Bear Essentials: Why Your Content Feels “All Over the Place”
Perception
Your content feels chaotic. And if we're being transparent, you’re probable annoyed because you’ve tried to clean it up and any improvements are minor, short-lived, or both. New governance? Check. Updated standards? Check. A shared workflow no one actually follows? Double check.
And yet… chaos.
Reality
You’ve talked about bringing order to your content operations, and maybe even implemented (or planned to at least) a few fixes. But you’re still starting with “We need a thing” instead of “Who is this for and what problem are we solving?”.
Until the team aligns on today’s audience and purpose, everything downstream is guesswork. Governance is great, and can tidy up your content house, but only a strategy that starts with the audience can build the right one.
Why It Matters
- Without clarity on who it's for and why they want/need it, every piece becomes a guess.
- Teams waste time and exhaust themselves trying to understand or chasing undefined targets.
- The audience sees inconsistency, not the effort or competence behind the experience.
What Most Teams Get Wrong
- They treat and think about "audiences" the same as they did two years ago, if they are really considering them at all.
- They don’t align on one defined, single priority at a time ... they have turned into ocean boilers.
- They believe “more content” = “more impact.” And they are wrong.
What to Do Instead
- Clearly define target audience segments, and review/update quarterly.
- As part of the strategy/planning, state in one sentence the single problem you will solve. If you can't do that, you aren't ready to the create content.
- Audit existing content for possible reuse. And while you're at it, map the existing content (and the new content you create) back to at least one of the defined goals.
Seventh Bear’s Take
Chaos isn’t the content’s fault; it’s the lack of focus and audience-centricity in its creation.
