Top 10 Tips for Top-Notch Content: A Guide for Startups
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Ten tips for creating compelling content for startup entrepreneurs. Presentation was originally delivered at a mobile app seminar at Akron University, but the writing, ideation and social sharing techniques described are widely applicable to all marketing, advertising and communication pursuits.
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Top 10 Tips for Top-Notch Content: A Guide for Startups
- 1. Top 10 Considerations for Top-Notch Content Lukas Treu (@LTreu)
- 2. Before We Start: A Note about Startup Communications Warning: It’s Likely More Than You Bargained For. • If you’re inventing an app, you may well be in a startup • Startups often lack resources • You may sign on to write app content, but it may not end there • You may also need to handle marketing, social media, pitching and more • Figure out your responsibilities early, and plan!
- 3. Content Creation for Your Mobile App What Makes Bad App Content? • Let’s start with what not to do. • What are examples of bad app content?
- 4. Content Creation Tip #1 Start with Sticky Ideas • Going into marketing? Read “Made to Stick” • Six proven traits of “Sticky Ideas” Simple Unexpected Credible Concrete Emotional Stories
- 5. Content Creation Tip #2 Make It Contagious • Another great read: “Contagious” • Six STEPPS that make content shareable Social currency Triggers Emotions Public Practical Value Stories
- 6. Content Creation Tip #3 Know Your Audience • Think in personas • Think beyond diction and tone • Use language, syntax and schemas to which the audience relates • Know desires, frustrations and motivators… and play to them • Bottom line: Make your audience comfortable
- 7. Content Creation Tip #4 Establish Your Brand Voice… and Stick with It • Choose whatever brand “voice” fits your product or company • Stay consistent!
- 8. Content Creation Tip #5 Maintain Your Brand Voice Across Channels • Maintain proper brand voice inside and outside the app • People want cross-channel consistency • People form attachments to brands like they do to people • Stay professional by staying consistent
- 9. Content Creation Tip #6 Empathy is an Asset • Know your audience… and how they feel • What is appropriate for the situation? • “YOU HAVE A NEW RECORD.” • “YOU’RE A LOSER!!” • Be empathetic, accounting for emotions
- 10. Content Creation Tip #7 If You Can Break It, Break It • Think like the least intelligent person who will use your app • What could be misinterpreted? • What could be offensive? • What might possibly not work? • Find the flaws or someone else will
- 11. Content Creation Tip #8 Work Closely with the User Experience Team • Your words may be great, but they have to work with the flow of the app • Collaborate closely with the UX expert • Helps avoid misunderstanding and optimizes your product
- 12. Content Creation Tip #9 Remember Your Mobile App is… Mobile • When creating content, keep in mind you’re working with a mobile device • The screen is small and a lot has to fit • You don’t want a cluttered look • Content has to be easily viewed
- 13. Content Creation Tip #10 Know Your Legal Obligations • C.Y.A. • Terms of Service • Privacy Policy • Copyright • Trademarks
- 14. And Remember… Great Content Goes Far Beyond the App • These tips apply to mobile apps… and far beyond • Strive to think as an audience member • Balance creativity with proven methodology • Do what you love!
- 15. Twitter: @LTreu LinkedIn: www.Linkedin.com/in/lukastreu Blog: http://LTreu.wordpress.com
Editor's Notes
- Good afternoon. My name is Lukas Treu and I’ll be talking to you a bit today about content creation as it related to in-app mobile content and beyond. First, to answer your brewing questions of who the heck this guy is. I hold several positions currently… Chiefly I am here to talk to you in my capacity as the owner of a freelance writing and content strategy business, The Mad Dash. I do marketing writing, copywriting and content consulting for a variety of clients I am also a Content Architect at AKHIA, an integrated marketing agency located in Hudson. My job is to plan and produce content, whether that is a bylined trade article, a branding narrative, a thought leadership whitepaper or an email campaign. I am a writer, but I’m more than that, too… I’m a brand storyteller. I am also the Executive Vice President/President-Elect for the Cleveland Chapter of the American Marketing Association, which is where I first met Jeff. I led the Communication Committee as VP of Communications before that. As far as my mobile app experience, I served as the Communication Lead for a small tech startup called SnapBatch (which I believe Jeff mentioned earlier) that developed a real-time, interactive mobile gaming platform for live sporting events. In that capacity I worked a bit indirectly with Mike Conley, who you heard speak a little bit ago.
- I know that my job today is to primarily talk to you about the content that will drive your mobile app, and I promise we will get more in-the-weeds about that. First, however, I’d like to start by driving home a very important point: If you’re in charge of content creation and communication for a mobile app company—especially a startup—your duties will seldom end with choosing the words that go inside your app… You will likely be tasked with much more as you company grows. When I was the Communication Lead at SnapBatch, I was originally brought in to help write copy for a PowerPoint. Soon after it was web copy. Then I was consulting on the mobile app itself. It wasn’t long before I was handling the entire voice of the brand, from social media to marketing material to wording of every question and menu item that fell under the broad umbrella of “communications” for the company. My point is this: A large part of what will ultimately determine your success in communicating within and about your app is having a comprehensive understanding of the tasks before you. Creating quality content, and a strong strategy to guide that content, takes time… So make sure you understand everything that is going to be on your plate so you can make a plan and execute on it.
- And with that, let’s get into it. As a point of clarification, I am mostly going to be talking to you today about written content, not design… Matt will cover more of that in his User Experience presentation later, so I’ll still to words for now. Before we talk about the “good”, let’s talk about the “bad” for a minute. Sometimes it is easier to pinpoint what you don’t like than what you do. I’ll start by asking this: Who here can give me an example of “bad” written content they have seen within an app? *If silent* If you can’t think of an example, how about making one up. What might constitute something about an app’s content that would make you dislike or distrust it? Typos? Broken English? Weird Punctuation? There are a lot of things that might turn you off to an app, and they’re not all as obvious as these examples So what SHOULD you do? Let’s take a look
- Let’s start high-level. Maybe you haven’t even thought of your app idea yet, maybe you have Maybe you know what you want to do, but you don’t know how to market it Maybe you know what you want to do and how you want to market it, but don’t know exactly what to say Whatever the case, believe it or not, there are actually some ideas that are proven to be BETTER than others… at least when it comes to audience members remembering what they are There was a great book on this topic written fairly recently called “Made to Stick” by Dan and Chip Heath… one is a long-time academic, the other a long-time professional. In the book they outline the six proven steps, based on decades of research, that make ideas stick in the minds of their audiences. Before I explain them, think for a minute about all the advertising or marketing messaging you’ve ever been exposed to. There’s probably some you remember from long, long ago… and other stuff you may have just seen, but forget about. There are reasons for that. I could give an entire presentation just on this topic, but for the sake of time, I’ll give a quick synopsis before moving on: SIMPLE – Simple ideas are easier to remember. It makes sense, right? This applies to messages, plans… you name it. For example, Southwest has an internal motto that they will be “THE low cost airline”, and that simple principle guides every decision they make. It’s simple, and people remember it, leading to great success. Remember this when you’re coming up with your app concept, name, pitch, etc… if you can’t explain to an investor in a simple, easy-to-remember manner what your app is, you probably won’t get funding UNEXPECTED – Ideas also stick with people when they are unexpected. An example in the book cites a flight attendant that dispensed with the usual corporate wording when giving the safety instructions, choosing a borderline sarcastic, humorous approach instead. “For anyone who hasn’t ridden an airplane since the early 70s, this is how a seatbelt works”. Guess what – people listened. CREDIBLE – Ideas that are credible stick around, too. Source credibilty is the foundation of persuasion, as any of you who has studied rhetoric may know, and having experts, testimonials or other means of backing up what your saying makes a huge difference CONCRETE – Concrete ideas are things the audience can picture, or have a pre-existing notion about. Have any of you seen the Onion video about HP’s new cloud offering? You should, anyway. It pokes fun at the fact that people talk about the cloud as an abstract thing that is difficult to picture… But if you put something in concrete terms, it sticks with the audience EMOTIONAL – Emotions are hugely powerful in influencing memory and connection with a moment or thing, so use it to your advantage. Strong emotions, sometimes good or bad, can have great impact STORIES – Finally, humans have developed to think in stories… We all have a narrative in our minds that makes up our concept of our lives, for example. It may SEEM like facts and figures hold the most power, but realistically a well-told story is far more effective
- One more theory slide… Let’s talk about what makes things shareable If you’re making an app, you don’t just want it to be memorable… you want people to share it Jonah Berger wrote a great book much in the style of the Heath brothers called Contagious that talks about the six factors, according to compiled research, that affects sharing SOCIAL CURRENCY – The first factor is social currency… basically, does it make you look cool, or at least better in the eyes of others? Do you look informed, trendy, or so on if you use this product or do this thing? Think about the Ice Bucket Challenge… that was almost entirely driven by social currency TRIGGERS – People are triggered to share things when certain things happen… you can see it in search result data. Anyone want to guess when there are the most searches for, and shares, of Rebecca Black’s “Friday”? How about that “Hump Day commercial?” It doesn’t have to be a day, but there are triggers everywhere EMOTIONS – We said it in the last slide and we’ll say it again… emotions are powerful. Not only do they impact memory, they impact sharing, too PUBLIC – If something is made to be public or publicized, Prof. Berger says “if it is built to show, it is built to grow”. Again, Ice Bucket Challenge. Were it not for being totally public (film yourself and call people out publically) it would not have been as wildly successful PRACTICAL VALUE – People share things that are useful, basically. Think about it… if you were going to tweet out an article or resource, would you pick one that was dumb or unhelpful? No, you share things you find valuable STORIES – Again, a repeat from “sticky ideas”… Humans and stories are tight, basically. They’re easier to remember and easier to share
- You heard a bit about it before when Jeff spoke, but I’ll say it again: One of the cardinal rules of communicating—whether in an app of otherwise—is to remember who you are speaking to. Are you making an app for kids? There’s a certain level of diction… vocabulary… and comprehensive that goes with that. Are you making it for hardcore sports fans? There’s appropriate wording and tonality to use there, too Are you talking to this guy… or these guys? It matters. It’s about more than tone, though. Don’t think just about your words as words, but as a gateway into the psyche of your target audience. What do they relate to? What do they connect with? You want to use language, syntax, schemas (a conception of what is common to all members of a class) etc. that they will relate to. Also, know their desires, frustrations and motivators. Beyond the wording you produce, think about your audience persona(s) and how they live, think, and spend their time. Ask yourself what they want, and where they are going to look for it. Then ask yourself how you can provide an answer You want your audience to like, and become invested in, your brand and product, whether they realize it outright or not. Find the best way to convert your audience into fans by speaking to them where they are and making them comfortable
- Our second tip has to do with brand voice. You’ll notice, if you look for it, that most brands choose a brand voice or “tone” and stick with it For instance, let’s look at banking apps quickly as an example. What sort of voice would you expect a bank to have? Right, a serious tone… They want to be seen as trustworthy and no nonsense. Usually. Capital One 360, formerly ING Direct, is different. They’re online-only for the most part, but otherwise they’re a bank like any other What is different is their brand voice. They don’t sound like a bank, even though everything about their offerings tells you they are This is an example of their brand voice. Do you see what I mean? Short, simple sentences. It isn’t untrustworthy, but it’s different enough to stand out There’s nothing wrong with having a serious brand voice at all… Just make sure whatever you choose makes sense for your product
- Alright, number 3. We’re going to take a step back from the app itself for a moment, but we’re going to stay on the topic of consistency Once you have established a brand voice, it is important to remain consistent across ALL your communication channels, not just in the app If Capital One 360, the example I showed in the last slide, established a short, succinct, borderline playful style in their mobile app but not on their online banking site, would it work? No. Studies have shown again and again that people seek out consistency from brands, and they are thrown off when they don’t see it. We naturally look for patterns in the world, and notice when they are broken Speaking of studies, I attended Content Marketing World last week… it was a 2,500-person conference here in Cleveland attended by many of the top minds in content marketing around the world… … As a quick aside, if you aren’t familiar with content marketing, it is a very quickly growing trend in the marketing world that sees brand marketers moving away from traditional advertising and marketing collateral that is all about their brand and toward a model of creating useful content that their audience wants to use. Basically, instead of saying “Hey, look how awesome we are, buy our stuff”, brands are saying “Hey, here is something helpful that you need or want. Want to get to know us better? We’ve got more…” … Anyway, one of the speakers, a professor from UNC, gave a fascinating talk about the psychology of brand attachment… anyone a psych major or minor here? Well I was and I nerd out about this stuff a bit, so bear with me… Anyhow, the idea behind brand attachment is that researchers are finding that people form attachments to brands using the same part of the brain they use for emotions (the limbic system), not the part of the brain they use for rational thought (the pre-frontal cortex). It has major implications for marketing, but for the topic at hand, it means that people can become as attached to say, Apple, as they can to a friend… at least physiologically speaking. How this plays into consistency is that we expect people to be the same person from situation to situation, and we notice if they don’t. The same applies for your app and your overall brand – maintain a consistent voice from your app to your site to your social channels to be taken seriously
- To stay on the topic of tone for just a moment longer, let’s talk about empathy One of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal as a communicator is empathy. We talked about how important emotions are to brand attachment a moment ago, and it is important to not only know your audience, but knowing how they are feeling Let’s say you make a fitness app, and a user just established a new personal record for running a mile, for example. What is an appropriate message? “You set a record.”? No. Let’s say you build a quiz game for your app. If a player loses a match, what is a an appropriate message? “You’re the loser!”? No. You can say things accurately, but remember to empathize with the user in HOW you say it. If they are likely excited, be excited. Use exclamation marks. Put glowy things in the background if you want. But if they lose, consider phrasing like, “You lost, but better luck next time!” or “Sorry, but try again soon.”
- If you can break it, break it. The world is full of people who will not go out of their way to try to figure out what you “meant” Find anything that could be misinterpreted Find anything unclear (especially in directions and FAQs!) Find anything that could be offensive Find anything that may not work as intended If you don’t someone will
- Not to lob a softball to Matt, but user experience design… meaning the flow of the app, from graphic design to menus to wireframes… is hugely important The content you write needs to fit into that flow seamlessly Collaborate and communicate clearly internally, using whatever tools are necessary You’ll end up with a better end result
- Before you get too word crazy, remember you’re writing for a fairly small screen… not that they don’t keep getting bigger. Your content needs to fit neatly within set parameters within your app You don’t want clutter or scrolling When we developed questions for SnapBatch, we always had to make some tweaks because they had to fit neatly within the screen Remember that even if you have an iPhone 6+, someone out there has a way smaller screen that they’ll try to use
- Finally, know what you need to do legally to be safe Your app probably needs a Terms of Service to which users must agree It probably needs a Privacy Policy Be careful not to violate anyone’s copyright (images, for instance) Trademark your stuff and read what you sign Consult a lawyer or knowledgeable professional before you go to market!
- Many of these tenets apply equally well to other messaging, from marketing collateral to social media posts. Keep it in mind! The more you can remove yourself from the equation as you become more and more ingrained in the app projects… thinking from your audience’s perspective instead, the better off you’ll be Creativity is hugely beneficial, but remember that there are some things (like our sticky ideas and contagious content) that simply work better Finally, if you pursue something you don’t love, it will likely fail. App projects take a lot of work and dedication, and the more you’re invested, the more likely others will become so
- If you have any questions or want to reach out about anything, you can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn easily… Otherwise I can give you a business card if you’re interested. Thank you for your attention, and I hope it helps!