3 Steps to Developing Great Marketing Content

Source: Bluenovius.com

Greetings entrepreneurs and marketers. I hope you made it through the second wave tsunami as unharmed as one could hope. As we get on with our lives once again, I have been asked to investigate an interesting marketing problem – the need for endless content and disappointing quality of output. Now, while this issue is more internal (between organisations and their creative partners), it impacts the business and the brand.

To begin with, I for one had to consciously set aside my prejudices on the matter having worked in agencies for so long. After all, while I knew the agency side of things, I had never really ‘heard’ the marketer’s side of the story.  As I listened intently, I understood two things –

1.      Marketers keep chasing content creators about deadlines, and unsatisfactory work that they ‘make do’ with.

2.      Content creators in turn feel their clients have impossible deadlines and offer little clarity about the task at hand.

This is a familiar chicken and egg story for all content creators and businesses. For the purpose of this piece, without taking sides, I will use take the bottleneck approach – i.e. follow the content creation process from the very beginning and check for snags.

It all starts with a brief, actually even before marketers put a pen to paper. Over the years I have experienced that a sharper brief almost always begets sharp content, fewer iterations and saved time. Of course, the next question would be on writing a good brief. So I have tried to put down a simple cheat sheet for both, marketers and content creators –

Step before the step

Before I detail the three steps, there is one underestimated part where the trouble often starts – groundwork preparation. All that is needed is a quick snapshot of the current business scenario – to give a situational context so content creators can understand the larger problem. Business owners are often so close to the situation that often critical pieces off the puzzle remain in their head and don’t make it to the brief. To make the transfer of information and context setting easier, I have tried to put down some pointers –

• What is currently happening in the market or category that directly affects your business - this is the broader context or situation that made you realise you need to communicate in the first place

• Is there any competitive activity that needs to be addressed - any new product launch, or innovation that directly affects the market dynamics and your market-share

• What is the organisation's point of view on a given situation - this helps in coming across as a leader, or to differentiate oneself from the crowd

• Is there a specific consumer issue to be addressed or solved - often used while doing damage control, or building greater relevance and consumer connect.

Answering some of these questions should at least get you started in the right direction. All good content creators understand the importance of the correct context. Let us now move on to the 3 steps –

1. WHERE and HOW do you want to run the content – where will this piece of content run. There are basic distinctions like print-audio-video. Digital options make things more nuanced and interesting. Do you want to communicate via Youtube, Whatsapp, Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, or more conventional media like radio, newspapers or television and so on.  

This section gives content creators their canvas! Do they need to think for a reel or story which will disappear in 24 hours, or do they need to come up with a compelling Facebook post that directs consumers to the main website. Or it could just be a LinkedIn blog voicing the businesses point of view on a certain matter.

Each medium has its strengths and utility and must be deployed after much consideration. The next step is to identify the audience.

Source:marcomavenue.com

2. WHO the content is for – this step is all about identifying the recipient of your content efforts. Do you wish to speak to end consumers, internal stakeholders, employees or channel partners? Just as in the real world, knowing ‘who’ you want to speak to will decide the tonality, look and messaging of the content. Content for end consumers may tell a story, while employee communication may need to motivate, or simply inspire business partners.

Source:Lumenlearning.com

Hint – I have learnt that it helps defining the intended audience in two parts – who they are and their relationship to the product, service or organisation. In the ‘who they are’ part, it works better if one tries descriptive phrases that immediately paint a picture. Next, try to define their relationship with the product or service in question – its relevance in their lives.

By example, worried moms of fussy eaters (who they are), looking for healthy snack options for their kids (relationship to snacking category), maverick IT coders (who they are) looking for a fun work place with challenging projects (relationship to category).

So once marketers decide what medium the content will run on, and who it is intended for, the third step is… the message! 

3. The eventual takeout – this is the core of the content. It is that ‘one big thing’ the audience takes away. This is the ‘role of message’. This can be to inform people about a new product, persuade them to change perception or behaviour. More often than not, marketers are tempted to try and send out multiple messages in one piece of content. While it’s a tempting opportunity, it does not make for clear and effective communication. Research and experience both, show that people typically retain one big story and perhaps one or two smaller points.

Hint – I personally do it by writing the one thing that will render the communication exercise useless or the single biggest reason to communicate in the first place. This helps define the very heart of the message. Then, two factors that support or validate that big message.

By example, snacks made specifically for kids (heart of the message), made with organic ingredients, no added sugar (supporting information). Or, join an inventive IT firm (heart of the message), encourages passion projects and skill development (why it is inventive). This should help keep the content focussed and sharp with one big message and to points that support it.

Summary

So the next time you need a new piece of content, do your homework as to why you need a piece in the first place. Then just decide who you are speaking to, where or at which touch-point you want to speak to them and the one big message for them.

While these three steps may sound basic and intuitive, the lack of initial round work and clear briefs came up in almost all the cases I investigated. Almost all marketers said they were too busy to do a detailed briefing for every piece. Hence, I have tried to boil the exercise down to 3 simple steps. With these I hope time pressed marketers and content creators will manage to get at least working clarity saving both parties time, energy and heartache. The next step in the process would be to see where the flows hits the next bottleneck and how one can solve for it – one step at a time.