How do we produce creative, compelling content that engages our audience and moves them to take action, while staying on-brand?

That was the question at hand and the topic of discussion addressed during Streetwise Studio’s “Marrying Creative Content With Brand Consistency” event last week.

We had a great turnout and received a great response, so we want to share with you what we covered because you’re our peers and most likely you’re working to align your creative content marketing ideas with an established brand.

As the content marketing industry continues to grow, competition and content saturation drives a need to produce creative, original, authentic content. But, what’s the value of that creativity if the content isn’t generating leads, raising brand awareness and converting sales?

First things first, what goals should you be achieving with your content?

Align Your Brand With Your Target Audience

• Speak to their interests and think about how your brand can relate to that

• Address their pain points and consider how your brand can help

• Pay attention to the influencers and industry leaders they are listening to. What can you say that they can’t?

• Consider the content your audience is already reacting to so you have an idea of what resonates with them

Inform and Provide Solutions to Users

• This leads to increased customer retention because readers know they can count on you for actionable solutions that make their life easier

• Provides marketers an opportunity to link back to products, offerings or services that directly fix user issues

Start a Dialogue Among Readers

• By publishing thoughtful content that stimulates readers, you’re going to see a rise in return traffic because people want to see what you publish next

• By starting a dialogue, you’re going to bring in new readers through word-of-mouth

Provide Commentary on Industry Trends

• Not only is this crucial in presenting yourself as a thought leader, but it’s the perfect opportunity to promote your brand’s expertise

• Your brand can speak to how a specific trend is directly impacting your readers in a way that others can’t

Groom Marketing Qualified Leads

• It’s all about feeding the funnel

• B2B companies report a 67 percent increase in lead generation when they create content

But producing creative content while staying on-brand comes with it’s challenges, and we often run into roadblocks. For example:

Competition and Content Saturation

• On average, 75 percent of marketers heavily focus on content within their overall marketing strategy

• This not only hurts the quality of your content because you’re posting content at a high frequency to stay relevant, but it can slow your production process down because you’re constantly straining to find the next revolutionary idea

Internal Compliance/Approval Process

• Having too many internal stakeholders who must give approval on a project before it’s published slows down your production process and changes the integrity of your original idea

Bandwidth

• Most content marketers are balancing a number of other tasks on a day-to-day basis, making it hard to consistently produce great work

Industry Restrictions

• Not all of our brands are dealing in an industry that reaches mass appeal, forcing us to dig below the surface to find compelling ideas

Consistent Quality

• Sometimes content marketers are overly focused on producing work at a high quantity, and that often results in a lack of quality.

• Quality can also get lost when a lot of different parties representing a brand are contributing content and not everyone is writing in a consistent style or tone, or don’t have a firm understanding of industry buzzwords and acronyms

Risk Aversion

• Marketers, especially those working for well-established brands, can hesitate to branch out with their content for fear of failing to meet what the audience has come to expect

Proving ROI

• It’s a constant battle advocating for the value of content marketing to decision makers when there are so many different metrics to measure success

The beauty of the content landscape we’re in right now is that people have a large appetite and there is a lot of it out there. Meaning: audiences are receptive to creative, original works, and your brand has the ability to do that.

Here are some strategies for success:

Source Your Audience

• By talking to your customers to see what they would like to see from your content, you’re immediately accessing original ideas because they consume other forms of content and want something different from your brand

• It’s also good practice to put yourself in their shoes, and think less like a marketer and more like a consumer

Leverage Industry Connections

• Sourcing your connections in your industry and having them contribute to your content adds credibility and keeps you objective when you’re covering trends and industry developments

• If you’re including input from a well-known source, you’re going to boost organic awareness and access a larger audience pool on social media

• Accessing other expert sources also speeds up productivity because you can talk to an industry expert rather than spend hours researching

Create an Editorial Calendar

• Keep content contributors accountable by building a schedule that let’s everyone know when drafts are due, edits must be approved and content will be published

• Having a content calendar allows you to look forward at what’s coming next and backload drafts so you’re prepared when other marketing aspects take higher priority

• Deadlines also push stakeholders to return edits and approve works faster

Be Abstract

• Consider how others are covering a specific trend, issue or development and think of attacking it from a different angle

• What insights can your brand offer that others can’t?

• Also, consider the other verticals your brand is abstractly aligned with and include that in your content coverage

Diversify Content Types

• People have a huge appetite for content, but they don’t always crave the same thing

• Mix up your menu and offer different forms of content to digest such as infographics, video, feature articles, case studies, white papers and how-tos

Predetermine Your ROI

• Whether it’s for your overall content goals/initiatives or specific to certain campaigns, determine the ROI you want to measure success by before you begin content production

• Set your ROI based on the targets and goals you’re looking to reach

• This way, when a campaign is complete you know what works for the future, what to improve upon and what methods to scrap

Fail … Fast and Use Data

• Knowing that you have endless sets of data to measure your content’s performance by, take the risks and get innovative with your content

• The data will prove if it is working or if it isn’t, and you’ve either found lightning in a bottle or simply scrap a bad idea

We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of the content marketing industry, and Streetwise Studio will host a number of events in the future to further explore the latest developments. If you’re interested in partnering with us to co-host an event or have issues you’d like us to address, reach out at studio@streetwise-media.com.