Trade shows attract quality audiences with one in every two attendees planning to buy during the next year. Marketers can reach these ready-to-be-influenced prospects with content.
Is Your Content Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
Some companies value their content as much as the products they sell. As a service content can explain the benefits of big data or sell soda. It works as a trade: You give me your contact information and I will let you download my content. But like a chameleon content takes on different textures and tones. At Content For Biz we provide content writing services for B2B companies. Part of our mission is to help clients think differently about content. So, rather than describe content as a commodity using the product, service, trade triad, let’s use animal, vegetable or mineral to classify it. Know what your content is before content writing begins.
Mineral Content
This is foundation content. It is the closest thing to being “written in stone” at least for the time being. It is inert, nonreactive, yet identifying. Mineral content can be a statement of fact, approach or philosophy. A mission statement, a description of your blog’s purpose, even a white paper can be considered mineral content because it is mined with a beginning and end. Each year companies should establish 3 high-impact ideas to create their content around. These are the gems – the sparkle that makes you different, effective and efficient.
Vegetable Content
This is outgrowth content. It is created to grow an audience, nurture leads, and offer a harvest of how-to’s or what ifs. Like a garden it is cyclical, changing by the season. Vegetable content may consist of blog posts, email marketing campaigns, press releases and website copywriting. This kind of content supports the marketing effort throughout the sales cycle. It is picked and easily digested by the customer. Vegetable content can make its consumer smarter, more aware and decisive.
Animal Content
This is active content. It is instinctive, perceptive and needs to be fed often. Social media is its arena, but also events, newsletters, apps or webinars. The creator of animal content knows which way the wind is blowing. A strong business sense is required to move in the right direction, on the right path. Animal content appears as a peer, not a pest. A friendly approach creates a climate where conditions favor both buyer and seller.
The identifying, outgrowth and instinctual nature of content makes it more like a river chiseling its way through a canyon than a faucet filling a glass of water. If you want to think differently about the content you publish, give us a call.
Does Your Content Travel Well Across Channels?
Think of a well-packed suitcase. The size limits its capability, but not its function. Constraints can be good especially if you need to carry your bag from place to place or when you need your content to travel well in all conditions and across channels. By that I mean gaining attention amidst the flurry of headlines, tweets, posts and images that fly past us each day. We are all confined by time and space. So my thought is to use it wisely. Like the suitcase, you need to pack your content well.
Many people won’t believe that you can pack for a weeks-long trip in a carry-on bag. But this video shows you how to do just that – pack light and right. The same holds true for your content. You can say a lot with few words in a quick channel (think twitter) when the words are chosen for a particular audience or experience.
You may find that at first the pant legs and shirt sleeves are hanging outside the bag. But with the proper fold and sequence of garments the secret to the process becomes apparent. Writers are your content packers. They know how to structure and edit content.
The next time you need to inform, educate, entice or engage an audience, hire a qualified content writer to create and spread the word. In the digital world your content can travel fast from network to network, blog post to website, or image to email. Whatever route it takes, pack it right.
Build a House, Not a Garage With Your Content
Building a house requires a plan. Not just any plan, a blueprint. The blueprint is tricky because it is two-dimensional. Unlike written pages one doesn’t know how to start reading the information. Yet, to the skilled eye the drawing reveals how the building should be constructed, its size, what materials to use, and the location of features.
A builder easily sees that a blueprint consists of different views. Looking downward it’s called a plan; looking sideways it’s an elevation. A view that cuts through an object is a section. A properly executed blueprint results in a well functioning house. When creating content for your company anticipate a body of work, not just pieces. Know that people will interpret what you create from different viewpoints. Customize your content to address your particular audience. Know how to measure content effectiveness.
Content Plans
The content plan is directed to those who need to see the big picture, usually CEOs and top management. It shows how well integrated your content strategy is or should be, how it will be implemented, what resources will be needed, where content will appear and why. Here you’re offering fresh air from windows nobody knew opened.
Content Elevations
Your audience sees the side view directly in website copy, blog posts, newsletters or white papers. The purpose of your content is not to sell. Straightforward business objectives are cushioned with an angle that appeals to the audience. A roof does not become a roof until you fit the material to a particular house. When a website visitor finds an answer to a question, asks a question, or smiles at the clever way you convey information the content fits.
Content Sections
You may have lots of content but is it working for you? This insider view offers marketers and content writers a trail of data that shows what’s working and what’s not based on your goals. Like a fireplace, content can add ambience but must function well when needed. Get the most from your content by interpreting your data. Explore platforms, topics, and delivery methods. Know where and how your content works best.
By bringing all these elements together you will build a house, not a garage with your content. Your body of work will function well serving multiple purposes.
Just curious, is your content development guided by an overall theme or by specific themes for each campaign?
Content Fluency: 2013 Marketing Trends
Many variations of content marketing will come to the forefront during 2013. Content fluency, the ease at which companies create and distribute content, may be influenced, even disrupted, by these evolving marketing trends. Are you ready?
Easy Interaction
Websites will offer more ways to interact that are far beyond Share buttons. Comment and review capabilities, share your story buttons with easy to fill out templates, and gamification strategies will all be used to engage an audience. Any industry can add some fun using a less serious tone in the content and easy interaction. Ease of use will allow sites to add content contributed by customers and curated by companies.
Brand Storytelling
Coca Cola, the world’s most recognized brand, is shifting its efforts from “creative excellence to content excellence.” A video titled Coca Cola Content 2020 Part One shows how they plan to concentrate on brand stories told by the company and consumers. Stories will lead them to evoke, and participate in, conversations with customers. This they believe will connect them on a deeper emotional level with customers. I expect other companies will do the same, offering more personal brand experiences.
Data Whisperers
Technology is providing more and more data that needs to be segmented, monitored, analyzed and measured. People who can translate the data into information are highly valued. The result is a keen understanding of customer behavior. Content created for the customer needs to meet their needs, wants and expectations.
Visual Content
Visual content will be used in a more intimate way. Images and video can give a closer look at a company’s operations, values and people. Video company Vimeo is predicting 90% of Internet traffic will be video by 2014 and a no-text Internet will emerge soon. I think this is a ridiculous prediction, but visual content strategies are important.
Marketing Meets Sales
Data will bring these two departments together to form a more collaborative, cohesive group. Sharing information that is captured during every phase of the buying cycle will align their interests. Sales wants information from marketing and marketing needs information from sales to show return on investment.
Mobile Use
Companies will need to be present across devices. Smartphones and tablets require different kinds of content than what’s on a website. Some content strategies are starting with the mobile device and building out from there. Mobile will become the hub from which everything else revolves.
Digital Assets
A recent report from the Content Marketing Institute shows the most effective B2B marketers are spending a higher percentage of their marketing budget on content marketing. White papers, case studies, webinars and infographics will need substantial authority to be heard above the noise. I like the idea of multi-discipline authorship for digital assets.
Face Time
Building trusting relationships requires meeting face to face at some time. First impressions may be formed online, even first engagements on projects or purchases, but people still find pleasure in face time. That’s why conventions and seminars continue to draw crowds.
Content fluency relies on quality and consistency. With a lot of changes occurring, don’t forget the familiar. Create a goal-oriented, multi-media content strategy. Use a variety of content formats on different channels depending on where your audience is. Content fluency occurs at this convergence, creating a positive brand experience.