How to create content that fits your brand
It’s been said many times that “Content is King” (or Queen) and it feels like this keeps becoming
more and more true every year. That’s because we live in the “Attention Economy”, a phrase coined by psychologist, economist and Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon. Attention is scarce – and content is the key to grabbing it.
Creating a content strategy may feel daunting whether you’re a large legacy brand or a small startup. After all, we are an “always on” culture and the amount of content we consume is staggering. According to a 2018 Nielsen study, US adults consume 10 and a half hours of content a day. That’s intimidating, but your content strategy doesn’t need to be. Here are some tips to help you.
- Think of your content like a book. There are the Title and the Chapters. You should start with a clear idea of your brand positioning and mission (the title) and the pillars that make up your brand (the chapters).
- Think like a consumer. Different platforms are used for different motivations. Pinterest is a great discovery and “how to” platform. Instagram is eye candy. Facebook can tell community stories (founder stories too). LinkedIn can be a great place to share articles. The point is, you shouldn’t cut and paste the same content across every channel. Put some basic guardrails in place to strategically “assign” content pillars to your channels so they feel contextually relevant.
- Repurpose like crazy. Long form content (blogs, articles, podcasts, webinars, videos) is fantastic because not only does it give you a meaty piece of content to share out, but you can be repurposing and reposting for months. Take soundbites and quotes from your long form content. Cut your video into snippets. You will get a ton of mileage from just a few pieces of long form content.
- Have a clear brand voice and create brand guidelines to nail it down. I find it helpful to define your brand archetype so that you have a clear brand voice — and archetypes also give consumers something familiar to latch on to. This will help inform the tone, the copy, the visuals and make it much easier for anyone creating content for you to ensure it’s on brand.
- Partner with other like-minded brands to share out your content. This is a great way to get more eyeballs and engagement with your content. You can easily shout out brands in your articles (in fact, I’m going to shout out a great place to network, store and share content about specific topics called Currnt) and you’ll find that many times, those brands will repost your content and return the favor.
- Get comfortable. If you’re a founder that’s introverted (like me), you’ll need to find ways to get comfortable putting yourself out there. Consumers these days demand transparency about brands – how they started, who is the founder, what the supply chain looks like, what type of charitable activities you do (or don’t do), what your values are, etc. I prefer to do podcasts while my business partner James does our livestreaming. He’s great at the “show and tell” of Mekabu, our hero ingredient, and his journey to create our formulas. I like to share our go-to-market strategy along with marketing tips and tricks. Whatever your preference is, you just need to find your lane and go for it.
Hopefully, these simple strategies will help you create engaging content without killing yourself (or spending too much $$). I’d love to hear your ideas on how you approach your content strategy.
By Lynn Power
About Lynn Power:
Lynn was formerly the CEO of J. Walter Thompson NY and has worked on advertising and marketing for many beauty brands throughout her career including L’Oreal, Nexxus and Clinique. Lynn is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of MASAMI, a clean, premium haircare brand with a Japanese ocean botanical that’s all about hydration. Follow MASAMI at @lovemasamihair or learn more at www.lovemasami.com. And while you’re there, sign up for the newsletter to stay informed of the latest haircare and clean beauty trends.
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