Content is not your sales pitch, it is your sincere story
Content marketing is proving to be timeless and it suits me just great. As a content marketer myself, it is exciting to watch all the avenues open up in the industry and the endless possibilities it presents me with. But most businesses that I observe, are moving ahead with the same attitude for content as they do for sales. A spreadsheet, a checklist, and a funnel to fuel are the key aspects of content these days. While all these tools are invaluable to content marketing, the focus of the content itself should be something else entirely. And this lack of focus is costing businesses time, effort, and very real monetary investments.
Content has always been the king
It is unnecessary to point out how important content is to a business. I say this because 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers actively involve content in their strategies. And there have been endless studies detailing the role of content in lead generation and business. So when I say we are all doing it wrong, I don’t mean that you need to change your strategy.
The reason so many content marketers fail to see long-term results through their efforts is because, despite a strong strategy, their intentions always seem to be slightly off. Almost all the businesses I have worked with have insisted on creating content for better visibility and leads. Now, this is an absolutely legitimate goal to have, but to create content only for getting people to click on your links is the wrong way to go about it.
The right content strategy starts with your brand story.
But what is your story?
It is definitely not your mission or vision, it is not even what you strive to achieve. Your brand story is the reason why your brand exists and the reason why it has a place in the world (yes, the world, not just the market.)
Some of the most successful brands know this and have managed to beautifully put forth their brand story to the world at large. Let us take a look at some of them.
Nike
Nike is a perfect example of brand storytelling. Even before the Colin Kaepernick Ad went out, Nike has always stayed consistent with their brand message. They have beautifully infused their story with their tagline, their products, and even the people who endorse Nike. The cumulative effect of this snowballs into the story being promoted by the masses with little to no effort. This level of storytelling is the holy grail of content.
Castrol
This campaign by Castrol is storytelling at its best. It enthralls and enchants the viewers to understand who they are. In one fell swoop, Castrol manages to establish credibility while being memorable as a brand that cares.
This kind of storytelling is not just good advertising. It gives your business a personality, a tangibility that faceless businesses don’t have. It is a known fact that customers shy away from mechanical businesses with no personal touch, and your story just adds the human element to ALL of your content. This makes your content your biggest advocate.
How to build your story
So now the question arises-how to infuse a story into your content? Let us take the example of HubSpot. HubSpot runs multiple blogs and produces tonnes of content on a daily basis, and yet every single piece of content that HubSpot produces reverberates the same story: HubSpot is a friend you can seek help from, who is also an expert on all things sales and marketing.
How can you do this?
Start with establishing your story. Start with the WHY. Why are you doing what you are? The answer to this question unfolds a lot of insights. You may realize that your business is a way to enable your customers to achieve finesse in what they do. Or that your apparel business is a bid to incorporate a new style in the fashion industry. Whatever it is, it is important that you understand the WHY.
Then you move on to the HOW. How does it help your customers? The Why and the How usually come together so this shouldn’t be too difficult.
And finally, you need to establish WHAT it is that you offer the world. A better lifestyle, a hope, or even a product that helps them relieve themselves of a pesky task.
This will give your story the perfect setting. Now in any brand story, your characters should be your customers only. And your WHAT should be the resolution to their existing conflict. For example, in the case of HubSpot, The characters are the users and readers, and their content and applications resolve their conflict i.e. the lack of resources for sales and marketing.
Make it compelling
Now that you have your story, it is important that you present it right. While creating content, make sure everyone in your team is on the same page. And ensure that your story is the underlining tone for every single blog, infographic, and other piece of content that you produce.
Let us take, for example, Jon Morrow. Jon is a blogger who runs Smart Blogger, a blog about blogging. He has practically built an empire out of blogging advice and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. Jon’s story of how he managed to put together his life and this blog after a major accident underlines every single piece of his content.
Sometimes he makes a humorous comment about his life, or refer to his struggles when he started out. But in any case, Jon makes a solid argument as his story connects with the readers through every piece of his content.
To start out, you can start writing with the intent to tell your story over and over again while talking about something else entirely. But do not get self-indulgent, that’s a slippery slope and your readers will be quick to spot the narcissism.
Abandon the sales pitch
I’m sure you have a sales pitch ready to throw at anyone who could be a prospect, but content is not the place for it. If you find yourself pitching your products or services through your content, ABORT MISSION.
Content is the place to inform and engage, and the informing could be about your products but that’s it. Do not try to sell with content, if your content is good enough, it will do that for you, and turn your customers into your promoters. But when you push your sales pitch through your blogs, for example, the right customer will not return to it.
With the right story, you could get your content to fire up your inbound process and more. But understand that your focus should be on what story you tell, not how much you sell.
