How to tie two pieces of content together

A lot of times here I’m talking about how to make a message or a piece of content. And sometimes that’s the challenge. It’s a message. A piece. Just one. So how can you make the most of multiple pieces of content? How can you tie them together?

Well, for that answer, let’s wander over and take a look at the “What’s Missing From This Message?” video Tara Heaton asked me to do with one of her recent blog posts. That one post has four potential message-delivery devices or mini content pieces:

• The blog post title,
• A story that sets up the content,
• A short video, and
• The part of the blog post where she explains everything (What should we call that? The “core” content? Yeah, that works.)

This is, I think, a fine place to note what can sometimes get in the way of making the most of your content pieces: while you may have one big message, the forms of that message can be nearly infinite. And that’s true both within a piece of content (like Tara’s post) and across them (say, in your marketing messages over time).

YOUR MESSAGE IS A MAP

See, your message is a map. It’s designed to show people the path from where they are to where they want to be, via whatever idea, product, or service you’re offering them.

So let’s use that mental image, shall we? Imagine you need something (pants, maybe?). Imagine you need to go somewhere you haven’t been before to get that thing, so you decide to use something like Google or Apple maps to figure out how to get there.

What’s the first thing you do? You type in your current location and where you want to go, right? Then what happens? You get an overview map of the route, sometimes with a couple of options. To help you decide between the routes, you can usually get a quick preview of the route details. Once you decide, you start the navigation, and then you get turn-by-turn directions, in the soothing, automated voice of your choice.

How does this relate to tying pieces of content together? Well, notice something here: the intent never changes. Each of those steps is related to you getting the thing you need and going somewhere new to get there. If we relate that back to a piece of content, using Tara’s post as an example…

• Like the overview map, the blog post title shows your reader where you’re going
• Like whatever specific event that made you decide to go get what you needed in the first place, the story that sets up your content gives the reader a specific example of the reason that destination is important
• Like the route previews, the short video both gives the reader a new “route option” and helps the reader decide whether or not to read further and get the “turn-by-turn” detail
• Like the turn-by-turn navigation, the core content gives the reader everything they need to get to the destination you promised in the title

When you think of a piece of content (or series of messages) this same way, you can start to see what each needs to be effective:

TITLE

Your title needs to help people validate that (a) they’re starting where you think they are, (b) they want to go where you’re going (they need the answer you’re offering), or (c) both. Even if your title is the last thing you write (it often is, for me), before crafting any message or content make sure you know:

• Where your audience is now (the current audience question your content will answer)
• Where you want them to go (the specific change in thinking or behavior you’re recommending to answer that question)

Hint: Your Red Thread Throughline brainstorms are a goldmine for potential titles.

STORY

Using a story to set up your content isn’t necessary, of course, but it can make your message feel much more concrete to people. That said, if you use a story, the tie to the audience needs to be clear to the audience. You don’t necessarily need to say, “You’re this character in the story,” but you need to know which character you want them to identify with. Hint: Make sure there’s a character in your story that needs to learn the lesson of your content and make that need clear to your audience. Also, starting with the point you’re trying to make can help make finding stories easier.

VIDEO (TEASER)

If you’re structuring a post as Tara did, you can use your video as the teaser for deeper content. In that case, make sure there’s enough content there to give your audience a complete experience (Hint: your Red Thread Storyline is a great basic framework!), but not necessarily a complete duplication of your written content. If you’re using video this way, be careful not to introduce information you don’t end up writing about in your core content. People don’t like those kinds of “open loops”! If you raise a question, make sure you offer an answer.

You can also use your video as the deeper content (see below) and your written setup as the summary. In that case, reverse what I’m saying to do in this and the next section.

And yes, there’s a third option, which is to have the two formats be equally deep but approach the content from two different ways. That’s what I usually do: the videos are a case-specific articulation of the main Red Thread themes, and these posts are those lessons generalized for a broader audience.

BLOG POST (CORE CONTENT)

If your video is the teaser, then the post you write about or with that video is the movie. It should pick up on all the themes of your teaser video and go into greater depth where it makes sense to. That means the two—video and post—should correspond to each other, as an outline corresponds to a complete article or paper. Make sure your longer content picks up on the information you mention in your teaser and goes into greater depth. Your deeper or longer content will almost always include information you didn’t talk about in your teaser—that’s fine! Just make sure it all relates. (Hint: this starting structure that builds on your Storyline can help make sure the two tie together.)

A STITCH IN TIME…

At this point, you’ve probably realized what I believe to my core: the key to tying messages or content together lies in finding the Red Thread? that runs through and around them. Because I’m inherently lazy, I made sure that each piece of the Red Thread you find serves multiple functions. So, for instance, when you identify your Audience’s Goal, you’re also likely finding something that will serve well as the title to your content. When you find the Problem or the Change, you’ve found a concept you can illustrate with a story. When you find all five pieces of your Red Thread, you have what you need to build the Storyline that can serve as the framework for your teaser content and as the high-level outline for your core content. And once you’ve found one Red Thread? You can start to link them together to help move your audience along a much longer journey.

You work hard on your messages and content. Make sure they’re working just as hard for you.