speak to others?

Exercise

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Directions

Voice is a complex creative decision, but we can make it more accessible by establishing several components of voice. With those components of voice in mind, we can rank our brand along a spectrum. For example, a brand may be more funny than serious (humor), more casual than formal (formality), more sassy than respectful (respect), and more enthusiastic than dry (enthusiasm).	Review: Review the example voices on the reference slides.
	Pick: Each participant places their sticky along the voice spectrum lines.
	Discuss: Discuss and defend your placements. The decider makes the final call.

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Voice

What does your brand sound like?

Humor

Funny

Serious

Formality

Casual

Formal

Respect

Sassy

Respectful

Enthusiasm

Enthusiastic

Matter-of-Fact

For example

Alice

Bob

Chris

Alice

Bob

Chris

Activity

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Voice

What does your brand sound like?

Humor

Funny

Serious

Formality

Casual

Formal

Respect

Sassy

Respectful

Enthusiasm

Enthusiastic

Matter-of-Fact

Virgin’s brand guidelines establish their voice as “clever, provocative, and friendly”. Since their mission is to “make flying fun again”, we can rank them as fairly “enthusiastic” as opposed to “matter-of-fact”.

Example

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Voice

What does your brand sound like?

Humor

Funny

Serious

Formality

Casual

Formal

Respect

Sassy

Respectful

Enthusiasm

Enthusiastic

Matter-of-Fact

Dove’s brand guidelines establish the beauty bran’s voice as “clean, clear, uncluttered, and unpretentious.” Dove has a sense of humor, but “it doesn’t try to be funny”.

Example

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Voice

What does your brand sound like?

Humor

Funny

Serious

Formality

Casual

Formal

Respect

Sassy

Respectful

Enthusiasm

Enthusiastic

Matter-of-Fact

Mailchimp’s brand guidelines identify the brand as “plainspoken and genuine translators” who use “dry humor”.

Example

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Section 1

Exercise 6�

�Voice Principles

Section 1

Exercise 6�

�Voice Principles

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Voice Principles

Why we’re doing this exercise:�If your voice is how you want people to feel, your principles are what you want them to know. Consider this exercise a refinement of your voice and your brand personality.

�What we’ll achieve:

By defining your voice principles, we’ll know what we want to say to our audience whenever we communicate.

What are your motivations?

Exercise

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Directions

Voice Principles are a method for refining your voice. The principles help the creatives remember how they should think and sound when making decisions.	Pick: Each person reviews the word list and selects five words for “we are”. Tally the picks on the right side of the sheet. Repeat for “we are not”.
	Discuss: Discuss your picks, selecting the words that do and do not embody your brand.
	Write: Write your voice principles. Don’t try to make them perfect. This is a first draft.

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We Are ____________

Each participant selects five cards from the card slide. �Tally the results on the right.

We are

Tally

wild

kind

creative

inspiring

charming

Alice

Bob

bold

creative

kind

fearless

inspiring

creative

bold

positive

committed

kind

Chris

examples!

3 votes:

Kind, Creative

2 votes:

Inspiring, Bold

1 vote:

Wild, Charming, Fearless, Positive, Committed

Activity

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We Are Not ____________

Each participant selects five cards from the card slide.. �Tally the results on the right.

We are not

Tally

gentle

entertaining

shrewd

mystical

commanding

pioneering

ambitious

charming

mystical

gentle

ambitious

shrewd

brave

mystical

examples!

3 votes:

Mystical, Gentle

2 votes:

Shrewd. Ambitious

1 vote:

Brave, Charming, Pioneering, Commanding

Activity

Alice

Bob

Chris

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Word List

wild

bold

motivating

positive

practical

funny

kind

provocative

committed

inspiring

motivated

creative

imaginative

collaborative

pioneering

empowering

energetic

ambitious

brave

charming

cheerful

confident

courageous

cultured

stern

decisive

determined

optimistic

efficient

entertaining

soothing

fearless

frank

generous

gentle

helpful

responsible

mystical

shrewd

sincere

trustworthy

warm

knowledgeable

refined

commanding

Activity

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Voice Principles

We are	__________�Adverb	___________�Adjective

	_________________________________�One sentence explaining this principle
We love	�_________�Verb	and	�__________�Noun or Phrase

	_________________________________�One sentence explaining this principle
We are	_________�Adjective	but	�_____________�Refined adjective

	_________________________________�One sentence explaining this principle

Your voice principles are the motivations that guide your communications.

With your Are / Are Not selections in mind, complete the three sentences at right.

Activity

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We are	Boldly�Adverb	Committed�Adjective

	We believe in your potential, and are actively invested in your success�One sentence explaining this principle
We are	�Motivated�Verb	by	�A challenge�Noun

	We see obstacles as opportunities�One sentence explaining this principle
We are	Positive�Adjective	but	Practical�Refined adjective

	We lay out the facts, giving you the insights needed to take action�One sentence explaining this principle

The examples at right are from a client, a financial wellness app, that was designed to help users develop better money habits and improve their “money mood”. The brand’s intent was to be an advocate for its users, but not a cheerleader.

Example

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We are	Wildly �Adverb	inspiring�Adjective

	We believe in developing your creative process�One sentence explaining this principle
We love	�To be provocative�Verb	and	�To challenge our users�Verb or Phrase

	We encourage you to work diligently towards your goals�One sentence explaining this principle
We are	generous�Adjective	but	stern�Refined adjective

	We know that creative work requires discipline�One sentence explaining this principle

The examples at right are for a fictional creative agency that publishes inspirational worksheets and advice to its audience of creative professionals.

Example

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Section 2:�Who you’re talking to

2022 // Steve Bryant

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This section envisions your market

Understanding your conversational partners and explicitly setting your intention in speaking to them allows you to develop content that speaks directly to those people’s wants and needs.

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Goals give your content purpose

The most useful content is content that’s explicitly created for a business reason—e.g., awareness, or conversion, or retention. Setting your goal allows you to measure your progress and adapt your methods.

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Your audience is your north star

People pay attention to content that is timely, relevant, and interesting. In order to create that kind of content, you need to explicitly understand your audience and what they want.

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Section 2

Exercise 1�

�Audience

Section 2

Exercise 1�

�Audience

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Audience

Why we’re doing this exercise:�We have to understand your audience in order to create content that speaks to their needs and wants.

�What we’ll achieve:

We’ll create an audience empathy map that will allow us to understand our target, and allow creatives to make the appropriate decisions when speaking to them.

Who are you talking to and what do they care about?

Exercise

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Directions

We’re going to create an audience empathy map. An empathy map is similar to a persona, but whereas personas can be static, maps are designed to help you make creative decisions.	Brainstorm: Each person takes turn answering the five sections of the empathy map.
	Discuss: Discuss your answers, selecting the words and phrases that do and do not embody your audience.
	Write: Write your audience statement. Don’t try to make it perfect. This is a first draft.

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Tasks

What tasks are the audience trying to complete? Phrase in the form of a question.

Feelings

How is the user feeling? What really matters to them?

Influences

What people, things, or places may influence how the audience acts?

Pain Points

What frustrations or blockers are they trying to overcome?

Goal

What are they trying to achieve?

Name

Activity

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Tasks

What tasks are the audience trying to complete? Phrase in the form of a question.

Feelings

How is the user feeling? What really matters to them?

Influences

What people, things, or places may influence how the audience acts?

Pain Points

What frustrations or blockers are they trying to overcome?

Goal

What are they trying to achieve?

Aspirational Omri

Example

How can I accelerate my career?

How can I be my own boss?

How can I build wealth?

Do I really want to leave this comfy job?

Impatient

independent

confident

calculating

excited

Current job

Successful friends

Entrepreneurial news

Company exits

Omri is looking to gain control over his work and launch a successful company, allowing him to gain more respect from peers and a great financial outcome

“I want to be successful but I’m nervous about leaving a high-paying and comfortable job.”

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Your audience statement encapsulates who you’re trying to reach and what motivates them.

Our audience is	______________________.�Describe them
They want to	_______________________�Accomplish a thing
so they can	_______________________�Get a benefit
and feel	______________________,�A good feeling
but they	______________________.�Face these obstacles

Activity

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This is a spec audience definition for Fractal, a VC studio that recruits talented executives to run B2B Saas companies.

Our audience	Are talented executives�Describe them
They want to	who want to be entrepreneurs�Accomplish a thing
so they can	Achieve financial independence�Get a benefit
and feel	Successful and admired,�A good feeling
but they	Are nervous about leaving a high-paying and comfortable job.�Face these obstacles

Example

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Section 2

Exercise 2�

�Competitors

Section 2

Exercise 2�

�Competitors

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Competitors

Why we’re doing this exercise:�We’re going to look for gaps in the market to discover the differentiator that you’ll take advantage of with your content.

�What we’ll achieve:

We’ll classify your brand and your competitors on a 2x2 to reveal your differentiator and benefit. Then, we’ll create a positioning statement.

What does the market landscape look like?

Exercise

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Directions

In this exercise, we’re going to create a market landscape that reveals how your target audience might see you (or how you want them to see you) among your competitive set.	Discuss: Together, decide the X and Y extremes for your graph (e.g., speed, cost, convenience, etc.).
	Position: Together, suggest competitors and where they fit on the 2x2.
	Write: Write your differentiator and benefit.
	Write: Write your positioning statement, using your differentiator and benefit.

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Competitors

X

Y

Qualities
X ______________________________
Y ______________________________
Differentiator
________________________________
________________________________�
Benefit
________________________________
________________________________

Competitor 1

Competitor 2

Competitor 3

Competitor 4

Competitor 5

Competitor 6

Competitor 7

Activity

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Positioning

Statement

Originally formulated in Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm, the positioning statement helps you communicate the value of your product or service to a large market.

For	_______________	who	_______________,
	Target audience		Need or opportunity
our	_______________	is	_______________
	Content description		Differentiator
that	_______________.
	Benefit

Activity

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Ease of use

power

Qualities
X ease of use
Y Power
Differentiator
Truly accessible 3d software for 2d designers who need to further their designs
Benefit
Allows you to push your creative boundaries without learning a complex piece of software

Example

Adobe launched Dimension in 2017 to help traditional 2D designers create high-fidelity 3D mockups. The software was positioned to allow designers to create photo-like visualizations without needing to rely on true 3D software, which can be costly and time-intensive to master.

“True 3d”

“Fake 3d”

“limited 3d”

“easy 3d”

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Originally formulated in Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm, the positioning statement helps you communicate the value of your product or service to a large market.

For	Graphic designers	who	Are being challenged to create more convincing, photorealistic designs,
	Target audience		Need or opportunity
our	3d rendering and design software	is	A powerful, easy-to-use tool
	Content description		Differentiator
that	Allows you to push your creative boundaries.
	Benefit

Example

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Section 2

Exercise 3�

�Goals

Section 2

Exercise 3�

�Goals

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Goals

Why we’re doing this exercise:�Every content program needs a goal. Otherwise, you risk producing things that don’t help you get where you want to go.

�What we’ll achieve:

With our newly-defined audience in mind, we’ll state who we’re trying to influence, what we want them to do, and how we’ll get them to do it.

What do you want to achieve?

Exercise

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Directions

Stating a goal for your content program gives you a north star to follow. This is the first point at which you’ll be explicit about what you want to achieve. It may be the case that you have more than one goal. I encourage you to pick the most important goal and embrace that constraint.	Discuss: Go around the room, discussing who your audience is (already identified in the previous exercise), what you want them to do, and how you’re going to get them to do that.��Pay particular attention to the “By” component. Your “By” determines the scope of your content. Is it a sales tool? A general interest publication? A social media channel?
	Decide: Decider makes the final call.

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For Goals, we’re going to use the Get-To-Buy framework, which will help clarify what you’re actually trying to accomplish with your content.

Activity

Get:	_________________________
	Target audience and their barrier
To:	__________________________
	Desired mindset or behavior
By:	__________________________
	Content and message the brand can communicate

There are a LOT of ways to think about goals.

For example, it’s possible to get very specific and establish SMART goals. You should establish SMART goals for your content. You should get to the point where you establish which metrics to monitor for which reasons. But not right now. For now, I simply want you to state exactly what it is you’re trying to accomplish.

Why? Because by doing so—by stating your intent clearly and without jargon—you’ll better know what work your content needs to do for you and how it will do it. That will put you in a good position to develop topics and story ideas in the next section.��Another good thing about the Get-To-By framework: it helps you to constrain your own goal. A lot of companies want their content to do everything possible. But the most effective content is targeted to a specific goal. Choose the goal that’s most important to you.

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Example

Get:	IT decision makers who are anxious about collaboration
	Target audience and their barrier
To:	See box as a technology partner that understands their problems (Awareness)
	Desired mindset or behavior
By:	Creating a popular publication that delivers insight about the future of work
	Message/action the brand can communicate

Box creates powerful collaboration tools, but their salespeople needed tools to demonstrate the brand’s thought leadership and pedigree.

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Example

The Simons Foundation, one of the world’s leading advocates for scientific thinking, needed to attract scientific innovators to their grantmaking program—including people who’d never applied for a grant before.

Get:	A diverse array of Innovative thinkers
	Target audience and their barrier
To:	Apply for scientific grants (conversion)
	Desired mindset or behavior
By:	publishing an accessible brand tool that invites the audience to interact in unexpected ways
	Message/action the brand can communicate

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Example

Fractal, a venture capital studio focused on financing and launching B2B software startups, needed to attract aspiration executives to their Entrepreneur In Residence program—including people who’d never considered being a B2B entrepreneur before.

Get:	Aspirational and talented executives who may not have considered b2b startups before
	Target audience and their barrier
To:	Apply to fractal’s EIR program
	Desired mindset or behavior
By:	publishing content that positions fractal as the expert on b2b saas that helps founders achieve their dreams
	Message/action the brand can communicate

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Section 3:�What you’re talking about

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Topics are your categories of knowledge

Topics are categories of knowledge and containers of interest that your brand shares with other people. We’ll choose your topics of conversation with your brand’s focus and your audience’s interests in mind.

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Themes are what you want your audience to know

Themes are your opinions about your topics. They are what you want your audience to think and feel. You can also think of themes as messaging pillars or priority messages.

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Story ideas live at the intersection of topics, themes, brand, and audience

With all your previous inputs in mind, we’ll develop story ideas that make good strategic sense for your brand.

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Section 3

Exercise 1�

�Themes

Section 3

Exercise 1�

�Themes

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Themes

Why we’re doing this exercise:�Good content provides a unique spin on familiar subject matters. Themes are the priority messages you want to continuously communicate to your audience.

�What we’ll achieve:

We’ll create three themes that will apply to all of your (as yet undecided) topics. This will give you a consistent point of view across your topics, which you can apply to each topic to generate story ideas.

What do you want your audience to know?

Exercise

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Directions

To develop themes, you need to decide what are the most strategically important messages you want to continuously communicate across everything you say. We’re going to select themes that apply at the brand level. That means they’re the way that you, the brand, want the reader to think and feel whenever they consume your content. Most of the time, these messages are not going to be about you. Instead, they’re going to be how you want your audience to think. To create a theme, ask yourself: What do we believe to be true? How do we want our audience to think? What do we know that would relieve our audience’s pain points, or help them get to their goal?	Brainstorm: Ask the room: what are the most strategically important things we want to say to our audience from our brand’s point of view? What don’t you want to say? Mindmap these ideas.
	Debate: Evaluate each potential theme against the criteria in this exercise. Themes that don’t meet the criteria can be modified or discarded.
	Decide: Select 5 themes. Decider makes the final call.

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Mindmapping Themes

Activity

Questions to ask:

How can we relieve the audience’s pain points?
How can we make our audience’s life easier?
What do we want the audience to know? How do we want them to feel?

Remember, your themes should correspond to your audience’s interests.

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Theme 1

Theme 2

Theme 3

Example

Theme 4

Theme 5

Is this theme related to our brand’s goal?

Is this theme related to our audience’s goal?

Does this theme address our audience’s pain points?

Stress test your themes against criteria. If your selected themes don’t pass the criteria, it may be a sign you need to develop different themes..

Themes

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Example

Questions to ask:

What do we want the audience to know?
How do we want them to feel?
How do we want them to think about our market?

Remember, themes aren’t topics. They’re opinions that can be applied to topics.

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Being a founder is the best risk-adjusted choice you can make

You can de-risk opportunity through research and mentorship

B2b Saas is a tremendous area of growth with much opportunity

Example

We have exhaustively researched the market opportunity

We are experts in launching and supporting b2b saas businesses

𝗫

Is this theme related to our brand’s goal?

Is this theme related to our audience’s goal?

Does this theme address our audience’s pain points?

𝗫

Fractal is a venture capital studio that recruits executives to found Saas companies within B2B verticals where Fractal has researched the market opportunity. They need to convince potential founders to join and partner with them to launch a company.

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Section 3

Exercise 2�

�Topics

Section 3

Exercise 2�

�Topics

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Topics

Why we’re doing this exercise:�Good content programs focus their efforts on topics that match their audience’s interests while complementing their own expertise and brand positioning.

�What we’ll achieve:

We’ll create a set of 3 topics that your brand will focus its content production around.

What interests do you and your audience share?

Exercise

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Directions

Topics are your categories of knowledge. They’re the containers where you express your themes. To decide your content topics, ask yourself “what do want to talk about with our audience?” For example, let’s say you like to talk about “basketball” with your friends. Basketball is the topic you have in common. You have opinions about basketball, e.g., “team owners benefit from a socialist collective”. That’s a theme. It’s the same with brands. Random example: Tracksmith. Tracksmith makes running gear and content about same. “Long-distance running” is one of their topics. “Amateur runners are the heart of long-distance running” is one of their themes.	Brainstorm: Each person suggests content topics. We’ll mindmap these on a whiteboard.
	Discuss: Discuss your picks, building sub-topics off each idea.
	Decide: Write down the three highest priority topics.

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Questions to ask:

What do we want to talk about with our audience?
Is this topic critical to our brand goals?
Is our audience interested in this topic, too?

Activity

Mindmapping Topics

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Topics

Topic 1

Topic 2

Topic 3

Is our audience interested in this topic?

Can we apply any of our themes to this topic?

Is this topic critical to our brand position?

Activity

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Topic 1	__________________________________�Topic

	_________________________________�How is this topic important to your goal?
Topic 2	__________________________________�Topic

	_________________________________�How is this topic important to your goal?
Topic 3	__________________________________�Topic

	_________________________________�How is this topic important to your goal?

Pick your three highest priority topics and write them down. In one sentence, explain why they’re important to your brand.

Activity

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Questions to ask:

What do we want to talk about with our audience?
Is this topic critical to our brand goals?
Is our audience interested in this topic, too?

Activity

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Vertical software

Founders

Building a Business

Does this topic complement our themes?

Is our audience interested in this topic?

Is this topic critical to our brand position?

Example

𝗫

Fractal is a venture capital studio that recruits executives to found Saas companies within B2B verticals where Fractal has researched the market opportunity. They need to convince potential founders to join and partner with them to launch a company.

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Topic 1	Vertical software�Topic

	We want to demonstrate our expertise in this market sector�How is this topic important to your goal?
Topic 2	Founders�Topic

	We want potential entrepreneurs to know how we support them and their careers�How is this topic important to your goal?
Topic 3	Building a business�Topic

	We want to demonstrate our expertise in launching and scaling�How is this topic important to your goal?

Fractal is a venture capital studio that recruits executives to found Saas companies within B2B verticals where Fractal has researched the market opportunity. They need to convince potential founders to join and partner with them to launch a company.

Example

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Section 3

Exercise 3�

�Story Ideas

Section 3

Exercise 3�

�Story Ideas

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Story Ideas

Why we’re doing this exercise:�To develop ideas that lead to great content.

�What we’ll achieve:

We’re going to develop some story ideas by applying our themes to each topic. This will give us the confidence that we can continuously generate new and interesting ideas based on our brand fundamentals.

How will you capture your audience’s attention?

Exercise

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We’re going to use your workshop inputs to create unique ideas.

Directions

Content strategy, like business strategy, is the practice of choosing different inputs than your competitors, then combining those inputs into a unique storytelling strategy that’s difficult (or awkward) to copy.

Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value.��— Michael Porter

Mr. Michael porter

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Your story ideas will live at the intersection of your unique qualities

We began this workshop with your brand, which has a purpose, vision, and values that create its unique reason for being. Your brand also has a personality and voice. These characteristics form the core of who the brand is.

Brand

Directions

This is a brand. It needs something to talk about besides itself.

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The stories you tell will match the interests of your audience

Your audience has feelings, pain points, tasks they’re trying to accomplish, and goals they want to reach. They also hear messages from competitors. That’s why we stated what you want to get your audience to do or think (your goal).

Brand

Audience

Directions

The best way to influence people is to care about what they care about.

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You and the audience will both be interested in the story topics

Brand

Audience

Topics

Directions

Topics are categories of knowledge and containers of interest that your brand shares with other people. Friends talk about topics like basketball and murder podcasts. Brands and audiences talk about e.g., demand gen.

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You’ll express your opinion about the topics through your themes

Brand

Audience

Topics

Themes

Ideas

Directions

Your themes are what you want the audience to know or to think. They’re the messages that make sense for your brand, and which are tailored to speak to your audience’s pain points, feelings, tasks, and goal.

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Directions

While keeping our brand and our audience in mind, we’re going to create story ideas by applying one theme to one topic at a time. To give you a sense of the pattern of creative production, we’re going to repeat this exercise three times, using a combination of themes and topics. After each round, we’ll test the ideas against criteria to ensure proper fit.	Choose: Decide a theme to apply to a topic.
	Create: Take turns writing ideas on the whiteboard.
	Test: Test your story ideas against criteria.
	Repeat: Repeat this exercise three times, each with a different combination of themes and topics.

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Story Ideas

Activity

Questions to ask:

What are our audience’s pain points within this topic?
What do we believe is true within this topic?
How do we want our audience to feel about this topic?
What would help our audience accomplish their goals within this topic?

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Story idea 1

Story idea 2

Story idea 3

Activity

Is this brand appropriate?

Topic appropriate?

Goal appropriate?

Is it on theme?

Does it speak to an audience pain point or goal?

THEME A / TOPIC B

Test your ideas against criteria

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Example

Questions to ask:

What are our audience’s pain points within this topic?
What do we believe is true within this topic?
How do we want our audience to feel about this topic?
What would help our audience accomplish their goals within this topic?

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The vertical saas revolution is just getting started

Go Niche-Ward, young founder, go Niche-Ward

The 5 biggest mistakes founders make

Example

Is this brand appropriate?

Topic appropriate?

Goal appropriate?

Is it on theme?

Does it speak to an audience pain point or goal?

THEME A / TOPIC B

Yes, we are founder experts

No, this isn’t specific to vertical software

Yes, our goal is to attract founders by displaying expertise

Yes, our theme is about making the right rick-adjusted choice

Yes, our audience is worried about making the wrong choice in their career

Yes, our business is specific to niches in vertical Saas

Yes, our topic is vertical software, and the opportunity is in niche sub-markets

Yes, it persuades entrepreneurs of the value of niches

Yes, it helps the audience understand the big opportunity (which reduces risk)

Yes, our audience is actively looking for career opportunity

Yes, our business is specific to vertical Saas

Yes, this is clearly about vertical software

Yes, it persuades our audience about future opportunity

Yes, our audience is actively looking for career opportunity

Testing the intersection of the theme (Being a founder is the best risk-adjusted choice you can make) and the topic (Vertical Software) against criteria.

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Section 4:�Conclusions

2022 // Steve Bryant

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Capture the output in one slide

Help your team understand the results of the workshop by synopsizing the output in the next slide. Your story ideas will require additional slides.

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Persona

Market

Vision

Values

Voice

Principles

Audience

Competitors

Goals

Topics

Themes

Story Ideas

Personality

Purpose

Your reason for being

Your plan for getting there

How you do things

Your human side

How you sound to others

How you feel

Who you’re talking to

Who else is speaking to them

What you are trying to achieve

What you are talking about

What do you want the audience to know

How you’ll influence your audience

1. WHO YOU ARE

Core

WHO YOU’RE TALKING TO

Content

2.

WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT

3.

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Thanks for hanging out.

This framework and workshop contains tools that I’ve used throughout my career in content and marketing.

If you’re a content strategist, I hope this deck helps your work, whether as an external partner or in house. You can find me on twitter, say hello!

If you’re a brand executive looking to gain clarity in your brand or content approach, or you’re an agency looking to deploy better content solutions, drop me a line.

It me, silly monkey

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Next steps

The tools I use in this deck are common to marketing and advertising.

For a holistic guide to developing a content strategy from soup to nuts within an org, I recommend Content Strategy Toolkit, The: Methods, Guidelines, and Templates for Getting Content Right by Meghan Casey.

If you already have a brand strategy and you want to clarify your goals, content mix, measurement approach, and the like, a good place to start is Column Five’s How to Create a Content Strategy (Ultimate Guide & Toolkit).

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�

�Resources

�

�Resources

2022 // Steve Bryant

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You don’t get it, you’re not the point

Make it for your audience’s audience

Don’t persuade. Explain.

The surprising reason why your brand sucks at storytelling, and what to do about it.

How to create things that help themselves get shared.

Lessons from AWS Re:Invent, explaining super complicated ideas, and avoiding the curse of knowledge

Efficient positions

Positional Awareness

How to strategically position your creative agency to take advantage of your strengths

A framework for aligning your content strategy to your business offering

Make relationships, not things

Brands think of content as another product to create, but content isn’t a thing. Content is a relationship.

More ideas, insights, fun little articles, etc.

Art by Larry Todd, Esteban Maroto, Tom Sutton, Richard Corben from Future World Comix #3. Except for the badly drawn illos. Those are by Steve.

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Case Study: How and Why to Hire a Content Strategist

Frameworks for understanding your content needs, what a content strategist does, and how to find the right one.��Read the deck

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Laws of Creativity: Rules, maxims, and dictates to inspire

“It is better to know how to learn than to know.”

—Dr. Seuss��Read the deck

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The Essential Guide to Hosting a Workshop

Never waste time in a brainstorm again.��Read the deck

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There is also a newsletter. There is always a newsletter.

Steve publishes every quarter or so. Sometimes even monthly. Join the (occasional) party.

It me, wise monkey

subscribe

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Thank you. stay pretty.

:)

Steve Bryant // thisisdelightful.com