Publishers spend a lot of time and money developing their own brand image, which can include typography, colors, logos, and stylized art. Think of the dot-matrix images in The Wall Street Journal, or the art on the cover of Mad Magazine.
My friend Paul Gerbino posted an article about content licensing, which made me wonder if you lose those things when your content is licensed. More on that below, but that idea got me thinking about ways a brand could distinguish its articles in the text itself – irrespective of colors and typography and so on – so the unique voice of the brand carries through wherever it’s published.
As you’ll see as I review these suggestions, the same concepts would apply to a podcast or a video.
Here are some thoughts to help you develop a unique style that will set you apart from the competition even in cases where you can’t rely on fonts and colors and such.
1. Use a distinctive voice, tone, and narrative style. You might be authoritative, whimsical, unconventional, challenging, curmudgeonly, flowery, encouraging, or … mean. You could write in the first or the third person.
2. Have a focus. You could be strategic, managerial, practical, revolutionary, or operational.
3. Use frameworks. Every article could follow a pattern like “The Problem,” “The Solution,” “The Benefit,” and “Examples.” A step-by-step guide would be a similar concept.
4. Create recurring segments. You could have a CEO Corner, Expert Insights, Quick Stats, Tech Innovations, or Market Trends.
5. Stretch your vocabulary. Find some unique words and phrases that fit with your style and message. Or invent them. My friend Lewis Carol coined mimsy and whiffling. Use catch phrases and funny names.
6. Have a message. Tie your content back to an ethos, like thriftiness, to a value, like generosity, or to a principle, like local political control.
7. Pick favorites. I know a priest who always quotes G.K. Chesterton in his homilies, and I tend to relate things back to Star Trek – because, if you didn’t know, everything you need to know in life you can learn from Star Trek. You can also quote your favorite author, or 70s rock ballads. Pick something that will give some color to your content.
8. Use characters. Highlights for Children magazine had a section called Goofus and Gallant. You can create your own character, like Budgeting Betty, or you could tell a story as an interaction between Holmes and Watson. The copyright on the Holmes stories is a bit complicated, but I think it’s fair to use the characters at this point.
9. Incorporate skits. We often learn through stories. Hone your storytelling ability and express your message in a little piece of drama or comedy.
This article was sparked by a LinkedIn post from Paul Gerbino, in which he linked to a Creative Licensing International article titled “Masters of Licensing.” It lists two reasons publishers may be reluctant to license their content. The first is the fear of losing the exclusivity appeal – that is, your content is now available from other sources. The second is loss of control of the brand. The article explains the concepts in the context of the Masters Tournament. I’ll provide a link below.
If you can incorporate some of the concepts I mentioned above, your articles will sound like your brand no matter where or how they appear.
Links
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