To write content that sells good and attracts readers, marketers need to grasp the core principles. These principles are the foundation to get started.
Be smart and turn data into insight
Great content strategies are built from powerful insights. The key to this is identifying unmet customer needs, wants, or preferences. Every time I build a content strategy, I ask myself: Do customers care? Does this make any difference to them?
Human behavior affects technology and will be influenced by technology in return. With the development and application of new technologies – AI, Chatbots, AR, Wearables ( all accessories with integrated computer processor, electronic technology and many other useful features that people can wear on a person like smartwatch or Google Glass) – customer expectations are increasing rapidly. They demand more from the brand. Content is about delivering what customers want, whenever and however they want.
This is the value exchange model – the time we ask others to interact with the brand should be balanced against the value we deliver.
The use of technology and the data they generate provides for the first time a means of defining those values. These data are clearer and more granular than ever in uncovering impactful insights. For example, Google searches reveal the pressing needs of consumers, while social media behaviors reflect their aspirations, and content players like Outbrain map their interests. These data are available to identify unmet needs, wants, and interests, and build a content platform that works for both brands and customers.
An insight based on network behavior data helped us transform an ad campaign for Johnie Walker Blue Label Whiskey. The strategy is based on a simple but precise truth about wealthy new clients: they want to achieve, not just aspire.
Create synergy
Content and media are not two separate entities, a good content strategy must be integrated into the media strategy and other strategies.
The most successful media strategies place content at the heart of the media strategy, allowing content to fit across all media channels. The better a brand manages to create seamless experiences across all channels, the more engagement and stronger business it will have. The role of the media is to provide the perfect framework for placing the content strategy in each media channel, ensuring each impact is beneficial to a given purpose while building seamless experiences across all platforms.
On the other hand, combining experiences across channels will result better than the sum of all the separate experiences, and content works better when deployed with a media strategy than alone. This is a great combination of content and media strategy.
Creating support: Experience across all channels
Content must be developed in accordance with the target environment, culture and social context, ensuring that each user interaction with the brand is consistent with local thinking, desires and culture.
Placing TV ads on social media is certainly an old fashioned method, like using global assets for a local campaign. A careful content strategy requires developing the right form of content and is specialized for each channel and market that drives it.
Brands can create experiences like never before in AR or VR, or become part of users’ lives through cyber robots, and the role of the media agency is to understand and guide them to these transformations.
Thinking for the long term: the snowball effect
Think of content as the art of maintaining a dialogue with your audience. In this respect, there are two main things you need to pay attention to:
First, be consistent. If customers engage with your content, you’re on a long path. Keep building on that and don’t stop the conversation abruptly. Imagine you are talking to someone, and without warning, they stop talking and walk away. It’s the same with content – if it stops abruptly, it’s just as annoying as it is in real life. The second is continuity, ensuring they have a reason to come back. Learn from each impact to improve and keep the conversation going. You will promote an existing and interested customer instead of having to start from scratch.
The idea of the snowball effect is often associated with viral content. But think about it another way: view the content strategy as an ongoing conversation so the customer will continue to grow. It’s a real and lasting snowball effect.
A good example is Dorito’s multi-year campaign “Crash the Super Bowl” that invites fans to create great commercials for the Super Bowl.
Set KPIs to ensure an accurate measure of success
The truth is that the advertising industry often struggles to determine the right KPIs for content and will often use metrics from a similar content in the same media. Instead of pursuing specific content success metrics, we should reframe the discussion and make sure our content KPIs are built around the strategic goals of the campaign.
We measure the effectiveness of our media strategy in both the short term, by CPT (cost per-thousand) and CTR (click-through rate). But with content, you’re not just buying looks, you’re working on goals like raising awareness, brand awareness, or engagement with brands and products. These also need to be weighed and measured in a variety of ways such as surveys, time spent on content, and paid media returns.
With content strategy, there’s more to it than short-term metrics. Content is a long-term approach that helps build user engagement and brand prominence – ultimately helping brands grow.
Be brave: create and spread attention – profit
Brands becoming pleasure buyers means we’re not in the same category anymore. Our main challenge is no longer just getting people to read our and our competitors’ content, but getting them to watch our content instead of their favorite TV show.
One example is “Brewtroleum”, a brand of petrol made from the waste of DB New Zealand brewery. In this case, the idea stands out, but it still depends on the client’s willingness to take risks and trust to execute.
Leaving the comfort zone is not easy, and it certainly takes trust and preparation to do it, but ideas and strategies like these have proven to sometimes take a leap of faith that while not providing a corresponding return on investment, are still very valuable.