CMOs - Maximize your Brand Impact with Awesome Content

As a marketing executive, you know success today depends on your company's ability to create or find content which is highly engaging to your high value markets. As a graduate student in Northwestern's Medill IMC program, I have been studying effective content strategies and have found two articles which effectively present interesting options for you.

In the article “5 Tech Companies That Get Content Marketing Right”, Sivan Cohen from Conduit cited a few examples of successful content marketing implemented by some of the best and most recognized tech companies, namely KISSmetrics, Instagram, Eventbrite, Buffer, and WIX.  These brands implemented effective content marketing strategies by not just knowing what their target audience wanted but by empowering them through providing meaningful tips and tricks; connecting them to relevant people, events and organizers; offering unique insights (e.g. behavioral science); and focusing on fun and creative aspects of interest to the customer.

A second article on content strategies is called “So You Think Your Marketing Content Drives Sales?"  David Rogelberg from Studio B discussed “brain-friendliness” content as a key driver of audience engagement.  The back-end success of this focuses on the fact that most people only spend seconds reading your content.  This means that the key to captivating your audience is to make the content and layout in a brain-friendly way.  It is important to note that 9 out of 10 readers prefer brain-friendly content because it is more interesting and easier to read. People generally end up spending twice as much time reading it compared to traditional papers.

In reviewing these two articles, I find there are three actions important for you to consider as a marketing executive.  They are:

 

1.    Meet the needs with practical advice.  In this day and age of fierce technology competitions, being able to differentiate your product and service is key to success. Tech marketers need to convey a clear message that your brand is the expert that your audience can trust. You need to provide your audience with the practical “how-to” content.  Covers factors and circumstances that bring the best outcomes; tell how people can work with your company to achieve those desired outcomes; suggest the possible obstacles that can get in the way. Of course, provide recommendations on how to deal with those obstacles.   

2.    Go brain-friendly. Your topic should be able to provoke curiosity, which naturally lead to real learning. You should make sure the content delivered contain a few items to teach the audience. Being able to teach is a way to pave for future reader engagement. In terms of style, brain-friendly content is more conversational, visual and emotional. These tactics are proven to help readers remember more of the information they came across.  

3.    Include effective case studies.  Avoid the pitfall of slapping boring and lengthy materials into your content. Effective case studies are always relevant, result-oriented and well outlined.  Describe the original situation faced by your clients or consumers, list the steps and how problems can be resolved along the way. Depict the outcome that your clients will receive and how they can benefit from the lesson in a precise and concise way.

By implementing these three action items, tech marketers do not only develop the right content for the right audience but be insightful and meaningful enough that the audience will actually be interested.  In this case, the tree not only made noise but you now have an attentive audience that wants to see the next tree fall.

Angel Hau is an MS candidate in Integrated Marketing & Communications at Northwestern University. She has previously worked for a marketing consulting startup for healthcare companies and is interested in joining the tech industry. Follow Angel @ Angel_CK_Hau.