There’s No Good Marketing Without Good Content Marketing. Brands want to be thought of as storytellers, and with good reason. Then again, marketing relies on core techniques such as email or assets like white papers, blunt instruments as they can sometimes be. In the case of GoPro, customers generate the content, and the company’s marketing feeds on it. Red Bull, by contrast, stages events like the Stratos space jump that are ultimately elaborate content marketing and PR initiatives, generating stories for and about the brand. And by tell, I mean in the broadest possible sense, thinking of all the mechanisms marketers have at their disposal to convey stories. Think of how National Geographic, a brand synonymous with content, draws on the full extent of its nearly 130-year history of memorable photography. Its vast trove of visual assets tells compelling stories that are both good content and good content marketing, serving readers and the brand in equal measure. Much like the “marketing world without email” scenario I postulated in a previous post, a marketing world without content would be similarly nightmarish, if not bordering on the impossible. Content — and not just any old content, but targeted, relevant content — is such an important component of the digital customer experience that without it, you arguably have no customer experience.
Brands want to be thought of as storytellers, and with good reason. Given the choice, wouldn’t you rather be on the receiving end of a good story, especially one that engages you with interesting or helpful ideas on a regular basis, almost like a serialised novel? Sounds a lot better than the dreary prospect of another marketing email landing in your inbox or the umpteenth white paper you have to read this month.
Then again, marketing relies on core techniques such as email or assets like white papers, blunt instruments as they can sometimes be. They are all part of the broad content continuum, and content, as my colleague Kirsten Newbold-Knipp has noted, “is the material substance of a brand’s marketplace advantage — the very hook that captivates customers at precise moments of need.” The trick is to turn those blunt instruments into something dynamic and persuasive.
Some brands, like GoPro or Red Bull, for example, are, by their very nature, inextricably linked to compelling content. In the case of GoPro, customers generate the content, and the company’s marketing feeds on it. Red Bull, by contrast, stages events like the Stratos space jump that are ultimately elaborate content marketing and PR initiatives, generating stories for and about the brand.
The point is, you need to have a good story, tell the story in a way that’s going to resonate with your audience and distribute it…
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