Here's what we learned in the first month of our coaching sessions. The students? A handful of solo creators and science communicators working on climate and science content. They all struggled with the same pain point. A disconnect between their content and their audience.

Over a sprint of 4 sessions we looked at how the puzzle pieces fit together. That’s the topic of this entry. When does it all come together? How do you achieve “content fit”?

This entry can be useful for other creators, communicators and even small teams. Below is the condensed version of the playbook we used in coaching. But if it resonates, you can read the full article in the toolkit (link below).👇

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🧭 What “content fit” really means

When I was looking into my notes from the sessions, I started playing around with this quick equation (for the other geeks among us):

Content fit = (specific audience) × (clear promise) × (right packaging) × (sustainable cadence).

It’s not scientific by any means… but it does show a trend we see happening in real life. If any term goes to zero, the resulting content fit collapses. Even “good” ideas can’t save a channel if all the rest is out of sync.

That content fit is difficult to notice when you’re starting out. Fit shows up as “soft metrics”:

• People tend to click easier when you post
• Retention slowly improves
• You need less work as you did before.
• Comments start to echo why you’re doing this in the first place

Then there’s a side where we get stuck improving our content fit.

• We either focus too much on ourselves: what WE want to say, in OUR language.
• Or we focus too much on the imitation game. We chase what works for OTHERS and what’s TRENDING, without integrating our own voice into the mix.

Good content fit sits in the middle: your point of view translated into your audience’s current interest.

So let’s have a look how we bring those two worlds together 👇

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🤳 The Creator side

In the coaching sprint, “feeling stuck” traced back to one of the nodes in the helicopter view you’ve seen above. But what is our part in that, as the creator?

So let's go over the 5 biggest blocks students wrestled with from a creator perspective, and how you can get ahead with that:

1. Voice & promise Is your value proposition and unique angle really clear? During the sessions, we started to define this as your personal promise. "What is the promise for my audience, with each post I make?" ​ If you can finish this template, you should be well on your way: I help [who], achieve [outcome], by [approach/angle], not [what it’s not]. ​ ​Example: ​ I help content creators outside of the climate bubble, integrate more climate topics into their strategy, by showing them case studies and the tools they need to do so, not by overloading them with climate conversations.

2. Cadence & workflow A good idea with a bad workflow still takes up a lot of mental load. And that isn’t sustainable in any way. At that point you need to find a content system that works with you, not against you. We’re talking: templates, checklists, weekly time blocks and monthly sprints. ​ A caveat here: You need to design that system for the actual you, not the most optimized version of yourself that might never exist. So fit your cadence to the life you actually have this month.

3. Pillars → series Another common blocker was having too many topics to talk about, too many interesting angles, but no recurring patterns. We fixed this by clustering ideas into 3–4 pillars. These pillars are recurring themes both you and your audience care about and you can keep talking about. ​ From pillars, we then started to design series with fixed promises and formats. Series give you the creative box to play in. They also make your audience’s expectations very real and explicit.

4. Your visual identity When you’re starting out, every post starts as a blank canvas. In this phase you’re figuring out your style and usually overindex the visuals over the message. That’s how you grow your voice and get recognizable. Awesome! ​ But when you stay stuck in this process as your brand grows, you’ll loose a lot of precious time. That’s why I tell students to work with a standardized visual system: a small color palette (60, 30, 10 color rule), legible font (especially on mobile), reusable visual elements or layouts and contrast that creates visual hierarchy.

5. Personal barriers Last but not least: the mental blocks that came to the surface during our sessions. These personal barriers deserve a more in depth article, but I’m going to mention a few here anyway: ​ Identity permission Imposter syndrome Fear of rejection Perfectionism Time and energy drains Audience paralysis Over-intellectualizing Packaging procrastination Outcome anxiety Analytics anxiety ​ These are all very real and very normal blocks for creators. They show us where our personal triggers lay, and which emotions we don’t really have a grip on yet. Being aware of them is a first good step, being kind to yourself an even better one. And of course, know that there is professional help if you need it.

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👀 The Audience side

Then there is the other side: the people actually consuming your content. Most “audience problems” we saw during the coaching were tied to understanding our audience and the context wherein they consume content.

When we treat the audience as one blob (“people who like climate/science”) it blurs the promise we can make for them. It also makes packaging feel very generic and kind of boring. Nobody really feels like you're talking to them.

Your goal is to pick a who, name their reality right this moment, and meet them in the place and format they already are used to. Then you can earn the right to expand from there.

Think of this audience side of content fit as a reality check. If a piece underperforms, it’s rarely because the audience doesn’t exist. The disconnect exists because they didn’t recognize themselves fast enough.

We don’t really have the space to get into all the fixes (hence the more in depth article in the toolkit). But for now, this is what the students learned in a nutshell:

1. Go beyond “the public.” Pick one primary audience per post, defined by behavior, pain points and needs. Name why they would be interested in your content and how you can reach them.
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2. Translate your POV into their problem. Not all people wake up wanting more “biodiversity insights” or “climate news”. They wake up wanting fixes for their problems, questions or decisions they have to make. Rewrite your idea as their question, then frame your post as a concrete promise.
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3. Packaging is half the work. You have ~3 seconds to get someone to care. That means: get to the point and create a curiosity gap. You’ll also have to change the packaging depending on the rules of the platform and the audience that hangs out there.
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4. Design for retention. Getting someone to click is the first step. Then you have to keep them engaged and interested. The longer you keep someone with you, the more the algorithm will push your content.
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5. Make the next step obvious. One post, one ask. Place the CTA (call to action) where your audience’s engagement peaks. When you repeat your promise in the phrasing it feels like a natural next move to them.
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With all that said, you can read a more in depth take on everything in our toolkit. You'll find more examples and a diagnostic to scan for your own weak links.

Read it here

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🙋🏻‍♂️ Need help aligning this?

I’m opening the next 4 week coaching sprint (Beta) for October and November. We’ll work on strengthening your content fit on a 1-1 basis.

What’s in it for you:
✅ Weekly calls (2hr each), 4 weeks total
✅ If useful, free access to the workbook & resources
✅ Action plan for the coming week
✅ Recordings of our sessions
✅ WhatsApp or voice note support
✅ The biggest discount I can give

I can only take on a small number of beta students next round, so please sign up on the waitlist.
First come, first served :)

Details and signup

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📓 Creators For Climate Resources

• Missed a previous newsletter entry? Read here​
• Access all other resources in the Toolkit here​

A practical workbook with 45 exercises to get you started with turning research into content. ​ Get your copy

These 4 free field guides will help you get a helicopter view on your science communication. ​ Download here

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✨ That’s it for now, until next time!

If you're reading this, I'm glad to have you on our journey. Thank you, you awesome human being!

Written by Tom Janssen Creators For Climate