Author name: writeminded

If you’re like every other growing business owner with whom I have ever spoken, you struggle with getting content created for your marketing, sales, and promotional efforts. The time needed to get it done is often hard enough, but then, after the time and effort of “getting it out there,” watching it get swallowed up in the rest of the noise from similar brands is so frustrating that many times, the efforts seem for naught, and the focus turns to other tactics. The stats show that 57% of content creators cite that creating the right content for their audience is one of the major challenges they face with their marketing efforts. Unfortunately, this scenario is more the norm than the anomaly. Content becomes a necessary evil that is tackled in an ad hoc manner without a cohesive plan of attack or goals to be tracked, and the potential for ROI drops even further. Here’s the thing. Your brand needs content. It is the conversation starter and the most successful engagement tool in your toolbox between you and the people behind the brands you want to work with. Content, in all forms—from articles to memes to infographics and webinars or sales assets—educates you on who you are, what you do, and why you’re the right answer for the people you seek to engage. I know you know this, but the cycle of content-creation frustration is still very real for most brands, large and small. It’s also necessary for every brand, regardless of size. Now, hear me out. We live in a global business reality where just about every product and service is already being sold, content creators know that every story has already been told, and new or smaller brands are pitching against behemoths with a large existing client base. So, how is a smaller or newer player ever going to stand out in such a crowded field? Welcome to the P.I.T.A. principle. Content creation is the baseline for any successful brand, regardless of size or reach. But it can’t be done in a one-off, get-it-done-to-get-on-to-the-next-project kind of way, and it takes time and intention to have the required effect. So, let’s break it down: The PITA Content Plan Principle Perspective: Any company’s key differentiator is the people behind the brand. At the end of the day, whether it’s through a video, a post, a graphic, or longer-form content, we are still people seeking to connect with and engage other people. This means that you need to identify and clarify your view before you write a word, create a single image, or develop a multi-channel, multimedia content marketing editorial calendar. Your view on your industry, the market you support, the specific brands you approach, and your perspective on the offering you are bringing to market. Simply put, you must clearly and definitively identify your WHY for doing this. This takes intentional engagement with your teams – from sales to marketing, account management, and operations. For example, one great way to get feedback is to send a survey to your team that they can answer anonymously if they choose, asking how they see what you are offering and its value to your prospects and clients. Ask them to define their view of your pitch and your key – unique – way of coming to the table. Ask for comments and suggestions. The more personal you get with your WHY perspective, the more input you get from your team that you help firm up your brand’s WHY, and the more unique your baseline messaging will be. Pro Tip: When creating your messaging and content plan, avoid getting caught up in industry jargon and avoid being too human in your details. Your brand is only as unique as the people behind it, so be courageous and put your genuine stamp on it. Let your team and your personal touch be the real story. Intention: Why are you in this business? Be honest. What problem or issue are you trying to solve with your offering? Why did you get on the road, what has driven you forward, what’s derailed your progress, and how do you plan to avoid those future setbacks? All brands have had to re-route or shift their plan at some point, but it is their intention to ensure that the roads or divergences they choose expand their reach instead of reducing it. Your intention to your prospects and clients needs to address an issue they see as necessary, one that can be easily identified and that hits home to create a need to engage. If your intention is only about your end goals, you may want to rethink your plans. Pro Tip: Market research offers insight into what your target audience really needs, how they’re talking about it, and what they need to hear to pay attention. Doing market research as part of your content plan will help you define or redefine your intention for your target audience as you create your content marketing plan. Timing: Like everything, timing for every element of your content plan matters. Timing of posts, cadence between media types, channels, and messages, the timing for follow-ups, and knowing when to back off are almost as important as the message you send. This is most important when using multiple mediums and platforms to get your message out. Your content plan needs a clear editorial calendar as its guide to ensure well-balanced, diverse, and trackable content shares. This calendar should be visible and used by both sales and marketing teams, clearly defining what is being shared (topic, media type, goal), with whom, and on what platforms to avoid cross-or-adverse messaging. Pro Tip: Your sales and marketing team need to work as a combined Growth Team instead of working in silos on their own. Your content plan can be the baseline of this effort, leading to better success, like 38% higher conversion rates and 36% higher client retention rates. Audience: The final criterion of why content plans have to be a P.I.T.A.

I have always been drawn to the Impressionist movement. Emerging in the late 19th century, Impressionism challenged the artistic conventions of its time by focusing on movement, atmosphere, light, color, and the emotional experience of ordinary moments. Rather than painting only grand historical scenes or carefully polished portraits, artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and others invited viewers to see the world differently. Their work felt alive because it captured not only what they saw, but how they saw it. That distinction matters. Whenever my husband and I visit a museum in a new city, we almost always find ourselves searching for the Impressionist galleries first. We linger there longer than we intend to, studying the way light falls across a landscape, how color shifts with atmosphere, and how a visible brushstroke can say as much as the subject itself. The more time we spend with these works, the easier it becomes to recognize individual artists. Degas does not feel like Monet. Pissarro does not feel like Renoir. Van Gogh, though technically Post-Impressionist, carries an unmistakable intensity that my husband can spot almost instantly. Their work is recognizable because each artist developed a distinct way of seeing and expressing the world. Their use of color, texture, subject matter, perspective, and movement created something larger than style. It created identity. In business, we call that brand voice. What Great Artists Can Teach Us About Brand Identity The most memorable artists are not remembered simply because they produced work. They are remembered because their work had a point of view. They made choices consistently enough that people could recognize their perspective before reading the name beside the frame. The same principle applies to authors. Few readers would confuse Stephen King with J.R.R. Tolkien. Their subject matter, rhythm, vocabulary, tone, pacing, and emotional worlds are entirely different. Each writer has built a recognizable creative signature. Their audiences know what kind of experience to expect because their voices are distinct. Businesses need the same clarity. In a crowded marketplace, your audience is surrounded by companies offering similar services, similar products, and similar promises. What often separates one brand from another is not only what the business does, but how it communicates. Your brand voice is the human expression of your company’s perspective. It is the language, tone, values, personality, and emotional texture that help people understand who you are and why they should trust you. Creative Element Artistic Example Business Equivalent Brushstroke The visible technique that reveals the artist’s hand The tone and style that make your messaging recognizable Color palette The emotional atmosphere of the artwork The feelings your brand consistently evokes Subject matter What the artist chooses to portray The problems, values, and ideas your brand chooses to emphasize Perspective How the artist frames the world Your unique point of view in the marketplace Consistency The traits that make an artist identifiable The repeated language, values, and messaging that build trust A strong brand voice does not happen by accident. It is built intentionally. Finding Your Perspective as a Business Owner If you own or lead a small or mid-sized business, one of the most important questions you can ask is this: What do we bring to the conversation that no one else can bring in quite the same way? Your perspective may come from your founder story, your industry experience, your values, your process, your customer relationships, or the specific problem you are passionate about solving. It may come from the way you simplify complex ideas, challenge outdated assumptions, create emotional reassurance, or make your customers feel seen. The goal is not to sound like everyone else. The goal is to become more clearly yourself. That requires more than clever copywriting. It requires self-awareness. You need to understand what your company believes, how it behaves, what it refuses to compromise on, and why customers should care. Your brand voice should reflect the real character of your business, not a borrowed personality that sounds appealing but feels disconnected from the customer experience. To borrow from Shakespeare, “to thine own self be true” is also wise branding advice. A brand that knows itself can communicate with confidence. A brand that does not know itself often hides behind jargon, vague promises, and generic messaging. The Missing Piece: Your Buyer Persona There is one important difference between the Impressionists and business owners. Artists may create primarily from personal vision, but businesses must communicate with both identity and audience in mind. Your brand voice should be authentic to you, but it must also be meaningful to the people you want to reach. No matter what you sell, you are selling to human beings. Those people have goals, pressures, fears, motivations, preferences, and decision-making triggers. They are not abstract “leads” or “prospects.” They are individuals trying to solve a real problem, make a wise choice, reduce risk, save time, grow revenue, feel confident, or improve some part of their life or work. That is why buyer personas matter. A buyer persona is a detailed representation of the people you most need to reach. It helps you move beyond broad assumptions and speak with greater relevance. Instead of asking, “What do we want to say?” you begin asking, “What does our audience need to understand, believe, and feel before they are ready to act?” Buyer Persona Question Why It Matters Who are they? Helps you define the real person behind the purchase decision What role do they play? Clarifies whether they are the decision-maker, influencer, user, or gatekeeper What problem are they trying to solve? Keeps your message focused on their needs instead of your internal priorities What motivates them to act? Reveals the emotional and practical triggers behind engagement What objections or concerns do they have? Allows you to build trust by addressing hesitation directly What language do they use? Helps your brand sound relevant, familiar, and accessible The more clearly you understand your buyer, the more effectively you can shape

This past weekend, my husband and I had the great pleasure of attending the retirement party of a very good friend of ours in Toronto, Canada. The Travel Gods were kind, offering an easy flight to and from Philadelphia. We had an eventful, fun-packed weekend and enjoyed some much-needed downtime. During the party, I, the camera-wielding nightmare of my family, sought to capture the night with some photos. The man of the hour loathes being the center of attention almost as much as he hates “posed” photos. I ignored his protests and began choreographing some group photos to commemorate the momentous occasion. I got some great shots then, including one photo of all 4 generations of the men in their family. As the night continued, and the cocktails flowed, (and people stopped letting me bully them) I gave up on the orderly pics and shifted to candid photos. Stay with me, this is the revelation. Your Brand’s WHY Factor Everyone began their natural interactions in the beautiful way that a group of people who live and play together often do so well. And I began to see the Moments, not the pictures. I noted small but meaningful interactions, charged by the uniqueness of each relationship the lens captured. And it was astounding. When we reviewed the pics over breakfast the next day, while everyone loved the posed photos for “who and what” they showed, it was the Moments that drew the best reactions. Moments are about the WHY.   These images were not perfectly posed. The lighting wasn’t always exactly right. But the genuine feelings, and LIFE, the meaning, screamed from each view. So, what’s the revelation? As we parsed through the pics, the eye behind the camera, and the importance of that perspective, my perspective, became the resounding theme. My friends were ecstatic, and I was reminded that MY unique part in the creative process mattered. I dialed into the WHY story of my target audience with my eye, making it both human and poignantly personal, and it hit home – in a big way. As a content marketer and business owner, even I had to be reminded that I was a driving factor behind the voice of my work. My unique eye and perspective were as important a factor in the result as my audience’s needs were. Break the Canned-Content Cycle, and Find Your Brand Voice When we focus on producing high volumes of content, we often lose sight of our WHY. We lose our unique eye, which resonates less and decreases returns. This goes for small business owners and “lean” marketing teams as well. Bandwidth struggles turn content into a necessary evil instead of a chance for a unique creative expression of your offering. Revelation #1: It is important to check in on your company’s WHY. Put a pause on the content churn to check in on your CEO’s vision, talk to your team about what your potential buyer needs, and shift the focus of your lens to the MOMENTS your audience finds themselves in when they look for offerings like yours, and build your messaging and campaigns around lens. Focus on your EYE, blend that with your “WHY” of starting or joining your company, and what you want to do FOR your prospective clients. Then, apply that unique lens to your content creation across all channels. Your brand voice becomes a unique sound in the space, not more white noise built from buzzwords and jargon. You’ll see the results in the caliber of clients you attract. I guarantee it.