A strategic narrative is a document typically created by a product marketing team that tells the story of the company’s unique point of view and unique value that it brings to its customers.
It helps to define target audiences, the tech structure and stack, use cases, and case studies. Companies typically have a strategic narrative, or perhaps you know it as a framework, for their overall platform, as well as variants for each solution, product and feature they offer.
Strategic narratives go heavy on storytelling, building a narrative that is impactful and memorable. They are used to create pitch decks, sales decks, marketing campaigns, and content strategy.
Even a site’s information architecture can be built off of a strategic narrative. It should impact your keyword strategy, your CTAs, your targeting, and your pitches.
It infiltrates every aspect of a company, yet not all companies have a strategic narrative. They are hard to create. They require multiple iterations to find the best story and angle. They must be updated regularly and reliably.
They are truly a craft of a product marketing organization. But they aren’t the only ones who can create them.
Here are a few teams who help put strategic narratives together:
- The CEO and executive team, who provide the high-level direction and vision
- Communications/Marketing leaders, who help craft and refine the messaging
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Strategy teams, who ensure alignment with business objectives
- HR/People teams, who help translate it for employee engagement
And here are several ways they are used:
Internal use:
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Leaders reference it when making strategic decisions to ensure alignment
- Managers use it to help their teams understand how their work contributes to the bigger picture
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Employees use it to guide their day-to-day decisions and priorities
- HR uses it in recruiting to attract talent who resonate with the company's direction
External use:
- Marketing teams build campaigns that reinforce the narrative
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Sales teams incorporate it into their customer conversations
- Investor relations uses it to tell the company's story to shareholders
- PR teams use it to frame company announcements and milestones
Editorial planning:
- Content teams break down the strategic narrative into key themes and messages that can be explored through content
- These themes inform their content calendar and help prioritize which stories to tell
- The narrative guides the selection of topics that will resonate with both the audience and the company's direction
Content creation:
- Writers use the narrative to frame blog posts, videos, podcasts, and social media content
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Content teams weave elements of the company's journey and vision into case studies and customer stories
- The narrative helps maintain consistency in tone, messaging, and positioning across different pieces
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AI content production tools use it to create content at scale that isn’t generic, and that clearly maps back to the company’s overall POV.
Strategic narratives change over time. Feedback from teams on how the narrative and its themes are performing in market helps shape the narrative. Product updates, launches or partnerships also can change the strategic narrative, and at the very least should add to it.
A strategic narrative is not a static document. And any AI tool you use to create content should be pulling from the most recent strategic narrative your company has to land your message for your target audience.
Without this, you risk creating generic content at scale that isn’t ranked, isn’t cited, and doesn’t differentiate your brand from anyone else.
To prove this out, below you can find a strategic narrative then used to build a content strategy based on a fictional brand.
