Journalists are used to digging up stories and creating engaging content for their readers, but brands and marketers now face that same challenge every day as they increasingly find it necessary to feed customer demand for information.
As if just generating marketing content wasn’t difficult enough, today’s consumers are digital savvy, drive the conversation via social media, and won’t fall for sales-speak or marketing-jargon anymore.
If brands can’t publish content that’s…
• Authentic
• Engaging
• Informative
... then chances are it won’t be read, and they’ll be out of the conversation. That’s why brands and marketers need to look at how traditional publishing and media have been answering the content challenge for years.
Here are six shortcuts to producing content that will engage your audience:
1) Dust off that PR or product launch plan and slice and dice it into Top 10 Tips,” 5 Secrets to,” The Best Tools for,” etc. Readers benefit because they love lists that they can easily digest.
2) Lead the way – identify trends, future hot products, or the next big thing. Your audience will learn things they didn’t know, and you’ll show them that your brand is ahead of the curve. For example, what are the hot make-up looks on the runway this season?
3) Be controversial! Take a stand on an issue that’s important in your industry. This gives your readers a point of view to react to, respond to, and engage with. A good example of this would be Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and the content pieces and digital assets that can be created and/or shared by women.
4) Expert advice – Run a Q&A with an internal subject-matter expert at your company, or a well-known industry expert who offers advice and guidance. Your audience will benefit by having access to expert information and learning more, potentially about your brand.
5) How-to – Use product information to show how customers can get the most out of your products. This tactic empowers your readers with expertise and new knowledge that they can then share. A great way to showcase how-to’s is via YouTube – I recently watched Bobbi Brown’s video on how to properly apply corrector and concealer under my tired eyes! While on YouTube, note how many users have posted their own videos on how to use your products. How could you leverage those from a content standpoint?
6) Invite comment – Get into the habit of commenting on appropriate stories, blogposts, developments within your brand’s area of expertise and ask others to do the same via what do you think?” This will encourage readers to share their opinions and enter the debate.
The transition all marketers need to make is from communications that push products/services, to content that entertains and educates an audience with information about the topics that interest them…and are related to your brand.
Patty Keegan is Director of Digital Chameleon. Beginning her career in magazines, she was also VP at Carat USA, founder and Director of Carat Interactive Australia, founding General Manager of the IAB Australia, and listed as one of B&T’s 40 biggest players of Australia’s digital age.”
Digital Chameleon drives digital knowledge transformation across the enterprise via a blended learning model that includes eLearning and practitioner-led workshops. Visit at www.digitalchameleon.net. Contact Patty at patty@digitalchameleon.net, Twitter: @pattykeegan