Consultant helping B2B SaaS companies establish and grow their Content Brand | SaaS marketing leader | Dad x5 | Shoots 85% from the free throw line
2 questions every founder should answer that will help you uncover your editorial angle… ✅ What’s one POV you feel strongly about that others do not? ✅ What’s one POV that others feel strongly about that you do not? Just like individual pieces of content, every content strategy needs an angle, too. This shouldn’t change (at least not very often) and defining it will help set your brand and the content it publishes apart from everything else published on the subject. Start with those 2 questions. Ask the founder and/or CEO for their thoughts and actually interview them (don’t ask them to answer the questions over Slack.) This will help you dig into the emotional side of why your company exists rather than the practical stuff (like market size and other things your customers won't care about.) Ask follow-ups. Get background. Reveal the context. You’ll begin to see your editorial angle reveal itself. Once you have this, it’ll make your editorial process so much more cohesive––what you write about, how it’s promoted, what you’re known for, who you attract…everything.
I love this framing. In many ways, the founder serves as the evangelist of their organization — or at least, someone with a strong stand on why and what and how they are doing things.
Love this!! AGREE on interviewing and gathering insights directly over a call. Most of the golden messaging nuggets happen in those live moments. I also have previously had people voice note / voice message me their thoughts and general ways of describing their why, story/background, what they think sets them apart, etc. Would highly recommend that too. Gotta open up the “stream of consciousness.”
Take a video of the conversation "for your notes" and slice it up for content. By getting permission later (after polishing it) you get more natural and passionate clips.
Great insight. Knowing what the client wants in the first place is the foundation that everything else rests on, and I think this line of questioning will get answers that the client might not have even consciously thought about before. I’ll be keeping this in the toolbox!
Perspective is a huge value-add. When you can give people a new perspective, you unlock a blue ocean.
Great questions and generally great advice. Thanks for posting.
I love your take on asking the Founder directly. Thibaut Machet, be ready, meeting incoming.
Great advice! Every content strategy needs an angle that aligns with your business.
This is a great way to think about a content angle. Thanks a lot John
Words + strategic comms for growth-stage brands and executives | Carve Communications
1yLove this. I phrase them as: “where do you take an extreme position” and “what does everyone else get wrong?”