Would you eat a black bean brownie? 🫘

Nobody wants to eat a black bean brownie.

You might fool yourself into believing it’s just as good as the real thing, but one bite of a moist and fudgy brownie made with real butter, sugar, and dark chocolate reveals the truth.

Black beans are having a pretty good run these days, showing up in tacos, salads, omelettes, etc. A great source of protein, they’re an excellent and versatile alternative to meat.

But they can’t do the heavy lifting required of a truly sublime brownie recipe.

The real thing > sad alternative.

At Hook Point, we emphasize the vital importance of beginning the content creation process at the right place: research. Lots and lots of research. We collect hundreds of references to analyze which elements and nuances are leading to virality. We call those nuances performance drivers, and once identified, we can apply those learnings to content ideation.

The quality of the references is paramount.

If we start with subpar references, we’re going to develop a faulty hypothesis about what’s driving virality. If we apply that to content creation, we’re going to end up with mediocre content, or a black bean brownie.

The tricky thing is, we often don’t accurately assess the quality of our references. This happens when we follow celebrity accounts or big brands. We see “big numbers” but fail to interpret them correctly in proportion to the celebrity’s following. In other words, sometimes celebrity content is significantly underperforming.

It’s a black bean brownie, and it’s not a great reference-point.

The right starting place is content that overperforms for the creator, format, or challenge. What’s getting wildly huge numbers–way more than the baseline? When you watch that content, you can almost feel how much better it is than the mediocre stuff. Even before you identify the performance drivers, the effect on the viewer is palpable.

It’s the real brownie.

Raise your reference standards and compare your content against superstar performers.
You want superstar results, so imitate the top 1% and save the black beans for soup.
You can learn more about how Hook Points can grow your business and brand and speak 1-on-1 with Brendan’s team here.