SYSTEM 04 · CONTENT STRATEGY
POSTS EXPIRE.
THE POINT
DOESN’T.
A post is spent the day it ships. The point comes back stronger — in the next post, an email, the sign in the window. I build the layer that decides what your brand keeps saying — the point of view, the pillars, the formats — so every piece adds to the same case instead of opening a new one.
The part of the brand that has to keep speaking.
30–90 MINUTES · ONE WRITTEN READ · $750–$2,500 CREDITED TOWARD BUILD OR DIRECTION
01
THE PROBLEM
A FULL CALENDAR.
AN EMPTY
ARGUMENT.
The posts go out — most weeks, anyway. One’s a tip, one’s a holiday, one’s whatever happened yesterday. Each is fine alone. Read the feed top to bottom and no two of them make the same point, and the good one — the post that actually landed — never got a sequel. A year of publishing, and the archive proves you were busy.
That’s not a content problem. That’s the brand’s point of view showing up in public without a script — so whoever’s posting invents one on the spot. Volume can’t fix it; ten scattered posts a week just scatter faster. Content works when the posts take turns making one point — until the market can finish the sentence. A brand that says something different every week has said nothing all year.
A calendar organizes the posting. It has nothing to say. A year from now the feed is full and the market still can’t finish your sentence.
02
THE FIX
SIX COMPONENTS.
ONE ARGUMENT.
Brand Strategy sets the position. Content Strategy turns it into a repeatable public argument. Editorial Point of View, Content Pillars, Social Direction, Editorial Plan, Story System, and Format Library define what belongs, why it belongs, where it goes, and how it can repeat without becoming the same post. The Diagnostic decides which parts need to be built, repaired, or retained. Marketing Systems handles production, distribution, follow-up, and measurement.
02.5
FIELD NOTE
SAME ARGUMENT.
NEVER THE SAME POST.
Atlas Meat-Free Delicatessen is where that content strategy had to work in public. The Field Note below uses the company social archive and founder operating record to document the editorial system behind the feed: Editorial Point of View, Content Pillars, Social Direction, Editorial Plan, Story System, and Format Library. It follows the shift from category-led vegan posts to a food-first Atlas voice through the 2016 Facebook outsourcing trial, founder-controlled Instagram, recurring Sunday Service posts, customer response, partner activity, and cultural remixes.
03
THE PROCESS
FOUR PHASES.
NO MYSTERY.
No trend audits, no posting quotas. The process is structured, transparent, and built around working sessions where you watch the voice take shape. The Diagnostic comes first. If Content Strategy is the right move, the written read becomes the brief for the four phases below.
04
INVESTMENT
NOT PRICED OFF A MENU.
SCOPED BY THE DIAGNOSTIC.
Build engagements run $10K–$60K. You don’t have to figure out where Content Strategy lands inside that range — that’s the Diagnostic’s job. The exact number is fixed, in writing, before you sign.
Your written scope names which system components are included. Working sessions, handoff, and the 30 / 60 / 90-day rollout plan are standard in every Build.
Builds start at $10K — under two months of a $65K–$100K marketing hire.
THE FIRST STEP
Every Build starts with a Diagnostic, and it decides whether Content Strategy is the move at all. If it isn’t, you stop there. The entire Diagnostic fee is credited toward a Build or Direction engagement started within 90 days of the Diagnostic call.
Build is the engagement above. Direction is ongoing senior judgment — from $4,500/mo, month-to-month.
05
IS THIS FOR YOU
THE HONEST FIT CHECK.
I say no to the wrong projects so the right ones get done. Here’s the truth about who this is and isn’t built for.
06
QUESTIONS