There is perhaps no more appropriate avatar for creative professionals (serving non-creative requestors) than the Black Knight. If you’re both a creative and a Monty Python & The Holy Grail fan, the correlation lightbulb should start glowing over your head about now.

(Thanks for the header image, FanPop.)

If you don’t know who the Black Knight or the Killer Rabbit of Caerbonnog are, trust me—the similarities are extremely accurate (from a creative plight perspective) for any writer, designer, or artist who is regularly asked to:

• Deliver creative.
• Create on a blank canvas (with preface of, “You’re the expert.”)
• Wait while ghosted on feedback.
• Smile diplomatically when told, “This isn’t what we were looking for.”

If you’re still struggling from Black Knight Syndrome (BKS), here’s how I solve it.

First, be clear on the following:

1. Is there usable existing content?
2. Have you completed a comprehensive content brief with requesters?
3. Have you set clear expectations on timelines and process?

In the spirit of transparent downloading, let’s dive into what I’ve learned along the way. I’ll even give you real examples from my current work for your do-it-yourself (DIY) edification.

Existing Content
If you already have it, you don’t need to re-create it.

If a content requester can’t tell you why they want it, who they want it for, and what they hope to achieve with it …hit pause.

If you don’t have exactly what’s requested, best practice is to proactively repurpose existing content for various channels and stages of the customer journey. HubSpot shares the following suggestions (and more) on converting what you already have into what you may still need:

• Turn blogposts into podcasts.
• Turn internal data into case studies.
• Use blog content for video content.

For go-to-market (G2M) campaigns and sales enablement, I lead my teams to proactively align and plan in Q4 for the coming year and then start with building master core content for my primary G2M initiatives. These master assets are then “versioned” on demand for partner, industry, and geography.

I call core content “80% baked”. Customizations bring it to 100%. Both core content and versions are reviewed and optimized monthly, quarterly, and annually based on data insight learnings.

SME/Requester Briefing
For each new project or campaign, I ask that all requesters and subject matter expert (SME) stakeholders be present for a briefing/kick off call. You should develop your own list, but the key to accurate, all-inclusive insights is specificity.

You should know:

• Which leader(s) are driving as the core team. (IBM calls this a Diamond Team.)
• The WHY, HOW & WHAT of the offer/story.
• What questions you need answered to create the content requested.

Here are the “fill in the blank” questions I ask my SMEs during briefing calls (vs asking them open-ended questions):

• We offer this:
• To this ideal customer profile (ICP):
• Targeting this decision maker (DM):
• In this industry:
• To address these pain points:
• With these specific solutions:
• To achieve these desired outcomes:
• Like we have successfully done for these companies:
• Which resulted in these quantifiable benefits:

Note: This is only a small portion of the entire questionnaire I come armed with. What I ensure is that key questions and research are clearly designated for C’s, SMEs, and Pre-Sales—with a separate list clearly marked for Content, Demand, and Sales as well. These include curation of existing content & case studies, sales & project data, strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats (SWOT) analysis, market & competitor analysis, and more.

The reason I avoid open-ended questions when interviewing tech SMEs and delivery leaders is that they are not in the business of marketing and storytelling. They’re in the business of delivering, and hopefully, overachieving on customer expectations on a project-to-project basis. The majority of non-marketing SMEs are not experts at visionary ideation—no matter how much book or course knowledge they have attempted to accumulate.

When briefing with your core team, don’t assume that you’re speaking the same language. Intentionally align on terminology related to the request.

If you have an engaged and collaborative SME, be thankful and nurture that relationship perpetually. Most don’t have time, and likely have already answered similar questions (often more than once)—so they may not want to talk to marketing again in the first place.

If this is the case, empathize and acknowledge their bandwidth challenges, assure them that this kick off intelligence should be all that’s needed for future content creation on this topic (apart from updates as needed), and then ensure that you live up to that promise by documenting and centralizing your kick off learnings.

Once trust is earned, lightbulbs turn on in collaboration, and success is achieved with these insanely intelligent individuals …I’ve found the toughest resisters become your fiercest allies.

FYI:
The importance of a proper digital asset manager (DAM) cannot be emphasized enough for centralizing, version control, analytics & more.

Sidebar: If you still store content in a combination of Sharepoint/One Drive, Google Drive, and on your personal hard drive …this is for you. Content is like data, you’re going to accumulate it either way, but the bigger your “pile” grows without proper centralization, organization, and management—the harder it is to dig yourself out and unlock its full potential.

I have no financial stake in recommending a DAM. “The best” option depends entirely on you, your circumstances, and budget. My personal preferences?

• For enterprises that can afford top-shelf, with in-tool content collaboration and website customization—I’m a die hard Sitecore fan.
• For everyone else, I’d highly recommend you look at Brandfolder for a “crawl-walk-run” scalable solution that most SMBs will never outgrow.
• Highspot and Seismic are my frontrunners for sales enablement DAMs that integrate well with the likes of Microsoft Office 365/Azure, Google Workplace (formerly known as G-Suite), Salesforce, and other marketing tech (MarTech).

…ok, back to the punch list.

Standard Timelines & Review
I set expectations that all new requests are given a minimum of 3-5 business days for completion of first draft, short form content. Long form and heavier lifts typically get 2-4 weeks for completion of first drafts.

Upon delivery of first drafts, my three-round review process starts with 48 hours in round one (all-inclusive change requests for accuracy), and 24 hours for rounds two (minor tweaks) and three (final polish). To keep delivery on schedule, requesters have to show up and give timely feedback. If it’s a priority deliverable, it should be a priority to give a draft the 30 minutes or less required to read and comment.

Once pre-design review is complete, assets are passed to the design team. The Creative Director should clearly define standard turnaround times, and should advise you of current workload/bandwidth on a design call hand off of the content.

It is up to the content lead to update requestors on time required for design. Once design assets are delivered, the content lead reviews with the design team for accuracy before sharing with requestors. Then the final asset is shared with a 24 hour deadline for “speak now” approval.

*Note: Only minor changes or missed quality assurance (QA) edits are returned to design for correction. Any major changes that were not previously communicated by SMEs or requestors are put into cue for the next versioning of the asset.

The only exception is if the asset is fundamentally not accurate, or includes unauthorized text. This often requires a reset of the content delivery timeline—especially if the fundamental story changes.

When (not if) requesters begin verbally lobbing off your limbs upon hearing that their delivery clock has been reset—embrace a “‘Tis but a scratch” mentality, remind them of the proactive steps you all took to ensure accuracy from the start, and consider it a lesson learned for future requests (no matter how painful).

Final Thoughts
As creative storytellers, we are prone to making common assumptions about the requesters we work with. Part of overcoming Black Knight Syndrome starts with our own personal growth by ditching the following:

• Assuming that our coworkers understand our marketing jargon, acronyms, et al.
• Assuming that what is obvious to us as marketing SMEs is obvious to other SME requesters.
• Assuming that what is obvious to us as storytellers is obvious to our audiences.

Most importantly, we must overcome our assumption that we can tell someone else’s story through our own experiences, resourcefulness, and research cunning. This is a trap that I have climbed out of more than once when being ghosted by distracted (and/or disgruntled SMEs).

If your company’s executive leadership hasn’t clearly defined your mission, vision, and purpose—how can you represent it as their “voice” in market? If you aren’t a tech expert, how can you accurately translate its complexity into relatable and engaging stories that convert audiences? You understand. Moving on.

Let’s touch on one of the biggest elephants in the room for creatives: non-creative requestors suddenly becoming creative experts upon seeing your work. “If you want Picasso or Monet, don’t ask for a Rembrandt …or worse, make me guess what’s in your head.” This kind of rant is something we’ve all vented to others (or the mirror) at some point.

But you can reduce (if not avoid) this. Include creative ideation in the briefing process and don’t take “I dunno” or a shoulder shrug as good enough …but do it with a knowing smile and friendly insistence. #softskills

I’ll end this here, but please send me your comments if you have additional questions or insights to share. (I’m always open to post topic requests as well!)


Sláinte!

J