Your Brand's Star Stuff
I have a clear memory of lying on the den floor in front of my family’s one and only television on September 28, 1980.
My younger brother was beside of me.
My dad was stretched out in his recliner.
And my mom was in her spot on the sofa, eating her nightly bowl of ice cream.
All day long, we had been looking forward to watching the first episode of a new, groundbreaking series on PBS that evening. It was called Cosmos: A Personal Voyage — and it promised to be a show like nothing we’d ever seen. It certainly was. (Thank you, Carl Sagan!)
In addition to Sagan saying the word “billions” — which was MAGNIFICENT — the thing he told us that stuck with me all of these years is this: “We are made of star stuff.” Mind. BLOWN.
Shifting the Focus from Brand Story to The Content Spark
To keep this whole astronomy metaphor going, let’s think of a brand story as a fully formed planet. If it has all of the right elements and everything works together in perfect synchronicity, it sustains brand life. Sort of like Earth. But if the right elements aren’t there, brand life can’t survive. So, sort of like any planet in our galaxy other than Earth.
Far too often, we want to jump to creating a brand story before we have the right elements in place.
It’s sort of like thinking the Big Bang didn’t need to happen in order for planets to be formed — including this giant blue marble we call home. Interesting idea. But wrong.
For us to tell the most engaging, impactful and effective brand stories, we need our own Big Brand Bang. One that includes all of the right elements to form brand stories that not only sustain brand life, but enhance and multiply it exponentially. I like to think of it as the Content Spark. This is where the star stuff of our brand begins. It’s also where the entire universe of our brand content is forged.
The Content Spark is at the center of our brand content universe. Everything from our brand origin story to product descriptions to sales pages to email campaigns is spun off from here.
So, let’s look at what should be brewing in the Content Spark:
- Our company’s mission statement — because we need to be SUPER clear about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and who we’re doing it for.
- Our vision for the type of impact our work will have on the world (or at least our small corner of it).
- Our core values — because, to paraphrase a line from Hamilton, if we don’t stand for something, what will we fall for?
- Our core messages include the specific topic areas we plan to focus on with our content and talking points for each. Without these, we’d be “lost in space.” (Again, I can’t seem to let the space metaphor go.)
- Our brand personality — because this is what will help us stand out. And it better show up consistently in every single piece of content we create.
- Our brand voice — so that people will recognize us in a crowd.
- Our visual style — which can’t be the colors or fonts we happen to like on any given day. It needs to be strategically and creatively designed and implemented. Think of Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. There’s no way she’s showing up to a gala in jeans just because she feels like being comfy. That would be completely off-brand for her.
- Our USPs — which we better know. If we don’t have a clear idea about what differentiates us in a meaningful and obvious way from competitors, there’s no point in creating any brand content because it’ll be a waste of time.
All of these elements make up the center of our brand content universe.
Together, they serve as our Content Spark —and as the “star stuff” of every video we create, every blog post we write, every podcast we record, every sales page we promote, every image and word on our website, every presentation we give, and so much more.
The Spark Has to Come Before the Fire
I grew up in North Carolina. And that meant that on Sundays, my ass was in church.
But it didn’t involve just sitting in the pew. Oh no. It meant participating. So, by the time I was 12 or so, I was singing in the youth choir.
One of the songs we sang at least once a year was called “Pass It On.” (If you’re a child of the 60s or 70s, you’ve probably heard of it. Heck, you might have even sung it.)
One of the lines of the song is this: “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.”
If we want our brand stories to be fire (as the cool kids say — or used to say), our content spark must be ready for ignition. Because that’s what’s going to launch our content into the stratosphere of effectiveness, connectivity and all around badassery. (Is that a word? I hope so.)
Having created elements of the Content Spark for clients and for my own business, I get that it’s hard. And tedious. And often frustrating. But we’ve gotta do it. So, that means we have to suck it up, buttercup. As Tom Hanks’ character said in A League of Their Own:
So, why spend time creating your own Content Spark? Because it will:
- Help you gain a better understanding of who your business serves and why
- Make it easier (and faster) to create content because you’ll know what topics you need to focus on and the points you need to make
- Give you more clarity about why you do what you do
- Set your business apart from competitors and help it stand out as a brand that “gets it”
- Consistently connect with your ideal audience
- Effectively communicate the value of your offerings — and allow you to charge more for that value
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