How do you create engaging content for a product or service that is…well…really boring? Or maybe not full-bore boring, just abstract, abstruse or intangible. Here are eight handy rules to energize your brand’s content marketing for a less-than-exciting brand.
Rule 1 | Thou shalt not talk about your brand.
I know, it sounds so wrong, but it is sooo right. Remember, you are not writing the owner’s manual, you’re creating content marketing. Your job is to build a relationship between your brand and the prospect or customer. Think of it as a date. Do you want to be the one that spends the whole night talking about yourself? Or do you want to be the cool, caring listener with a sense of humor?
Rule 2 | Thou shalt talk about your customer.
Identify your customer’s pain points. Build empathy. “Nobody cares about your stupid, boring products…” writes David Meerman Scott, author of Newsjacking. “But there’s so many more things that you can do if you can clearly articulate what the challenges are of the people who have the problem that your boring products solve.”
Rule 3 | Thou shalt connect pain to pleasure.
Demonstrate that your brand knows your customer’s pain points so intimately that you’ve developed a cure to the problem. If your service or product is difficult to describe, then don’t. Just describe the hurdle and serve up your brand as the bright, shining solution.
Rule 4 | Thou shalt communicate value.
Hard sell is easy. Pick up the hammer and swing away. But hard sell almost never works with content marketing. Think, instead, in terms of seduction. Listen, engage, be coy but ultimately useful. This is how you connect a brand to a customer.
Rule 5 | Thou shalt include a call to action.
Calls to action are the biggest missed opportunity in content marketing today. A call to action is not hard sell, it’s your brand’s way of holding a door open. It is in service of the customer.
Rule 6 | Thou shalt include an offer.
Include an offer and watch your click-through rates climb. The offer can be everything from a tchotchke to a whitepaper to a downloadable infographic.
Rule 7 | Thou shalt leave no social platform unturned.
So you are enamoured with your Twitter campaign. Good for you. But content marketing is not about optimizing just one social media platform. You need effective initiatives on all the biggies: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.
Rule 8 | Thou shalt work it.
No guts. No glory. Content marketing is only as good as the effort and ingenuity that you put into it. Good content is the result of hard, unflagging work. Work it, baby. Work it.
If you would like help re-energizing your content marketing, give us a call at 972-488-1660.
We are a Dallas advertising agency with expertise in content marketing.
