You don't need more content. You need a content strategy.
My Latin teacher used to call them “idiot idioms.” What’s a 21st century update to the idiom, “Putting the cart before the horse?”
Founders asking for MOAR CONTENT before strategy.
Look, I talk to a lot of founders and heads of content who want fractional help. About 90% of them have the same issue, Messaging Mess™ I can’t create more content before fixing the mess. It hurts the brand and frankly, it’s a waste of money. What they actually need is to pause content and fix the mess. It took me several years in my career to create the solution for these clients — a brand identity and strategy.
So, what are the signs of Messaging Mess™ and how does the brand identity fix them?
- Potential customers who are a complete mismatch
- Decreasing website traffic and poorly converting ads
- Sales not using the content produced
- Content that doesn’t perform
Okay so we’ve got two major issues here that lead to Messaging Mess™ — siloed sales and marketing teams, and a poor understanding of buyer personas and how to communicate effectively with them.
The fix is, therefore, twofold:
- Talk to sales: they are closest to the customers, what language they use, what highly specific problems they have in highly specific language and how that ties back to the brand’s solution.
- Fix the foundation: detailed buyer personas (problems, hopes, and fears — not demographics), messaging, positioning, founder point of view, differentiation, distribution channels.
- Answer the most important buyer questions: How easy is it to obtain your product/service? Does the price justify the perceived value? Will I look smart for buying it?
This is all put into the brand identity and strategy, becoming a North Star that guides strategic content creation.
What signs of Messaging Mess™ have you experienced? What has been the most effective way you’ve found to fix it? If you haven’t, would something like a brand identity and strategy help you?
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