You're facing conflicting opinions on content style. How do you navigate and find a middle ground?

1 Assess Needs

Understanding the specific needs of your audience is paramount in developing effective content. When faced with conflicting opinions on content style, begin by analyzing your audience's preferences. What do they engage with most? What tone and style resonate with them? By grounding your decision in what best serves your audience, you create a strong foundation for your content strategy. This approach helps to shift the focus from subjective opinions to audience-centric solutions, allowing for a more objective discussion about content style.

2 Evaluate Feedback

It's important to evaluate the feedback you receive from all stakeholders regarding content style. Listen actively to the concerns and suggestions of your team members, and consider how their insights could improve the overall content strategy. By acknowledging the value in different perspectives, you can foster an environment of collaboration. This doesn't mean every idea will be implemented, but rather that each one is given due consideration, which can often lead to a synthesis of ideas that might not have been apparent at first glance.

3 Define Objectives

Once you've gathered insights from your audience and team, it's time to define clear objectives for your content. What are the goals you're aiming to achieve? Whether it's increasing engagement, driving sales, or building brand awareness, having well-defined objectives can help reconcile differing opinions on content style. By focusing on common goals, you can prioritize content decisions that align with these targets, helping to find a middle ground that serves the broader strategy.

4 Explore Options

With objectives in place, exploring different content style options becomes a structured process. Consider creating sample content pieces that incorporate various elements from the conflicting styles in question. This practical approach allows your team to see how different styles can potentially work together. It also enables you to test these samples with a segment of your audience, gathering real feedback that can guide your final decision on the content style that best meets your objectives.

5 Make Decisions

Making decisions on content style is not just about reaching an agreement; it's about making informed choices that benefit your content's effectiveness. After exploring options and gathering feedback, it's time to decide which elements from each style best contribute to your objectives. This may involve tough choices and further discussion, but with a clear understanding of your goals and audience needs, you can make decisions that everyone can support.

6 Implement Strategy

Finally, implementing the chosen content style strategy is crucial. Ensure that all team members understand the rationale behind the decisions made and how they contribute to the overall objectives. Effective communication and documentation of the chosen style guidelines can help maintain consistency across all content. As you roll out the new style, continue to monitor audience engagement and be open to making adjustments as needed to refine the strategy further.