Marketing

Is Your Content Strategy Missing The Mark?

by City/Studio Staff Posted On May 24th, 2017 | 9:10am EST

While content marketing can educate and entertain your target audience, it does so with the goal of strengthening your company’s relationship with its customer base. More often than not, this translates into content that’s more useful and relatable than overtly commercial. That’s because anything that doesn’t have an obvious benefit to your audience or smells too strongly of self promotion tends to be ignored when the source is considered. When done right, though, each video, magazine article, blog post and social media meme can bring clarity to your brand and reinforce the trust consumers have in it.

There are four fundamental content types that work well when it comes to building brand clarity and trust through content marketing: Research insights, helpful service pieces, useful news/trend stories and clever (read: not the same old, boring) case studies. Using one or more of these approaches to build your content strategy will help you break through the sheer quantity of content bombarding your customers from all fronts, especially when you combine these content building blocks with rich-media experiences and storytelling that align your company’s culture and brand values with your customers.

While research, news, service and case studies don’t sound like the stuff of compelling content, they are all helpful in demonstrating the role your business plays in your customers’ lives. Package them in a way that holds the attention of your target audience and then you’ll start to matter to them. Do it long enough, and they’ll share your content with everyone they know.

That’s because well-told stories are the most effective delivery vehicles for your messaging and the building blocks of your brand experience. That’s what Intel learned after launching IQ, its digital magazine platform that puts research, news, service and case study content authored and produced by the tech company alongside the videos, infographics and long reads from across the Internet that Intel employees find interesting. The message of IQ is clear—Intel belongs at the center of the tech world. The magazine and all the social media content surrounding it highlights the kind of innovations that Intel has driven in its 49-year history and how people around the world benefit daily from these tech breakthroughs.

But you don’t have to create an employee-curated digital magazine to get the word out about your company’s value. Whether you’re pushing out trend pieces, well-sourced aggregated newsletters or how-to videos that leverage your company’s unique perspective on a topic it knows inside and out, your content strategy enables you to be a steady presence in your customers’ lives. Deliver on the fundamental content types in your marketing, and you’ll create a vast and loyal following.

By tailoring your content for your readership, you can convey your message to a wide audience and raise the profile of your brand. The payoff is a real connection to a dedicated readership that reinforces your company’s reputation, increases consumer engagement and forges an iron-clad connection to your brand.