Content & Story Overview

Crafting a resonating story and publishing great content

1. Why we need a great story and content

The strength of your growth marketing isn't just in tactics–it's in your story and content. Without a compelling narrative, you're just another voice in the noise. Your story is what makes people care, and your content is how you consistently deliver value.

This section of the Growth Codex focuses on four critical elements:

  1. Finding the Why: We're not looking for your why, but the why that compels your customers to choose you over anyone else. Clarity here is paramount.

  2. Determining What to Talk About: It's about perception. We must position ourselves as the premier problem-solvers in our niche.

  3. Deciding How to Package Our Content: This is where the magic of channel selection and customer journey stages comes into play.

  4. Making It Concrete with a Content Calendar: Bringing our plans into the tangible world where our customers live and breathe.

Content & Story Overview Template

2. The Four Steps of Content & Story

This Content & Story playbook is structured into four core steps:

Step 1: Why we do this

The story that deeply resonates with our core audience. You'll define your audience, their challenges, your differentiation, your solutions, and the transformation you create.

Step 2: What we talk about

The topics that position us as the go-to problem solvers. You'll identify themes, develop topics, and create your best content pieces yet.

Step 3: How we talk about it

Packaging and delivering our message in style. You'll learn content formats and channels for each stage: awareness (ToFu), consideration (MoFu), and conversion (BoFu).

Step 4: When we talk about it

Let's make our audience go AARRR every single month. You'll define your monthly content formats and create a content calendar for regular publishing.

3. What You'll Learn

By the end of this Content & Story section, you'll have:

  • A crystal-clear understanding of your audience and the story that resonates with them
  • Themes and topics that position you as the go-to problem solver
  • A strategy for packaging content across different funnel stages
  • A concrete content calendar for consistent publishing

4. Setting Up Your Claude Project

We're building on top of the Claude strategy project you already set up (it should have "strategy" in the project name). If you haven't set that up yet, check out the Growth Roadmap overview to get started.

Step-by-Step Setup Guide

  1. Open Claude (claude.ai or the Claude desktop app) and navigate to your existing strategy project (it should have "strategy" in the project name).

  2. Create a new chat:

    • Click "New Chat" within your existing strategy project
    • Make sure you're in the right project–this chat will build on the foundational context you already established
    • This new conversation will focus specifically on Content & Story work

  3. Verify your project context:

    • Your existing project already has foundational business context from your strategy document
    • This new chat will add content-specific context on top of that foundation
    • All conversations in this project can reference both your business context and your content strategy

Outcome: You have a new chat ready in your existing Claude strategy project for Content & Story work.

Create a new chat in your existing Claude strategy project

  1. Copy and paste the AI prompt below into this new conversation. This prompt will gather information about your current content state and goals. We already have your business context from the Growth Roadmap work, so we'll focus specifically on content.

  2. Answer Claude's questions as thoroughly as possible. The more context you provide, the better guidance you'll receive in subsequent lessons.

  3. Save important information that Claude summarizes, as you may want to reference it later or share it with your team.

Why This Matters

Having content-specific context in your Claude project means:

  • Claude understands your current content approach and can build on what's working
  • Recommendations are tailored to your existing channels and resources
  • You don't have to repeat content information in every conversation
  • The AI can connect insights across different steps of your content strategy
Gather current content state and goals
I'm starting a content and story strategy project. You already have comprehensive business context from our strategy document (business name, industry, offering, overall growth strategy). Now I need to establish context specifically about our current content approach and goals.
Before I dive into analysis, I need your input first. Please ask me questions to gather the following information:
1.**Current Content State**:
- What content do we currently create? (blog posts, videos, social media posts, newsletters, podcasts, etc.)
- Which channels or platforms are we active on? (website/blog, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, email, etc.)
- How often do we publish content? (daily, weekly, monthly, sporadically)
- What has worked well so far? (specific pieces, formats, or channels that performed well)
- What are our biggest content challenges? (lack of time, unclear strategy, low engagement, inconsistent publishing, etc.)
- What stage are we at with our content? (just starting, have some content but inconsistent, established content presence)
2.**Content Goals**:
- What are we trying to achieve with our content? (brand awareness, lead generation, thought leadership, customer education, etc.)
- How does content fit into our overall growth strategy? (How does it support our growth goals from the strategy document?)
- What would success with content look like for us? (specific metrics, outcomes, or changes we want to see)
- What's our primary focus right now? (getting started, scaling what works, improving engagement, etc.)
Please ask these questions one at a time or in logical groups, and wait for my answers before moving to the next set.
Once you have all my input, use it as a starting point for deeper research and thinking:
- Research best practices for content strategy in our industry/niche
- Analyze patterns and insights from what I've shared
- Consider how our current state aligns with our goals
- Identify gaps, opportunities, and strategic implications
Then provide a comprehensive summary that includes:
- What I told you (my current content state and goals)
- What you researched (best practices, industry insights, strategic considerations)
- Key insights and patterns you discovered
- Strategic implications for our content approach
- How this connects to our overall growth strategy
I can reference this comprehensive summary in future conversations.
**Important**: This is just the first step. We'll dive deeper into story framework, audience definition, content themes, formats, and calendar planning in the upcoming lessons. For now, focus on understanding where we are with content and where we want to go.

Outcome: You have documented foundational context that Claude can reference throughout your content strategy work.

Complete the foundational context conversation with Claude

Ready to Begin?

Once you've completed the Claude project setup and gathered your foundational context, start with Step 1: Why we do this to craft your resonating story. Each step builds on the previous one, so follow them in order for the best results.