The question comes up in every interview, clients demo, or panel meetup: “What’s your content creation process?” Some of us are all about Post-Its and planners, and some take a more…creative approach. But, how can your team be sure that it’s maximizing resources and creating usable, engaging marketing? It might be time to look beyond the flow of building ideas into emails, videos, blogs, and pages — what we think of as “content creation.” Concept creation — creating the unique backbone of your campaign — is a struggle for most of us. Nisha , creative director of , stopped by our virtual Found Conference to talk about what she calls “claiming the chaos of concept creation.”
Nisha says there are four key
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elements to concept creation — and that it’s up to your team to make each element work. Let’s talk about ways to make pieces that are uniquely yours, with an effective and efficient content creation process.
The Content Creation Process vs. the Concept Creation Process
Every team has different processes for content creation, but the basics remain the same. Your process likely includes brainstorming, execution, and review.. Whether you’re crafting an email or a YouTube ad, you need to create an idea, get it made, and test it.
Brainstorming
Nisha says brainstorming is the most important part of the creation process. Without a great idea, execution and delivery won’t amount to much. So, how can your team brainstorm its way to greatness? And, how can you keep a brainstorming session on track? Here are three things to consider:
Determine who needs to be in your brainstorming session. How many people can get into this brainstorm session? How does each team member’s role and perspective add value to the brainstorm? Who else should be represented?
What’s the process for your brainstorm? Are you adding ideas to a whiteboard? Should everyone brainstorm on their own and bring their ideas to the meet? Should you have an agenda or some kind of scrum procedure for your brainstorming event? Make sure you have the brainstorming process established before walking in.
What do you want to get out of the brainstorming session? Do you need five ideas for infographics, or an outline for an entire video campaign? What parts of the braining Know what you want to have on-hand when you leave the brainstorming process.
Execution
Execution will look different for each project — and marketers should have a process for bringing ideas to life. Know your resources, and understand the role of each team member in creating branded content.
Review
The final review process is really important. Once you finish making your concept into something real, have a few eyes look over the product. You don’t want to wait until after your campaign launches to see that a typo ruined the execution of your awesome idea. Depending upon your content type, post-launch testing may be an option. For online content, A/B testing and tweaking provides a secondary layer of the review process — and can help you turn around a “meh” piece of content.
a better content creation process through concept creation at found conference
The “Why” of your content concept
The “why” should provide the backbone under your actual creation process. Why are you creating a new concept, and what do you want to get out of it? Is there a campaign coming up — say, a certain sales season or holiday — or is there a new product you want to get eyeballs on? Do you want to increase downloads, earn revenue, or up engagement? Every org — and even every campaign — looks for a different type of conversion.
Nisha recommends “keeping your eye on the why” throughout the concept creation process. Say you’re hoping to increase downloads of an app, and make a clean, engaging campaign to promote that app on social media — but don’t see an increase in downloads. Maybe you left off calls to action that speak specifically to app installs, or didn’t adjust the Instagram or Facebook default from “learn more” to “download now.” The “why” should inform your entire content creation experience — and point you to the right choices in testing, tracking, and reviewing.
The “Box”
Nisha calls the constraints placed on your new concept “the box.” These constraints may include time or budget limitations, branding must-dos, or confidentiality issues. By naming your boundaries, you’ll ensure your team makes the best use of your resources and your time. Keep these constraints in mind as you work through the creation process:
Branding restrictions. Limitations to colors, fonts, and tone of voice ensure consistency throughout your deliverables. How can you make creative content that falls in line with those guidelines?
The “where and when,” defines where the content lives and when it lands there. What medium are you using? Are you creating this content as part of a larger campaign?
Resources: What kind of timeline and budget are you working with?
Nobody loves to be forced to think inside a box. But,
Does your brand have authenticity problems? They seem to be surging. Over the past year, plenty of brands have received negative feedback over sappy “in These Unprecedented Times” messaging. But, it feels inauthentic to not acknowledge how much our worlds have changed over the past several months. Enter: the authenticity dilemma. How do you make messaging that is speaks to reality, without copping everyone else’s look and feel?
Lindsay, brand strategist and CEO of Lindsay Creative, LLC, spoke about the challenge of authenticity and owning your brand. By creating an authentic, realistic voice for your organization, you can find clarity in your brand and establish leadership in your industry.
The Authenticity Dilemma
Lindsay said that, just as 99.9 percent of human DNA is identical, a huge part of your brand’s experience may not be unique. Our personalities are created in that 0.1 percent of our genetic makeup’s “uniqueness.” But, your brand has some differential that sets you apart from the competition.
Lindsay names a problem some of us may recognize: management that wants to compete through assimilation. When she worked at a small liberal arts college with tanking enrollment, Lindsay’s team pushed her to figure out why students were choosing other the client elena is a child psychologist with over similar arts colleges. The goal from the top: figure out, using quantitative data and enrollment numbers, what’s working for the competition. Then, they reasoned, the team could simply copy other colleges’ strategies. Unsurprisingly, the copycat messaging simply didn’t fly.
Your audience isn’t looking for a mirror image of your competitors: they’re looking for a brand within your competition circle that stands out. Even if you provide a similar product or experience as the competition, you need to do the work of creating a core identity. As marketers, we need to do a better job of knowing who we are and owning who we are. Focus in on the 0.1 percent that makes your core identity stand out.
So, what’s your authentic voice?
Brand authenticity is too often synthesized in a formulaic way. “Authenticity” has, itself, become a massive buzzword! That brings us to Lindsay’s “authenticity dilemma:” many brands are, ironically, manufacturing the same, inauthentic, authenticity: just add a human story and a little vulnerability to your existing brand.
However, plenty of brands have created tone-deaf campaigns by adding a human element that feels contrived or false: think of Pepsi’s disastrous protest ad. Instead of applying a touchy-feely message in an inauthentic way, Lindsay suggests asking the following questions:
What principles inform, guide, and sustain your brand’s actions and beliefs? These are values.
Think about the triple-bottom-line ideals you may have learned in a business ethics class: how does your organization affect its employees, customers, and bj lists society at large? Your values don’t have to fall into the “save the entire world” category. Maybe your brand is all about providing a unique, innovative product, or producing an affordable item that customers will love. Or, maybe you’re delivering services to a traditionally underserved audience. Check your organization’s mission statement, and look through positive reviews from clients.
How consistently does your organization live those values? What are your actions?
How do you live the values of your mission? What makes your actions unique among your industry? Consumers — especially younger consumers — want to work with organizations that walk the talk. Look at outdoor-gear brand Patagonia’s advocacy for conservation causes, or Aerie’s use of un-Photoshopped models. Not sure what actions speak to your truth? You may need to incorporate more community outreach into your overall strategy.
Where are you leading with objective truth versus bias and assumption? What is honest about your brand?
“We’re number one” simply doesn’t engage customers. If you are a leader in your industry, what actions has your company taken to earn or maintain that spot? If you aren’t, what sets you apart from other content creators?
In order to consider your brand’s honesty
take a hard look at how your audience views your brand: and whether they see brands as trustworthy at all. Millennials and are less likely than their parents to hold onto brand loyalty, and would rather talk to people than orgs. They don’t see brands as being feminist, friendly, or holding any number of attributes that may be assigned to individuals. You may not be able to position your brand as inherently good, but you can certainly showcase caring employees, admirable spokespeople, and amazing products.
Do your relationships reflect and invite openness, honesty, sincerity, and truthfulness? How is your community impacted by your brand?
Think through sustainability initiatives and community engagement initiatives. What impact does your brand have on your geographic community, on your users, on your industry? Brand authenticity isn’t
