Are you cooking up a content storm, or struggling to get the fire started?

Content marketing simply involves the generation of content, via social media, blogs, video, direct email marketing, website content, online publications, and sms. With an increasingly hungry audience looking for content to consume, this style of marketing has become extremely popular.  

When using content to promote a business, be careful not to fall into the zealous trap. Becoming too pushy or salesy in your content marketing, especially on social media, will only push audiences away. The content should primarily be focussed around adding value to the user via information that is engaging or entertaining. It’s a more passive form of advertising, but can help the user gain a stronger connection to your brand.

Nurturing conversations with your audience will help lift your levels of engagement and maximise opportunities to control key messages that you want your customers to know – but it can be a difficult task. There are many competing voices online, so to help cut through the noise, make sure your content marketing is crafted especially for your business.

So how can you generate crafted content that engages?

Using the analogy of The Content Kitchen we will discuss how the art of crafted content marketing will feed your hungry consumer. 

The Hungry Consumer

Today, most people devour content on a digital device including news, entertainment, social interaction, and of course advertising. Some of these people will engage in your product offering. Others might recommend your service. While you should create content for your target audience, don’t be so limited to exclude a general audience. The key to this is creating a diverse range of content types, that give your audience options to consume, whether it be a 15 minute blog read, or a 15 second video. Diversity will keep consumers interested. 

The Cuisine

That’s your Brand – what you are selling, your brand personality, your visual identity, your voice, your flavour. You wouldn’t see a burger joint selling sushi, and you wouldn’t see michelin star restaurant selling pizza. The same goes with your content. You must stay true to your Brand. 

The Dishes

The types of content are like various flavoured dishes on your menu. Promoting your product and services, events and news will be the key message of most content marketing. However, you don’t need to be limited to just that. That is why menus have a range of meal types to cater for different tastes. To add to your core communications, you could include industry news, staff highlights, funny memes, user generated content and shared content. How creatively you communicate this information will determine how many people engage with your content. Responding to topical events or current issues, whilst remaining true to your brand personality can get great engagement. 

An example of successful Instagram posts during the recent Sydney COVID lockdowns can be demonstrated by Transport for NSW, Art Gallery of NSW, and NSW Police.

To do this, the content itself has to be relevant and reflect your business and industry values. 

The Courses

Three courses, degustation, canapes or snacks… similarly, there are many ways to serve content. Will it be a blog, post, meme, photo, carousel, online shop, filter, story, reel, IGTV, live stream, you tube vlog, vimeo, tweet, pin, grid, poll, an EDM with automation, SMS… the list goes on and on. How do you decide what to use, and when to use it? 

Your consumers devour content in different ways. Whether they have a few minutes while waiting for a coffee, or a longer period when they can sit down and read for half an hour or more. They might be researching information, or simply looking for a distractiont. Your serving sizes give consumers opportunities to view your content in different ways. 

The Chef

When developing content there are numerous sources of content generation. The better quality the content, the more effective a tool it is. Like the Chef, a skilled content creator will showcase your benefits to your audience. This might include yourself, in-house staff, or outsourced content writers and image creators. 

Content writing needs to be of a good standard to be of any use. They know the basics of content writing, such as clear, easy-to-understand writing, relevant topics, genuine insights, and so on. Be mindful, if you outsource your content completely and have no input into the messaging that is being published, you need to ask yourself how relevant the content is to your company, and whether the message aligns with your overall strategic marketing plan?

Even more difficult is the image and video content creation if done in-house. There are a number of apps and accessible tools for vloggers and content creators available, but if you are not confident in the use of such technology, outsourcing this to a design agency (like WISDOM) is recommended. You wouldn’t open a fine dining restaurant without hiring a skilled chef to run the kitchen. 

The Menu

According to Tech Guide, the average smart phone user spends 5.5 hours a day on their phone. Like content consumption, we eat 3 meals a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year. Creating an ongoing content plan is essential, and a mammoth task without a content strategy. A content calendar will help you plan ahead and keep your audience interested in what you have to say. You can also schedule your content in advance through your website CMS, email applications and social media posting platforms including Facebook Business Manager, Later, and Hootsuite to name a few.

A well-structured strategy will allow you to demonstrate your knowledge, authority, and relevance to your audience, and assists with positioning your brand in the minds of your customers. 

Get in touch with WISDOM and we can discuss ways to help you create meaningful, personalised content. Content that is crafted just for you and backed with a clear strategy to help you improve your customer engagement and your Search Engine Optimisation.