Each post carries exactly one core message. You create the core message in the Idea step, after you pour out all your ideas and before you lock the outline. From then until you publish, every choice in the post comes back to this sentence.
What is in a core message?
A core message is pressed out of the context of a post: three answers about the customer, the problem and the solution. It holds nothing else. No story, no list of features, no call to action.
The three parts of the context
| Part | Question | Sign it is done |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | Who is this post for? | You name them with their own words, not with expert words |
| Problem | What are they stuck on? | One problem, tied straight to the idea of the post |
| Solution | What way do you offer, and where does it take them? | The way comes from work you did yourself, and it names a result |
Leave one part out and the sentence tips over. With a customer and a problem but no solution, readers feel understood but see no way out. With a solution but no customer, the sentence becomes an ad sent to no one.
These three parts are also what you tell AI when you ask it to filter a recording transcript: who the post is for, what problem it covers, what the solution is, plus the post type (Know, Trust or Love).
One sentence, one post
A core message is one sentence long. It is close to a title, but it says more. A title makes one promise. A core message says what way you use, for which problem, with what result.
A post with four or five messages grows long, and readers remember nothing. They also don’t know what to do next. When you find two messages, you have two posts. The extra ideas are not deleted. They go on a list saved for other posts.
What does the core message do in Idea - Write - Edit?
The core message is the job of the Idea step, but you keep using it through the next two steps. Cuong puts it this way: 80% of a post’s success is in the Idea step, and the core message decides whether that step is done.
In the Idea step, the core message is the filter
The Idea step goes in this order. Answer the three starter questions (what it is, how it works, why it matters). Pour out all your ideas. Set the core message. Then filter. You usually pour out 20 to 30 ideas, sometimes 40 to 50. Each idea gets one question: does it serve the core message?
Keep the ideas that serve it, and save the rest. After filtering, an outline usually keeps six to eight big ideas. In one of Cuong’s own rounds, about 50 ideas came down to 7.
The core message is the filter of the Idea step, not an item in the outline. It never becomes a section of the post. It sits outside the post and decides which sections get in.
In the Write and Edit steps, it keeps the post on course
Once you have a core message and an outline locked to it, the Write step goes straight into the main content. The opening shows up on its own once you have answered every idea, so you don’t need to write it first.
In the Edit step, the core message is the yardstick for the four things readers skim: the title, the description, the opening and the main content. All four must say the same thing. The Edit step does not change the title or the outline, because changing the title drags the ideas below it along, and the post goes off key.
How is a core message unlike a title, description or outline?
These four all talk about one post, so they are easy to mix up. The title is a promise to readers. The description is a quick summary that helps them decide whether to read on. The outline is the script of the post, made of the ideas you chose.
The core message stands behind all three. Whatever the title promises, the core message must hold. The description often reuses the core message sentence itself. The outline keeps the ideas the core message picks. So when you check a post, set all four next to the core message and see whether they say the same thing.
Each one does its own job:
| Core message | Title | Description | Outline | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | One sentence: customer, problem, solution | A short promise | A quick one-sentence summary under the title | The post title and six to eight big ideas |
| Where it lives | Outside the post, in the writer’s hands | Top of the post | Under the title, on the search results page | It is the frame of the post |
| Made in the step | Idea | Idea | Edit | Idea |
| Do readers see it? | Usually, through the description | Yes | Yes | Yes, through the headings |
In short: the core message comes first, and the other three follow it. The description is often the core message written again for readers.
The core message on a sales page
A product has a core message too, and it sits on the second line of the sales page, right under the product name. That line says three things: who the product is for, what the result is, and which of your solutions it rests on.
The first two lines are enough for customers to know what they are looking at. The name that comes first must be clear (call a course a course), not a riddle, and used by one product only. The rest of the page, from the picture and features to the proof, follows the second line. How to build the whole page is on build a short sales page.
An example of the core message in the Idea - Write - Edit post
The blog post on the Idea - Write - Edit process has this core message:
A three-stage writing process with stopping points helps you escape the loop of editing again and again and gets the ideas stuck in your storage out onto your website.
This sentence runs through all three steps of that post:
| Place in the post | How the core message shows |
|---|---|
| Title | “Escape the never-ending writing loop”: keeps the sentence’s promise, leaves out the solution |
| Description | The core message word for word, in the Vietnamese post |
| Outline | 7 big ideas, from “Why do you keep writing but never publish?” to practicing in real life, each one answering the loop or the three stages |
The three parts of the context are in the sentence. The customer is the person who keeps writing and never finishes. The problem is the loop of editing again and again. The solution is three stages with stopping points that get ideas out onto the website.
What does the core message not do?
- It does not replace the outline. It only picks ideas. How to go from a one-line topic to an outline is on outline a post from one line.
- It is not the opening line of the post. The opening is written and trimmed in the Edit step.
- It does not hold everything you know. Ideas that don’t serve it are saved for other posts, not stuffed into this one.
- AI does not think it up for you. The solution in the sentence must come from work you did yourself. AI only helps filter ideas by the sentence you wrote.