The biggest challenge for today’s marketers is that there’s more content competing for audience attention than ever before. If it’s not compelling enough, that latest video you spent weeks storyboarding and producing can be overshadowed by the photo of kittens your friend just tweeted.
Your content marketing can’t merely be adequate. It must be remarkable.
During a recent Content Marketing Institute Master Class, CMI’s Chief Strategy Officer Robert Rose (@robert_rose) shared many must-dos to master content marketing. Here are three of them.
Don’t try to be too much to too many.
Your content must answer the question on everyone’s mind: “What’s in it for me?” Your audience is able to choose from countless content options. It’s your job to deliver an experience that specifically speaks to them.
Define who your buyers are and categorize them into different personas. Focus on a few of these personas and create content that speaks to each one. Content that specifically answers the needs and interests of your target customer will be more powerful than trying to write generic content for a broader, undefined audience.
Sometimes this also means reducing the amount of content you create and focusing on its quality. Don’t set arbitrary metrics for how much content you need to produce. Develop the story first, and its form will follow.
Treat content as an experience.
Almost every company’s product is easy to duplicate, and marketing your product by describing its value is no longer sufficient.
Instead, the marketing itself must create value. Today’s customers aren’t loyal to your product or service, but rather the experience you build around it.
Create an experience for the customer that makes them need to interact with you.
Take The LEGO Movie as an example, held up by Rose and many others in the industry as an instance of content marketing at its best. The film tells a story about the power of imagination – and it’s a pretty awesome story at that. It also just happens to star LEGO products.
After the movie came out, sales went up because it inspired consumers to go out of their way to purchase into the experience. You should strive to be that motivational.
Inspire anticipation for your buyers’ entire journey.
Highly emotional and experience-focused content will not just draw in an audience, it can also make them eager for more. Aim to change a belief or create an emotional connection that is true to your brand. Heartfelt or hilarious videos – even outrage at an injustice – are excellent motivators. Make your audience believe in your brand and its story by connecting on a visceral level.
Strong content needs to be woven along the buyer’s entire journey, always building anticipation for what comes next. It also comes in handy as a sales enablement tool – helping your sales team get clients excited to talk to them.
Becoming a master content marketer doesn’t happen overnight. It demands a lot of planning and research.
To deliver content that will attract and retain today’s customers, brands need to re-examine how they approach their content creation. Learn how to enhance your content marketing strategy in five steps by downloading our white paper The Buyer 2.0 Content Strategy Checklist.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: 3 Must-Dos to Master Content Marketing
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