How to build a content strategy that builds brands
When people talk about “content marketing” they’re usually referring to blog articles and social media posts that generate leads and drive sales. I work in a company that relies heavily on content marketing. Don’t get me wrong, content marketing is great … except for one thing: content doesn’t drive sales.
Content isn’t king. (I know you’ve been told it is.) In fact, as the title of a recent article in the Harvard Business Review suggests, “content is crap.” But it turns out that this “crap” is the currency of the modern web.
A few years ago, when I started blogging for Yalantis, there weren’t so many app development agencies that relied on a content-focused lead generation strategy. But now it seems that every company is taking up content marketing. Though — surprising because of the amount of money some companies are willing to invest — the majority of companies that create “content” don’t actually generate leads from it. They don’t get any results because of three common mistakes:
1) They treat content as a commodity
2) They copy more successful companies
3) They focus on increasing traffic by producing as much content as possible for the lowest cost
Content marketing is successful when it builds brands
Samuel Scott, in an article on TechCrunch titled “Everything the tech world says about marketing is wrong,” suggests that content marketers should go back to the marketing basics. In other words, they should develop their own strategies to build brands.
CopyBlogger does this successfully; they use content to build their brand. Copyblogger creates content about how to create content. This is how they promote their content marketing products and training courses to their target audience — people looking for content marketing knowledge to help them reach their business goals.
Buzzfeed’s business model can be summed us as content creation. Their 260 million monthly site views is all the advertising they could ask for: what better proof could there be of their capacity to promote your brand if you pay to place an article on their site?
General Electric owns five corporate content properties including GE Reports, Ecomagination, Healthymagination, Txchnologist and GE.com. The content created by General Electric illustrates how the company is innovating in the aviation, energy, healthcare and transportation industries. Content helps General Electric communicate their value and demonstrates the values of their brand.
Content marketers increase demand and generate sales while building brands, not while trying to boost website traffic.
Content marketing is successful when your business purpose is aligned with your brand strategy.
How can you build a content marketing strategy that builds your brand?
Before you start thinking about article titles for your blog and posts for social media, ask yourself these three questions:
- Why do I create content?
- Who do I create content for?
- How will this content actually help people?
To answer these three questions let’s walk through the following five steps:
Step 1. Understand why you exist
The goal of every business is to make money. This is why businesses spend on content marketing in the first place. But as Guy Kawasaki says: “Great companies start because the founders want to change the world… not make a fast buck.” There is always a bigger purpose behind every successful business.
Marketing content conveys that bigger purpose to the people who care. But the important thing to keep in mind is that people will never care unless your company’s purpose aligns with their own personal goals.
Your content should speak to your customer’s motivations and desires.
For example, the purpose of The Wall Street Journal is to give its readers knowledge that they can apply to business decisions. The purpose of Facebook is to make the world more open and connected. The purpose of Tesla is to make the world drive electric cars as soon as possible — though the official version actually sounds more complicated than that:
“Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”
If you know exactly why you exist, then creating meaningful content isn’t actually all that difficult!
Step 2. Analyse your competition
When companies start producing content, they are often clueless about what to write about and how to write about it. They look to their competitors for inspiration, and then try to write about the same topics. But copying content ideas is rarely a winning strategy.
You can’t just copy somebody else’s strategy and expect to get the same results they do. It’s like adding the tagline “Just do it” to a company that designs tennis racquets and then expecting to go big.
Competitor analysis uncovers hidden truths about your industry. These insights can open your mind to new ideas and help you understand the actual realities of the business environment.
Take a look at what your competitors did in the past and what they are doing now. It can help you predict what they might be doing tomorrow. Identifying your opportunities and strengths will help you outperform your competitors.
Analyze the messages that your prospective customers are getting from your competition. You can use them as a benchmark when you’re articulating your own unique value proposition. Let me give you an example.
Uber and Lyft are two taxi services that — in most senses — do the exact same thing. But they offer two completely different promises. In the past Uber positioned itself as a luxury brand with the slogan “Everyone’s private driver.” At the same time Lyft’s brand promised “Your friend with a car.” Even though “your personal driver” might sound more alluring, Lyft’s positioning was actually stronger.
The purpose — or promise — of a company can reveal meaningful differences between businesses that offer similar products and services.
Uber and Lyft compete for the same pool of drivers, but Lyft’s proposition was more appealing for part-time drivers with other jobs. These drivers don’t want to be treated as someone’s chauffeur. They just want to make a little extra cash after their day job ends.
In 2016, however, both of these services — Uber and Lyft — repositioned themselves. Uber’s new 2016 strategic messaging is “Get there: Your day belongs to you.” This works for both passengers and drivers (who both want ownership of their time).
Uber’s new positioning does remind us a bit of Lyft’s new “Rides in Minutes” promise, as both now focus on convenience and speed.
Step 3. Understand what influences your customer’s decisions
Just like competitor analysis, understanding your customers also requires research. The more time you spend understanding the people you’re selling your products or services to, the better you’ll be able to relate to them.
Articles that work contain messages that align with the way your prospective customers view the world.
When I came across an article called “Design Machines” by Louder Than Ten I instantly wanted to know more about this company. Why was I interested in what they do and who they are? I just loved their article, their style and tone of voice. Their message matched my views on design and content. And I loved their article layout and phrases like “humans are unpredictable mushy bags.”
People are irrational in their decisions. The part of us that says “I want that” is emotional and often subconscious. If your content doesn’t work on an emotional level, logic will never get a chance to weigh in.
Knowing your customer’s ages and job titles doesn’t help you much in understanding what speaks to their emotions. The more information you can find about your prospective customers, the more precisely you can determine what they are most sensitive to and what they care about.
Once you understand this, creating a content plan is a piece of cake.
Step 4. Define your place on the shelf
After you’ve analyzed your competition and determined your customers’ pains and gains, you can work on a positioning statement. According to Business Dictionary, positioning is a marketing strategy that aims to make a brand occupy a distinct position, relative to competing brands, in the mind of the customer.
Your positioning reflects the single greatest benefit that your company can offer to its target customers. A positioning statement is a strategic message that correlates with your business purpose.
For example, Slack’s positioning statement is “Be less busy.” Slack wants to reduce distractions, work complexity, and unproductiveness by designing features that increase simplicity, productivity and general well-being for professional teams.
If you want to see something unique then take a look at Etsy. Even though it isn’t Etsy’s official positioning statement, all consumers know that Etsy is “a place where you can buy stuff that you can’t find anywhere else.”
Mailchimp promises to help you “Send Better Email.” And this is why we all like Mailchimp.
Step 5. Determine what you do better than others
Creating a successful content strategy takes more than careful business positioning. Your products or services must also offer unique value propositions that reflect your brand’s promise. A unique value proposition must satisfy the following criteria:
- It should focus on specific benefits that your product or service delivers to its customers.
- It must be something that your competitors don’t offer or can’t offer.
- It must be something your customers will never say “no” to.
If you offer multiple products or services, then you need to articulate a unique value proposition for each of these products or services. This will help you create key messages for each piece of content that promotes your business indirectly.
Oh, and by the way — your blog and social media accounts must have their own unique value propositions as well!
Create a content strategy
If walking through these five steps has brought you closer to building your brand, then you’re ready to think about a content strategy. But there’s just one additional thing I’d like you to remember. Your content strategy will only be successful if it helps your customers.
To put this in the simplest terms the opposite of helping is selling. You get the picture.
