We’ve all seen the blind taste tests for soft drinks, wines, beers, and even bottled waters. I think a Pizza Taste Test is a lot like a multi-channel Content Delivery strategy.
Pizza shows up from every direction to the testers, and they lavish themselves on the thin crust, deep-dish, NY Style, Chicago Style, Rising Crust home-baked and a host of others, all to impatiently waiting audiences to check them out and evaluate which wins, which is the dog, and which gets shared.
The pizza chefs all hope theirs is the one found to be accepted by the masses and win the two-foot tall, shiny brass bread dough rolling pin.
Your content strategy needs to be like the pizza test. It has to be crafted with great care with the consumer in mind, specifically geared toward the ideal audiences, coming from multiple directions.
You hope and pray that every piece of content gets shared across the net and consumed by vast crowds who will then become part of your tribe. But it’s only partially under your control. And, that’s a relatively small part of the control factors.
1) Your content creation/curation methodology is solid and targeted specifically to the ideal consumer of your content
2) The inclusion of the perfect CTA, your call-to-action. What you ask them to do after consuming it.
Why All the Fuss
Let us not forget the fact that there are three types of learning methodologies. People learn differently. Some learn visually, so video makes for a great medium to get your message out. Others are audible learners, thus the call for podcasting your message. Still others are kinesthetic, they need to feel or touch the messaging. That’s where offline media like newspapers, magazines, flyers, brochures, anything that is hand-held.
Speaking and selling information products like books, CD sets and workbooks, those tangible information products are ideally suitable for all three learning types. It might even be a combination of all three, as on a smartphone, tablet or even television.
So, knowing this, how are you distributing your content? If it is all written, you’re missing out on a great deal of your target audience. While most are visual learners, the others make up a sizable chunk of consumers that you may be short shrift.
The main reason content needs to be on multiple digital platforms is for lead acquisition, trust-building, brand awareness, and brand positioning. If your blog article is not only posted on your site, it should be found everywhere your ideal audience can be found. Some might be exclusively on LinkedIn, others on Facebook, and so on.
Multi-Disciplinary Content Production
I’m sure you’ve considered creating content in multiple formats so that you can reach more people with your messaging. However, you might have not considered what might work better, easier and convertible without too much hassle.
Start with creating slides. The slide can become a webinar piece, a live presentation, a recorded video with voice-over. The slide deck can then be converted into a transcript and be distributed as a blog article, an audio file, or even a special report or eBook. Now we’re talking. Multiple formats all from one easy to create platform. That’s six-seven various content assets that can be used across the web in numerous ways, even offline.
Nurturing and Building Trust
Distributing your content across multiple media increases your digital footprint, touches more consumers, builds brand awareness, and credibility. Just imagine, you find an interesting article on LinkedIn or Medium, then a day or so later you discover it on Facebook or some other social platform. So, your interest is piqued as to whom is the creator of this content. You check out the website, and on the blog is the original publishing of the asset. Now that piece of content is beginning to build a relationship with you. That’s what it’s all about. Securing another candidate for the nurture process. That builds trust.
CMI Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose recently described the importance of earning not only our audience’s attention, but also its trust: “Every digital experience we create should not only reflect our focus on winning a moment of truth – where the customer is paying attention – but in deepening the trust gained (or regained) in every step that precedes or follows it.”
Earning that trust requires your content to have four essential traits, Robert writes. It must be:
Risk appropriate (avoid asking for something before proving the value)
Consistent (deliver reliable content regularly over time)
Personal (based on reliable information the visitor has willingly given)
Cumulative (building on what came before)
In short, if you want your brand to be well-regarded by your audience, give it something valuable. Be consistent. Be easy to find. Give your audience members content they want and need – when and where they’re looking for it. And make it about them, not you. –
It’s Dog Eat Dog in Digital
Content is the defining component of a marketing strategy, digital and otherwise. Whether that content is print media or virtual reality, consumers of your content expect you to keep them engaged, informed, educated, and entertained. If not you, they’ll find someone that can. Here’s an excerpt from Digital Authority that sums up the competitive nature of the content strategy for going forward from today.
The B2B Content Marketing Strategy Report finds that 91 percent of B2B businesses used content strategy in 2018, but less than 34 percent of marketers consider that their companies are proficient at how to leverage content marketing effectively. Here’s how to fix that problem.
The 2018 B2B content marketing report published by the Content Marketing Institute is filled with valuable data and trends, none more important than this: 93 percent of all B2B companies are committed to creating & nurturing a robust b2b content marketing strategy in 2019.
If you’re a business hoping to compete in today’s cutthroat industry, you CANNOT be successful without developing a coherent marketing strategy that identifies prospects, creates content to engage their interest and converts them into long-term customers. – Digital Authority Partners
For more information on what can be done to improve your content strategy, feel free to call for a no cost or obligation content review and consultation. We’re here when you are ready to take your content strategy to new heights.
