THREE DISCIPLINES

25 YEARS TO COVER

Expertise.

I developed a common-sense content framework that works fluidly across different content systems. The common denominator is me.

01 /

Content strategy

A real content function is a system. The posting schedule is the smallest visible part.

Beneath the posting schedule sit ten stages – goals, personas, topics, stories, formats, style, distribution, deploy, measure, experiment – each with its own supporting documents and its own success criteria. I designed and run it from a single master context document that holds the company's positioning, so every piece of work stays on brief without anyone having to ask. AI is applied at six specific points where it earns its place – first drafts, persona research, brief generation, scheduling, experimentation and series planning. Everywhere else, a human reads on behalf of the audience and rewrites until it lands.

Define goals

Strategic goals doc. Ongoing and campaign objectives.

Create personas

Customer personas doc. Challenges, motivations, demographics, mindset.

AI ↗ Persona research – evolve with new data.

Topics

Master topics doc. 3 – 5 core categories, approved topics, competitor gaps.

AI ↗ Content brief generation – topic > persona > goal.

Stories

Storytelling templates. Structure that keeps the human element in.

Content formats

Format specifications. Written, visual, interactive, audio.

Style + tone

Brand and style guide. SEO, AIO, GEO keyword library.

AI ↗ Multi-format production – first drafts that maintain value.

Distribution

Channel strategy guide. The PESO balance – owned, earned, shared, paid.

AI ↗ Distribution scheduling – posting calendars.

Deploy

Calendar template. Repurposing matrix. Cross-department content needs.

Measure

Metrics and reporting doc. 3 – 5 metrics per goal. Dashboard structures.

AI ↗ Experimentation frameworks – A/B planning and analysis.

Experiment

Experimentation log. What we have tested, what we have learned.

AI ↗ Series planning – 12-month calendars, topic diversity, goal alignment.

ANCHOR

Master context doc.

Single source of truth across all ten stages. Without it, every step drifts.

Product and service descriptions
Brand personality
Key differentiators

Description of industry
Approved messaging
Company background and positioning

AI AUGMENTATIONS

Six deliberate points.

AI is an expert writer but not always an expert reader. I apply it where it earns its place and read everything back as the audience.

02 Persona research – evolve with new data.

03 Content brief generation – topic > persona > goal.

06 Multi-format production – first drafts that maintain value.

07 Distribution scheduling – posting calendars.

09 Experimentation frameworks – A/B planning and analysis.

10 Series planning – 12-month calendars, topic diversity, goal alignment.

APPLIED AT

Sorted

£600K of sales pipeline supported by the content ecosystem this system produces.

APPLIED AT

BankNXT

Page views grew from 1,193 to 46,116 – a 3,766% lift – with editorial standards intact.

APPLIED AT

FoodBev

Editorial work so central that the parent company rebranded around the publication.

02 /

Internal communications

Internal communications reveals its real value when the formal systems break down.

I design for that moment – channels, rhythms and information architecture that function when an organisation needs them most. The measure is whether people have what they need to do their jobs, and whether they trust the organisation enough to keep doing them well.

Fig. 2 · Channel architecture rebuilt at Sorted, July 2024.

COLLAPSE → RESPONSE → OUTCOME

THE COLLAPSE

In July 2024, Sorted's internal information system collapsed. The structures that had been carrying organisational trust and clarity went with them. Employees were working without reliable information about direction, leadership or future.

MARKETING TEAM

largely made redundant

CEO

departed mid-2024

EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

ceased

TRUST + CLARITY STRUCTURES

gone with them

Two channels designed to do different jobs.

Savvy

AUDIO · PRIVATE · WEEKLY

The information channel that replaced collapsed leadership comms. A reliable source of truth about who was leading, what was changing, and what held – with a rhythm when everything else had gone quiet.

Episodes

Total downloads

Adoption rate

Ketchup

WRITTEN · WEEKLY → MONTHLY

The complementary written record. Comprehensive reach across the team, and a cadence that settled as the organisation stabilised. Designed to be read – not skimmed.

At launch

Once stabilised

Reach across the team

OUTCOME

80% employee engagement – measured during restructure, not despite it.

INDUSTRY BENCHMARK

47% satisfaction with internal communications quality.

PERFORMANCE

+70% above industry benchmark, achieved in crisis.

CITED

Key credential in my March 2025 promotion to Head of Content & Communications.

FOODBEV MEDIA · 2008 – 2015

Coached print journalists into podcasting in 2009. Cross-format internal coaching as the company moved from print to digital – internal communications leadership before the discipline had a name in small organisations.

SHAUN WESTON MEDIA · 2018 – 2024

Six years working alongside the marketing and executive teams at ieDigital, Aito, 11:FS, Indeed and others. Outside-in perspective on how organisations carry information across their layers.

THROUGHOUT

The principle is the same: internal communications is the foundation of external brand. When the inside is clear and trusted, the outside has something honest to amplify.

03 /

Content maturity

Most organisations know they need content. Fewer know how to make it work strategically.

Connect it to revenue, culture, competitive positioning, long-term authority. The gap between "we make content" and "our content does these things, here is the system that does them" is what I call content maturity. Closing that gap is where I have consistently had the most impact – from reactive to strategic, from output to operating model.

Three transformations on this page.

BEFORE → AFTER · A MATURITY MOVE IN EACH CASE

2008 – 2015

FoodBev Media

FROM

Standard trade-publisher website.

1M+ annual visitors. Category-defining title. Parent company rebranded around it.

2015 – 2018

Backbase · BankNXT

FROM

Near-zero corporate blog.

3,766% page-view growth across the run. FT-cited. Breaking Banks syndication channel.

2024 – 2026

Sorted Group

FROM

No content strategy. No brand voice. No measurement framework.

8.65% LinkedIn engagement against a 3 – 4% industry benchmark. 80% internal engagement against a 47% industry average.

Fig. 3 · Diagnostic intake. The four questions I ask on day one.

QUESTION

What does the business need content to do?

WHAT THE ANSWER REVEALS

Marketing? Sales enablement? Recruitment? Trust? Each answer changes the system that comes next.

QUESTION

What exists, and is it working?

WHAT THE ANSWER REVEALS

An audit of channels, cadence, ownership and reach. Most companies have more content than they think – most of it is doing less than they think.

III

QUESTION

Where are the gaps between what is being communicated and what the audience needs to hear?

WHAT THE ANSWER REVEALS

Audience fluency before topic fluency. The gap is usually where the next twelve months of work lives.

QUESTION

What does success look like, and how will we measure it?

WHAT THE ANSWER REVEALS

Three to five metrics per goal. Quality over volume. Reporting that closes the loop into the experimentation stage of the framework.

WHAT I BUILD FOR

The questions are about system design. The content is the medium; the system is what makes it sustainable. I build the infrastructure that makes the next campaign unnecessary.

04 /

AEO and the return to authority

AN HONEST POINT OF VIEW FROM INSIDE THE WORK

AEO at scale is new territory. Most people claim expertise, but in practice they're extrapolating from SEO principles and a handful of early experiments. I'm in that group – and I think that's the honest place to be right now. Anyone selling certainty about answer engines is selling something.

What is becoming clear is that AI favours content that's authoritative, frequently cited, clearly structured and answers the question directly. These systems pattern-match on trust signals – which is why I think we're leaning back into traditional publishing values, where trust and authority were always the point. Being visible is good, but not if you're cited for the wrong things. It has to be definitional authority – being the source on a topic, not just present in the conversation.

Structured formats earn citations by being closer to encyclopedia-entry logic than blog-post logic. I've run informal tests with Claude and Perplexity to watch how content actually surfaces, and they keep revealing the same thing – a return to the trust and authority that have always underpinned good writing. The tools are new. The fundamentals aren't.

GET IN TOUCH

Looking for senior permanent roles in B2B technology.

Senior content and communications leadership — SaaS, fintech, trade media. Available immediately. Open to remote and to relevant on-site in the north of England. I'll happily share CV and references on request.

Get in touch Or connect on LinkedIn: in/shaunweston1 →