The StoryOne process kicks off when our project manager sends you the Project Intake Form to complete and return to us. This valuable tool helps you crystallize your vision and goal for your upcoming marketing project. Your completed Project Intake Form shows us how this project fits into your existing marketing strategy, which stakeholders need to be involved and what supporting content is available to guide the creation of this new story. It also describes how this project will uniquely appeal to your specific audience and address their challenges. The Project Intake Form sets the foundation for a successful enterprise storytelling project.

In the next step, we interview your subject matter experts (SMEs). We prepare for our conversation by conducting an in-depth analysis of your Project Intake Form and supporting content to craft targeted, thought-provoking interview questions. Then, we host your SMEs and thought leaders in a collaborative discussion to draw out the salient story points for the project. This SME session helps our content team gather insider perspectives on industry topics, derive unique best practices and increase our understanding of technical concepts.

In this step of the StoryOne process, our content team starts connecting the dots of your marketing story. By tying together your strategy, goals and narrative arcs, we lay the groundwork for a captivating and cohesive marketing story that resonates with your audience. Our team of story experts distills all the project information and story threads into a succinct story brief. This brief serves as our roadmap, providing clear direction, key messaging points and creative inspiration to ensure that this project aligns seamlessly with your brand narrative and marketing objectives. In this step, we also map out the project delivery schedule, sending you a detailed Gantt chart that shows every stage of the project through finalization and project close.

All this preparation pays off in the writing step of the StoryOne process. At this point, our writer begins crafting the narrative that will bring your technology marketing story to life. By taking the insights gleaned from the story brief created in the brainstorm step and with your supporting content, the writer can tell an enterprise-level story, ensuring that every word aligns with your brand’s style, tone and voice — while also ensuring that your content stands out from your competitors and draws technology buyers to your offerings and solutions.

In the next step, the writer’s first draft may be done — but the StoryOne process isn’t over. Our content manager now uses our rigorous enterprise storytelling rubric to assess the first draft, gauging how well the content speaks to your desired audience, whether the key takeaways and overarching message of the project are present, and the effectiveness of the writer’s approach to telling the story presented by the SMEs and client stakeholders. The overall sense of story is evaluated throughout the draft, as well as the draft’s structure, flow, clarity and consistency. And the content manager works closely with the writer and content editor throughout the writing process to provide support, answer questions and manage the direction of the project.

Your draft continues to be refined in the editing step of the StoryOne process. In this step, our content editor cross-references your organization’s editorial style guide for corrections to grammar, punctuation, voice and tone, checks the technical accuracy of all products, solutions and other offerings, and refers to our storytelling rubric to ensure proper story structure and flow, as well as readability and creativity. The content editor not only upholds our high standards of editorial excellence and technical accuracy, but also goes further to ensure that your project tells the best possible story for your targeted audience.

StoryOne continues with a final proofing step, where our quality control editor completes one more review of the draft. At this stage, we proofread the draft to ensure that it is as close to final as possible, meticulously conducting thorough quality checks to catch any remaining errors or inconsistencies, as well as comparing your content against our rigorous standards for storytelling excellence. We take a last look at the draft through the lens of our storytelling rubric, which allows us to examine the draft from multiple angles to ensure that it’s telling your story in the best possible way.

When we deliver your first draft, it’s presented in your preferred template, ready for your team’s review and approval. By prioritizing clear communication and punctual delivery, we make sure you receive your content when you need it most. Although we deliver the first draft into your hands, our support doesn’t end there. With your first draft, you’ll receive clear instructions for next steps, including an updated Gantt chart. This rigorous scheduling process helps ensure that your draft stays on track as it proceeds through stakeholder review.

In this stage of the StoryOne process, we help you oversee stakeholder review and finalize your draft. This step includes gathering complete feedback from all your stakeholders, as well as routing your project through any corporate branding or content review teams. We help you shepherd your draft through your review cycles, coordinating feedback and facilitating discussions to gather comprehensive input. Leveraging our expertise in B2B technology marketing content, our team of story experts works closely with you to strategically refine your draft to maximize its impact and effectiveness.

If design is required for your project, we manage the entire process — from ideation and creative brainstorming to finalizing your PowerPoint, PDF, interactive asset or video — ensuring that your content is not only compelling in message but also visually engaging and aligned with your brand identity. Our design team can work with your templates, fonts, imagery and any other brand-specific requirements, or they can create a design from scratch according to your specifications. We also help you manage the design review cycle with your stakeholders, so that your final proof is the enterprise-quality, publication-ready asset you expect.

Through collaborative feedback loops and editorial refinement, we ensure that your content not only meets but exceeds your expectations — ultimately empowering you to achieve your marketing objectives with confidence. Learn more about our StoryOne storytelling process in this infographic.