Content Marketing is the New Branding

Content Marketing has established itself as one of the most effective ways for a company or business to brand itself. This is a result of a significant shift in the way successful companies interact with consumers.

This post is going to answer two questions:

• Why have those interactions shifted?
• And, more importantly, how can it help you and your brand?

The Why:

A decade ago, if you wanted to learn more about a product or company, you had to turn the volume up on your TV or Radio. Today, you can learn more about the product, the company, the company’s founder, the company’s founder’s neighbor, and what that neighbor had for dinner last night, all with the few swipes on keyboard or smart phone. With a wealth of information available, and a worldwide consumer base that is plugged in to that information, companies have begun to realize that, if they provide valuable, engaging information users will flock to it. This allows a company to demonstrate their expertise, knowledge and/or value, before they even try to sell their goods or services.

The How:

This is simple. Provide people with engaging and valuable content. Have a plan. Create a content strategy. Think about what you want to say, when you want to say it, and where you want to say it. And finally, identify your target audience. Provide valuable information. But here’s a hint: The valuable information you provide isn’t that they should buy your product or use your services. Strong content marketing is, in a way, altruistic. Help people. Teach them something they didn’t know or, better yet, needed to know. And they will begin to trust you and your brand. Engage. Engagement means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But to me, it means, be interesting. Value is great, but boring is boring.

How do you engage, or at least, be interesting?

In terms of the content itself, speak with an authentic voice. Allow yourself, and your brand, to have a conversation with your audience. This will lead to a more enriching experience for those who interact with your brand and, in turn, will begin add value to your brand. And finally, keep it short. Humans have attention spans that seem to be dwindling by the second, so make sure to keep everything you do, or say, brief. With that final thought in mind, I’ll turn it over to you. What are other ways businesses can leverage content marketing to grown their brand?