Stop the Mindless Scroll
As marketers and content creators, our goal should be to create stories and experiences that make people pause. Marvel. Question. Discover. Challenge. Feel inspired.
Is this what we’re doing? Or are we merely creating kicking content out the door as quickly (and cheaply) as possible to keep up with the tidal wave of content drowning our buyers?
You may feel anxious to keep up with your competitors and create an onslaught of content to get front and center. However, we believe now is the best time to pause and find new ways to resonate with our audience.
That means taking some risks. This can feel scary and hard. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips to help you embrace risk taking every day…and encourage your teammates to do the same.
JUMP AHEAD
TIPS:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
TIP #1
Tap into what you and your
community love
Content format preferences
Content consumption behaviors
Most-visited sites and podcasts
Trending topics and hashtags
Top articles and news stories
Digging into a few of these areas, you can understand your audience in a more robust way. They aren’t just rough sketches in your notebook; they’re three-dimensional humans with actual thoughts and feelings. (Go figure!)
If you want to really invest in this phase—and we think you should—try to hop on the phone with some clients who fall within your target audience. Ask them about new goals, new challenges and frankly, how they’re getting by in their daily lives. You may uncover new perspectives on buyer pain points, objectives and even what TV shows, magazines or video games they rely on to blow off some steam. These conversations could lead to some fun content and campaign ideas!
As with any content strategy, audience insights are key to developing your plan. Gather qualitative and quantitative data to paint a more accurate picture of your audience’s likes and dislikes. There are a variety of tools and benchmark reports that provide a lot of great context into what our buyers want, including:
Trainual provides an all-in-one training app for businesses. The company tapped into a well-known cast of characters from “The Office” to drive their key value props home. This is a great example of culturally relevant content that still aligns with business messaging.
Flexential, a Content4Demand client, tapped into a fun football theme to drive a multi-touch content campaign that spanned a variety of formats and experiences. To achieve this level of reach and scale, they needed to get the entire team on board with the creative theme and approach.
Content strategists and marketers are creative people. We’re good at crafting stories and finding new ways to look at things. But our stakeholders and internal experts aren’t always on board with our vision. Rather than going all-in on a big idea only to get pushback from higher-ups, start by getting their support.
Use your audience data and insights as a baseline for some preliminary ideas and use that research as validation for your recommendations. Leadership will always come to the table with objections and concerns, so it’s best to be prepared for those at the beginning.
Bring key brand and creative leaders to the table to get their input and, ultimately, their support. They will be crucial advocates for you if you need to expand the conversation to sales, product and even the C-level. Have honest conversations about why you think things need to be shaken up and hear out their reservations and concerns. The goal will be to align completely on a vision and any rules or guidelines your marketing team should follow to keep everyone happy.
Win support from leadership
TIP #2
Content4Demand tapped into the confusion many attendees feel about developing ABM plans by having some fun with a webinar title: “ABM Without the WTF.” Bold enough to stand out, but not crass or disrespectful. And it broke previous registration records.
Perform a risk assessment
TIP #3
Any time we push creative limits, there’s a risk. You may turn certain people off or come off as a bit too cutesy or cutting edge for some buyers. Think about risk taking on a sliding scale. Smaller risks could entail testing a new format or taking a more personal tone with your copywriting. Conversely, a big risk could be tapping into the cultural zeitgeist to find a new campaign theme.
This scale will vary greatly depending on your industry, company and even your core audience demographics. Audience research can help you connect some of these dots. Zero in on social data to find similar likes and dislikes, or patterns in the content they consume and share. Ask customers and prospects to answer honestly about their take on “fun” content themes.
It’s good to do a gut check on any new content or campaign idea to assess potential risks. Some key questions include:
What’s the risk of this theme or topic aging out? Is it too timely to hold weight and be relevant long term?
Is it possible for people to misinterpret the intention behind this idea? Could they make unfortunate assumptions about our company, culture or beliefs?
Will we risk alienating, or worse, upsetting people if we move forward?
What would the possible response or backlash be if we move forward? Could it impact existing or future business relationships? (This is an extremely important point for you to think through before you move forward with any idea.)
With so much content in the workforce collaboration market, PGi needed to find new ways to stand out and resonate with its target audience, which included IT personas as well as business users. The company slowly transitioned to interactive content experiences and refined its copywriting tone and style to be more casual and direct—no business jargon included.
If you aren’t sure how your audience will respond to a new or edgy approach to content, find ways to start small. Test a single interactive asset before launching an entirely interactive campaign. Dip your toe into pop culture tie-ins via social media rather than building an entire campaign around them to see how your audience responds. Take a more conversational tone with your copy, but don’t use slang or swear words. These small experiments can provide some preliminary data into your audience likes and dislikes.
Look at downloads, shares and the follow-up conversations you have as a result. Don’t get thrown off by one or two negative remarks. Not everyone is going to love everything you do, and this shouldn’t stop you from trying new things! It should, however, provide validation and recommendations for moving forward. Learning and improving are important in content marketing, so if your collective audience is telling you to make a change, do it.
Start small
TIP #4
Content4Demand collaborates with B2B brands of all stripes when it comes to eagerness to take risks. Browse our client portfolio to see some of the campaigns and content we’ve produced with them.
Does it seem overwhelming to do all this research and come up with ideas that will get your team and stakeholders excited? It should, because it is! We know the feeling all too well. That’s why sometimes it helps to bring in a third party. It could be an agency partner or solution provider, but the goal should be to get an authoritative, unbiased third party to help you walk through this process. Often, they’ll have their own process for audience research and opportunity analysis, so you don’t have to do all the heavy lifting.
Bringing in an outside party will also provide you with a fresh perspective and a new set of ideas. They’re not immersed in your world, so they aren’t as bogged down with the established brand, messaging or positioning that you may secretly be thinking about. Better yet, they may have access to tools and platforms to help you tell your story in a new, more creative way!
Get advice from an outside party
TIP #5
We saw a surge in web traffic and content downloads during the pandemic. As we largely continue to work from home and connect virtually, reliance on content will continue to grow. Your goal is to stand out from all the jargon and imagery they see day in and day out.
Taking risks can be scary, but it can also be a lot of fun.
Just remember as you go on your risk-taking journey that sometimes things won’t pan out. And that’s okay. If you know this at the start, you’ll be able to easily accept disappointing results and find ways to pivot and improve.
Are you ready to take your big risk? We’d love to help you.
TAKE A LEAP
Tap into what you and your community love
Win support from leadership
Perform a risk assessment
Start small
Get advice from an outside party
Always be ready to pivot
