Content is King, and there's science behind the creation of compelling, actionable content as well as creative elements. This science tells us it's not enough to show a hit list of facts and figures, it's not enough to review the features and benefits without context, and there's nothing compelling or memorable with simply saying: buy or try because this is the "best".
While the facts and figures may be true, and your brand the "best" at what it does, these 'facts' in themselves bear no weight on the decision making of the average person with or without a smart phone in their hands.
Your content will always fail when approached in this manner. Always. No one wants to be marketed to, no one wants to be shouted at, or sold to. Your audience is too smart for that, too savvy, too overhwelmed with a multitude of messages to waste time with something that has no perceived value to them.
The most important tool in the building of content is deciding what action you want your audience to take.
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So what do they want? That's a larger question of course, but the concensus would be they would like to find things that help them in their everyday lives. Help them be better keepers, better deciders, better learners, better golfers, better workers, better moms or dads. . . better humans essentially. Good content is a key part of meeting that want, and really great content is memorable and even returned to time and time again for it's value.
But what is memorable content?
That is different for everyone, but the ingredients are the same. Find the thing that sets you or your company apart, and start from that unique brand DNA. It can be anything, and no matter how small, it defines your overall voice moving forward. Then deliver on it. Be that voice to your audience to meet whatever their need is.
Once you've established that voice consider these three indispensable tools when cooking up your next email, or blog post, or campagin:
- Create cues that attract attention and connect with your audience’s needs
These are triggers to your audience. Finding successful triggers requires you to really understand what would make your audience's lives easier. - Use memory-influencing variables to control what your audience remembers
These are magnets. Images, video, and sound combine with good content to draw the audience in, and create a sticky memory. - Turn today’s intentions into tomorrow’s actions
Decision drivers. By using images and content to create emotion you trigger the memory markers in your audience. When you experience something emotional, the brain encodes a marker, and later when you experience something similar, you remember that feeling. The markers serve as a quick way to recall that emotion and create intention around it
All of this funneling down to action. Which brings us to the most important part of the content bucket: deciding what it is specifically that you want your audience to do, and tie that to a goal you need to reach. With this action in mind, formulate the content to support it. Sounds simple enough right? Well, maybe not, but it certainly is a start of something great.
Need more? We've created a few guides to help with that endevor, just click to get your free guide and get started!
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