I spend 10 hours a day writing and after years of not really knowing how I kept sticky content ideas coming, I reverse-engineered a process that I called the “Micro-Targeting Methodology”. Here’s how it works.

We live in a world that’s saturated with noise – and our audiences are experts at zoning out. In this environment, the biggest enemy is sameness.

If your business writing, whether it’s a LinkedIn post, a report or an email, sounds like everyone else’s, you’re serving up “Oros at room temperature”.

Tepid Oros content doesn’t sell, persuade or even inform effectively. In contrast, sticky content that’s sharp, timely and useful cuts through the sludge.

I spend 10 hours a day writing and after years of not really knowing how I kept the ideas coming, I reverse-engineered a process for generating sticky concepts for business purposes. I call it the Micro-Targeting Methodology.

This methodology relies on one golden rule: Either say something no one has ever said before, or say something unoriginal in a completely original way.

It has three practical steps. Use them to transform your content from tepid Oros to ice-cold passion fruit and soda. (The Rose’s one, not the fongkong one.)

1. Sticky content via The Shrink

Most content creators start too big. They write about “the market” or “strategies”. That’s telling, not showing. Your first step in sticky content ideation is The Shrink: force yourself into micro-focus. Find the tiny, specific detail that illustrates your large point. 

For instance, don’t write about “company culture”. Write about the moment the CEO left a board meeting to deliver a birthday freezochino. Instead of focusing on what you want to say, focus on what the audience needs to know. 

Practical tip: Eliminate vague buzzwords like unique, leading and innovative. Tell us how you innovate, don’t say you do. Show us the weird brainstorming ritual or the rejected prototype made of bottle tops, gemclips and Lego.

2. Sticky content via The Rabbithole

Once you have a specific topic, research the juice out of it. This often means going down an internet rabbithole, to try to connect your subject matter to something relatable (yes, something sticky!) – like pop culture, current events, weird weather, the rugby…

Relatability works because we are human beings communicating with other human beings. When you manage to find an overlap between your dry business concept and, say, Coke-flavoured Oreos, you don’t sound like a boring corporate bot.

Practical tip: Try the “X is like Y because Z” test, like so: Project kick-offs are like first dates. Too eager and you scare them. Too aloof and they don’t come back.

3. Sticky content via The Leap

The pinnacle of creative ideation is The Leap – making a powerful, often humorous connection between two completely unrelated things. This uses analogy to deliver actionable insights.

As a professional speaker, I am sometimes asked to speak for “exposure”. I compare myself, in this context, to a dentist. You can’t contract a dentist to clean your teeth and offer to pay them apples – or a handshake and a LinkedIn shout-out. That analogy, though unusual, lens the concept gravity.

Practical tip: Write your sticky content message on a sticky note. Now open your fridge. Pick the first thing you see. Force a metaphor between the two, like so: Your company’s onboarding process is a jar of gherkins: oddly intimidating, smells funny and no one’s sure how to open it. If it makes you laugh and wince, you’ve nailed The Leap.

Bottom line: The secret to truly sticky content writing isn’t a muse or a Manhattan. It’s the guts to get specific, curious and very, very weird.

Go on: Get weird.

Liked this? Good. Now stop lurking and browse my training options. Consider booking me to speak. Or let’s chat about a consult or some killer copy. Go on now; don’t be shy.