Content super nova?
Why narratives should be your North Star
Forget the champagne, we’re now living in a content super nova. Every channel. Every team. Every AI platform. Everyone is capable of drafting seemingly passable content. But with that comes a problem: who is curating all this output? Is it all speaking as one or is it more like a meteor shower, firing off in random seemingly directions?
This is where brand narratives come in.
A distillation of your brand’s core message – and tone of voice – they give you a single focus. They are the root of joined up writing. But how do you arrive at a brand narrative that works and galvanises your team and your customers?
Do your homework
Before shaping your message it’s essential you know the context: your audience, your competitors, your brand’s authentic ‘why’. Without this, you’re just skimming the surface.
2. Listen
What message and words will resonate? You could follow your instinct here and many do. But to remove that guess work, it’s best to loop in your team and your customers. Focus groups, forums or friendly clients… your goals and the size of your project (and budget) will help shape the best way of getting input.
3. Use humans first (and tech later)
Tempting as it may be to tap a quick prompt into ChatGPT or similar and get a ready made narrative in 30 seconds, we think human generated words, by human generated copywriters, still have the edge for originality, intuition and quality. And, of course, if you need to coordinate feedback or talk things through, humans tend to ‘get it’ better than a bot.
A strong narrative is a good starting point. And, in some instances, this alone is enough. But for truly laser focused comms, we’d recommend building on this with a messaging toolkit and proper guidelines, with plenty of examples.
And it’s here that AI does have a valuable role to play. With the right prompting and GPT engineering, AI can act as your messaging guardian. A ‘back stop’ to double check communications reflect your core messaging and tone of voice before it’s launched into the stratosphere.
If you’re refreshing your brand narratives – or considering how they adapts to an AI world – then please get in touch. Drop us a line at info@inkcopywriters.com
