“MY IDEA OF A WRITER: SOMEONE INTERESTED IN EVERYTHING.”
– Susan Sontag
TODAY’S TOPIC IS… IDEATION AND BRAINSTORMING
Isn’t it amazing that something as simple as a blog post headline can have hundreds of layers of meaning and complexity under the surface?
Format, Niche, Topic, Angle (FNTA) only takes you so far. It’s like directions to the party – but you still have to show up to the party with something to say!
Today we’re looking at how to take your FNTA and become an idea engine. Much thanks to resources like Ash Ambirge (TMF Project and Brandgasm), Carol Tice (Freelance Writer’s Den and J-School), and practice with clients, for a lot of my ideation muscles.
- https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=UShttps://answerthepublic.com/
- Mind-mapping (Google tools)
This is something you can collect tips and tricks as you go, but it’s also about becoming a person who plays with ideas so that this process comes naturally. And no one can do that for you! You have to sit and wrestle with it.
Grow your muscles in idea wrestling
Ideation can be a part of your role as a B2B writer… or even a separate productized offer for content strategy in the long run. Sometimes clients will assign you what they want, but sometimes they’ll ask you to pitch multiple ideas, which could look like this:
- Ideation and brainstorming is different from writing headlines
- All three are interrelated and build on each other, but ideation and brainstorming gives you the concepts to work with and build an outline
- Then, after you see where that outline goes, you can use headline best practices to incorporate SEO, build curiosity, increase click-through rate (CTR), etc.
- It’s like painting — you sketch where you think everything will go and the client agrees, and then you get to painting and you basically follow the plan but something might come up! A happy little tree… you make changes as you go
RELATED RESOURCE:
- Copyblogger 21 Headlines and Magnetic Headlines
You’ll want to consider the marketing funnel when generating your ideas. Some ideas are better suited for attracting attention on a problem or topic (top of the funnel). Some ideas are better suited for people making decisions about a purchase (bottom of the funnel). Your marketer will likely have opinions about this and be able to tell you more about what they hope to accomplish with a given piece, but it’s really helpful when you ask, too.
In B2B, keywords will come into play at some point, either before you begin or after you’ve identified ideas to use. If you love SEO and keywords, you can dig more into that and make it a specialty with tools like Ahrefs and SEO for the rest of us and Moz and SparkToro. But beware — often the more keyword focused a piece of content is, the lower level rate it will have. SEO is not as helpful in thought leadership and c-suite level content because that content is more about relationships and ideas.
Source: AndrewDavis.com
Here are three methods you can take with you to become an IDEA MACHINE whenever you’re working with clients
- WAIT – Why, Action, Ideal World, Tension
- HERO – Explore your reader’s journey
- Word Soup – Break down the jargon
VALUE OF THE LEAD
Low value lead: $49/month subscription
[Paid advertising?] (Sponsored Content)
[Organic advertising?] (Content Marketing)
High value lead: $1,000,000/year contract
STRATEGY #1: WAIT Method
Take your FNTA (Format, Niche, Topic, Angle) and run it through the WAIT method
- W – Why
- Why is this happening or why should it happen?
- A -Action
- How should the reader take action to make a change or improve something?
- I – Ideal world
- In an ideal world, how will this be better or be solved?
- T – Tension
- How can I make this more tense or dramatic? What provocative statement could I make and support? (How do I “up the stakes” and pressure so people feel how urgent this is)
Let’s practice this for a topic like using an learning management system (LMS) for company culture
| Ask yourself… | And this… | Becomes this…. |
| W – Why Why is this happening or why should it happen? | LMS for company culture | 3 Reasons [Industry] Companies are Scrambling to Build a Company Culture Strong companies come from strong cultures — here are five that prove it |
| A -Action How should the reader take action to make a change or improve something? | LMS for company culture | The #1 reason most LMS implementations fail — and what you can do about it 5 Ways to make sure employees log into your LMS every day |
| I – Ideal world In an ideal world, how will this be better or be solved? | LMS for company culture | 5 Things every company does wrong with their LMS when they first get started AI is going to make LMS technology even better — here’s how |
| T – Tension How can I make this more tense or dramatic? What provocative statement could I make and support? | LMS for company culture | Is it the end of the LMS? 5 Companies that went bankrupt from not investing in company culture |
| Another Example | ||
| W – Why Why is this happening or why should it happen? | Cybersecurity Maturity Model Communication Compliance for Tech Managed Service Providers in B2B | Cybersecurity Maturity Model Communication: Who’s affected and what you need to do 5 Things MSPs need to check before [DATE] Why the CMMC is a good thing for MSPs: Experts weigh in |
| A -Action How should the reader take action to make a change or improve something? | Cybersecurity Maturity Model Communication Compliance for Tech Managed Service Provider B2B | How CMMC will affect MSPs 5 years from now The 5-step guide to CMMC compliance Definitive guide for CMMC 2022 |
| WhyActionIdealTension | How higher education can survive in the wake of student loan reform free online education (competitor) With various technologies offered as solutions | How the pandemic pushed students online — and how higher ed can respond The MOOCs are coming: 3 threats to higher ed institutions and how to face them The future could be bright for higher ed: 3 technologies that pave the path for a new future Digital transformation will save higher ed: How to compete against student loan reform, MOOCs, and X Is online education the end of higher ed? Will digital classes replace higher ed forever? |
| WhyActionIdealTension | Physics Calculus Chemistry | Why chemistry is the most important thing to learn in X industry Chemistry can’t save modern engineering: Here’s what can Why chemistry is the most important skill in diamond mining |
| HR tech solutions that can reduce frontline worker attrition | Attrition, solved: How the best companies keep entry level employees engaged | |
STRATEGY #2: HERO – Put the reader (not the client) at the center of the story
Marketing managers are your client, your boss — they often see themselves or their product at the center of the story (this is changing a little, but not 100% gone). But that’s the first degree — your client. You need to always strain your neck to see the second degree (their customer) and the third degree (the ultimate stakeholder or beneficiary).
Put the reader at the center of the story and investigate the parts of a story in their experience. Whatever the reader cares about, ask questions about what happened before, what happens next, why is it happening, who are the main characters in the story, etc. See what resonates and aligns with the goals of the marketing piece (MOFU/TOFU/BOFU).
This is a great example of how powerful it is to build a habit of being curious. As a B2B writer, your power and strength comes from never being afraid to ask “Why?”
Bring some of that inner bravery outside 🙂
| FNTAFormat, Niche, Topic, Angle | Story element | Example concepts |
| Learning Management System (LMS) for higher education | Why is this happening? | Higher ed used to take a traditional approach to managing finances and students, but now that things are more competitive they have to bring business best practices into how they manage their student enrollment and education (Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP))Student Privacy |
| Telehealth platform for hospital systems | What happened before? | 3 Reasons hospital systems can never go back to life before telehealth Telehealth as the key to delivering the best patient experience Inclusivity starts with telehealth |
| E-commerce email marketing | What happens next? | 5 email best practices that will expire next year 5 email best practices that will stick around for the next 100 years |
| LMS for companies | Who are the characters in the story? | People Development Revolution: How HR Is Helping Companies Align Culture With Business Strategy |
STRATEGY #3: Word soup
Break down your topic, niche, audience, and outcome into word soup. 🍲
Sometimes the jargon is just too much to think clearly! If the terms get overwhelming, break a complex headline (FTNA) into verbs and nouns. Turn them into a list so you can organize and prioritize what you’re really talking about.
| Start with… | Break it down into… | So I can start to play with… |
| 5 Ways [software] helps you enhance employee experience to increase employee engagement and retention with remote onboarding | 5 Ways [software] employee experience increase employee engagement employee retention remote onboarding | Employee experience is in demand: 5 ways to make sure your remote onboarding technology supports employee engagement, retention, and lifetime value Remote onboarding is just onboarding now: 5 benefits of zeroing in on your company’s remote onboarding experience |
| Risk Management in Supply Chain Logistics for Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Businesses | Risk ManagementSupply Chain LogisticsDirect-to-Consumer (DTC) | COVID shortagesShipping delays “Acts of God”Social Media Outages Affecting DTC Sales and ShippingSocial Media Positive: What Happens When You Go Viral |
Word Soup Example:
BONUS STRATEGIES:
- Dig in — Read a “State of the Industry” report and find one idea you can expand on, prove, or disprove.
- Check out the competition — This is called a competitive analysis (SEMRush); Do a Google search to find what other people are writing, then write a variation of that (add a new person, industry, answer, or goal).
- Do a quote roundup — make a list of 5-10 different quotes from experts and provide analysis or explanation of each quote.
- Less than 10-15% content direct from other sources (Grammarly) and you’ve hyperlinked all of it (sourced).
- Think in extremes — consider if you could write things to never do or always do or things to focus on or ignore.
- Website rundown — head to the client’s website or a competitor’s site and look at the benefits and features. Are there any “why’s” you can expand on or explain? Any details or trends missing that could be helpful for someone to read?
- Think of ideation and brainstorming like collecting shells at the beach.
- Sometimes you have to dig a bit to come up with even a scrap of something.
- Sometimes you stumble upon a nest of perfect specimens.
- But you have to walk along the beach to stumble into that nest. 🏖️
WRITING TIME:
- Timer and Brain.FM for 15-20 minutes
- Head to your personal Google doc and think through your idea: does it have a real purpose or message? Could it be spicier or more relevant to read? What do YOU need to read in order to be able to have an opinion about this?
- If you’re 100% on your idea, feel free to use this time to flesh out your outline and/or jump on the conclusion and intro.
Do I have to be the SME?
Client:
- Hope you had a great trip last week! Just wanted to follow up on our Q2 plans. We are planning a white paper, infographic, and 2 spin-off blog posts, all on the topic of field force optimization to be completed by end of Q2. Would you be available to work on this project?
- Please let us know. We have an internal kick off on April 20, and expect to have a brief ready to share shortly thereafter.
Sarah:
- The only caveat I have is that field force optimization is a new term for me, so I’d be approaching this as a master puzzle maker, rather than a SME on the topic.
- If that means there’d be another writer who’d be a better fit for this, I completely understand. But if that sounds like what you were expecting, I will get reading and be excited to be involved!
Client:
- That’s fine! We’ll have a subject matter expert for you to interview and would be primarily looking for your insight on how to best craft the story and position as a thought leader.
Which method should I start with?
Example: Digital Equity in K-12 Literacy or Digital Equity in Higher Ed
Suggestion: WAIT comes to mind right away for that one. Because Digital Equity is very much a product of our time and cultural changes. And then “Who the reader is would” influence…
- Are we explaining this to them (Why?)
- Providing recommendations for what to do (Action?)
- Pitching a solution (Ideal world?)
Do you always or almost always interview experts for Thought Leadership?
Cosmically, “we should.” But marketers/companies sometimes want to publish original thoughts without doing any original thinking. This is an ongoing discussion in the industry right now, so you’ll see people with different opinions.