Think about how your mom used to call your name when you were a kid. There were probably a few variations in her tone based on the situation. For example:
Your mom’s voice is content type. I know that’s a sharp segue, but think about it. Her tone told you everything you needed to know about what she was about to say and whether or not you wanted to be part of the conversation. Each example even served a specific purpose, such as to educate, engage or inspire you to do something.
I’m not advocating you fuss at your customers, but you can spin this tactic to benefit your brand. Certain approaches convey certain things to certain audiences. So all you have to do is tap into the right types of content for your target audience to boost your brand awareness and start drawing more of a crowd.
Here’s the thing: People can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist. But with the saturation of businesses in the market, getting consumers’ attention is like waving from the nosebleed seats at the lead singer of your favorite band. You have to get to the front row if you want to be noticed, ideally with a large sign.
Your content marketing is your ticket to center stage. When executed correctly, it’s a lead generation machine that puts your brand directly in front of interested consumers and shows them you have the solution to their problems.
The trick to doing this effectively is to make sure you’re taking the right stage. It would be kind of awkward for a Metallica cover band to run onto Willie Nelson’s set. I don’t think his fans would be into it. So don’t do that. Match your content type to the audience you want to serve.
When driving awareness, you want to carefully consider what content will best suit your audience. You can target people in all stages of the buyer journey, but content lends itself particularly well to the awareness stage. Because in this stage, people need information and your content can provide it. So let’s look at what types of content are best for driving awareness.
When you’re building brand awareness, you want to target customers in the awareness stage. (No surprise there.) There are plenty of ways to present content that can help you do this, and we’ll talk about them in just a second. First, I need to mention another part of your marketing strategy—messaging.
Just like particular pieces of content are better at fostering awareness, certain messages resonate more clearly with potential customers in this stage. To help guide you, I made this short list of rules for creating high-quality content:
When people think about types of content, they usually call to mind all the different formats out there. And they’re not wrong. We’ll talk about formats in a minute, but first I want to talk about purpose.
Content type refers to the purpose of your blog, webinar, podcast, etc. The purpose for your brand is almost always to drive traffic, so now you need to determine the purpose for your audience. What are you hoping to accomplish in their lives with this piece of content?
When speaking to people in the awareness stage, there are types of content that are especially beneficial:
Now that we know the three types of content for awareness stage leads, we can look at how to implement them in different content formats.
Blogs are my favorite format. Not just because I write two or three a day, but because they’re so darn versatile! They’re the bedrock of every content marketing strategy, plus they boost your SEO, plus they provide content for social media posts. I could go on, but I’ll stop myself.
The point is, blogs can support all three format types and so naturally lend themselves to the awareness stage. Different types of blogs can support different purposes more effectively, so let’s look at your options.
There’s a reason cat videos are so popular, and it’s not just because cats are adorable. It’s because videos are easy to consume. In fact, they’re so easy that it’s estimated that 82% of all internet traffic is watching videos.
Suffice to say, you don’t want to leave video content out of your digital marketing. Because they’re so dynamic, videos are naturally entertaining, plus you can use them as an educational platform.
For example, you might make a video describing a product or service to potential clients. You could show how it works, talk through the process or explain how your brand approaches the problem. You can even use webinars or live videos to interact directly with an audience, then publish them later for the rest of your customer base.
Videos can also inspire action. Take that Q&A blog you’re planning or the success story you want to publish and record the interview process. Publish that video so people can not only read the story, but know the person. This creates a deeper personal and emotional connection that pushes them to join your brand.
As an added bonus, videos are excellent examples of shareable content. Put snippets on your social media platforms or embed them in emails. Encourage people to spread the word and make it easy for them to share with others. As customers and leads share your videos with others, you’ll reach a wider and wider audience that might never have found you otherwise.
Who loves charts? I’ll raise my hand first, so don’t be shy. Charts are awesome because they give you a visual representation of complex information. And in case you didn’t know, humans are overwhelmingly visual learners. We actually retain more information from an infographic or chart than we do from reading a blog.
Infographics draw in people like me with pretty colors and clean lines, then concisely teach you something entirely new. That’s why they’re the perfect format for educational content.
There are a few things to keep in mind when designing an infographic to ensure it produces the desired results:
Have you ever read a biography or memoir that was so inspiring you started making concrete changes in your life just to be like the author? I once read a book about a blind lawyer that moved me to start researching accessibility issues for the visually impaired. I was inspired by her grit and wanted to take positive action.
Case studies can have this effect on your prospects. Okay, probably not to the same degree as reading a book about a blind lawyer, but the point stands. When they see exactly how you helped others, they’ll want in.
Keep in mind that content is a long-game. People might be inspired to take action, but that doesn’t mean they’ll do it right now. You will, however, stay top of mind whenever that client or someone they know faces the problem your brand addresses.
Case studies inspire action through social proof. So you can leave the warm and fuzzies to the subject matter. Your job is to tell prospects what that action should be. How can they experience the same success? (Hint: this comes in the form of clear, concise CTAs.)
These are two common sections on a business website. It helps to make you an encyclopedia of value for new leads and prospects. It also positions your brand as an educational resource.
You want to offer enough information for people to develop a solid understanding of your brand and industry, then decide for themselves if it’s right for them. Gently guiding people this way helps you introduce them to your sales funnel without using “salesy” tactics that might turn off more judicious buyers.
That being said, people don’t know what they don’t know. They might have an idea of what’s troubling them, but haven’t pinpointed the exact problem yet. For this reason, it helps to organize your information in broad categories that make solutions easy to find.
Within these categories, compile a list of resources that explain more specific topics. Search engine algorithms assign your website more clout if these are internal posts, but adding some information from outside sources can often be helpful too. Focus these resources on educating people who are new to your industry and at the very beginning of their customer journey.
Your brand can be the sweet, calming maternal voice from the next room, beckoning new leads to the dinner table for warm cookies. You just need to make sure you know what type of content you’re creating, what format best suits the purpose and that your messaging matches the awareness stage.
I could talk about content all day long, so if you’re interested in learning more or about how Lone Fir Creative can help your business, reach out! We’d love to get to know your brand and help you boost awareness.