Brand Story
How do we see ourselves?
To kick off development of a well-received piece of content, the first thing you’ll need to understand is a company’s brand, or how it perceives its business and its place in the market. This information is typically found in a company’s brand messaging documents (pending).
Market Story
How do customers, prospects, competitors, and analysts see us?
Next, you’ll need to gain an understanding of how the market perceives our company. If there is a large gulf between a company’s perception of it’s brand and the market’s story of the brand – then a brand audit is usually recommended to ensure content meets the needs of customers and prospects and even resonates with casual viewers in the space.
Narrative
How can we encourage consistent story telling at all levels of the organization?
Once the brand and marketing stories are aligned, a corporate narrative can be drafted. A corporate narrative is a messaging template composed of key messages, the company pitch, customer proof points and the ever-important market context (why anyone would care to look into our offering). Corporate or Product narratives provide a consistent framework of parameters that encourage participation of a larger pool of writers in the creation of content (e.g., campaigns, customer case studies, blog posts, articles, etc) while ensuring message alignment and brand integrity.