Content marketing strategy

Building a content marketing strategy for your brand

There was a time when marketing was simpler. When advertising men wore sharp suits with ties and drank martinis. When a web site was the domain of a spider. And when media selection boiled down to a choice between TV and print.

Things have changed a little. Ad men (and women) rarely wear ties these days. More importantly, there are so many media channels now – from email to Facebook to blogs to YouTube and eBooks – it’s often hard to know where to start communicating with potential customers.

The first thing you should do is get your message straight. Too many brands dive head-first into social media or blogging or email marketing without first working out what it is they want to say.

The unfortunate truth is, your potential consumers are exposed to thousands of marketing messages every day, most of which they ignore. What’s more, consumers are more cynical and savvy than ever – if they do happen across your marketing message they will sniff out an over-egged sales pitch or a little white lie from fifty feet.

The good news is, new online mediums give you more control than ever and more avenues to connect with potential customers. You don’t have to rely on big media outlets to tell your story, you can do it yourself. Done properly, building a content marketing strategy for your brand can be an effective way of building trust, brand awareness and ultimately, sales.

Here are a few tips for developing content for your brand.

Tell a story

All brands have an interesting story to tell. That you are cheaper or bigger or shinier is not an interesting story. Any brand can make similar claims and savvy consumers are unlikely to believe them or care.

But your story may be how or why you are cheaper or bigger or shinier. How are your products made? Who is the person behind your latest innovations? How did your business start and why? ‘Behind-the-scenes’ insights are not only appealing to consumers, they can also be a convincing way to differentiate your brand.

Tell the truth

Some brands act as if they’re posting a profile on a dating site when they create content. Six foot tall, blonde, impossibly beautiful, flawless personality.

It’s not believable and your potential customers will just click off if you try this approach with your brand. Instead, tell the truth: admit when things go wrong, turn negatives into positives and have a laugh at yourself from time to time. It will make your claims about why your product is so bloody good all the more convincing.

Educate and add value

Consumers are selfish. If they are going to spend the time to interact with a brand, they’re probably going to want something in return. What you provide them will depend on your industry and your target market. It could be a list of the best camping spots (for an outdoors retailer), a free recipe to download (for a food company) or a ‘how to grow your business’ guide (for a marketing company).

Entertain

We’re all busy. We’re all overloaded with information. So we’re much more likely to read (or watch) something that entertains us. Blendtec, a blender company, used humour to engage consumers while illustrating the benefit of its product with its ‘Will it Blend?’ videos.

Speak to your market

It’s easy to fall into the trap of producing content for ‘everyone’ in the hope that ‘someone’ will find it useful. Chances are nobody will. Research and understand your market intimately and produce content directly for them.

Once you know the theme of your content – what your story is, how it will be told and who it is for – it’s easy to adapt it for different channels. A white paper for example, can be edited into a blog post, referred to on Facebook, Tweeted about on Twitter and made available to download on your website.

And when new content channels pop up, as they no doubt will, you can adapt your message for them as well.