What is SMART Content and why do you need it?
While there will always be a time and place for text heavy content – i.e., when needing to give context and depth on a complex subject or when an author needs a forcing function to articulate a concept in long-form, or when doing an SEO-enhancing blog on a site – or is that too meta? (or is THAT joke too meta?) – ScaleUp Edge is adopting what we like to call “SMART Content.”
ScaleUp SMART Content in a nutshell is specialized content designed to provide the audience with a common language and the ‘what and why’ behind each topic to speed up the evaluation & prioritization for decision-making.
We aim to create content created by highly experienced people, evolve it and continue to make it deep. Our content is vetted and approved by those that do it, not just a “check the box”. Our mission is to provide only impactful content that gets YOU an ‘aha’ moment, baked into our ScaleUp Playbook.
The principles of SMART Content
There is Value in Visuals.
Using a visual approach sets context faster than any written word ever will. The faster a topic or trade-off decision is processed, the more improved the outcome will be for the stakeholders and audience. Just ask 3M – they found that visuals improve learning by 400% and we process them 60,000 times faster than text.
If Text is Necessary, there are alternatives.
If text-heavy is absolutely necessary, there are still alternatives. For example, create a video-over recording or selfie-video instead of just sending a raw PowerPoint to give additional context and a better user-experience for consuming. Or decode it down to an infographic – those are part of the 1% of information that can actually get through to the brain.
Tell a Story
We can’t emphasize this one enough. It’s the way our brains are wired. Literally – it activates the part of our brain that decodes meaning and can even synchronize both the audience and presenter’s brain. If there’s a personal connection.
Keep it Short & Sweet
Create everything in bite-sized modular chunks. In our fast-paced digital world of Tik Tok and Snapchat, the average attention span has dropped to 8 seconds – that’s shorter than a goldfish.
Focus
Ensure every ‘chunk’ has a single, direct message. When it’s quick to consume, you want your audience to walk away with just one core concept in mind (i.e., we hope you take away the piece that need to rethink how you’re creating content). And 81% of people admittedly only skim all content they need – so make it skim-friendly.
It’s About the ‘Aha’ Moment
The content isn’t about the need to do something, it’s how to do it. Dig into the framework mind shift that must happen for your singular message to have a successful action attached. The entire goal of SMART content is to shorten the path to a decision and reduce the friction to move.
