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If the story idea isn’t pressure tested early on, the odds are that you’ll end up with more “Me too” material than is good for the company’s brand. Or, you’ll have story themes that simply won’t be timely or adequately supported.
Pressure testing the story idea calls for challenging its promoter – whether it’s the originator of the idea or a regional marketing person, say – to explain why it’s relevant now, how it supports the company’s objectives, who the target audience is, and so on. Only when the answers satisfy those held accountable for defending the company’s brand can there be any discussion of language use, narrative flow or potential placement for the story.
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PLEASE, NO! |
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YES, PLEASE |
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Muddled premise |
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Compelling theme |
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Inconsistencies |
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Accessible story |
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Jargon |
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Clear, simple words |
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Dense text |
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Short, crisp sentences |
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Misspellings |
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Verbs + nouns > adjectives |
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Many words of many syllables |
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Engaging introduction |
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Passive tense |
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Conclusion prompts action |
Ergo Editorial can help you test those story proposals. (We bring those disciplines to bear with every story assignment that we take on.) We’ll also show you how to build your own testing processes.
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