{"id":3000,"date":"2023-05-17T14:57:04","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T18:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/?p=3000"},"modified":"2024-03-12T17:22:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T21:22:25","slug":"brand-pov-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/blog\/brand-pov-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Notes #044: Brand POV (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My previous Field Notes<\/a> touched on why brand POV is important and how I\u2019ve conducted a workshop\/exercise to build brand POV with clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, I want to unpack how I distill that conversation into a company artifact\/messaging architecture and how to apply that asset to your marketing engine\u2014namely, how to create branded feature articles, as opposed to a typical search-driven blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning your brand POV workshop into a brand asset<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After holding your brand POV workshop exercise, you\u2019ll be left with many (many!) notes. I highly recommend recording your workshop or having a transcript to revisit for exact quotes from your team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recommend distilling your notes into a useable brand artifact (like buyer personas) using the following framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, identify the high-level themes discussed among the team. These are topics that both you and your audiences care about and<\/em> are also topics that the client can uniquely speak to and solve for. This is where the experience<\/em> factor comes into play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, determine common enemies or villains that both you and your audience battle together\u2014things that both parties tend to dislike and want to absolve in the name of growth or peace (at least in the world of B2B SaaS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After examining the conversation through these two lenses, you\u2019ll find it easier to discover new angles to lean into that reflect your brand\u2019s mission and voice. This is where those \u201chot takes\u201d and strong opinions come out, and they’re often either contrarian opinions or new ways of thinking, like new frameworks or mindsets. Generally, your products should be able to complement these angles, and they should be consistent with your other branding and overall messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: It\u2019s possible your workshop surfaced some fundamental disagreement between leadership (hey, it happens\u2014and I did encourage you to incite debate<\/a> during the exercise). I would discourage you from focusing too<\/em> much on where folks disagree and more on using those disagreements to triangulate a point of agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many things that Alex, David, and I disagree on, but those don\u2019t make up our brand POV. If anything, those points of disagreement are good fodder for our Kitchen Side episodes<\/a>, and we utilize what we do<\/em> agree to inform our brand POV<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Sometimes, disagreements are the earliest stage of the agreement, and the team needs a bit more discussion to reach a consensus. Each brand POV exercise is an opportunity to reach that consensus.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the above framework to turn your workshop notes into a usable asset isn\u2019t always straightforward. Still, after analyzing your conversation and letting your imagination run wild, you’ll see those one-liner opinions surface. After pulling on five to 10 threads, share these with your leadership team for feedback, namely the folks who joined the workshop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These make up your brand POV\u2014 in other words, your brand\u2019s stance on the world around it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applying your brand POV artifact to your marketing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Building your brand POV asset shouldn\u2019t stop there. No one likes dusty documents that languish away in Google Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most straightforward way to apply<\/em> your brand POV is with content marketing through feature articles (as opposed to your typical SEO blog post). Your brand POV can both inspire net new content topics and inform your SEO content with perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s discuss building a brief for a net new feature article using your brand POV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take one or two themes from your brand POV document and tease out potential topics. Contrarian opinions and hot takes make for excellent options. These can be iterations of the theme itself or explore an opinion within that hot take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Don\u2019t hesitate to pull in a new person who can examine your brand POV with a fresh perspective and call out topics they think would interest your audience.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After determining article topics, build a three to four-sentence summary. This is similar to pitching a magazine or online newspaper; you\u2019d have to build your pitch just like this to appeal to an editor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good pitch<\/a> should ideally have three main components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n