Mental Models for Content + Marketing

@taranicholle
TARA-NICHOLLE NELSON
SXSWi 2014
MENTAL MODELS FOR CONTENT + MARKETING
#mindmodels

About You: 3 types of marketers
Big Budget
Brand
Wizards
X Growth
Hackers
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Type 1: Big Budget Brand Wizards

Type 2: Growth Hackers
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Type 3: Mere mortals
Big Budget
Brand
Wizards
MERE
MORTAL
S
Growth
Hackers
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#mindmodels

Mere mortal marketers face (potentially)
mortal enemies.
1. Unrealistic expectations
2. Decision-makers don’t speak the same language
3. Proliferation of new mediums  utter. freaking. chaos.
4. Fewest resources of any internal team
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Mere mortals do have a few advantages.
1. Proximity to users
2. Can touch people who aren’t even on the app
3. Flexible, iterative, relatively resource-light to deploy
4. Messages beat out mediums, all day every day
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#mindmodels

Messages win over Mediums.
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Marketing is a
transformational
superpower.

Marketing | Transformational | Superpower
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

User Context
• unhealthy  healthy
• in pain  painless
• out of control  powerful
• frustrated  inspired
• stuck  activated
• bored  entertained
• irritating  frictionless
Business Context
• Engagement
• UGC
• Revenues/sales
• Return visits
• Brand metrics, e.g.,
awareness
*
User-Business
Relationship
*
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

User Context
• unhealthy  healthy
• in pain  painless
• out of control  powerful
• frustrated  inspired
• stuck  activated
• bored  entertained
• irritating  frictionless
Business Context
• Engagement
• UGC
• Revenues/sales
• Return visits
• Brand
metrics, e.g., awareness
*
User-Business
Relationship
*
User-Business
Relationship Metrics
• NPS
• Organic WOM
• Referrals
• Shares, likes, loves
• Repeat purchases
• Upsells
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Marketing
has
(nearly)
no limits.
But it has
laws.

Next-Gen Marketing Law #1
Users don’t care about your product.
They care about their problem.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Inertia. It’s super lame.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

People love the content + companies that
help them get unstuck and defy nature.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

B3: sisomo  lovemark status
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#mindmodels

M3: habit-forming tech + transformation 
lovemark status
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#mindmodels

Mental models unlock your marketing
superpowers.
*
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Let’s build a mental model.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Step 1
Identify the problem your user is trying to
solve when they come into contact with your
product in terms of before and after.
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#mindmodels

Step 2
Break down your ideal user’s typical path
from Point A to Point B into 5-10 steps, tasks
and sub-projects
(e.g., research, decide, evaluate).
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#mindmodels

Step 3
Go back through your ideal user’s typical
path from Point A to Point B, and insert
commonly encountered obstacles, sticking
points, quit points after each task or step.
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#mindmodels

Step 4
Go back up to the user journey steps list and
brainstorm/insert key, frequently encountered
Mind Moments:
*ORID: what, gut, so-what, now what?
*Factual questions, worries, fears, wrong beliefs, sticking
points, unsticking points, a-ha moments
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Where to find your user’s obstacles +
Mind Moments:
• Keyword search volume and analysis
• Comments – blog, social – don’t have to be your own
• Content performance + testing – don’t have to be your own
• User-submitted FAQs and Forum Conversations
• Offline subject matter experts (e.g., sales team, analog experts)
• Interviews
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Step 5
Boil down the 5-7 tasks and mental moments
that get people stuck/unstuck the most into a
sequential diagram or list.
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#mindmodels

Step 6: Review with your superfriend.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Step 7.
Use your model to brainstorm message
pillars for content and marketing.
The ORID Approach
Transformational Content Equation Approach
Story Spine Approach
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#mindmodels

The ORID Approach:
Objective, Reflective, Interpretive, Decisional
What
Gut
So What?
Now What?
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Transformational Content Equation Approach
How-to
What to Expect
Mindset Management
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Tara’s Proposal: Build a data program that tells the story of XXXXXX,
using this ‘story spine’ structure.
Once upon a time, there was a _________________.
And every day ______________________________.
Until one day _______________________________.
And because of that __________________________.
Until one day _______________________________.
And since the _______________________________.
And so ____________________________________.
And so ____________________________________.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Once upon a time, there was a man, woman, athlete or desk jockey. (In fact, there were tens of millions of them.) And every
day they sat too much and moved too little, slouching on the couch, in the car or at the computer.
Until one day they had developed bad posture.
And because of that they had back pain, looked less attractive, became less active and lost confidence. And because of that
they took pills, had surgery and made all sorts of (unsuccessful) efforts to fix their posture. And because of that they got
depressed, experienced side effects and ultimately lost some of the joy of living.
Until one day they started tracking their posture and setting small movement goals.
And since then they stood up more, sat less, moved more and developed correct posture. And so they looked
better/thinner/hotter, their backs were pain free, and they were healthier and more active. They burned more calories. And so
they felt alive, more powerful and were able to fulfill their potential in life and at work.
[Moral of the story] And now they also know how to achieve any health goal or change any habit they want.
The story of XXXXXX. (Simple version)
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

• Each point of the story is a pillar: a message or theme that should recur over and over in
XXXXXX’s content and data program and campaigns.
• Each pillar is an umbrella message under which fall a near-infinite set of sub-messages and
variations – these can fuel years of data campaigns and stories. That said, we can evolve
the story as XXXXXX, its offerings and business objectives evolve.
• Each pillar gives rise to dream headlines, points us to where we should look for the data
(e.g., user data, surveys, 3rd party data, etc.) and inspires our decisions about which assets
we’ll need to create to deliver the data to the right target media and consumer audiences.
• Many data campaigns, reports and stories will involve multiple pillars.
• This story and it’s messages should course-correct us, too. If we find ourselves going in a
data direction that doesn’t further this narrative, we might need to rethink it.
How do message pillars inform marketing strategy?
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Message Pillar #1:
Once upon a time, there was a man, woman, athlete or desk worker. (In fact, there were tens of millions of
them.) And every day they sat too much and moved too little, slouching on the couch, in the car or at the
computer.
Related + Sub-Messages:
• Sedentary life is creating a massive, mainstream health crisis in America.
• We’re sitting our lives away/we’re sitting the prime of our lives away.
• Everyone can stand to get a little healthier.
• In the evolution of man, the office is the new human habitat.
• Sitting is so prevalent we don’t even question how much we’re doing it.
Dream Headlines [might overlap/include other pillars]:
• Occupational Hazards: A day in the life of your body at work
• The Biomechanics of Working
• The Evolution of Man, Revisited
• The Devolution of Man: New Survey Reveals Desk Workers Are 300% As Likely to Have Work-Created Health
Problems Than Manual Laborers
• Sitting Our Lives Away: Data Report Shows That The Average American Sits Through 6 Years of Our 20s.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Message Pillar #2:
Until one day they had developed bad posture.
• Good posture looks weird. (That’s how mainstream bad posture is.)
• Posture erodes throughout the day.
• XXXXXX visualizes what everyone else can see: your bad posture.
• XXXXXX’s vision is to give the body a voice. Our bodies are now part of the “Internet of Things”.
• 10 Slouchiest Cities/10 Straightest Cities
• Cities that Sleep the Most/Drive the Most
• Evolution of Man: New Data Reveals That Posture Deteriorates By 50% Between Ages 15 and 50
• The Bad Posture Pandemic: Why Slouching, not just Sitting, is the New Smoking
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Message Pillar #3:
And because of that they had back pain, looked less attractive, became less active and lost confidence.
And because of that they took pills, had surgery and made all sorts of (unsuccessful) efforts to fix their posture.
And because of that they got depressed, experienced side effects and ultimately lost some of the joy of living.
• Posture is at the center of everything we do.
• Life is movement.
• Bad posture is the leading cause of back pain, but also impacts breathing, circulation, digestion, core
strength, energy and confidence.
• Sitting is the new smoking.
• The Hidden Costs of a Hunchback: How a Single, Unconscious Health Habit is Impairing Your Health and
Your Wealth
• Silicon Valley Syndrome: New Study Illuminates The Aches and Pains That Ail Heavy Technology Users
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Message Pillar #4:
Until one day they started tracking their posture and setting small movement goals. (“. . .with XXXXXX.”
sometimes implied – sometimes explicit)
• The best posture is your next posture.
• You can’t change what you don’t measure/track/know. What gets measured gets done.
• The power of real-time, actionable feedback is that it builds awareness and gives your body a voice.
• The smallest movements and changes can make a huge difference.
• Biting off more than you can chew inevitably leads to failure at achieving your health goals.
• Patting yourself on the back when you make small achievements.
• Know Thyself: The Insider Secret to Finally Achieving Those Resolutions You Never Keep
• Hack Yourself Healthy: 10 Takeaways from People Who Have Used Technology to Reach Their Health Goals
• Stand-Ups and Seconds: Easy Health Power-Tweaks That Can Extend Your Life
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Message Pillar #5:
And since then they stood up more, sat less, moved more and developed correct posture. And so they looked
better/thinner/hotter, their backs were pain free, and they were healthier and more active. They burned more
calories. And so they felt alive, more powerful and were able to fulfill their potential in life and at work.
• There is such a thing as a power position. Correct posture boosts power, confidence and career prospects.
• Good posture is the natural cure for back pain. It can eliminate the need for medications and surgeries – and it
has no side effects.
• Good posture takes some body re-education.
• The Power Position: New Data Reveals That People With Good Posture Earn More, Are Perceived As “Hotter”
Than Slouchers
• Get Up, Stand Up (5 Times Every Hour): Desk Workers Who Stand Up 5 Times Every Hour Weigh Less, Have
Healthier Hearts Than Colleagues Who Sit Still
• The Habits of The Hot: 10 Easy Habits That Can Double Your Hotness + Your Happiness
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

Message Pillar #6: [The Moral of the Story]
And now they also have the superpower of knowing how to achieve any health goal or change any habit they
want.
• Small changes make a big difference – no matter what habit you’re trying to make or break.
• Real-time, actionable feedback is critical for achieving health goals and retraining your body.
• Technology can help us save ourselves from the health hazards of technology.
• 10 Habit-Changing Hints of Self-Hackers: 75% of People Who Maintained a 50 lb. Weight Loss Cite Small
Steps, Rewards, Tracking for their Success
• Retrain Yourself to Health: The 10 Habits of the Healthiest Americans (and How to Get Them)
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

*Messages can go under any column.
*Messages might not be strictly related to your offering
*Marketing/content program execution should be strategically
targeted around your offering.
*Messages must be aligned with your vision/mission.
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

tara@RTHNK.co
@taranicholle
#mindmodels

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