Most advice about content creation is focused on the process of following up: track this, analyze that. Far too little is spent on the two minutes before the actual creation begins, when the decisions are made that define whether the content is good or not. Here is the brief I give myself before writing, filming, or designing anything, and why skipping it is the number one reason why content fails to deliver.
The Four Questions
Before I begin working on something, I ask myself four questions, and answer them in a sentence or two:
- Who is this for?
I mean a very specific audience, not “my audience”. Define a persona who will find this content useful. “People shopping for a freelancer” is a good example of a specific audience. “People interested in web design” is a bit too vague.
- What do they believe, and what do I want them to believe?
Good content is a transitional experience – it takes the audience from one point to another. The old belief has to be acknowledged and the new one introduced – ideally, in a way that makes the audience feel like they had arrived somewhere important. Failing to do that will leave you with little more than an article that exists because the content calendar said so.
- What do they do right after reading/watching/seeing this?
A call to action is not always necessary, but whatever you are making needs to have a purpose. Someone reading your content should leave in a different mental state than what they were in before engaging with your material. Even if the only actionable step is to remember who you are next time they need something similar, make sure there is something that the audience will do after they consume your content.
- What would they say to a friend about this?
This is arguably the most important question. If you can’t think of a single sentence someone would tell someone else in regard to your content, it’s not worth being made. That’s not a judgment on your idea, just an observation on how the thought process works. If I can’t come up with something, chances are it won’t turn into a worthwhile article, video, or any other type of media.
Why It’s Better Than Anything Else
It might seem counterintuitive, but the best way to improve content creation is not to go straight into making media and fix it in the editing process. That method is, at best, producing a piece of media that was barely good enough to begin with. At worst, creating a bunch of material that gets buried under the pressure of self-editing and a lack of clarity of purpose.
How This Actually Works
I keep this as a note above every piece of media I create – a reminder of what I set out to accomplish. It takes very little time to go over this note, but it saves me hours upon hours of soul-crushing editing down the line. For half-formed ideas, this exercise is even more crucial – identifying the ones that are not worth an hour of my time is far easier at the conception stage than when I’ve poured my heart into a finished product. And no, it doesn’t matter if the article is there, if the call to action is there, or if the purpose is there. It all comes from having a clear idea of the piece of media that is needed, and knowing how to reach for it.