What is content strategy? And what is a founder content strategy?
I'm Airdropping my consulting notes to you.
You may know me as a writer and editor via Screenshot This, my Substack. Which you’re reading. Like, right now. This was my passion project that became a bit more than a fun side hobby.
My other job is brand consulting, focusing on brand storytelling and content strategy.
What encouraged me to actually talk about it on Screenshot This is my recent podcast interview with Process The Podcast. There, Arielle Thomas interviewed me about what I work on, how I work and my approach to brand storytelling.
Off the back of that, I have received so many thoughtful questions and comments, so thought I would share some of what I do, here, with my new content pillar, Brand Syntax about content strategy and brand storytelling.
Increasingly, I’ve also been asked to work on how the founder content strategy fits into this: How does a founder get included on social media or eDMs? Do you have a separate IG account for the founder? And hot topic: is Substack right for a brand? If so, what do you put on the Substack? Does the founder speak in the brand voice, or vice versa?
Some brands have the founders in everything. They are the face of the brand: think Emma Grede, or Joe Wicks, or Richard Branson, or Oprah Winfrey. And others, not at all. There is no one size fits all with advantages and risks for each avenue.
A content strategy — brand or founder — needs to above all, fulfil the business priorities.
What does this mean? It’s not content for the sake of content. There needs to be a point about it — a direction, or something you want it to do. (Unless it’s not for a business, in which case, go forth and do whatever you want and have fun.)
But first, what is a content strategy?
Brand tone of voice: what does the brand sound like? What do they say, what do they like?
Audience: who is this for? Obviously customers and potential customers, but they might even be for those who are an infrequent consumer but love being a part of the brand world — the talkability factor.
Content calendar and cadence: daily, weekly, seasonally. What major events to keep in mind — will they be incorporated into the content, or not. What will appear on an eDM versus a IG post versus a Substack post. How reactive will you be to what’s happening?
Distribution and amplification: You’ve made your ‘content’. How are you going to get people to see it? Cool visual imagery or a witty tag line is great and all, but where does it go? Content that goes unseen basically dies — that makes me sad.
KPIs: how is success measured, and how can a campaign be reviewed with tangible learnings.
I like to work on the strategy but also the execution of it. It kills me when I see strategy docs out there with no care for execution. If it can’t be executed, it literally cannot exist.
So, why have a founder content strategy?
Emotional connection: it can be the heart, the human touch of the company.
Provides another channel to be leveraged: it can expand from pure product marketing. It adds another voice.
Build community: hello, cult leader! But really/not really.
Thought leadership: creating cultural and social capital.
A founder content strategy complements, not overshadows the brand content strategy. There are times when it’s actually better to do less than more.
I don’t necessarily think that all founders need to have a customer-facing presence, but even for brands that choose not to have the founder upfront in marketing content — that is a strategy.
Many brand founders are reticent to be customer-facing. I get it, it’s hard. I’m sharing a summarised, condensed version of a framework that I’ve developed and used with brands.
So, below the paywall you’ll find:
My framework for brand founder archetypes, with examples
How my framework determines content themes and topics
And, what format and medium work best for each one