C40 | Contentual

Content40

Level up your content game with 40 principles, ideas, and musings that drive our approach.

Mastering the art of compelling content draws many parallels to excelling in sports – it demands skill, strategy, psychology, and teamwork.

Explore these insights sequentially or ad hoc. Enjoy.

00.

Startline - On the shoulders of giants.

Welcome to our arena. This is a collection of some of our best loved principles, Ideas, and musings that we use on a daily basis to guide our creative and business approach - The Content40 (C40).

Taking inspiration from the masterful tech development insights and manifesto from the renowned team at 37signals.com, we decided to put our own spin on their outline by crafting a collection of creative insights that have been pillars in our approach over the past 10 years of being in the trenches of content creation globally.

Whether you're a seasoned pro or a rising star, these insights might just help you sidestep common pitfalls, harness better team dynamics, and improve your content and creative approach.

01.

Fundamentals always beats fancy

The difference between seasoned marketers and newcomers always lies in one thing - They do the basics extremely well day in and day out. They choose simple but effective approaches with touches of trends and interests added on top to amplify their marketing and brand experience.

02.

It’s an oval shaped ball

As the saying goes in relation to rugby, the game is often unpredictable and can change on how the ball bounces. Content is similar, trends change and platforms change but as long as you keep creating and going for kicks you can always have a chance at winning. The worst thing to do is not create at all. Momentum builds opportunities.

03.

Shoot, ready, aim

It’s always better to shoot first and get content out. Once it is out then analyze performance and then based on those insights recreate and retarget. Most of us are paralyzed by trying to aim so well at the start, that we end up not even creating anything.

04.

7 to 11

As the theory goes, a person usually needs to be exposed to a brand, or product, or person with a minimum of seven touch points before they decide to make a purchase. But with everyone being inundated with hours of content on a daily basis, that seven has now gone to eleven.

05.

Huddles, hurdles, & hurt

Foster a team spirit where your fellow creatives and colleagues share ideas and collaborate like a well oiled squad as opposed to living in silos. Bring it together and take on the challenges and pain points from all points of view. You might just be surprised at the new outlooks you might come across.

06.

Clear messages, clear minds

Always make sure your message is clear to those listening to it (whether in business or in life). Defining clear positioning and transparency, ensures that you convey authenticity and expertise.

07.

A name on a can

We all know Coca-Cola’s famous campaign, but what is more interesting to us is what can be learnt from the steps that made the idea happen. They consistently approached their monthly marketing focus into a 90/10 split with 90 percent being creative and content that is tried and tested and the other 10 percent on taking risks and being completely experimental. I’m sure you can guess where this super successful campaign came from?

08.

Wait, what was that?

Getting attention relies on creating a distraction. Pattern disruption or the hook in a piece of content whether it be in a headline, the first 5 seconds, or a powerful image is more important than the actual body of the rest of the piece. As David Ogilvy once said: “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” - Check out his book Ogilvy on Advertising

09.

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish

The above point being said, it is also as important to keep providing value all the way down the content funnel right until the end. So many brands drop the ball after they have gotten a potential customer’s initial interest by completely ruining their experience towards a potential purchase with salesy and lackluster content.

10.

Playbooks

Some of our favorite sources of information and inspiration for work and life:

The War of Art

Good to Great

How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth

Rework

The ONE Thing

The Business of Expertise

Shoe Dog

Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands

Machine, Platform, Crowd

Start with Why

11.

A surfer on a tennis court

Not every platform or marketing method needs to be used. Use the platforms that speak best to the balance of where your customers are combined with what value you are offering them.

12.

All that’s evergreen is gold

Evergreen content that keeps bringing in fans long after the game is over is one of the most important and forgotten pillars in a brand’s client experience and perception. These pieces inform and provide value long after the first click or view. That doesn’t mean it should be boring though. This content is usually longer form but highly informative and insightful.

13.

Small Packages

Big agency hoards. Big creative burns out. Big agency bullies. Big creative extorts. Big agency churns. We’re for small teams that perform well together and punch above their weight.

14.

Not done yesterday

Instantly delivered everything isn’t human scalable, yet that’s how many brands work and what they expect these days. The constant expectation of immediate creation and implementation is commonplace. Not for us. We believe that speed is important but frantic churning is a mess, and needing new projects already completed yesterday is a killer. Good work takes time and pressured work takes five times longer.

15.

Omnipresent

Engage your fans like a world class sports brand, by being on their minds all the time. Use multiple pieces and places to speak to them and in turn get multiple areas of data that you can use to learn.

16.

The Devil’s in the Data

Let data coach your decisions, but don’t let it remove the soul from your brand’s voice. Data shapes the methods, but your voice should always shape the approach.

17.

There is always a price to pay

People either pay with their money or with their time. Both are as valuable as each other, remember this when creating content or doing business. Make sure what you are offering provides a worthwhile investment to them.

18.

Politi-box-ticking

We respect all beliefs, rights and opinions but that does not mean we should weigh in on them publicly, outside of topics that are directly related to our business just to fit in with current events and movements. We are here to serve, not to tick boxes that don't add to our client's success.

19.

Eyes on the prize

It’s easy to get bogged down in the day to day of executing deliverables. But it’s worth nothing if you aren’t having a weekly checkin and a monthly alignment session that monitors meaningful progress and targets the new skills needed to take things to the next level. Without a growth game plan, you are going to stay stuck playing in the minor leagues. As they say - "Where the eyes look, the feet will follow."

20.

Champions come in pairs

Every world class team or athlete has gotten to where they are from strong competitors and even stronger coaches. The importance of getting perspective and guidance from an external expert or coach in your field is often overlooked. That’s why most teams have been making the same plays their entire careers.

21.

Just Walk

Taking a step is better than thinking which direction you should go in. From the wise words of Jocko Willink, “Just start walking”

22.

Take a timeout

More often than not if you work on something for too long, it always looks good. Taking time to sleep on it can be the difference between producing good and great work. Looking at something with fresh eyes always reveals the truth.

23.

Plans A,B, & C

Having contingency plans and being able to adapt is usually the difference. Always provide more options than less when approaching a problem. Often it’s plan C that might be the one that ends up helping you win. A win is a win, whether it is done beautifully or done down in the trenches. Win ugly if you need to.

24.

Learning

You can never completely fail, but you can always learn. So fail fast, learn faster.

25.

Transparency Touchdowns

Transparency for us is our captain. Ensuring that our clients and audiences know what we are trying to get them to do, what value we want to provide them with, and why we want to help them specifically. No funny business, just honest expertise.

26.

No if’s or but’s

Get comfortable with taking ownership of challenges by shifting your approach to answer with “Yes and…,” as opposed to “Yes, but…”. A game changing communication concept from the ever eloquent and inspirational Vinh Giang.

27.

Act global, speak local

Show your expertise with a global outlook and approach to your brand that builds credibility and trust. But also tailor your content to be engaging for the different cultures, regions and languages of your ideal customers.

28.

Outwork your doubt

You can’t improve what doesn’t exist, so don’t stress the first iteration. Building from scratch takes much more work, time, and mental energy to crack through and forge something new. The maintenance after that initial grind is where it becomes easy. Think of how the legend himself, Kobe Bryant trained twice as much than his peers in order to catch up and overtake them. He was behind them at the start, but in the end he became one of the greatest ever.

29.

The power of one

When in doubt, make something for one person. Understand them deeply and speak to them only. One person, one product, one marketing approach. Master the foundations first.

30.

Travel & Destinations

When you go on vacation are you excited to get onto the plane or excited to get to the destination? I am sure the latter is more likely. This is the same with sales and marketing, we always make sure to sell our potential clients on the bluesky end result as opposed to the process it takes to get there. What is your white sand and palm trees beachfront?

31.

Sprints & Marathons

You need both to have a competitive advantage. Know when to deviate from the recommended consistent marathon approach to momentarily push hard into a sprint and create something different and current. But don’t make multiple sprints your go to and try to run a marathon. You will tire yourself out eventually.

32.

A hollow win

Don't put all your value onto winning awards. Marketing and advertising awards are vanity metrics that often agencies and teams prioritize instead of the actual needs and insights of their clients and customers. The best awards to win are positive reviews or being told about a problem in your service that you can actually solve and improve.

33.

B2H

There is a lot of talk about the B2B, B2C, C2B and whatever the newest customer acronym is. The truth is that large businesses and brands don't watch content, comment, like or share. Humans do. B2B or Business to whomever, we help teams create for people and in turn give those people a human first experience that speaks to them. Not to a name on a billboard or logo on a TV screen.

34.

Win or lose

We’re not here to make a quick buck. What drives us is knowing that most people are unaware of the full potential and impact of media and content today. To most, the content they consume and the challenge of understanding it's mysteries are overwhelming. Our mission is to help guide, coach and change that perception to one of clarity.

35.

Organic leads the way

Consider only running paid ads and media on content that performs well organically. Let natural viewers and their reactions cast the vote on what content works best for them.

36.

Master of some

Specializing in one specific field has always been the traditional advice that our parents told us. But the world we are in now requires multi skilled creatives and teams, approaches and service offerings. This isn’t to say that specialization is not important, it’s to say you need more than one focussed skill to show expertise in your field of choice.

37.

Passing the baton

Creative teams only work as well as how effective projects move from one phase to the next or one person to the next. The same way runners in a relay have to balance the speed and accuracy of passing the baton to each other, is the same way you need to make sure that whoever takes over the next step of a project has all the information and insights needed to run with it. Define passing points and what the success of each point looks like.

38.

All the gear, no idea

There are so many softwares and tools that modern marketers and businesses can use. Here are some of our favorites for ideas and insights:

Coschedule - Headline Analyzer

Hemingway

Reddit Forums

39.

Good enough

If this phrase comes up when doing something, chances are that it probably is not good enough.

40.

The finish line

Content and marketing as is life and business is a perpetual race that never has a hard stop, it always needs to evolve and keep the pace. But always remember to take a breather and see how far you have come. Enjoy what you do, and do it well.

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Level Up

The CONTENT 40

Content40

Level up your content game with 40 principles, ideas, and musings that drive our approach.

Level Up

The CONTENT 40

Content40

Level up your content game with 40 principles, ideas, and musings that drive our approach.

Unsure of what you need?Find out your content stacks up!

Unsure of what you need?
Find out your content stacks up!