the Ultimate

CONTENT CHECKLIST
23 Strategic Questions to Supercharge Your Focus
BEFORE You Hire a Copywriter or Pen a Single Word!
aaron@iconiContent.com

Saving the World from BAD Content

A Few Preliminary Notes

Naturally, the more information you provideand the more concrete and specific that information isthe
better my understanding of your needs and goals will be.

Just remember, this is only a first step. What were after is facts, feelings, dreams, and data. Well do more
exploring later, so just try to relax, write from the heart, and be as honest as possible.

Before we get to your content, I want to get to know you the real you.

This might seem counterintuitive. After all, your business isnt about you. Its about them: your
prospects, audience, customers, and clients.

The problem is: most business owners are simply busy being busy.

Its what Charles E. Hummel called the tyranny of the urgent: instead of focusing on what really
mattersthe tasks and projects that truly move your business needle and create lasting, long-term
valuewe get bogged down by the virtually endless stream menial, trivial, daily demands.
Dont worry; I wont get too touchy-feely (after all, we just met).

But I am going to get philosophical.

Why?

Because Aristotle was right: The unexamined life is not worth living.

More to the point: The unexamined business is not worth running.

The fundamental mistake owners, entrepreneurs, and managers make is putting their business existence
before their personal essence.

What do I mean?

Putting your business existence before your personal essence means elevating what you doyour
services and productsabove who you areyour passions and values.

This common mistake drains you of focus, purpose, and (in the end) genuine excellence.

Moreover, it robs you of not only professional success but personal happiness as well.

Until you have a clear and compelling answer to the question, What do I really want? you dont stand
a chance of convincing other people to follow you.

And, of course, follow you is a just a nice euphemism for buy your stuff.

YOU
So, lets start with

1. What are you most passionate about? What do you love not just about what you do (i.e., your
business) but about who you are (i.e., your life)?
2. Who do you look to as the living embodiment this passion? What experts, industry leaders, and
other businesses do you most admire? Who have you learned the most from? What books,
seminars, websites, or training programs fire you up?

What websites are currently offering the services youre interested in offering as well?

3. What are your personal values?

First, the values. Start by listing your top five one-to-two-word defining or aspirational values in the
space provided.

Second, the definitions. Explain what those values mean to you. Write out a one-sentence
definition of each value that captures exactly they mean to you.

Third, the applications. Now, lets relate those values to real life: i.e., put some flesh on em.
Describe a personal example or illustration of what that value looks like in action.

Value 1: ________________________

Definition:

Application:

Value 2: ________________________

Definition:

Application:
 Value 3: ________________________

Definition:

Application:

Value 4: ________________________

Definition:

Application:

Value 5: ________________________

Definition:

Application:

4. How do your passions and values apply to your business?

This might take the form of a mission statement or some existing brand collateral. If it does, great.
Pull out whatever documents you have and start aligning.

If you dont have any existing documents, even better. Simply take your five top values and write
one addition sentence for each explaining how that value applies to your products, services, or
(especially) your audience.

V1:

V2:
 V3:

V3:

V4:

V5:

5. What is the one ideawhat we might call the one concept, the one commitment, or the one
promiseyour business, service, or product is built around?

YOUR AUDIENCE
6. Who is your audience: your one, target market or ideal prospect?

If you dont already have a concrete answer to this question, start generally. Are you B2B or B2C?
What size businesses do you serve? What industry?

Now lets move to demographics. Try to be as specific as possible about the actual person you want
to attract and sell to. Whats their average gender, age, income level, education, occupation,
family-size, ethnicity, etc.
7. What is the primary need that drives your audience to your type of business?

8. What are your audiences desires?

First, their pains

(1) What does your audience hate about their life, their job, or about your type of product or
service?

(2) What problems does your business solve? Is your audience aware of these problems?

(3) What are the two to three biggest headaches these problems create?

(4) What are the real-world consequences of these problems?

(5) What is your audience afraid of?

(6) What is your audience embarrassed or insecure about?

(8) Whats inconvenient about your type of business?

(9) Whats are the two to three biggest barriers to becoming a customer?

(10) What nightmare or hell (be as vivid and emotive as possible) does your business save its
customers from?

Second, their pleasures

(1) What does your audience love about their life, their job, or about your type of product or
service?

(2) What does your audience crave? What excites and entices them?

(3) Emotionally, what motivates your audience? Where do they find joy and hope?

(4) Professionally, what are they trying to accomplish? What are their goals?
 (5) What does your audience look for in your type of product or service?

(6) What tools of the trade does your audience use and value?

(7) Where (especially online) does your audience go to for answers, help, and to just hang out?

(8) What would a dream-come-true experience be for your audience?

9. What conversation(s) is your audience already having when it comes to your type of product or
service?

10. If you were a wizard, what is the one thought youd transplant into your ideal prospects mind?
 YOUR CONTENT
11. What type of content are you looking to create? This can be anything from a complete website to
a single landing page to a series of Tweets to a good, old-fashion direct-marketing sales letter.

12. What is the purposethe one goalof this particular piece of content (e.g., webpage, ad, flyer,
brochure, etc.)? What is its conversion point (i.e., its one, ultimate desired outcome)? Do you want
your content to collect an email, solicit a membership, sell a product, generate a lead, or something
else entirely?

13. What are the features of your business, product, or service? What do you do? What does your
product do? What do your services do? Again, be as specific as possible.
14. What are the benefits of your business, product, or service? What do your customers get from
your productin particular, what do your customers get emotionally?

In other words, rather than describe what your product does (i.e., its features), describe the kinds
of values and life improvements it provides. What real-life problems does your product solve?
What needs does it meet? What dreams does it move your customer closer to? What nightmares
does it keep at bay?

On the next page, create a features/benefit spreadsheet that ties each feature of your buiness to a
specific benefit. Describe as vividly and concretely as possible the you your customers will
become if they use your product or service.
Features Benefits
16. What are your audiences buying hot buttons? When it comes to purchasing a product or service
like yours, what issues, considerations, values, or outcomes are most important to your customer?
For example, is your audience concerned with price, quality (i.e., results), status, efficacy (i.e.,
speed), etc.?

17. VALUE PROPOSITION

What makes your business, product, or service unique? What (as you see it) is your value
proposition? That is, why would your ideal customer buy from you rather than one of your
competitors? What sets you apart?

Value Proposition Checklist:

Desirable: Is your value proposition focused on one key benefit or mass desire powerfully
verbalized?

Unique: Is your value proposition clearly differentiated from the competition in at least one
specific way?

Audience-Centered: Is your value proposition addressed directly to one target market?

Simple: Is your value proposition clear, concise, and memorable?

Quantified: Is your value proposition supported by at least one piece of concrete data?
 Value Proposition Templates:

Use one of the two fill-in-the-blank templates to make a rough draft of your Value Proposition.

The only way for [target market] to [feature/action], so you [benefit/outcome].

We do [feature/action] for [target market], but the difference is [blank] so that you
[benefit/outcome].

18. What are your current communication strategies? How do you market your business, product, or
service? How do your customers retrieve information about you (i.e., channels/media)?

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS
19. Do you have a motto or tagline for your business, product, or service? If not, would you like to
explore creating one?

20. Does your business have a brand strategy? Core values? Mission statement? Or identity?
21. Who is (or are) your major competitor(s) and where do you rank in your industry?

22. What are your companys short-term (6 months) and long-term (2-5 years) goals?

23. How do you measure success? What your current metrics and/or your future metrics?