Guidelines aren’t limitations when it comes to storytelling, they’re a foundation. Rather than getting in the way, they help you get storytelling more right more of the time. In this talk for the Content Deli, part of Brighton Digital Festival, I looked at: - why you need guidelines - what guidelines you need (and how to create them) - How to make sure your guidelines are used

1. www.brilliantnoise.com | @la_pope
Content Delicatessen
How guidelines support
great storytelling
28th September 2015

2. Telemax, CC BY-SA 2.0
Tell them
what you’re
going to tell
them.
Tell them.
Tell them
what you told
them.

3. How guidelines support great storytelling
What I’m going to tell you
1. Why you need guidelines.
2. What guidelines you need (and how to create them).
3. How to make sure your guidelines are used.

4. 1
Why you need
guidelines

5. 1. Guidelines ≠ limitation.
2. The larger the scale of your content
programme, the more true point 1
becomes.
JePoirrier, CC BY-SA 2.0
Guidlines complement creativity

6. It should:
- be relevant to the audience
- be true and unique to the brand
- be usable
- be "ndable
- be repeatable.
OpenSourceWay, CC BY-SA 2.0
Content should be creative, and more…

7. How guidelines support great storytelling
What guidelines will do for you
1. Strengthen and di#erentiate your brand.
2. Promote uniformity across teams, channels and formats.
3. Make collaboration easier and more predictable.
4. Make sure content resonates with your audience.
5. Give you a benchmark to judge content against.
6. Create better content faster (and cheaper).

8. Pennuja, CC BY 2.0
Guidelines
help you get
storytelling
more right,
more of the
time.

9. 2
The guidelines you
need

10. Core content guidelines
1. Message architecture
2. Voice, tone and style guide
3. Templates
4. Process
How guidelines support great storytelling

11. 1. Message architecture
How guidelines support great storytelling
- “A hierarchy of communication goals that re$ects
a common vocabulary” - Margot Bloomstein.
- Creates consensus about what’s important.
- Ensures consistency in messaging.
CrazyGabe, CC BY-SA 2.0

12. One way to create a message architecture
1. Create/source a set of cards with qualities e.g.
traditional, customer-"rst, good value.
2. Get stakeholders to sort them into categories: who we
are, who we aren’t, who we want to be.
3. Merge ‘Who we are’ and ‘Who we want to be’ - be
aspirational. Look for con$icting ideas e.g. traditional and
edgy. Group similar cards.
4. Prioritise your groups.
5. Create messages that tell the story of each group in
relation to your organisation.
How guidelines support great storytelling

13. 2. Voice, tone and style
How guidelines support great storytelling
- A comprehensive guide to writing for a brand/
organisation.
- Good writing goes unnoticed, bad writing breaks
the $ow.
- Voice, tone and style are discrete elements.
TheRedProject, CC BY-SA 2.0

14. Voice
Voice is a description of the unique, distinctive voice of
your brand. This should cover:
- its personality
- its rhythm and pace
- its vocabulary.
How guidelines support great storytelling

15. Playful, cheeky, fun.
Zoonabar, CC BY-SA 2.0 Macmillan
Personality: Innocent
Personal, inspiring, straightforward.
Personality: Macmillan

16. Punchy, punctuated, staccato.
SaraRichards, CC BY-SA 2.0 Penhaligon's
Rhythm and pace: Oxfam
Lyrical and $owing.
Rhythm and pace: Penhaligon’s

17. Plain and simple.
OVO Porsche
Vocabulary: OVO
Technical and specialist.
Vocabulary: Porsche

18. One way to create voice guidelines
1. Create/source a set of cards with adjectives on them e.g.
friendly, fun, playful, serious, dependable, musical.
2. Get stakeholders to sort them into categories: what we
sound like, what we don’t sound like, what we want to sound
like.
3. Merge ‘What we sound like’ and ‘What we want to sound
like’ - be aspirational. Look for con$icting ideas e.g.
traditional and edgy.
4. Group similar cards and prioritise those groups.
5. Work the groups into concrete statements that describe
your voice, with explanations and examples.
How guidelines support great storytelling

19. Tone
Tone is how to use your voice in di#erent situations.
Your brand voice is singular, but you can use it with many
di#erent tones.
Separating voice and tone means you can be
empathetic to your users.
How guidelines support great storytelling

20. Congratulatory, funny, casual.
Mailchimp, Voice and Tone Mailchimp, Voice and Tone
Tone: success
Helpful, calm, serious.
Tone: failure

21. Creating tone guidelines
1. Create an outline of the di#erent kinds of customers/users
and the kind of journey they will be on when they come to
your site.
2. Think about (or event better - ask about) the emotions that
people are feeling, and the tone that will be most
empathetic in that situation.
3. Write some guidelines, with examples, to help people
choose the right tone and understand what it sounds like.
How guidelines support great storytelling

22. Style
Style is a house ‘style’ for what your writing looks like, for
example where to use capitals, how to spell certain
words, reminders on grammar, vocabulary.
How guidelines support great storytelling

23. Creating style guidelines
- Copy, copy, copy! Pick a house style you like, and create your
own version of their guidelines.
- Take a look at:
- The Economist Style Guide
- Oxford University Style Guide
- BBC News Style Guide
- MailChimp Content Style Guide
How guidelines support great storytelling

24. 3. Templates
How guidelines support great storytelling
- Helps you to get information from experts/
stakeholders.
- Ensures quality and consistency.
- Makes things faster and simpler.MrBill CC BY 2.0

25. One way to create templates
1. Print out one example of each type of content you
produce.
2. Break it down and annotate the components that make-
up the page; e.g. title tag, meta description, H1,
introduction, sub-headings, images, captions.
3. Think of and annotate the rules that are associated with
each component part; e.g. headline format, subject
matter, maximum character count.
4. Make a template where each component part is a "eld,
and each "eld is annotated with the corresponding
guidelines.
How guidelines support great storytelling

26. 4. Process
How guidelines support great storytelling
- Who
- What
- When
- HowJoePage CC BY-ND 2.0

27. One way to create content work!ow
- Write down every single step it takes to create a piece
of content, how long it took, who was involved. Include
everything, however inconsequential it seems.
- Look for the good points and pain points in that
process: what worked well, what was hard, what took
longer than it should have?
- Re"ne the process to make it smoother, faster and
repeatable.
How guidelines support great storytelling

28. 3
How to make sure
your guidlines are
used

29. Futurilla, CCY BY-SA 2.0
It isn’t enough
just to have
guidelines,
you need to
get people to
use them…

30. Sending an email probably isn’t going to cut
it.
Guidelines need to be tangible part of your
content culture.
Sbeebe, CC BY 2.0
What’s the best way to get people’s
attention in your organisation?

31. How guidelines support great storytelling
A few ideas for getting guidelines into use
- Plant beautifully printed and bound copies planted
around the o%ce.
- Run training sessions to get people familiar with new
guidelines.
- Create a digital version that’s easy to "nd and easy to
search.
- Incorporate elements into your templates as a pre-
sign o# checklist.
- Look into what support your CMS/content platform
can o#er.

32. How guidelines support great storytelling
A quick note on content software
Content software can make sure your guidelines are
used.
Some CMSs and content platforms (Percolate,
GatherContent) have impressive integration for style
guides and templates .

33. 4 In conclusion

34. What I told you
1. (Good) guidelines complement creativity.
2. Guidelines help you get storytelling more right, more
of the time.
3. A message architecture, voice, tone and style guide,
templates and processes are the core guidelines you
need.
4. Creating guidelines should be collaborative.
5. Don’t let your guidelines die as a PDF on a share
drive.
How guidelines support great storytelling

35. Thank you
www.brilliantnoise.com | @brilliantnoise
lauren.pope@brilliantnoise.com
@la_pope