Okay, so maybe that’s an overstatement. But if you’re a human who scrolls or swipes on the semi-regular, you’ve surely noticed the TikTokification of just about everything. And as a B2B brand, you can’t ignore this shift in how people consume and share ideas.

Scroll through any feed and you’ll see the power of this now-ubiquitous format. A sharp, 20-second video clip can extend the half-life of your best ideas; it can pull a key takeaway out of your latest report, give it visual and emotional context, and send it rippling through executive feeds within hours. It can turn depth into reach, and thought leadership into momentum. And in 2025, the brands mastering this balance between insight and immediacy are the ones shaping the conversation.

This playbook lays out a practical framework for scaling short-form production without sacrificing your sanity (or your brand voice).

Why Invest in Short-Form Video Now?

In recent years, three converging forces have made the format indispensable.

1. Platform algorithms reward native video content. LinkedIn’s algorithm favors native uploads and visible engagement (likes, comments, and reshares) over external links. That means a short video posted directly to the feed will almost always travel farther than a link to your blog or YouTube page. YouTube itself is doubling down on Shorts as a discovery engine, logging over 70 billion daily views and driving new traffic to longer videos on the same channels.
2. Buyer behavior has fundamentally shifted. Short-form videos work because they fit into micro-moments: the scrolls between calls, inbox breaks, or quick research before a pitch. A single, well-edited clip can become both an external thought-leadership post and an internal enablement asset.
3. The ROI proof is in. HubSpot’s annual State of Marketing report notes that short-form leads in ROI, engagement, and lead generation compared to other video formats.

Here’s an example of why this format is so critical in 2025: Imagine your team hosts an insightful webinar that draws a few hundred live attendees. The response is positive, but small scale and contained. But a day later, your marketing team clips a 30-second highlight from the event, and suddenly, the insight is everywhere on LinkedIn — it’s even picking up traction on TikTok. Same idea. Same audience. Different velocity.

Formats That Work in B2B in 2025

Successful B2B video strategies rely on repeatable formats that teams can batch-produce efficiently.

These might include:

• Expert snippets and micro-takes (30–45 seconds) can work well for sharing perspectives on industry statistics/trends/reports or highlighting customer insights. Tap into your organization’s own subject-matter experts or internal data storytellers to surface fresh insights that customers or peers actually care about (e.g., a surprising trend from your latest benchmark report or a question your sales team keeps hearing).
• Explainer videos cut into digestible nuggets (30–60 seconds) break down complex frameworks, demonstrate before-and-after scenarios, or define emerging trends in three clear beats. The winning structure follows a simple pattern: Hook (identify the problem) → Core insight → Actionable step → Clear CTA.
• Behind-the-scenes content humanizes expertise while strengthening employer branding. For instance, show how customer success managers solve real client issues or how research teams uncover insights. Clips like these remind audiences that your company is made up of real people solving tangible problems.
• Series formats create viewing habits through familiar cadences like “60-Second Whiteboard,” “One Metric Monday,” or “3 Slides in 30 Seconds.” Consistent naming and timing can lower the cognitive load for viewers while simplifying planning and batch production for content teams.
• Strategic thought starters grab and maintain attention through provocative openings: “hot take” cold opens, “We were wrong about…” admissions, or direct challenges like, “If you only change one thing this quarter, make it this.”

Think of these formats as your highlight reel templates — they make it easier to share what your brand already knows, one clip at a time.

Production Techniques to Prioritize

In social feeds, clarity and pacing matter far more than cinematic production value. The most effective short-form clips hook viewers within the first second or two.

Smart editors also build in “pattern interrupts” every few seconds, swapping angles, adding B-roll, or flashing quick on-screen stats to keep attention from drifting. Because most platforms autoplay videos without sound, captions are critical. Burn them in, highlight key words for emphasis, and use visual cues like progress bars to nudge viewers toward completion.

Remember that you’re not striving for perfection; rather, you should aim to keep up momentum. An “80%-there” version published within 72 hours of a webinar or interview will outperform the flawless cut that ships a month late.

Finally, keep in mind that authenticity almost always beats polish. A quick, well-lit phone recording that feels human will connect better than a high-production shoot that feels staged.

To keep your process sustainable, treat short-form production like a feedback loop: Publish quickly, learn from watch-through data and comments, and adjust pacing or framing as you go. With accessible tools like Descript, CapCut, Adobe Premiere Rush, or VEED for editing — and Riverside, Zoom, or Loom for capture — teams no longer need full studio setups. Even AI-assisted repurposing tools such as OpusClip can help jump-start edits (though a human pass for quality and tone is still essential before anything goes live).

Platform-Specific Distribution and Optimization

Each platform has distinct engagement patterns and optimization requirements. To get the most out of every clip, tailor how you publish and frame it to match where your audience actually consumes content.

For instance:

• LinkedIn optimization centers on native uploads with strong opening lines and specific questions that encourage comments. Pin top comments with resource links and encourage authentic internal engagement within the first hour of posting to boost algorithmic distribution.
• YouTube Shorts require keyword-rich titles, series naming conventions, and dedicated Shorts playlists that encourage binge-watching while connecting to relevant long-form content on the same channel.
• Website integration through dedicated “Video Briefings” archives improves SEO through schema markup and interlinking with related guides and resources.
• Sales enablement packages should compile the top five performing clips monthly with specific use case guidance for prospecting, objection handling, and deal progression conversations.

No matter the platform, consistency beats complexity; the brands that show up regularly stay more visible.

From Long-Form to Shareable Short-Form: A Step-by-Step Guide

The most efficient B2B teams start with a single, insight-dense “anchor” asset, then break it into smaller, platform-ready pieces that keep the conversation going long after the original launch.

Here’s an example of what this process looks like step by step:

1. Choose the right anchor.

Start with something that already carries weight: a webinar, research report, executive interview, or customer roundtable. The best anchor content offers a clear point of view and connects directly to your broader marketing themes. Think: “What’s our take on this trend?” not “What can we summarize?”

2. Map out the moments worth sharing.

Before you ever hit record, list 8–15 potential short-form clips (“video atoms”) you could create from the anchor. These might include:

• A single strong stat or takeaway
• A myth your expert can debunk in 30 seconds
• A customer soundbite that illustrates impact
• A quick “how-we-did-it” tip from your team
• A question your audience asks again and again

Each one should have a rough script skeleton: a hook, a core insight (two or three lines max), a visual cue, and a clear call-to-action (CTA).

3. Batch record and assign clear roles.

Get everyone involved on the same page early. Strategists should identify anchor assets and tie them to upcoming campaigns. Subject-matter experts can block a short monthly recording session to capture multiple takes at once. Producers will handle editing, captioning, and versioning by platform. Social leads can write titles, schedule uploads, and engage in the first-hour comment window.

4. Build guardrails that let you move fast.

Nothing kills momentum faster than a 17-step approval chain. To avoid the death-by-approvals spiral, set up pre-approved brand templates for all the components you can. Maintain a short “greenlight list” of safe, recurring topics that can skip full legal review, and agree internally on a 48-hour turnaround standard from clip completion to publish.

5. Distribute and track smartly.

From one anchor asset, aim to create 10–15 video clips, a handful of static visuals, one short newsletter embed, and a quick sales-enablement reel. Assign each piece to a specific channel and goal (awareness, engagement, lead generation, or internal enablement) and monitor how each performs to refine the next round.

Turn Big Ideas into Bite-Sized Impact

The next time you publish a major report or host a webinar, keep the momentum going. Find the 30 seconds that say the most, put it in motion, and give your audience a reason to stop scrolling.

Attention may be fleeting, but influence compounds. Each short-form clip is a small opportunity to reinforce what your brand stands for — in your voice, on your timeline, and in front of the audiences that matter. When those moments stack up, they start to shape perception long after the video ends.

Learn how Contently helps B2B marketers turn depth into reach, and reach into measurable ROI.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Q: What if my subject-matter experts hate being on camera?

Remind them that realness often performs better anyway. Try audio-over-PPT, screen recordings with voiceover, or micro-shorts where the expert speaks one idea directly. Over time, confidence follows repetition.

Q: Do I have to publish across all platforms at once?

Nope. It’s smarter to start where your audience already is (LinkedIn, Slack communities, internal channels) and scale gradually. Use your top-performing formats there before branching into Shorts, newsletters, or website archives.

Q: How do I make sure short-form video doesn’t become a siloed half-effort?

Embed it into the bigger content strategy. Map each clip to themes, campaigns or buyer stages. Use the same language, link back to related content, and integrate clips into newsletters, sales decks, or blog posts so they reinforce—not distract from—your core narrative.

The post The B2B Brand’s Guide to Short-Form Video in 2025 appeared first on Contently.

Each sentence is the start of a brand-new story. And somehow, in one sentence, these stories have the power to capture our attention and spark our curiosity—something content marketers aim for with every piece they create.

So, what’s the key to successfully capturing curiosity in commercial audiences? Creativity.

How can we get creative with content marketing?

As a content marketer for a B2B tech company, I know how burnout feels and how hard it is to generate new ideas. There’s round-the-clock pressure to create new content—whether the goal of that content is to recruit for an event on social media or promote a new product on the blog. Sometimes, I feel more like a content machine than a content strategist.

If you share this sentiment, we’re not the only ones. In fact, research finds that 61 percent of creators are experiencing burnout.

Marketers can’t produce their best work if they’re burnt out. And if your content doesn’t stand out from your competition, it won’t turn your prospects’ heads. Content quality is a major factor for potential buyers evaluating brands with similar products. Studies show that poor-quality content decreases the probability of a sale by 40 percent.

Your brand’s content needs to capture attention, or your prospects will go elsewhere. How do you make that happen? With more creativity in marketing assets.

3 ways to embrace creative content marketing

For now, let’s forget about SEO, analytics, company goals, and deadlines. Instead, let’s focus on different ways to spark creativity with content to gauge interest and engagement.

1. Develop a deep understanding of your brand

The ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself” suggests this is the highest form of knowledge. The same school of thought applies to your company’s brand.

You might be thinking, “Obviously! I’m a marketer. It’s my job to live and breathe our brand.” Even if you clearly understand your products, company values, and target persona(s), doing a gut check on your brand is essential. Even veteran employees and brand creators need to ask themselves, “Is this representative of who we are?” at times.

Does everyone on your team share the same understanding? If not, it’s time to ensure everyone is on the same page. You can’t produce creative content without one key ingredient: Consistency.

Your brand needs to stand for something, and your creative content needs to make noise in your industry.

But without a consistent brand underlying all your content, your most brilliant ideas will confuse your audience.

“Creativity” doesn’t mean every blog post or whitepaper you write is drastically different from the one before it. In fact, the definition of creativity is simply “the use of imagination or original ideas.”

Is now the time to redefine your brand or bring new ideas to the table to present a creative but unified new front? A re-vamp could help make your content feel more fresh and exciting. Or, maybe your team just needs richer documentation and brand standards, so everyone is rowing in the same direction.

2. Experiment with different media

Almost every company with a content marketing function covers a few core areas. The most common include an active blog, social media, long-form assets (like eBooks and whitepapers), email newsletters, and customer case studies.

Don’t get us wrong: You need these types of assets. They’re the bread and butter of content marketing. But creativity in marketing is about bringing novel ideas to the table. Cutting-edge thought leadership is one way to stand out. But can you go even further?

In addition to thinking about the “what,” think about the “how.” How can you use different media to present creative content in a way that few others are leveraging? It’s 2023, and there are so many ways we can relay information from one person to another. For example:

Multimedia content: Videos, infographics, podcast

An estimated 3.63 billion people worldwide will watch digital video content in 2023. Yet only 12 percent of marketers feel like they’re using video to its full potential. There’s a huge opportunity here. Whether using visuals to help tell a story or creating content that prospects can listen to, multimedia content can relay more digestible content more efficiently. In fact, it’s estimated that one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.

Interactive content: Quizzes, embedded presentations, dynamic charts, and graphics

Content consumers want one thing: Value. If you can answer a question they have or solve a problem, you’ll earn their loyalty. Engaging, personalized, and interactive creative content is a great way to do that.

Interactive content, like a quiz that tells you where your organization could best benefit from AI, also encourages prospects to share their views with their networks.

3. Try a hub-and-spoke content strategy

You can’t generate creative content without killer ideas. Sadly, sometimes those ideas don’t come to you when you need them. When you feel stuck, lean on the power of a good brainstorming technique. The hub-and-spoke strategy is one of our favorites.

What is hub and spoke?

Picture a bicycle tire with a hub in the center and a myriad of spokes branching out of it. The hub-and-spoke content strategy comes from that visual.

When devising a hub-and-spoke strategy, you need one core content piece from which all other pieces will derive. Typically, this would be a larger content asset, like a video course on lead generation strategy or an eBook about emerging cybersecurity risks. From there, the spokes are pieces of creative content that expand upon ideas within the core asset, such as short video clips on social media, a blog post, or an infographic.

Hubs and spokes are great for creating a big splash campaign from one strong, creative core idea. It also keeps readers on your site longer, as each piece can link to one another, or all pieces can roll off from a core pillar page. It’s an excellent opportunity for prospects interested in a specific topic to do a deep dive into your brand.

A hub-and-spoke brainstorming session almost always yields excellent results for your team. It allows you to create a list of related ideas and use only the best ones. Perhaps one idea you thought would be great is a dead end. Still, another idea takes off and allows you to develop creative content featuring unique perspectives in supporting pieces, such as interviews with internal stakeholders.

Put your most creative foot forward

The great, big world of content is your oyster!

By creating content that prioritizes creativity, you can make every piece of content you produce a beautiful, rich story that captivates your readers and immerses them in your products, your organization, and your core values.

Do you want creative content marketing tips delivered straight to your inbox every week? Subscribe to The Content Strategist newsletter today!

The post Why It’s Important to Focus on Creative Content Marketing appeared first on Contently.

I remember flipping the pages of a science textbook many years ago, studying the procedures for run-of-the-mill lab experiments. Behind me, my daughter’s voice piped up: “Have you ever noticed that the illustrations all show only white men’s hands?” she asked. I had not. The oversight might have been too subtle for me to miss, but not for my Gen-Z daughter, who’s part of a generation that’s keenly aware of how representation, no matter what form it takes, plays out—everywhere.

The United States is becoming more ethnically and racially diverse, especially in the 18-39 age bracket. And Gen Z is not only the most diverse generation yet but also one that values diversity and inclusivity in all its forms. Indeed, a whopping 81 percent of Gen Zers and 72 percent of Millennials say that multicultural and diverse consumers have a big impact on their brand choices.

Given that a picture speaks a thousand words, marketers need to pay especially close attention to the ones they pick for their ongoing branding campaigns. Not factoring in diverse stock photos might lead to campaigns missing the boat at best or seriously damaging their reputation at worst. Eighty-eight percent of U.S. marketers believe that “using more diverse images helps a brand’s reputation,” according to Censuswide research.

How to choose diverse stock photos

If the argument for using diverse stock photography is a no-brainer, exactly how does one go about finding the best stock photography images for their brands?

For best results when using mainstream sites such as Adobe, iStock, or Shutterstock, filter the images using detailed prompts with keywords and related terms, advises Crystal Kendrick, president of marketing firm The Voice of Your Customer.

Instead of only looking for “X” demographic, search by lifestyle, location, or activity, advises Maria Lobo, founder and CEO of Planet Lobo, a brand design studio. When targeting a younger audience, for example, Lobo might use the search term “skateboarding” rather than “diverse young fit models in the city.” Such searches will surface diversity in action instead of awkwardly posed shots. “The approach helps narrow down the search to images that naturally fit the desired aesthetic,” Lobo says.

Laying some groundwork before going fishing in image repositories helps. “Doing concept and strategy work for the image collection before browsing stock libraries helps you get a clear idea of the style and content you want, allowing you to stay discerning,” Lobo says.

What to avoid when picking from the best stock photography images

Dodge the most downloaded

Niche sites might make a better fit for content creators, but mainstream ones will do in a pinch. In such a case, make sure to avoid diverse stock photos with many downloads. “The last thing I want is to design a killer ad and then see the same image used by another company,” Lobo says.

Make intersectionality intentional

Remember that diversity includes gender, race, ethnicity, neurodiversity, people with disabilities and a diversity of ideas, experiences and backgrounds. Intersectionality matters. “Many brands concentrate on a single dimension of diversity like race or gender, forgetting about intersections within identities. Ensure your visuals depict real people’s lives from various angles, considering aspects such as age, disability and socioeconomic status, among others,” says Gordon Hwa, founder of Khepri Digital, a digital marketing group.

Baggu, a manufacturer of reusable bags and accessories, for example, features inclusive images and a really diverse age range that resonates. “It’s a brand that feels like it’s for everyone, no matter where you come from or where you’re headed,” Lobo says.

Avoid tokenism

When I was pursuing graduate studies, a university photographer wanted me and the one other woman in our large engineering school to participate in a photo shoot for the bulletin. “Isn’t it amazing how it seems like the whole school is full of women?” my friend asked, tongue firmly in cheek, when we later saw the end result. Focusing on diversity is a good idea, but avoid tokenism.

Steer clear of stereotypes or cultural appropriation

“When using culture-specific images, it’s important to understand the cultural symbols and practices represented by such images and provide adequate context so as not to misrepresent them,” Hwa says.

While the list of don’ts might make you feel like you’re treading on eggshells, getting it right is about being inclusive of everyone equally and of every aspect of true diversity. And the results are memorable.

Lobo, for example, remembers the Savage X by Fenty brand from Rihanna. “It’s one of the first places I saw ‘normal’ bodies—plus-size, non-traditionally model-looking, models with mobility and accessibility differences,” she says.

When content is done well with diverse stock images or user-generated content, it sticks. And attention-grabbing, knock-your-socks-off branding can be yours for the taking.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about diverse stock photos

How can brands ensure that their efforts to use diverse stock photos resonate authentically with their audience?

Brands can ensure authenticity by conducting thorough research on the cultures, communities, and identities they want to represent, involving individuals from those backgrounds in the creative process to source inclusive images. They could also hire a freelance photographer to capture their own diverse branded marketing stock photography. Brands should also prioritize storytelling and contextual relevance to avoid superficial depictions.

What are some of the specific visual cues that indicate tokenism in branding campaigns?

Tokenism often appears in the form of a single minority individual being prominently featured but without any real context or meaningful representation of their community. It also manifests when diverse stock photos seem forced or they exist only in surface-level portrayals without acknowledging deeper layers of culture or identity.

What role does user-generated content play in helping brands achieve diversity in their visuals?

User-generated content allows brands to showcase real customers from diverse backgrounds, providing an organic and authentic reflection of their audience. By encouraging their community to share their own experiences, brands can foster inclusivity in a more genuine and engaging way.

For more tips on choosing the best creative talent and approaches to your marketing strategy, subscribe to The Content Strategist.

The post Diverse Stock Photos Done Right appeared first on Contently.

But fear not; there’s a secret weapon that can lift your brand above the noise: customer storytelling. It’s not just about spinning a good tale; it’s about building trust and creating connections by allowing your customers to do the talking for you.

Because it turns out that only 30% of consumers trust companies. That’s not a great percentage. So, if you run ads listing the six reasons consumers should choose your product, the consumer won’t believe you. However, if you have a verified customer post the six reasons they love your product, consumers will start to trust you.

And companies that are able to gain the trust of their customers outsell their competitors by up to “400% in terms of total market value” and customers are 88% more likely to buy again if they trust the brand.

Sure, you should still talk about yourself, share your origin story on your “About Us” page, and fill your product pages with all the product features your heart desires. But when it comes to telling potential customers why they should buy your product, the message is better received when it comes from actual customers.

While there are countless reasons why customers should be at the center of your marketing strategy, here are the top four reasons customer storytelling will help your business.

1. People trust customers (and even influencers)

Let me tell you a story of when I was trying to choose a travel credit card. I had been researching for weeks, and I just couldn’t decide. Then, a travel influencer on Instagram said she used the Capital One Venture Card. My research was then complete, and I immediately got the Capital One Venture Card.

Was that the best travel credit card for me? Who knows? But someone I trusted said it had good travel rewards, so I went for it.

The thing is, this story isn’t unique. According to a study from Oracle and Brent Leary, “80% of consumers have purchased products in direct response to social media content.” When it comes down to it, consumers are skeptical of businesses, so it’s no surprise they trust social media influencers, peers, and celebrities to give them advice on new products.

The reason influencer marketing is so effective is because influencers have already built a loyal following of people who trust their opinions. So, when an influencer introduces a product, their followers assume they have used the product and are promoting it because they love it. And most of the time, their followers can ignore the fact that the influencer may be getting kickbacks for promoting the product.

The real value of customer storytelling stems from the fact that real people don’t talk like brands. Instead of highlighting the latest technology, newest features, or energy efficiency, real people talk about how the product makes their lives better.

2. Big brands use customer storytelling because it works

I know what you’re thinking. Of course, big, established brands can rely on word-of-mouth marketing—they’re already household names. The truth is, customer-centric storytelling is a sound marketing strategy for any company. But just for fun, let’s check out some word-of-mouth marketing examples.

Tesla’s customer-driven marketing strategy

When was the last time you saw a Tesla ad? The answer should be “never,” because they don’t use traditional advertising and don’t spend any money on paid ads or endorsements. Tesla’s entire marketing strategy relies on customer referrals. Initially, Tesla offered extravagant rewards for referrals, including exclusive access to events, early delivery of new models, and even limited-edition vehicles. But they revamped the program in 2019 to offer more attainable incentives like Supercharging credits, FSD access, and discounts on new vehicles.

Duolingo’s polyglot fans

Duolingo acquires about 80% of its users through word-of-mouth marketing. Duolingo’s gamified approach, coupled with a witty social media presence, has created a loyal and enthusiastic user base. The app’s ability to quickly demonstrate language proficiency has fueled a viral loop, with satisfied learners sharing their success stories and encouraging friends to join.

This organic growth is evident in Duolingo’s impressive user acquisition costs, which are significantly lower than industry averages. By focusing on creating a product people love and leveraging the power of social sharing, Duolingo has proven that word-of-mouth can be a formidable force in driving business growth.

Dyson’s vocal customer base

By consistently introducing groundbreaking products like the bagless vacuum cleaner, the bladeless fan, and the Supersonic hair dryer, Dyson has cultivated a reputation for technological superiority. This innovation, combined with a strong emphasis on design and engineering, has created a loyal customer base eager to share their experiences.

While Dyson launched their brand in the 1990s with traditional marketing, they now let product quality and customer satisfaction drive word-of-mouth. Their focus on WOM marketing has intensified in recent years as social media platforms have amplified consumer voices.

3. Customer marketing strategies provide long-term SEO value

We already mentioned how your “About Us” page and product pages are the perfect places on your website to toot your own horn. These pages are also great for SEO because they’re packed with keywords and phrases. But you also want to include customer-generated content on your site so the SERPs can be filled with authentic, trustworthy content about your brand. Here are some customer-focused pages you might want to add to your website:

Customer reviews

Did you know that 90% of customers read reviews before they buy a product? When you allow your customers to speak for your brand, you get more user-generated content on your site and more engaged followers. It also helps improve your SEO and provides fresh content for search engines to spider.

These reviews can either be in written or video form. And always make sure to post your video reviews to YouTube so you can rank for keywords in two places.

Bonus points: Scour social media for customer reviews and mentions of your brand. Be sure to engage with your customers (both happy and angry), so these interactions will also end up in search results.

Case studies

While case studies aren’t traditionally written by customers, they do allow you to show potential consumers how other people use your product to build their business and make their life easier. If you’re a B2B brand, try to highlight well-known and trusted brands who use your product or service.

Testimonials

Testimonials are the fancy cousin of customer reviews. Brands usually request written or spoken statements from their happy customers to feature on their websites. While they’re not as candid as a traditional customer review, they do provide customer-centric content.

4. Word-of-mouth marketing still reigns supreme

As mentioned above, only 30% of consumers trust companies. On the other hand, 88% of consumers trust brands when a friend or family member recommends it. This means that if you want your customers to trust you, they need to hear about your brand or product from someone else, preferably a trusted friend or family member.

And the first step to building great word-of-mouth around your brand is to create a great product that people want to tell their friends about. When you provide quality products and good service, your customers will talk about your brand if they have a good experience.

Today, people are all too ready to share their opinions about products and brands. The trick is to provide a good experience to each of your customers, so they’ll want to share all their positive thoughts and feelings about your brand. Inspire rave reviews that can spark your next customer-driven marketing strategy. And the next time you think about creating a marketing campaign around your latest product features, consider focusing on your customers and highlighting their experiences.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs About Customer Storytelling

How can businesses implement customer storytelling if they don’t have a large customer base yet?

Small businesses can start by leveraging testimonials from their earliest customers. They can also engage with their audience on social media, encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences, and use these stories in their marketing materials. Partnering with micro influencers can also be effective.

What is a micro influencer?

A micro-influencer is a social media user who has a smaller, yet highly engaged, following, typically between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. They are often considered experts or enthusiasts in a specific niche, such as beauty, fitness, technology, or travel. Their recommendations are often seen as more credible and authentic, as they usually promote products they genuinely use and like.

What are some effective ways to encourage customers to share their stories?

Businesses can create incentives such as discounts, contests, or loyalty programs for customers who share their stories. Additionally, they can make it easy for customers to leave reviews by providing links and clear instructions. Highlighting customer stories on social media and in newsletters can also encourage others to share their experiences.

What are some common mistakes businesses make when using customer storytelling?

Common mistakes include over-editing customer stories to the point where they lose authenticity, not obtaining proper permissions from customers before using their stories, failing to follow up with customers after they share their stories, and not integrating customer stories across various marketing channels for maximum impact. Businesses should ensure stories remain genuine and respect customers’ contributions and privacy.

For more tips on customer-focused marketing, subscribe to The Content Strategist.

The post 4 Reasons To Add Customer Storytelling to Your Marketing Mix appeared first on Contently.

Spotify’s Wrapped feature, which delivers a personalized breakdown of users’ listening trends from the year, still holds the top spot when it comes to most engaging year-in-review content — so much so that many of us, jokingly or not, are already anticipating what our 2024 Wrapped is going to look like in the middle of the summer. And the format is so successful that even its many imitators have gained traction. Other music streaming platforms like YouTube Music and Tidal eventually released their own versions, and even non-music brands, like the fitness app Peloton, followed suit.

It’s no wonder these year-end user-generated content campaigns have garnered such positive feedback; they are endlessly shareable, and users love personalized experiences. But, of course, creating your own highly individualized wrap-up could be a huge undertaking, depending on both your industry and how much customer data you have access to. Here’s how to implement the spirit of these highly personalized year-in-review reports in your own EOY campaigns.

Plan your year-in-review content now

The earlier you start planning your year-in-review campaign, the more intentional it will feel for your audience. That doesn’t mean you need to get it ready to publish now — after all, there’s still plenty of the year left to go, and you don’t want your review to feel incomplete. But starting now gives you ample time to research what you want to include in your review and create a workable outline to flesh out come late November or early December fully.

Starting as soon as possible is especially important when culling data from different sources. You’ll want to set parameters for all stakeholders to adhere to, such as sticking to data from a set period of time (perhaps January 1 to October 31 of this year). Your proprietary data is a great place to start. For instance, marketing and engineering can give you customer and user insights, and finance can give you detailed spending reports.

Shopify is a great example of a B2B brand breaking down high-level data into a digestible year in review that’s relevant to the goals of its base. And with a combination of written content, video, and data visualizations, Shopify’s Commerce Trends report gives users a choose-your-own-adventure experience — while still remaining aesthetically consistent and without being overwhelming.

Personalize your recap for your audience

A year-in-review report is a great opportunity to encourage prolonged engagement and brand loyalty. It’s a place to share the value you’ve provided for your audience — not brag about your revenue numbers. (Though an internally shared wrap report with company-wide wins isn’t a bad idea, either!)

And even if you’re not putting together an individualized experience, you can still tailor your wrap-up to your target audience. A brand-wide year in review can still feel personal for users by focusing on their favorite, most-purchased, or top-reviewed products, or industry trends and insights that will affect their purchasing decisions in the year ahead.

You could even create a year-end recap that hones in on geographical location, age group, college students, or some other demographic. Google’s Local Year In Search allows users to access the year’s search trends in their hometown, or anywhere they feel like searching. This is a strategic way to provide a personalized customer experience without creating an individual-specific breakdown.

One of my personal favorite examples of year-in-review content (which I look out for every December) is the New York Times’ “Best Books of the Year” hub. Not only does it provide a roundup of its top book reviews from the past year, but it also provides breakdowns by genre. Users can select which sections to read based on their own interests.

Highlight your best work — while boosting traffic

Finally, a year-in-review can be a strategic way to share your brand’s best work from the past year, whether that’s blogs, research, graphics, etc. — and boost traffic to that content while you’re at it. A retrospective can help generate a sense of “playing catchup” among your audience. Below is a great example from New York’s The Cut: by highlighting their “most-read” stories, they can play off of their readers’ sense of FOMO (and deliver them excellent content at the same time).

You can also choose to repurpose existing content in a different format. For instance, if your data security firm has published lots of research this year, you could highlight the top findings in a quick-hit video or infographic for social. Or, if you have been keeping a blog filled with consumer finance content, you could create a landing page hub linking to these blog posts, positioning them resources for anyone looking to improve their finances in 2025 and beyond.

When to avoid a year-in-review campaign

Of course, year-in-review content might not always make sense. Every business owner knows that there are good years and bad years — and if there aren’t enough positives to share, it might not be worth dwelling on the negatives.

Also, if you are considering providing individualized year-end recaps to your audience, be careful about what data to focus on. Facebook ran into hot water when its “On This Day” feature started reminding people of bad memories, like sharing an announcement about the death of a family member. You want your wrap-up to be something customers look forward to, not dread.

Finally, avoid bait-and-switch tactics here. One reason Shopify is such a trusted name in the ecommerce space is because of its credibility as an industry expert. Its Commerce Trends report isn’t peppered with CTAs to get started with the platform — it simply sticks to the facts and what’s actually important to its target audience.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs on year-in-review campaigns

How can smaller businesses with limited data resources create year-in-review content?

Smaller businesses can focus on key metrics and customer feedback they do have, even if it’s less comprehensive. Highlighting a few significant achievements or trends can still engage their audience.

What tools can be used to gather and analyze data for a year-in-review marketing campaign?

There are various tools available, such as Google Analytics for web traffic, CRM software for customer insights, and financial software for revenue tracking. These tools help streamline data collection and analysis.

How can a year-in-review report be promoted to maximize engagement?

Promoting the report through email newsletters, social media, and on the company’s website can increase visibility. Collaborations with influencers or industry partners can also help reach a wider audience.

Feel like you’ve missed a year’s worth of content marketing strategies? Catch up by reading The Content Strategist.

The post Pull Off a Year-in-Review Campaign People Will Actually Share appeared first on Contently.

5 brainy benefits of novelty in marketing

By understanding and leveraging the power of novelty, you can elevate your brand’s storytelling, making narratives more memorable and impactful. It’s also something to keep top of mind when adding contributors to your team — you want skilled writers who excel at being original.

Let’s explore some of the reasons why novelty is essential for content marketers and how it can transform your narratives into unforgettable experiences.

Reason 1: Dopamine delights us

Novelty triggers the release of dopamine, the “happy hormone,” in our brains, creating excitement and anticipation. This neurotransmitter is crucial for pleasure, motivation, and reward. When your audience experiences something new, it stimulates their brain’s reward circuits, making them feel good and encouraging them to seek out more.

Incorporating novel elements into your storytelling harnesses this dopamine-driven response. Your audience will enjoy the story more, remember it better, and keep coming back for more. Novelty keeps your storytelling fresh and exciting, ensuring your audience remains hooked.

Reason 2: Novelty builds stronger brain bridges

Novel storytelling techniques actively engage the brain, prompting the formation and reinforcement of neural pathways. This process, known as neuroplasticity, is essential for learning and memory retention.

When exposed to novel storytelling elements, the brain processes this fresh information more deeply, creating stronger connections between neurons. Techniques like non-linear timelines or multiple perspectives require closer attention, enhancing cognitive engagement and memory retention.

By incorporating novelty, you not only make your narrative more compelling but also ensure your audience remembers and reflects on it long after they’ve finished reading or watching.

Reason 3: Unexpected elements are more memorable

Novelty makes stories more memorable. The brain is naturally drawn to new and unexpected elements, which trigger surprise and intrigue. These elements create mental “hooks” that make stories easier to remember.

Surprise and intrigue evoke strong emotional responses, enhancing memory formation. Emotions act as powerful memory enhancers, making stories that evoke shock, amazement, or delight more memorable.

Incorporating novel elements into storytelling not only captivates your audience but also makes your stories more memorable, ensuring your message stands out.

Reason 4: Mental agility moves your audience

Novelty in marketing storytelling enhances cognitive functions like problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity. Introducing new and unexpected elements engages your audience’s minds, fostering mental agility and making them more receptive to your message.

Novel scenarios require the brain to evaluate different possibilities, sharpening decision-making skills. Presenting unique ideas stimulates creativity, inspiring your audience to explore their own creative thinking.

By engaging cognitive functions through novelty, you make your audience more receptive to your message, leading to a more profound and lasting impact.

Reason 5: New ideas are the opposite of boring

The constant stream of content bombarding audiences can lead to boredom and disengagement. Novelty combats boredom by introducing fresh and engaging experiences that keep audiences coming back for more.

Boredom occurs when the brain is under-stimulated. Novelty actively engages the brain, capturing attention and piquing curiosity. This heightened alertness keeps audiences engaged and eager to see what happens next.

By consistently incorporating new and exciting elements into your messaging, you build anticipation and excitement, fostering loyalty and repeated engagement. Novelty ensures your storytelling remains dynamic and interesting, leading to a more engaged and loyal audience.

Incorporating novelty marketing into your content strategy

Incorporating novelty into your content strategy is integral for maintaining your audience’s interest and engagement. Here are some practical brainstorming techniques to help you infuse novelty into your storytelling.

Brainstorming techniques

• Take a new angle on familiar topics.
  • Reframe common subjects from a different perspective.
  • Introduce contrasting views to stimulate discussion.
  • Discuss current trends by comparing them to historical events or predicting their future impact.
• Experiment with different content formats.
  • Create short, engaging videos or animations.
  • Use infographics to present data visually.
  • Incorporate interactive elements like quizzes or polls.
  • Explore audio content through podcasts or live webinars.
  • Encourage user-generated content to provide fresh perspectives.
• Feature unexpected voices or perspectives.
  • Invite guest writers or experts to contribute.
  • Share stories and testimonials from customers.
  • Offer a behind-the-scenes look at your business.
  • Highlight diverse voices within your industry.

Practical tips for implementing novelty in marketing

• Schedule regular brainstorming sessions.
• Solicit feedback from your audience.
• Plan a diverse content calendar.
• Stay updated on industry trends and popular culture.

By weaving novelty into your content strategy, you can create a dynamic and engaging storytelling experience that captivates your audience. Experiment with different angles, formats, and voices to keep your content fresh and your audience hooked. Novelty not only combats boredom but also enhances the impact and memorability of your stories.

The dangers of going too far with novelty

While novelty is a powerful tool in storytelling, it is important to use it judiciously. Going too far with novelty can have unintended consequences that may harm your overall message and audience engagement. Overloading your content with too many new or unexpected elements can lead to confusion and overwhelm your audience, making it difficult for them to follow the story or grasp the core message.

Excessive novelty can undermine the consistency of your brand identity. If the novel elements are not aligned with your brand’s values and voice, they can create a disjointed experience that may confuse your audience about what your brand stands for. This inconsistency can erode trust and diminish the impact of your messaging. If they come to expect a continuous stream of surprises, the impact of each new element diminishes over time. This can lead to a situation where novelty loses its effectiveness as a tool for engagement and retention.

So, while novelty is essential for keeping your storytelling fresh and engaging, don’t forget to always align it with your brand identity. Moderation and strategic integration of novel elements will ensure that your stories remain impactful and your audience remains connected and loyal to your brand.

Improve your storytelling and marketing by keeping content novel and fresh

Novelty is a powerful tool in storytelling that significantly enhances audience engagement and retention. By incorporating novel elements, you leverage several key benefits, making your storytelling more effective and memorable.

As a content creator, embracing novelty and experimenting with new ideas is essential for keeping your audience engaged. Don’t be afraid to take risks and try different approaches. Whether through unique plot twists, innovative formats, or diverse voices, novelty can transform your content and make it stand out.

The key to successful storytelling lies in your ability to surprise, delight, and engage your audience. By weaving novelty into your content strategy, you enhance your content’s quality and build a loyal, captivated audience. Explore the endless possibilities that novelty offers—your audience will thank you for it.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about novelty in marketing

How can content creators measure the impact of novelty in their storytelling?

Content creators can measure the impact of novelty by tracking engagement metrics such as time spent on page, social shares, and audience feedback through surveys and comments.

What are some examples of successful brands or campaigns that have effectively used novelty in marketing?

Nike’s “Dream Crazy” campaign and Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” are examples of successful use of novelty in storytelling, as they introduced unique, unexpected elements that captivated audiences.

What tools or platforms can help content creators generate and implement novel ideas?

New generative AI tools like Google Gemini and ChatGPT are great for brainstorming ideas. When the time comes for creating content, you can turn to platforms like Canva for creative design and Contently for content planning and collaboration to generate and implement novel ideas.

The Content Strategist has all the resources you need to ensure your content remains novel and engaging. Subscribe today to get the latest insights delivered directly to your inbox!

The post 5 Brainy Reasons Novelty in Marketing Helps Your Message Land appeared first on Contently.

As the film progresses, we hear about the history of the Lakota people. We see images of their impoverished reservation juxtaposed with joy-filled dances and rich cultural traditions. And at the same time, we’re drawn in by how the CRYP is helping many others like Genevieve work towards a stronger future for their people. It’s no wonder the film has amassed over 4.7 million YouTube views—it’s both beautifully shot and emotionally affecting.

It’s also an extremely effective example of brand storytelling, as it was produced not by a gritty independent film studio but by the financial services platform Square.

On first viewing, that might sound like an overstatement; Square isn’t directly mentioned in the film, and we only see it being passively used at Genevieve’s job. The focus isn’t on the product, but on the CRYP’s mission to empower Lakota youth with job and internship experiences that help them strengthen their community. That’s a noble aim, but how can a piece of content that is not directly about a brand be one of the best examples of brand storytelling?

Stories lead to a “branding moment”

The neuromarketing company Neuro-Insight can help us understand why this works so well. They’ve used neuroscience technology to look at what’s happening in people’s brains while they watch ads and TV shows. What makes Neuro-Insight unique is their proprietary technology called Steady State Topography (SST), which pinpoints how likely someone is to remember an ad. They call this long-term memory encoding.

As humans, our brains are built for stories. Whenever we watch something, our brain assumes there must be a story and tries to make sense of the narrative. This is particularly true when we’re introduced to a compelling character off the bat—like Genevieve, a young woman in the midst of coming of age and making a difference in her underserved community.

We see the Square product in action when Genevieve tells us how this opportunity to earn her own money gives her a sense of independence. To others, her job may be just a boring internship, but taking advantage of this opportunity is her triumph. And Square is one of the on-the-job tools that will give her the tech experience she needs while also simplifying a core business function for her employer.

Neuro-Insight calls this a “branding moment”—when our brain finally understands the story and memory encoding peaks. If your brand’s logo or product appears at that moment, people are much more likely to remember it.

Stories make messages memorable

Of course, not all the best brand storytelling examples take on such sensitive subject matter. The viral Cadbury “Gorilla” advertisement—wherein a gorilla drums along to Peter Gabriel’s “In The Air Tonight,” and no chocolate is consumed—is downright silly. However, per Neuro-Insight’s analysis, it ranked in the top 1 percent for long-term memory encoding. There’s a key lesson here for anyone who wants to tell a story that’ll make people remember their company: A big old bar of Cadbury chocolate appears at the end of this perplexing but engaging scene, and it stuck in people’s brains. And the next time they were checking out at the supermarket and saw that Cadbury chocolate by the cashier, they were more likely to subconsciously notice it, have a positive association, and buy it. Just like that, the ad increased sales by 10 percent.

Another killer example of storytelling advertisements is the “Mean Streets” video from Adobe. There’s a strong story that hooks you off the bat—a frazzled middle-aged guy meeting a dealer to seemingly buy drugs, but it turns out he’s buying clicks. He gets arrested, and we don’t really know what on earth we’re watching until the very end, when we realize it’s an ad for Adobe Marketing Cloud.

Stories can be used in a variety of formats

Not all effective brand storytelling has to be a high-production video, of course—feel free to breathe a sigh of relief. Intel is a great example of brand-centering stories about client impact stories through their social media content. Take this quick interview with Mary Beth Chalk, the co-founder and CCO of BeeKeeper AI. Mary uses her personal story of being diagnosed with cancer to demonstrate just how crucial AI services will be for the future of healthcare and personal privacy.

And as with the other examples in this list, Intel is not at the center of the story. At the end of the video, Mary lists which of Intel’s services are crucial for BeeKeeper AI to function—then we see Intel’s logo, and that’s that.

What makes these stories stick

There are a few things each of these examples of brand storytelling do really well:

• Prioritize the brand, not the product: Until the branding moment, they prioritize the story over selling the brand. As Heather Andrew, Neuro-Insight’s former UK CEO, explained: “This is highly effective from the brain’s point of view because our brains often reject overt selling messages, while brand cues like colors, shapes, and sounds can get in ‘under the radar.’”
• Focus on real people (or animals!) experiencing real emotion. The presence of people increased emotional intensity by 133 percent in a study of social ads.
• Introduce a compelling narrative right away. Branded content with an early story arc is 58 percent more likely to be viewed past 3 seconds.

The next time you scroll through your feeds, look out for branding moments. Which pieces of content do it well? Which don’t? Then, get inspired, and tell a brand story that people will remember.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about brand storytelling

What role does authenticity play in these successful brand storytelling examples?

Authenticity is crucial in brand storytelling, as consumers value genuine connections and narratives that resonate with their own experiences. Brands, like these, that convey sincerity and honesty in their storytelling are more likely to build trust and loyalty with their audience.

How can companies determine the most effective storytelling strategies for their brand?

Understanding the target audience, conducting market research, and analyzing past successful campaigns can help companies tailor their content marketing storytelling approach to resonate with their audience and achieve their brand objectives.

Are there any ethical considerations to keep in mind when using brand storytelling?

To maintain credibility and trust with their audience, brands should be mindful of cultural sensitivities, avoid exploiting sensitive topics for marketing purposes, and ensure transparency in their storytelling efforts. Additionally, respecting the privacy and consent of individuals featured in brand stories is essential to upholding ethical standards.

For more brand storytelling examples worth reading, subscribe to The Content Strategist and follow us on Instagram.

The post ‘Branding Moments’: Brand Storytelling Examples To Get Your Message Across appeared first on Contently.

However, learning how to work with freelance writers can be a challenge. Quality varies significantly among writers. It often takes rounds of trial and error to learn where to find talent. And a lot of marketers underestimate the importance of setting up a thorough onboarding process, which can doom your relationship with a freelance writer from the get-go.

Here’s what you need to know about recruiting your dream team of wordsmiths and keeping them purring with productivity.

How to Find Freelance Writers

Finding the perfect freelance writer is like panning for gold in a river of talent. Even with a lot of effort, you can still come up empty-handed. Contently’s marketplace alone has more than 165,000 freelance creatives. Countless other writers promote their services on their personal websites and social media feeds. So, how do you begin your search?

Start with clear goals

Are you looking for someone with expertise in your specific industry? Do you need someone with experience writing SEO web copy or white papers? Would it be helpful to have a writer with a professional certification related to your industry? Having a clear picture of who you’re looking for and the type of content you need streamlines the search for a freelance writer.

Be creative with your search

Your brand’s social media channels are among the best places to start looking for a freelance writer. It puts you in touch with professionals who already have some familiarity with your brand and voice.

When I was an editor for a health publication, I announced on my social media feeds that I was looking for freelance writers who had experience writing about certain medical conditions. Eager writers filled my inbox with details about their backgrounds, links to their portfolios, and even ideas for content.

Social media is just the start, though. You can also find freelance writers:

• on freelance marketplaces (like Contently),
• by posting listings on job boards,
• by asking for referrals from people you trust, or
• by reaching out to those who have bylines in industry-specific publications.

Throughout your search, be transparent about your budget. Just as each writer has a different background and experience level, freelance writers charge a wide range of rates. By sharing how much you expect to pay, you’ll save time from courting writers outside of your budget.

How to Vet Freelance Writers

After a broad search, you should have a list of freelance writers who have industry-specific expertise, experience producing similar content, and rates that match your budget.

What’s next? Vetting. To put things in perspective, Contently clients have access to over 165,000 freelance creatives. We do our own due diligence before adding a freelancer to our creative marketplace, and you should too.

Start by looking for red flags. A portfolio filled with out-of-date clips, broken links, poorly written articles, or content that doesn’t align with your needs can all be signs of a mismatch.

Take a peek at their social media, too. You won’t want to work with freelance writers who post insulting or misleading things in public forums, especially if it’s about your industry or their other clients.

Once you’ve filtered out potential bad apples, build a short list of freelance writers who stand out from the competition. Glowing testimonials or references from prior clients can be clues about a writer’s quality of work, reliability, and professionalism.

Share more details about your content strategy and assignments with the freelance writers you want to work with. You can connect with them over email or even set up a short video call to get a sense of how well you mesh. Here are some questions to ask a freelance writer to help you get the right fit:

• What’s your availability?
• What’s your typical turnaround time for projects?
• What’s your usual work schedule?
• What type of clients do you prefer working with?
• What types of content do you love working on?
• Is there any type of content you don’t create?
• How do you handle revisions and feedback?
• What’s your process for research and fact-checking?

It’s time-consuming, but meticulously vetting freelance writers can help you zero in on those who can deliver stellar content and are easy to work with.

How to Onboard Freelance Writers

Found a writer or two who seem like the right fit for your team? Get the relationship started on the right foot by having a clear onboarding process in place. Eric Doty, content lead at Dock, put together a virtual dashboard that outlines their brand’s onboarding process for freelancers. It can be a helpful model to follow.

Here’s how to onboard freelance writers in three steps:

1. Get a freelance writer contract signed. Before assigning anything to a freelancer, ask them to sign a contract. This can happen automatically if you’re onboarding a freelance writer through a marketplace. Otherwise, you can have your brand’s legal team draft up paperwork or search for a freelance writer contract template online. You may also need to collect tax documentation, such as Form W-9.

2. Familiarize the writer with your brand. The more familiar a writer is with your brand, the better they’ll be able to deliver content that serves your audience. Send the writer any materials you have on hand that could help them create content. That might include your style guide, content strategy and pillars, and audience profile. Provide examples of content that you think works well, even if it’s from another brand.

3. Collect payment details. Making on-time payments is key to retaining your best freelancers. Ask the writer for details of their preferred form of payment (such as PayPal, credit card, or ACH transfer). If necessary, work with your accounts payable team to set the freelancer up as a vendor in your system to avoid delays in getting them paid.

Most freelancers expect payment within 30 days of submitting an invoice. But if you can get them paid even sooner (Contently writers get paid instantly upon sending their draft), they’ll be more likely to continue working with you for the long term.

Dos and Don’ts for How to Work With Freelance Writers

Recruiting and onboarding freelance writers can be a lengthy process. So, once you’ve found a few you enjoy working with, you’ll want to implement best practices to keep them around for the long term. Here are a few dos and don’ts for working with freelancers:

Dos

• Send clear, comprehensive creative briefs for assignments.
• Provide specific, actionable feedback. This includes both constructive criticism that helps them improve on their next assignment, as well as praise for a job well done.
• Invest in their growth. Once they’ve proven themselves, assign them more challenging (and more lucrative) projects that come up.
• Keep lines of communication open. Promptly answering questions from your writers helps them stay productive and meet your deadlines.
• Have deadline integrity. If you’ve committed to a timeline for revision requests or freelance writer feedback (and turnarounds), do your best to keep up your side of the workflow.
• Pay competitive rates and send payments on time.

Don’ts

• Don’t ever ask them to work for free. (Yes, even a trial assignment should be paid.)
• Don’t treat them like an employee. Freelancers work independently and on their own schedule, and they often have other clients. Don’t expect immediate responses to emails or requests.
• Don’t ask them to complete work that’s out of scope. If you asked for a 500-word blog post, don’t expect the draft to come with copy for five accompanying social media posts unless it’s part of the assignment.
• Don’t request endless rounds of revisions. One or two rounds should suffice. (Contently includes two rounds of revisions in all deliverables just in case.) Account for time to complete those revisions in your timeline.
• Don’t forget to update them on important changes to your process or content strategy.

Freelancing is a two-way street — you have the power to bid farewell to writers who don’t quite hit the mark, but guess what? Writers can also bid adieu to overly demanding clients! So, it’s in everyone’s best interest to find that magical match. Keeping your writers happy and engaged means they’ll stick around to help your team create top-notch content like a well-oiled machine.

Learn how Contently helps manage all of this so that you can focus on what’s important: creating compelling content.

Ask The Content Strategist: FAQs about working with freelance writers

What legal considerations should brands be aware of when hiring freelance writers, particularly regarding intellectual property rights and confidentiality?

Brands should ensure that freelance contracts clearly outline ownership of intellectual property, confidentiality agreements, and provisions for dispute resolution to protect their interests and maintain legal compliance throughout the engagement.

What measures can brands take to ensure the security of sensitive information shared with freelance writers during the course of projects?

Implementing secure file-sharing platforms, establishing confidentiality agreements, and conducting background checks on freelance writers can help mitigate the risk of data breaches and safeguard proprietary information throughout the collaboration.

How do brands handle conflicts or disagreements with freelance writers during the course of a project?

Brands can establish clear conflict resolution protocols in contracts or agreements, facilitate open discussions to address concerns or misunderstandings promptly, and strive for mutually beneficial resolutions that prioritize project success and maintain a positive working relationship.

What strategies can brands employ to adapt to the availability and scheduling challenges often associated with freelance writers?

Brands can maintain flexibility in project timelines and deadlines, establish clear communication channels for scheduling updates or changes, and proactively plan for potential disruptions by building buffer time into project schedules or having backup writers available when needed.

Want to get high-performing, engaging content for your brand? Learn how Contently can help you scale content production with its network of freelance creatives across the globe.

The post How To Onboard and Work With Freelance Writers appeared first on Contently.

In our visually-driven digital age, where your audience’s attention span is fleeting at best, the importance of visual content cannot be overstated. Before we dive into ways you can use visual content and how Contently can help elevate your visual storytelling, let’s begin by exploring the fundamentals.

Importance of Visual Content and the Psychology Behind Visual Perception

Visual content—from graphics to videos—plays a vital role in storytelling and emotion. Our brains are wired to process these visuals quickly, with research suggesting images take as little as 13 milliseconds to be understood. This fast processing power highlights the importance of integrating visual elements effectively in our communications. Here are a few key psychological principles behind visual perception:

• Visual Memory: People tend to identify and remember visuals better than text. It’s estimated that after three days, a person can recall about 65% of visual content compared to just 10% of text.
• Emotional Impact: Visuals have a unique ability to evoke emotions. They can make us laugh, cry, or feel inspired, often more effectively than words alone.
• Storytelling: Visuals can tell a story instantly. A single image can convey a message without the need for lengthy explanations.
• Attention-Grabbing: Visuals naturally draw our attention. They’re the first thing we notice when we visit a website or scroll through social media.

Understanding these psychological aspects of visual content is crucial for content marketers. It provides the foundation upon which compelling visual storytelling is built.

Visual Content Creation Examples

Exploring the various forms of visual content can reveal powerful ways to engage your audience. Here, we’ll cover the most common types of visuals used by content marketers, plus visual storytelling examples.

Photos: Capturing Moments in Time

Photos are like windows into the past. They freeze moments, allowing your audience to connect with the emotions and experiences captured in the frame. Whether it’s a candid shot of your team in action or a stunning product photo, images have the power to convey authenticity and build trust.

Dove often uses photos to illustrate campaign concepts and drive its mission to redefine beauty standards. For its #TurnYourBack campaign, the company raised awareness of the damage that popular social media filters can cause, specifically targeting TikTok’s Bold Glamour filter. Although the images are simple, they are powerful examples of how brands can drive deeper connections while championing a cause.

Graphics: Simplifying Complexity

Graphics often include charts, graphs, and data visualizations. They transform data into visual stories that are easy for your audience to interact with. Graphics are excellent for simplifying complex information and making it more digestible, cutting through the noise and providing clarity.

Every year, Spotify releases a personalized recap for customers with its Spotify Wrapped campaign. They use bright colors and eye-catching graphics to convey each user’s music journey into a fun—and highly shareable—data story.

Videos: Practicing Dynamic Storytelling

Videos are perhaps the most dynamic form of visual content. They combine moving images with sound, creating a multisensory experience for your audience. From short, impactful social media clips to in-depth documentaries, videos are versatile tools for storytelling.

Italian energy company, Eni, relied on Contently’s versatile platform to bring their vision to life with the Powering Mozambique documentary. Through Contently, Eni seamlessly managed the entire creative process, from ideation to distribution, ensuring their narrative resonated with precision. This captivating documentary not only captured the hearts of viewers but also exemplified the potential of visual storytelling to inspire change and foster a deeper connection with audiences.

Illustrations: Adding Artistry to Your Brand

Illustrations are hand-drawn or digitally created images that can add a unique and artistic touch to your content. They’re versatile and can be tailored to your brand’s style.

Illustrations bring a touch of artistry to your content. They can be whimsical, serious, or anywhere in between, depending on your brand’s personality. Custom illustrations also offer the advantage of being unique to your brand, making your content instantly recognizable.

Salesforce has developed a distinctive illustration style that makes its branding instantly recognizable. Whether used in combination with photography or as stand-alone elements, their illustrations also include a cast of characters and mascots that represent different aspects of the brand.

Memes: Injecting Humor and Virality

Memes are a unique breed of visual content. They’re often humorous and have the potential to go viral, spreading your message far and wide. While not suitable for every brand, memes can be a playful addition to your content strategy.

Brands that have mastered meme use tend to do so sparingly, which can add to the humor if it’s unexpected. This HubSpot post on LinkedIn showed the benefit of their courses in a fun way that likely yielded higher engagement than a straightforward promotional post.

Infographics: Breaking Down Complexity

Infographics combine text and visuals to present information in a visually appealing and easily understandable format. They’re excellent for breaking down complex concepts and are particularly useful for step-by-step guides, data-driven stories, and educational content.

Contently helped the American Kennel Club (AKC) incorporate infographics into its content strategy. The company leaned on Contently’s expert creative network to design an infographic to help debunk the age-old myth equating one dog year to seven human years.

The impact was immediate and impressive. After adding the visual to their content, the original article swiftly skyrocketed to become one of AKC’s most-viewed pieces of content. This success story underscores how Contently’s platform empowers brands like AKC to not only enhance the educational value of their content but also drive remarkable engagement through visually compelling infographics.

Why Brands Need to Embrace Visual Storytelling

While visual content is not limited to these categories, they are some of the most prevalent forms you’ll encounter in the digital landscape. Understanding the strengths and characteristics of each type of visual content is essential for crafting a well-rounded content strategy. Your choice of visual content should align with your brand’s personality, your message, and your target audience.

A masterfully crafted visual story possesses the transformative power to not only seize attention but also to awaken emotions, foster trust, and inspire action. So, embrace the art of visual storytelling as a potent means to not just convey your message but to etch it into the hearts and minds of your audience, leaving an indelible mark in a fast-paced and ever-evolving digital world.

Subscribe to The Content Strategist newsletter to stay updated on the latest trends and strategies in crafting compelling visual stories for your brand.

The post Visual Storytelling Examples To Captivate Your Audience appeared first on Contently.

The content you produce can look different in B2B versus B2C. For example, B2B content marketing may require more touch points throughout the buying journey, in part because the sales process can take months (or even years), and multiple leaders are usually involved in the decision.

Regardless, fitting smaller stories into your larger brand narrative and defining where they fall within the funnel will drive a lot of your strategic decisions. But before you start creating content for a campaign, you first need to identify the purpose of each clearly.

Creating Content for Engagement vs. Conversion

Not every piece of content is meant to drive a sale or even generate a lead. Some content may simply aim to increase brand awareness and establish your company as a thought leader in the industry, and these are necessary.

It can take time for people to take the leap and buy a product or even fill out a request for more information.

And before they do, they need to trust your brand as a thought leader in the market.

Once a potential customer is aware of your brand, you want to drive them further down the funnel through engagement and conversion. As a refresher, engagement happens when people interact with your brand in some way but aren’t necessarily interested in making a purchase, like when they share your content on social media. This generally happens at the upper stages of the marketing funnel, where the priority is building your brand’s initial relationship with your audience.

Conversion means different things to different businesses. In today’s digital age, it most often means transitioning somebody from merely trusting your brand to showing some sort of interest in actually making a purchase.

It usually happens in the middle and bottom of the marketing funnel and means a prospect has taken an action, like downloading an eBook or filling out a submission form that allows you to build a deeper relationship with them. Even lower in the funnel, conversion might entail scheduling a demo, attending a webinar or event, or making a repeat purchase.

Optimize Your Storytelling for Engagement and Conversion

Ready to take your content to the next level? These five strategies can help you fine-tune your content to drive more engagement and conversions.

1. Identify key metrics from the get-go.

During the content planning stage, identify a clear list of metrics or KPIs. This list will help you create content that meets your engagement and conversion goals. Metrics to consider include:

• For engagement:
  • Web: Landing page bounce rate, exit rate, time on page, pages visited per session, hyperlink clicks, repeat visitors
  • Social media: Likes, shares, and comments
  • Email: Open rate, click-through rate
• Conversion: Marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, revenue generated, number of sales, long-form content downloads, repeat customers, click-through rate

2. Track and direct readers through the buyer’s journey.

If you don’t direct prospects to the next step, they’re more likely to leave without purchasing or even engaging with more content. Creating a user experience that nudges them through the buyer’s journey is important.

For example, you can direct readers from a blog post to a long-form piece of content (like an eBook), a product landing page, or a submission form (e.g., event registrations or product demo signup). You can also use banners or pop-ups to encourage readers to sign up for an email newsletter or access free resources.

To track how buyers interact with your content, use tracking methods such as adding UTM codes to URLs to understand the buyer’s journey and map their engagement with content.

Gating content for lead generation

Not all your content should be freely available. Consider gating some of your content to gather prospects’ contact information and assess the quality of your leads. Your high-value content pieces, like webinars, educational courses, and exclusive content, are good for this use.

3. Create and optimize content that drives emotion.

Before you start publishing content, make sure it’s a right fit for your audience. This increases the odds that it will engage and convert prospects into buyers. This is particularly important when optimizing content for organic search.

Choose keywords, write headlines, and craft meta descriptions that specifically address your audience’s needs.

Also, keep your readers’ past experience and knowledge level in mind. Know their challenges and offer a unique way to solve them, or answer a question you’re confident they’ve actually asked.

Content created simply to bring in impressions on your website isn’t beneficial in the long run. That just brings you readers with no intention of purchasing. But tailoring content to the right audience makes it more likely they’ll find your content useful and engaging—and ultimately convert.

And if you’re in B2B marketing, don’t forget there are often multiple decision makers involved in a major purchase. Consider creating content that targets each one of those personas with the topics they care about most.

Build an emotional connection through good storytelling

Developing an emotional connection with your audience is the best way to build their trust in your brand. This means knowing your customer and presenting them (not your company) as the “hero” of your narrative. They are the ones who need to solve a specific problem.

To achieve this, thoroughly research your customer and develop personas grounded in quantitative and qualitative research. To turn a prospect into a lead or a sale, you need to know your company inside and out so you can create content that showcases how you can help the “hero” solve their problem. It may benefit you to consult with subject matter experts during this process since they likely know your products or services best.

4. Prioritize content promotion and distribution.

You can’t expect your audience to engage with your content if they can’t find it in the first place. And one of your responsibilities as a content marketer is to make that user experience an easy one. Some common ways to promote and distribute content include:

• Sharing it across your social media channels
• Including recently published content in a regular newsletter sent out to your audience
• Building out a sales email sequence that includes newly published content like an article, product landing page, or eBook
• Linking to long-form content or product landing pages within blog posts where appropriate
• Encouraging your sales team to share new content from their personal LinkedIn accounts

5. Be consistent with content publication.

A consistent publication schedule enhances the customer experience and helps increase brand credibility, reputation, and trust. Publishing on a regular schedule brings potential leads back for more content, which is especially important during a lengthy B2B sales process or high-stakes B2C purchase. For instance, they may need another question answered or have a new challenge to solve before they make a purchase.

Planning out your content with a calendar showing what you plan to publish and when (even if rough) is a good place to start. Ultimately, your cadence will vary depending on your company size, bandwidth, and available resources.

Remember, you don’t need to start from scratch every time. Repurposing existing content is a good way to maintain a consistent message across all your channels while saving time and resources.

If you want to level up customer engagement and conversion, it’s time to tighten up your processes. Start with prioritizing good storytelling, clearly defining your goals, and publishing content that drives a response, whether it’s emotional or digital. You can’t expect the revenue to start pouring in just because somebody read a blog post you published. The buying process often takes time. And establishing that initial trust for your brand is where it begins.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for valuable information straight to your inbox, or explore The Content Strategist blog for more resources and insights.

The post How to Evolve Your Storytelling for Better Engagement and Conversion appeared first on Contently.

On the surface, brand journalism and content marketing may appear to be very similar. After all, both involve creating original content designed to inform or entertain an audience. However, some critical differences between the two disciplines are significant to distinguish. Let’s discuss some of the most critical differentiators.

1. Approach

Journalism: Objective reporting of facts

Journalism is one of the cornerstones of a free society. It is based on the objective reporting of facts without fear or favor. This requires journalists to maintain their independence and impartiality. It also encourages professionals to avoid conflicts of interest. By abiding by these guidelines, they play an essential role in holding the government and other institutions accountable.

Content marketing: Creating engaging and informative resources

When you think about it, content marketing is a lot like telling stories around a campfire. You need to capture your audience’s attention and hold it while gradually weaving in your company’s message. And just as with any good storyteller, the key is to engage and entertain your audience along the way. If you can do that, you’ll be well on your way to creating successful content marketing campaigns that nurture a lead throughout the buyer’s journey.

2. Research

Journalism: Interviews, eyewitness accounts, and first-hand stories

No matter how talented a journalist may be, they cannot produce quality content without dependable sources. Good brand journalism requires reliable information, whether interviewing experts, gathering eyewitness accounts, or simply getting the scoop from the first person to experience something. Unfortunately, obtaining accurate data is complex, and journalists must work tirelessly to find trustworthy sources.

Content marketing: Data and market research

Every story needs a grounded foundation to support its claims. In content marketing, writers use their market research and consumer data to create compelling stories. Marketers need to know their audience inside and out to deliver the right content through the right channel at the right time. Content marketers use market research, personas, consumer data, and competitive intelligence to create data-driven strategies that produce quality content for customers looking for a solution.

3. Focus

Journalism: Impartiality and accuracy

Journalism has always been a critical part of democratic societies, and the need for accurate and impartial reporting is more critical than ever. Despite increasing pressure in the current political climate, journalists must strive to maintain their independence and ensure that the public has access to reliable information. Good journalists remain gatekeepers of information, only reporting on the facts and not hearsay. Increasingly, it is up to journalists to help the public make sense of complex issues and get unbiased information about world events.

To do this effectively, journalists must maintain their impartiality and accuracy above all else. This can be difficult in an era when so many people seek to discredit the media, but it is essential for a functioning democracy. Journalists must also be aware of their own biases and work to correct them where necessary. By doing so, they can provide vital checks and balances on our government and help the public make informed decisions.

Content marketing: Creating a positive relationship with the audience

Content is the cornerstone of marketing. But content marketing isn’t just about creating and pushing out content. It’s about creating a positive relationship with the market and resonating with specific personas.

Content can engage and inform readers about market challenges, leading solutions, and industry trends. Content marketers create content that engages readers at all stages of the lead funnel, from awareness to consideration through purchase and loyalty. By creating consistent quality content, readers learn to trust companies as reliable sources of industry information. These loyal readers and customers become advocates of the brand. So how can you go about creating engaging content?

1. Know your audience

Before creating content that resonates with your readers, you need to know who they are. What are their interests? What do they care about? How do they align with your buyer personas? Once you have a good understanding of your target audience, you can start tailoring your content accordingly.

2. Be relevant

It’s essential to stay relevant to your audience. Create content that provides unique information and insights useful for the industry and the target’s pain points. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Focus on delivering valuable content that meets the needs of your specific target market.

3. Be original

Make sure your content stands out from the rest. Find new ways to present information or tackle topics in fresh and unique ways. If you can pique your readers’ interest right from the get-go, chances are they’ll stick around for the long haul. Creating engaging content isn’t always easy, but it’s worth the effort.

4. Other critical differences

One of the critical differences between journalism and content marketing is the narrative framework. In journalism, the narrative framework is typically inverted, with the most important information appearing at the beginning of the article. In content marketing, on the other hand, the narrative framework is often more flexible and can be used to create a more engaging story.

Another critical difference between journalism and content marketing is the process. Journalism is typically linear, with each step of the process happening in sequence. Conversely, content marketing is often more iterative, with ideas developed and refined through multiple drafts.

Finally, the formatting of journalism and content marketing can also be quite different. Journalism articles are typically shorter and to the point, while content marketing pieces can be longer and more detailed, optimizing for topic clusters to appease search engines. Content marketing pieces also use more visuals, such as images, videos, and infographics, to break up the text and intrigue readers.

Should companies use journalism or content marketing?

It depends on the business goals. As the demand for quality online content grows, companies must understand the difference between journalism and content marketing. With this knowledge, companies can effectively target their audiences and produce content that aligns with their goals. And while there may be a rare case when you’d want to use both (ex: when you publish an eMag but also prioritize content marketing for a product), the distinction for each use case is clear.

Content marketing is very different from journalistic reporting when it comes to a narrative framework, process, and formatting. So which one is right for your business? If your business has a publication that seeks ethical reporting on current issues and trends and requires unique opinions, detailed interviews, or investigative fact-checking, journalists have a better skill set for your needs. If you’re looking to create content that increases the size of your lead funnel, optimizes topics for SEO ranking, generates more engagement from prospects and customers, and nurtures leads through a buyer’s journey, content marketers have a better skill set for your needs.

While there are some similarities between journalism and content marketing, don’t make the mistake of thinking all writing is the same. Both journalism and content marketing have unique benefits and drawbacks. Understand the difference between the two before deciding which specialization is right for your business.

The post Content Marketing Vs. Brand Journalism: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Contently.

Typically, turning a sales prospect into a customer takes much longer in B2B marketing than in B2C. Why? Because there are generally many stakeholders involved in purchases for businesses. Plus, the purchase is usually more costly, requires extensive onboarding and rollout, and involves many end users.

Why Is B2B Storytelling Important—and Challenging?

With so much at stake in a B2B purchase, you can understand the importance of creating content that allows SaaS buyers to connect with your brand personally. In fact, research has shown that in comparison to consumers, B2B customers, on average, feel much more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers.

Despite all the talk about storytelling, many B2B content marketers focus more on promoting the product or service rather than how it can change a potential customer’s life personally or professionally. Many don’t know where to start or don’t have the right tools to execute storytelling properly, said Mark Evans, principal at Marketing Spark.

Evans says storytelling can be challenging to execute in reality. But once you have the right resources to make it happen, it can be a key brand differentiator.

Individual pieces of content—whether blog posts, videos, webinars, infographics, and so on—can be presented as a narrative, but the larger customer journey can also be viewed as such. In other words, each piece of B2B content you create can be viewed as a small piece of a larger story that guides a reader from the brand awareness stage through the sale (and beyond).

So, what does storytelling in SaaS content marketing entail, and how can you integrate it into your strategy?

The Customer as “Hero”

“Great stories are ones where there’s a narrative, there’s a hero, there’s some kind of drama,” Evans said. “The audience can completely relate to them because (they reflect) their interests, their needs, their problems, their challenges.”

The format of a B2B story is similar to what you would read in a work of fiction. The potential customer—not your company—should serve as the “hero” of your story, said Ardath Albee, CEO and B2B marketing strategist for her firm Marketing Interactions. You also have an antagonist, which is the problem they need to solve. Finally, the vendor (your company) is the “mentor” or guide who assists the hero in reaching their ultimate destination—like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings or the fairy godmother in Cinderella.

Take customer success stories as an example. Many B2B content marketers structure these as follows: Company X works with Company Y and sees Z results, said Tommy Walker, founder of The Content Studio and former Global Editor-in-Chief of Quickbooks. But this format is missing the human element of why the problem exists and matters to the audience.

When Walker worked at Shopify Plus as the company’s first marketing hire, they published this case study, which Walker feels is a good example of storytelling in action. You can see how the story begins—not only did the co-founder of an online T-shirt company have to deal with a crashed website at 2 a.m., but this happened on the night of his bachelor party, which he had to put on hold. This added a human element that made for a much more relatable story.

Ultimately, the co-founders chose Shopify Plus as an eCommerce platform that would keep up with the company’s rapid growth. According to the case study, Shopify Plus alleviated the stresses the co-founders encountered with technology and allowed them to focus more on the business.

The Customer Journey as Narrative

In SaaS content marketing, storytelling also means providing a seamless narrative that spans the entire customer journey through multiple pieces of content and easily directs the reader from one point to the next. Think of every piece of content in the customer journey as a chapter in a book, Albee said, all the while remembering that a B2B tech sale can take months or even years.

Albee said that the buyer should be able to access the different pieces of a larger narrative to meet them where they are in their current situation. And they may find these pieces in a variety of places.

Good B2B storytelling means showing you understand the buyer well enough to help them resolve the challenges they face and ultimately get the outcome they want.

“We have to think about how do we let (the buyer) drive but still put those guardrails around that experience, that story, so we get them all the information they need to get from A to Z in whatever manner that looks like,” Albee said.

Content for Each Stage of the Marketing Funnel

Once you understand the basic framework of a story, you can map the different parts of your content strategy to a character’s journey:

• Top-of-funnel content: Show you understand the various challenges buyers face (and how to solve them) in detailed ways. This can be done through blog posts, social media, podcasts, brand awareness emails, and more.
• Mid-funnel content: Help your character overcome the obstacles that might arise in the decision-making process—for instance, internal politics or budgetary concerns. Possible content formats include eBooks or guides, case studies or testimonials, whitepapers, landing pages, webinars, events, or product-focused blogs.
• Bottom-of-funnel content: If your mid-funnel content is executed well, the sale should happen naturally through the “change” your character experiences rooted in the onboarding, implementation, and customer success of your product. But if you do need more content to drive a sale, this can be done through pitch decks, product demos, competitive analyses, and more.

4 Storytelling Tips for B2B SaaS Content Marketers

1. Know your customer.

Understanding your customer’s current needs is key to bringing your story to life—after all, they are the “hero” of your narrative. Storytelling helps them solve real problems by providing directly applicable solutions.

“You have to commit yourself to knowing your audience, knowing what makes them tick, and really understanding the stories they want to hear,” Evans said.

If you don’t have the budget to develop extensive buyer personas, Albee recommends speaking with customers yourself.

2. Know your company.

Remember that your company, as the mentor, is still an important part of the story, so understand its products, services, or solutions very well before you craft your narrative. This will clarify to readers why your company’s offerings are the best way to resolve their problems.

“Whoever is in charge needs to get as many perspectives as they can from within their company and get an understanding of who they think they are and what they’re about,” Walker said.

And when in doubt, you can always ask an internal subject matter expert to review your content before it goes live.

3. Think of your story from a holistic perspective.

A common problem B2B marketers face, Albee said, is that they publish one-off pieces of content that are repetitive or disconnected from one another. Potential customers may read this content, then move on without thinking about it or taking action.

Don’t assume a potential customer will know where to go on your website after reading a blog post, for example. Direct them to the next part of the story.

“We have to proactively package that up for them in a way that they can access it without our help,” Albee said.

This might entail including a call-to-action at the bottom of a blog post that drives readers to a product landing page, for instance. Or, if you cite a source of information or data, you should hyperlink back to the original source or a related piece of content.

Remember that storytelling extends beyond the sales stage of the customer journey. How your customer uses your product is also important and can be told through post-sale customer success content.

4. Get in the storytelling mindset.

Ultimately, keep in mind that consistent B2B storytelling will require a mindset shift, and it may not be easy—but experts say it’s worth it.

“You really have to buy into the idea that storytelling matters, storytelling works,” Evans said. When your audience relates to what they’re reading on an emotional level, they’re more likely to relate to your brand, make a purchase (ideally more than once), and advocate for your company down the road.

Stay informed! Subscribe to The Content Strategist for more insight on the latest news in digital transformation, content marketing strategy, and rising tech trends.

The post How Storytelling Can Build an Emotional Connection with a B2B Audience appeared first on Contently.

Enter the latest content muse: Apple TV+ character Ted Lasso. If you’re not familiar, Ted is an American college football coach who leads the losing English Premier League football (aka, soccer, to Americans) team AFC Richmond. The storyline follows the journey of fish-out-of-water Ted, who arrives straight from the middle of America with zero soccer experience. He uses a compassionate, humorous, group-oriented, and helpful approach to turn the team around and achieve victory.

Like other phenoms that have gone before, jumping on the Ted Lasso bandwagon is a great way to ride the wave of a cultural moment and engage your audience in different ways. The trick is to make sure you’re capturing the unique essence of Ted while still being true to your brand’s voice.

How to “Ted Lasso” your brand content

Many companies are trying to lasso (pun intended) the energy and popularity of the show and gain some of that street cred with their audiences. And when people say “we want to be like Ted Lasso,” the first instinct will be to mimic the witticisms and tone of voice that flow so effortlessly from Ted’s lines.

But as we all know, this approach can be a double-edged sword.

It’s a tricky thing to pull off that kind of mimicry successfully—you will either knock it out of the ballpark, or hit the ball so foul, it might as well be your epitaph.

Are there other ways you can pull off a “Ted Lasso” without taking such a giant (and risky) leap or completely changing your brand’s voice? We’ve got a few ideas on how to pull inspiration from the show without sacrificing the cred you already have with your customers.

1. Inspire with positivity

When executed correctly, positive brand content can foster the emotional connection that drives loyalty and better brand perception. Instead of focusing on hyperbolic headlines like “X Reasons the World Will End” or “If You Experience THIS, You Could Have a Rare Disease,” showering your audience with positive vibes can go a long way. And in times of uncertainty or anxiety, psychology experts suggest that people seek out positivity. (And if we’ve ever had a need for positivity, it’s now.)

To exude it, swap out negative words and phrases for a more joyful tone. For example, on Zendesk’s homepage, customers are greeted with a slider that proclaims they are the “Champions of no-hassle returns, not waiting on hold forever, social messaging, extra sauce on the side, actually having a nice day, and customer service.”

In the streaming show, Ted repeatedly turns opposing challenges into positive ones—and motivates and unifies his team in the process.

“If you just figure out some way to turn that ‘me’ into ‘us,’ the sky’s the limit for you.” —Ted Lasso

Let your enthusiasm radiate through your content. Offer an encouraging and uplifting tone and real-world applications to your product or service. Enthusiasm is infectious, and it will pay dividends with your brand content.

2. Tell a good story that motivates your audience

Stories humanize the brand and reduce the difficulty of explaining a product or service. Storyelling gives the reader something the audience readily identifies and connects with and helps avoid “corporate speak” and salesy messaging. Storytelling gives a company a way to create a unique world and set the customer squarely in it.

And a master of storytelling and creating a unique world we all want to be part of was Steve Jobs. When Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007, we were living the dream with our Motorola Razrs and Blackberries not even realizing the world could be so much better. (For our readers too young to remember the revolution, the iPhone was a true disruptor—the very first smartphone.)

Steve Jobs masterfully set up the big reveal during his historic announcement at MacWorld 2007. He built up suspense and then explained the inspiration for the product, what it did, and why you needed it. And we all needed it. Fifteen years later, the world is literally at our fingertips with a whole slew of devices by various brands to choose from. But when you think of smartphones, who doesn’t immediately think of Apple and the iPhone?

“Takin’ on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doin’ it, you’re probably doin’ it wrong.” —Ted Lasso

Take it from Ted—a good story goes a long way. At first, his team scoffed at Ted’s frequent anecdotes, figures of speech, and real-world examples. But soon, they were sucked in and his point resonated.

3. Provide amazing customer service

Providing excellent customer service is one of the cornerstones of any business. As part of your content strategy, every piece of content you produce should aim to answer a question your audience is asking—even when focusing on features, remember why you have that feature in the first place. (What problem does it solve for the customer?) You forge trust and solidify relationships by being a valuable resource for your audience. These actions help improve conversions and generate leads without directly selling.

QuickBooks, an accounting platform for small businesses, developed a robust resource center designed to give small business owners advice from starting a business to growing it (and everything in between). They even offer handy tools, like a self-employment tax calculator, that are free to use, even if you don’t subscribe to their software.

“If you care about someone, and you got a little love in your heart, there ain’t nothing you can’t get through together.” —Ted Lasso

Ted is all about being of value to others. He is a fixer who is adamant about solving things that don’t work. For example, when players complained about a water pressure problem in the locker room, he fixed the issue without delay. His quick action created immediate trust with some of his players.

4. Build a strong team

Building a strong team includes both your internal team and your customers (who we hope will become raving fans). Inclusion and a group mindset are essential for both your external and internal audiences. When you’re part of an inclusive team, studies prove that it motivates you to work harder. When you share a common goal, you feel a greater responsibility to achieve and champion it.

“Everyone wants to be part of something, so give your people something to be part of,” suggests Jamie Wallace in an article for Writer’s Room.

Lego found itself struggling to compete with video games and the internet in the early 21st century. To stage an incredible company turnaround, they dramatically shifted their mindset on innovation and their fans—instead of creating new products for their customer, they started creating products with them. The result? They became the world’s largest toymaker, replacing Mattel in the top spot.

“I think that you might be so sure that you’re one in a million that sometimes you forget that out there [on the field] you’re just one in 11.” — Ted Lasso

In the Apple+ TV show, Ted develops camaraderie before skills and treats the worst player the same as the best.

“Believe” in your brand’s content

The content you produce is as important as the product or service it supports. Your blogs, ebooks, podcasts, videos, and social content extend the value of your company and engage your audience long before (and even after!) a purchase is made.

As you look for new ways to catch people’s attention in a sea of crowded content, look to Ted Lasso. He hung a sign that read “Believe” in the team’s locker room to serve as a constant reminder for them to remain positive. And you should do the same in your content marketing efforts. Inspire with positivity, tell a good story, find ways to help, and develop a strong team—and you’ll reap the benefits.

The post How to “Ted Lasso” Your Content for Greater Customer Engagement appeared first on Contently.

1. Understand your audience

As marketing advice, “know your audience” may be cliché, but some platitudes are worth listening to. You can’t connect with consumers if you don’t know what they want to hear.

You can’t connect with consumers if you don’t know what they want to hear.

Keeping language simple and adopting an informal tone works wonders for building a more engaging fintech brand persona. The topic of money management is already complex enough, so avoid using buzzwords that leave customers scratching their heads. Everyday language can make brands feel more accessible, and when it comes to tech brands, that’s a big plus.

Studies show that 95 percent of millennials now use fintech, and 9 in 10 Americans use some type of fintech app. Since many millennials are in the early stages of figuring out their finances, presenting them with apps and tools designed to provide a simple, streamlined user experience can help them navigate the intimidating world of financial independence.

One brand that’s doing a bang-up job of keeping its content simple and relevant is Capital One 360. The company offers Banking Basic guides written with newbies in mind to help customers manage their money like a boss. Explainers like “What is a checking account?” and other articles that teach customers the differences between various accounts help customers feel more informed and also answer many of their FAQs.

2. Share customer stories

Online, word of mouth has become a major influencer for consumers (just think of all the times a positive product review encouraged you to make a purchase). If a prospect is considering your product or service, an endorsement by an existing customer can work wonders for giving them a nudge.

What does that look like in fintech? Customer stories can take the form of anecdotes, reviews, or straight up recommendations. Take a look at Digit, an app designed to help users save money. To generate digital word of mouth, the brand added user comments to its online content, providing insight into both its customer base and its product.

It’s especially helpful when a customer story taps into the user’s feelings about the brand. When a potential customer reads a comment like, “[Digit] saves me a lot of mental and emotional energy having to worry about bills,” on the app’s blog, it’s easy for them to picture themselves in a similar situation. By making customer feedback a core component of its content strategy, Digit conveys its commitment to helping its members manage their financial lives.

3. Leverage audio and video content

In an age when 62 percent of U.S. consumers have listened to a podcast and US adults average 2:41 hours a day watching videos online or on their smartphone, taking advantage of these channels just makes sense. Prioritize audio and video, and you can create content that feels less like a tedious classroom lecture and more like entertainment.

Because podcasts can feel casual and unrehearsed, they’re a great medium for dispatching information. For Tamara Littleton, podcast host and CEO of social media agency The Social Element, podcasts are a must-have tool for owning product expertise and converting listeners into fans. “We . . . get to provide a candid space for marketing leaders to share their stories, show vulnerability and show that great brands are built by genuine humans,” she says.

Video has similar perks, and many fintech companies are capitalizing on the animation trend to build more interesting brands. With the right video content, you could be generating 5+ million YouTube views like cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.

4. Showcase your team

Do you ever wonder why so many brands have a “Meet the Team” page on their sites? People want to get to know the minds behind the product. If they know who’s steering the ship and working behind the scenes, they may feel more comfortable signing up themselves and making that shift from consumer to customer.

Rather than featuring a traditional “About Us” page, online banking service Varo invited its executives to share personal stories about why they chose to work with the company. Yes, this strategy helps Varo showcase its people and their strengths, but it also allows the brand to highlight its own mission and values.

For example, Varo’s chief auditor writes, “I came to Varo to make a difference. And Varo is a new kind of company with a different kind of mission. At Varo, we’re creating a bank for a larger community and a financial system for everyone.”

The bottom line

Numbers, data, facts, and stats are the life blood of any fintech company, but your audience may not immediately understand their importance. A content marketing strategy that includes the stories of those who use your product can strengthen your connection with your audience and produce content that’s engaging, relevant, and meaningful.

The post 4 Strategies to Make Your Fintech Content More Engaging appeared first on Contently.

That may seem like an insane thing to say. Or maybe it’s just the opening line from a 2010 Old Spice commercial. But it’s honestly the feeling I get every time I pick up a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s—the largest organic soap company in North America, and the most batsh*t, inspirational, and actually meaningful example of marketing I’ve ever seen.

It’s the only industry-leader you’ll find that advocates for psychedelic therapy, animal rights, racial justice, and a higher minimum wage. All while giving away nearly half its total profits to charity.

But let’s take a step back. Because the first thing you need to understand about Dr. Bronner’s is that it was started by this guy.

That’s Dr. Bronner. (The doctorate is self-given.) He was born in Germany in 1908 to a soapmaking family as Neil Heilbronner. He earned a master soapmaker certificate as a teenager and immigrated to America in 1929. As Hitler rose to power, he ditched the “heil” from his last name. He urged his family to do the same and follow him to America. They weren’t able to and were killed by the nazis in the Holocaust.

This tragedy convinced Bronner he needed to change the world. He started preaching his All-One! message—unity and equality under one god across religious, racial, and ethnic divides—which got him thrown in an insane asylum.

So he broke out. Three times. The last time, he hitch-hiked to Las Vegas, gambled his last dollars, and made enough to get to LA, where he started his soap company in 1948.

For years, the unity manifesto and environmentally conscious approach to production made Dr. Bronner’s a cult favorite in the hippie community. (One packaging excerpt: In all we do, let us be generous, fair & loving to Spaceship Earth and all its inhabitants. For we’re ALL-ONE OR NONE! ALL-ONE!)

Decades later, though, the company was still a tiny venture. In 2000, when Dr. Bronner’s grandsons, Michael and David, took over the company, it only had 15 employees.

Growing by giving a damn

Today, Dr. Bronner’s has over 200 employees and hundreds of millions in revenue. The company has grown well over 1,000 percent over the past two decades.

Did Michael and David Bronner succeed by hiring Accenture, rebranding, and cutting the fat? Hell nah. They leaned in to the brand’s philosophy and took it to the next level.

Dr. Bronner’s started addressing specific issues and policies. In the early 2000s, it helped fund the fight against the DEA’s ban on hemp products, and instituted groundbreaking progressive business practices: “5-to-1 compensation cap between top salaried employee and lowest-wage warehouse position—100% health coverage—all profits not needed for business dedicated to progressive causes and charities.”

The brand also moved to source all materials from raw trade resources, helped lead the fight for GMO labeling, and committed to becoming a zero-waste organization. It even started tackling specific issues not only through its activism, but also through its labels. For instance, my preferred edition of Dr. Bronner’s—lavender—features a 1,000-word deep dive on the benefits of psychedelic therapy. It’s like the Cliffs Notes version of Michael Pollan’s bestseller How to Change Your Mind.

https://twitter.com/cameronwiley/status/1435675830814871553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

These efforts generated plenty of favorable PR. More importantly, though, Dr. Bronner’s has attracted a new generation of consumers who just want to buy from companies run by people who give a damn about the world. The company doesn’t spend any money on traditional advertising. Instead, it says what it believes in bold terms on its blog—in which the brand provides regular coverage on the issues and policy fights it cares about—as well as its bottles and social media. Then Dr. Bronner’s backs it up with action through its activism and policies, and lets consumers come to them.

An easy & EFFECTIVE way to take action on climate change: call your senators at 202-951-7780 right NOW & urge them to take bold climate action this fall!

Feeling intimidated? Call on a weekend or outside business hours (9 AM-5 PM ET) & leave a message. @ClimateColl pic.twitter.com/ow2lGP8nY8

— Dr. Bronner's (@DrBronner) September 8, 2021

LEGALIZE #PSILOCYBIN FOR TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS!

We stand with the cancer patients & eight states who are suing the DEA for the right to access psilocybin for end-of-life care.

Watch the live oral argument of Aims et al v DEA with us: https://t.co/mEhz9NbQ8E pic.twitter.com/Ohmj2rgFJS

— Dr. Bronner's (@DrBronner) September 2, 2021

“The appeal of our packaging is a layered mix of intrigue, legacy, boldness, resonance, and authenticity,” Michael Bronner, the company’s president, told Hatch. “What focus group or marketing agency would ever come up with it? It stands out on the shelf and is eye-catching, and it’s precisely that that breaks with marketing convention that people are compelled to want to learn more and understand it.”

That authenticity part is key. As we’ve all embraced being content creators and having personal brands, we’re also more perceptive of the BS that goes into advertising spin. We know that a bank giving 1 percent to charity won’t save the world. But when you dig in and read Dr. Bronner’s blog or its incredibly detailed and transparent annual report—which covers everything from its fight for racial justice to its financial stewardship— you can see that there’s nothing dirty about buying from this brand.

And right now, that’s exactly what people want.

The post What Dr. Bronner’s Mad Scientist Marketing Can Teach Brands About Actually Giving a Crap appeared first on Contently.

“That sparked an idea,” Flint said. “How is Gen Z faring as the first cohort to start their career in a hybrid or remote workforce?”

That story and others inspired by Gen Z soon ballooned into a 70-page issue of Innovation dedicated to “Generation Rising.” HP’s magazine, released for summer 2021 in both digital and print format, also coincided with the launch of a new film series on Gen Z—”Generation Impact“—the brand produced.

We sat down with Flint to chat about Innovation, the impetus behind HP’s Gen Z-focused marketing efforts, and the creative process that goes into bringing these ambitious content projects to life.

Why Gen Z?

As the first truly digitally native generation, Gen Z is attractive to technology companies—both as employees and customers. Experts predict that by 2023, Gen Z will be the biggest generational cohort in the economy. Paying attention to this group’s preferences and media patterns, including how they consume content, is no longer optional.

In response, brands like HP are getting creative with the ways in which they talk to this up-and-coming demographic. Publications like Innovation and The Garage fulfill dual purposes: They inform internal employees about company updates, and they entertain customers loyal to the brand.

Issue releases also tend to coincide with the HP’s larger objectives and tentpole calendar events. Last fall, for example, the company created an issue of Innovation focused on environmental initiatives in order to align with its annual sustainability report.

With “Generation Rising,” HP wanted to showcase how young people are using technology for social good while teasing their “Generation Impact” film series. The first installment of that series, a short film called The Coder, which features a young woman’s efforts to start a coding school for Black students, debuted in June 2021. The digital magazine came out the same month, and the print version was released in July.

The omnichannel tactic is smart, considering Gen Z’s tendency to prioritize video and other visual content over more traditional forms of marketing. The Innovation issue takes these preferences into account too. Beyond longform articles, the magazine features lively, colorful illustrations; infographics; and the digital version even has an animated cover.

Bringing Innovation to life

Bringing this latest issue of Innovation to life took about four months. The magazine comes out three times a year, so there’s a good deal of lead time before each release. It’s hosted on the interactive publishing platform Joomag, and readers can sign up for a digital subscription online.

When working on a new issue, Flint’s team brainstorms story ideas, writes the pieces, and designs copy, illustrations, animations, and more. Since the vast majority of the Innovation team comes from a background in publishing—mostly magazines—they’re well-versed in the mechanics of such a multifaceted project.

When necessary, HP also taps freelance talent. “We are a small and mighty team in-house, but you need lots of talent to make a magazine,” Flint said. “We use freelance writers, photographers, illustrators, editors, copy editors, art directors, and producers.”

Of course, the pandemic threw a new wrench in the process—Flint and the rest of HP’s brand journalism team had to adapt to working 100% remotely. Though it was an adjustment, Flint said that it hasn’t hindered their creativity. The team uses platforms like Slack, Zoom, Google Docs, Dropbox, Adobe InDesign, and InCopy to toss around ideas, read proofs, and more.

“I think there is always going to be a place for magazines… it just might not be on the newsstand.”

“Regarding remote collaboration… It’s happening. It’s working. We’re doing it,” Flint said. “Are there days when it would be easier if we were all together under one roof? Sure. But overall, I think we’re doing great work.”

Gen Z was a “rich topic” when HP sat down to brainstorm story concepts. The issue includes stories ranging from Gen Z in the workplace—a piece on internships and another on the “new commute” for remote workers—to short profiles of 15 young people making a social impact via various tech platforms. Each subject has a connection to the brand: some through direct partnerships, and others through non-governmental organizations that work with HP.

“Many of them are based on consumer insights that have been floating around,” Flint said. “For the Gen Z issue, nobody presented us with hard-and-fast facts or data points. We just understand that this is an upcoming priority.”

But, Flint noted, HP’s ongoing investment into digital content, distribution, and social promotion will soon give them more information to work with. “We’re hoping to start getting some of that data to be able to see what performs well, where people are coming from, where stories land, etc.,” she said.

Reaching Gen Z and the future of magazines

HP isn’t the only technology company focusing its content marketing on Gen Z.

Since data suggests that this generation is particularly invested in sustainability and social impact, brands like Samsung and Dell are increasingly experimenting with inspirational storytelling, charitable initiatives, and inclusive messaging. To align with Gen Z’s content preferences, many legacy brands are turning to popular formats like shortform videos on TikTok and Instagram Reels, as well as smaller and more intimate “digital campfires” on emerging platforms like Fortnite, Discord, and Twitch.

Flint believes old-school magazines still have significant value—even for this digitally native generation. (Innovation is released both online and via a small print run of about 700 copies. Flint hopes to expand that number as more people return to the office, where Innovation is typically distributed.)

“I think magazines still resonate with younger generations because there’s just more richness and depth to this type of content,” she said. “It’s packaged in a way that’s very different from the [newsfeed].”

There’s something permanent and trustworthy about a tangible magazine—the physicality of it makes it less ephemeral than the snippets younger generations have grown accustomed to scrolling by on social media. Some reports have even found that consumers trust magazines more than other sources of news, including television and radio.

In the context of content marketing, HP hopes that the familiar format—including the authoritative executive letter in the front, the in-depth reporting and fact-checking, and the engaging mix of imagery and copy—is an effective way to reach both internal employees and potential customers affiliated with Gen Z.

“There’s power to the printed form. There’s power to a front of the book that has your executives’ voices in it,” she said. “I think there is always going to be a place for magazines… it just might not be on the newsstand.”

The post Getting Gen Z: Inside HP’s Colorful & Creative Innovation Magazine appeared first on Contently.

Buyer personas are like scouting reports on a representative of your target audience. They typically sound something like this: “SALLY is a 30-year-old mom who drives a Subaru, lives in Chicago, makes $70K a year, and wants help overcoming the challenges of balancing her work and family responsibilities.”

Besides supplying the info we need to target Sally with Instagram ads for crap she’ll regret buying, personas are designed to help the creative process. The idea is to teach us about the ideal customer.

This is based on a long-established idea about creativity: It’s best to have a person in mind when you’re creating. As Kurt Vonnegut once said: “Please write for one person. Open the window and make love to the world, so to speak, and your story will get pneumonia.”

Is that a weird freaking quote? Yes. Yes, it really is. But it’s also true. When you write for everyone, you write for no one. Writing for one person can be absolutely inspiring.

But here’s the thing that’s troubled me ever since I saw my first brand persona document at the tender age of 22: Most of them are kind of useless—at least from a creative perspective.

The problem with personas

Most brand personas fall short because they don’t help you develop empathy for the audience. Sure, you get their age, 3-5 bullet points on their challenges and aspirations, a random stock photo, and a weird codename like “The Milleniator.” Maybe a buzzword-programmed robot would develop empathy from that, but humans do not.

Empathy is crucial. The reason that “writing for one person” works is because it’s an act of empathy. You’re thinking of someone who epitomizes your audience and asking: What can I create that will help them? Teach them something new? Entertain them? Or even both? How can I help them see the world in a new way and experience wonder?

Empathy is strongly linked with oxytocin production, which in turn boosts dopamine in the brain. And, oh boy, does the brain feel creative on dopamine—the feel good neurotransmitter that we spend our lives chasing along with its sidekick, serotonin. Boosting dopamine is the greatest creativity hack we’ve discovered so far.

Pictured: Happiness

That’s why if we really want to tell great stories, we don’t need sterile personas. What we need is a muse.

Your audience is your muse

I didn’t know what a muse was until a few months ago, when I hit a creative wall and finally read Steven Pressfield’s War of Art, which has been recommended to me as a creative bible by every person I know who fetishizes their own creativity.

That’s why if we really want to tell great stories, we don’t need sterile personas. What we need is a muse.

Pressfield explains that the muses come from Greek mythology. They were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and the term “muse” translates to “memory”. Their entire job was to inspire artists (each muse was responsible for a different type of art). Even 2,800 years ago, the ancient Greeks understood that creating for someone specific inspires creativity.

A muse turns writing from a solitary activity into a social one. They’re with us all the time. When our brain internalizes the muse, it starts to do a ton of creative work in the background. When we’re in the shower. When we’re on long walks. When we’re lying down to sleep at night. Our brain makes connections and comes up with stories the muse will love.

How to find your muse

You can’t find your muse in a Powerpoint deck.

You find your muse in stories—by talking and listening to your audience as much as possible and hearing their story.

If you’re like me, this was difficult during the delirious 15-month fever dream we just shared. By the time spring 2021 rolled around, my sense of my audience, my muse, had faded badly.

You find your muse in stories—by talking and listening to your audience as much as possible and hearing their story.

Before COVID, inspiration was easy. I regularly attended meetups, speaking gigs, happy hours, conferences, meetings, book signings, customer events, and workshops that brought me together with the marketers and creatives I write for. (Often with a drink that had a lime in it, which always brings good storytelling vibes.) Those interactions kept the muse vibrant in my mind.

Pictured: The Before Times

But during COVID, I was deprived of the majesty of drinking a vodka soda in an expo hall. So recently, I returned to the thing that had always helped me get to know my audience: I put on my reporter hat and interviewed a ton of marketers running inspiring content programs—from Christina Westbrook at Dell Perspectives to Kristin Fallon at GE Healthcare to Leslie Nuccio at Bank of the West. I listened to their stories, challenges, and aspirations. And the muse began to come back.

Interviews are one of the best ways to get to know your audience. If it’s not something you’re in the habit of doing, it should be.

Now that the pandemic is waning, I’m also eager to spend time in person with my audience again. (It’s honestly embarrassing how excited I am to speak in person at Content Marketing World again in the fall.) As much as I complain about conference happy hours, they are the moments when storytelling serendipity happens. If you live in a place where you have access to these events—and you feel safe from a vaccination perspective—I’d encourage you to go out and experience those one-on-one interactions too.

Interviews are one of the best ways to get to know your audience. If it’s not something you’re in the habit of doing, it should be.

And if not? Join a virtual group with your target audience. Throw a virtual event with discussions and breakouts. (Both things I’ve done this spring, which gave me about 20 different story ideas.) Listen to their stories, until you can hold their dreams and fears so closely that they feel like your own.

Do this enough, and the work will come easier. Your mind will start to make connections and come up with ideas that truly help your audience. You’ll create for that one specific person but end up reaching thousands. You’ll start to notice a spark of inspiration that wasn’t there before.

And before you know it, you’ll find your muse.

The post How to Go Beyond the Persona and Find Your Muse appeared first on Contently.

It reads like the title of an award-winning magazine feature. Should’ve been, really. In 2014, Microsoft pitched dozens of journalists a story idea about how a group of employees were analyzing sensory data to revolutionize the way the company used energy across its 500-acre campus.

All of them passed.

So Microsoft’s communications team decided to cover it themselves. Jennifer Warnick, the lead writer of Microsoft Story Labs at the time, put the article together. Forty-eight hours after it went live, 800,000 people had read it. To this day, it’s arguably one of the best pieces of content marketing ever created.

“88 Acres” is the platonic ideal of a product story. A Microsoft employee wrote about other people at Microsoft using the company’s products, and it didn’t come across as self-promotional.

When companies write about themselves, we usually wind up with dry, hollow press releases. However, the typical press release machine has become somewhat outdated. Why put an update on the wire hoping a journalist covers it when you can tell your audience directly? Microsoft’s story shows what happens when a brand controls its own narrative.

Over the years, brands have gradually warmed up to the idea. SEMrush uses its own features to analyze its content on a regular basis. Salesforce has dozens of webinars about how it uses its own products. Then there’s Typeform, which walked us through a more unusual example earlier this year. When Paul Campillo, head of brand and communications, was working on a story about chatbots, he wanted to insert one so readers could ask it questions about the article. Only problem was, Typeform didn’t have a chatbot. So their dev team built one.

“The article was a huge success,” Campillo said. “Now it’s one of Typeform’s three offerings.”

Marketers have this tendency to sugarcoat everything. But we’ve heard from clients that they liked learning about our trials and errors. They could relate to our challenges and follow each step as we worked to overcome them. At Contently, we think of ourselves as our best case study.

That’s something anyone can do, regardless of whether or not they have a tale as rich as “88 Acres.” And since product stories appeal to both new leads and existing customers, the content can help with onboarding and retention. Think of them like Help Center assets that customers can use to solve problems on their own—only with more creativity than the usual instruction manual approach.

For software companies, these stories can be integrated throughout the product. We’ve started doing this ourselves with a new video series called “Contently In Action.”

When customers reach a certain part of our platform, a short tutorial pops up and explains how we use a given feature for our own marketing efforts. This helps with product adoption, adding in a real-world example that you don’t find on newswires. Now, the series has become a staple of new product releases.

As brands aim to bring more attention to their solutions and help their audiences, the lesson here is simple: Write stories, not press releases.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Compare a press release and an article side by side while noting the differences in tone and creativity
• Sort through the most popular Help Center articles or tutorials to discover good product story ideas
• Write about your own experiences using your product like an investigate reporter, highlighting challenges and solutions

The post Don’t Publish a Press Release. Create a Product Story Instead appeared first on Contently.

The question came from a strategy colleague when I was helping a brand staff its new content studio. We had just presented a list of different types of writers the company needed to hire, including copywriters, bloggers, editors, and social media creators. My colleague wasn’t convinced.

She’s not the only person who’s raised this question. I’ve heard variations of it from marketers, freelancers, journalists, and students looking to start their careers. Sure, writing is at the core of multiple marketing jobs, but there are key distinctions. Copywriting and content marketing call for different skills and success metrics.

There’s more than philosophy at stake. If you’re hiring a writer, you want to get the right person for the job. You may get an engaging ad draft that reads like a haiku or a blog post that takes time to digest. Whether you’re looking to make the right hire or switch careers, it’s helpful to know what you need to thrive in each specialty.

1. Objectives

Consider the buyer’s journey. In its simplest view, a copywriter tries to pique interest immediately, with a heavy emphasis on brand awareness. The content marketer, meanwhile, focuses more on educating the customer and building trust, playing a bigger long-term role in the consideration and evaluation stages.

“When I’m writing ad copy, I become the product,” said Maureen Tsuchida, a freelance copywriter and social media consultant. “I can become warm and cozy like a hot cup of Campbell’s soup on a frosty day, blow through dusty dirt roads in an open-top Jeep Wrangler, or shift into transforming work processes using an AI platform to identify risks and eliminate obstacles so your projects deliver on time. See? I’m meticulously choosing words to paint a picture and bring the product to life.”

Photo by Yao Hu on Unsplash

When it comes to content marketing, Tsuchida stresses that she’s not directly selling the product. For that kind of work, she focuses more on challenges and solutions in the product category. “I’m still selling, but it’s not an ad.”

“Sponsored content is a gift to the reader,” said Ron Bel Bruno, a content marketing writer and strategist who was a longtime editor for Ziff Davis and Time Inc. “The best blogs, podcasts, or videos must employ the same skills a magazine or newspaper writer and editor uses. Your narrative needs to be fair, objective, and engaging, and leave the reader with some lasting value that will inform their future buying decisions.”

2. Skills

Just about all companies are looking for marketers who excel at writing and storytelling. But if you take a look at job descriptions, you’ll get a specific sense of how the roles diverge.

On the content side, job posts typically mention SEO knowledge and specific channel savvy (e.g., web, email, blog, video). The copywriter’s role description tends to be more about concepts, innovation, and brand communications. Both jobs involve putting words together well, but the essential skill sets required for a display ad campaign versus an e-book series are very different.

For ads, I want creativity. For content, I crave authority.

As a current marketing director and previous creative director, I’ve come up with a hiring shorthand that guides my decisions: For ads, I want creativity. For content, I crave authority. That means I tend to hire copywriters with diverse industry experience who can cross-pollinate ideas. For content marketing positions, I want writers with deeper vertical expertise who know what they’re talking about.

According to Bel Bruno, “You need journalistic skills, tempered with the ability to work facts into a template based on messaging pillars and marketing directives.”

3. Results

Most hiring managers want to see several examples of spec or in-market work, but what does successful work look like?

“I define success, be it in content or advertising, the same way,” said David McMillan, an experienced creative director and copywriter at top agencies. “Did it hold the reader and teach them something? Did the reader and I part ways with a transfer of information? Awards are validation for the insecure. A connection is the metric of success that tends to break the rules a lot with copywriting,”

There are, however, a few ways to differentiate that connection. In digital advertising, clients quantify effectiveness by impressions and clicks delivered through paid media. Across the aisle, content marketers track top-funnel metrics like unique visitors and time spent.

When it comes to ROI, there are a few similarities worth calling out. Depending on the project, copywriters and content marketers may both care about leads captured and (in some cases) revenue, if their email banners or referral links influence a purchasing decision.

On the awards front, there are a myriad of shows for copywriters, including Cannes Lions, Caples, Effies, and The One Show. For content marketing, which hasn’t been around as long, there are showcases like the Shorty Awards, Content Marketing Institute’s Awards, and The Finnys.

4. Career Trajectory

I started as an ad copywriter, dabbled in public relations, grew into a head of creative at several ad agencies before shifting to being a practice lead at a management consulting firm. While I still love creating ads, the deeper I got into digital marketing, the more I learned to love and excel at content marketing. Now I’m a strategist who advises on both.

However, as content marketing continues to become more established, it seems like people are specializing more in their respective fields.

Copywriters typically become creative directors at agencies or in-house departments. McMillan has worked at various global agencies as well as in-house at NBC News as creative director. Tsuchida has been a writer and associate creative director for the biggest direct and digital marketing agencies before consulting on her own.

Content marketing writers can rise up to become content strategists, content directors, or chief content officers. Content marketers may come from—or go to—fields like journalism, as Bel Bruno did.

As I told my colleague, good writing is good writing, but that doesn’t mean these skills are interchangeable. A great ad and a great blog post use different muscles, and hopefully this helps you recognize when you need to flex them.

Mat Zucker is a writer, marketing consultant, and author of Bronze Seeks Silver: Lessons from a Creative Career in Marketing.

The post Content Marketing vs. Copywriting: What Are the Major Differences? appeared first on Contently.

That’s right. After a decade killing chain restaurants, marriage, and the McDonald’s McWrap, millennials have grown strong and are entering their peak earning years. Simultaneously, Gen Z—which you may know from the popular mobile application, TikTok—is graduating college and taking over the coveted 18-25 consumer segment.

I’m a card-carrying millennial. I’ve survived graduating into a recession and strangled an Applebees with my own two hands. And you know what my generation wants? To buy stuff from companies that reflect our values, so we can feel good about ourselves when we pop a CBD gummy and start clicking on Instagram ads.

The age of conscious consumerism is here, driven by the under 40-set. According to 5Ws 2020 Consumer Culture Report, 83 percent of millennials say that it’s important for the companies they buy from to align with their beliefs and values, and 76 percent of 18-34 year-olds like when the CEOs of companies they buy from speak out on issues they care for.

Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer also found that values are driving purchase decisions. The most important attributes to consumers today being able to trust that what the brand does is right, reputation, values, and environmental impact. As climate change worsens, sustainability is only going to become more important; turns out, we really want a planet to live on.

Companies today not only need to do good; they also need to tell stories about the good that they’re doing so consumers know about it. It’s not a nice-to-have anymore; it’s a necessity.

That’s why social impact storytelling was one of the top content trends I presented in our State of Content Marketing 2021 trends webinar (which you can get on-demand here.)

One of the coolest things is that telling these stories will not only help your company’s bottom line—it’ll help the world, too.

That’s because when you tell great stories about the good your company is doing, it creates a positive feedback loop that encourages your company to invest more in CSR efforts.

Skeptical? Then say it to the face of this awesome diagram.

Social impact storytelling needs to be a part of your content strategy in 2021. And in the webinar, I suggested taking three steps:

1. Put on your reporter’s hat to find compelling social impact stories

Companies don’t often do a great job of talking about the good that they’re doing—even to their own employees. That means that you need do the dirty work to find them.

This is something that GE Reports does extremely well. Led by chief storyteller Tomas Kellner—a former editor at Forbes—GE Reports has amassed a loyal audience of over 100,000 subscribers through what Kellner calls “shoe leather reporting“—developing sources inside the company to break stories of the amazing innovations happening inside the company.

While its sustainability storytelling has often gone viral on Reddit, GE Reports shifted focus in the spring to cover how GE Healthcare—and the rest of the world-was fighting back against COVID-19.

GE Reports did a remarkable job telling the stories of employees who were going above-and-beyond in the fight against COVID, and the role GE Healthcare was playing in combatting the pandemic. Just check out this story about GE Healthcare employee who traveled 1,400 miles through an earthquake and blizzard to help step up the production of ventilators at a key plant, or this story about a breakthrough in AI-enhanced ultrasound that was saving lives during the darkest days of the outbreak in Italy.

They also published a weekly roundup of five ways the world fought back, which included non-GE stories, and was my daily dose of optimism as I hunkered down in downtown Manhattan, clutching a bottle of hand sanitizer like it was the last Infinity Stone.

GE Reports’ coverage not only made me feel better—it helped me see GE Healthcare in a new, extremely positive light. If I was in the market for an MRI machine, I would definitely buy it from them!

You can follow Kellner’s lead, especially if you work inside a large corporation. Find out who’s in charge of your social impact and CSR initiatives, and who else is working on them. Bond with them. Interview them. Do the same thing with your product and engineering teams—your company’s product might be doing good and serving people in ways you don’t even know about. Put on your reporter hat, and get to work.

2. Tell narrative stories that communicate your company’s values and how they set you apart from the competition

The morning after the 2016 election, Rose Marcario, the CEO of Patagonia, woke up at 4 AM and decided that it was time to double down on the company’s activism.

As Fast Company reported, by 9:30 AM, she had penned a company-wide call-to-action to “defend wilderness, to defend air, soil, and water.” Facing widespread rollback of environmental regulations, she galvanized the company around its mission to protect the planet—a mission dear to not only employees at the company, but Patagonia’s customers, too.

Ever since Marcario took over as Patagonia’s CEO in 2008 and made a huge bet on sustainable manufacturing and design, the company’s revenue has grown more than 500 percent.

Much of that is its mission-led marketing; the outdoor apparel brand donates 1 percent of all profits to environmental causes, turns its stores into a repair shop for used gear on Black Friday, and tells stories about sustainability in Hollywood-quality films and four-word rallying cries on its clothing. Patagonia’s ethics and values are the competitive differentiator that shines through in every story they tell, and their customers are fiercely loyal to the brand as a result.

A big reason that Patagonia’s approach works so well is the ridiculous quality of their storytelling. One of their latest documentaries, Public Trust, about the battle to save public land from development, won awards at the Big Sky Documentary Festival and Mountainview.

They tailor their content to the channels where their audience spends their time—short films on YouTube, compelling 30-second sizzle trailers on Instagram, climate news and calls-to-action on Twitter—and truly stand apart, growing their business at an exponential rate.

3. When possible, align your social impact storytelling with a product

In recent years, Bank of the West has been doubling down on ethical and sustainable investing through its Impact Solutions investment arm. In 2019, it became the first bank to empower customers to track the CO2 impact of their purchases, and this year, launched its 1% for the Planet account to donate 1 percent of revenues to environmental non-profits.

They tell the story of their sustainability initiatives through Means & Matters, its sustainability-focused content hub. The site covers everything from how the private sector can step in where the public sector has failed to how to work in sustainability. It even puts other banks that invest in arctic drilling on blast.

(Disclosure: Bank of the West is Contently client, and partnered with Contently on Means & Matters.)

This content communicates a clear reason why people like me who care about the planet should invest with Bank of the West over competitors. There’s also an added bonus, as all of this sustainable investing content is an SEO goldmine, helping attract potential buyers who would be extremely interested in investing with Bank of the West—making it much easier to tie the content to business results.

This all, of course, leaves one very important question: What if your company isn’t investing in any initiatives worthy of social impact storytelling?

Well, then hit your leadership team with the stats and examples in this post, and make the case why it’s just good business to stand for something and do good in the world. And once they do, tell the story of how you made it happen. I can’t wait to see it.

The post Why Social Impact Storytelling Will Be 2021’s Hottest Content Trend appeared first on Contently.

A global pandemic impacts everyone and everything. As cases started to spike, it wasn’t long before it seemed like every article, video, and social post tied back to the coronavirus.

For many companies, especially in healthcare, covering the topic was vital. They had an obligation to share their knowledge with the public. For others, though, it was just another trending topic to jump on. Even if it comes from a good place, we don’t need an email from a car dealership that says they’re “here for us during these troubling times.”

To gauge the immediate impact on content creation, we pulled the stories created by Contently clients across all industries and then tagged any that mentioned relevant terms like “pandemic,” “Covid,” and “quarantine.” In March, content related to the coronavirus accounted for 21 percent of all stories across all industries, a significant increase up from roughly 6 percent in February 2020. The rate held steady through April until dipping slightly in May. 2020

The surge in new content proved to be an interesting case study for healthcare publishers. There’s an overabundance of health content online, but it mostly consists of evergreen information on established domains like WebMD and Livestrong. These sites live off of consistent search traffic, but they typically don’t connect to the news cycle. Once the coronavirus hit, that all changed.

Since great storytelling thrives on specifics, other brands had a new opportunity to create timely content. Some of the top-performing stories in our dataset came from companies putting a unique spin on the public conversation.

For example, in late March 2020, Cleveland Clinic published “Here’s the Damage Coronavirus Can Do to Your Lungs” with expert quotes and a link to a new video featuring an experienced lung pathologist. It was shared over 26,000 times on Facebook. Cigna ran an early how-to story on proper handwashing technique that generated thousands of shares. Shortly after, 23andMe wrote about a research study it was working on to look at the connection between genetics and COVID-19.

If healthcare companies hope to compete with the WebMDs of the world, they have to drive awareness first with these kinds of original stories. Then, once they build trust and increase domain authority, they can fill in their output with more clinical, encyclopedic content.

However, that doesn’t mean healthcare brands should start pursuing journalistic COVID content. These stories lead to conflicts of interest. Plus, brands usually don’t have the resources or infrastructure in place to go after hard news. However, they can break new ground and build an audience simply by reporting on the research and innovations being developed inside their own company.

“In the health category, there’s no such thing as a generalist … think about what your audience is searching for,” said Amy O’Connor, editor-in-chief of Healthination. “Unless you’re like AP or Reuters, it’s really hard to cover the news, and nobody wants you to, because it’s already out there.”

Your time and money would be better spent using trending topics as a springboard to provide insights and analysis the public can’t get anywhere else.

This is an excerpt from our report: The State of Healthcare Content Marketing. Click here to read the full report for free (there’s no form to fill out or file to download.)

The post How Healthcare Brands Can Publish Timely COVID Content That Audiences Need appeared first on Contently.

Fans love it because Deadpool subverts expectations by being self-aware. You can see a similar idea at play when the writers behind the TV show “30 Rock” created an episode where the characters debate the merits of creating a TV show. Or, to get really meta, when a cafe’s sandwich board proclaims, “This is a sign.”

Right now, budgets are frozen, technology spend has decreased for the time being, and buyers of all manner are fatigued from the barrage of “We’re here for you in uncertain times” emails. This self-aware approach offers marketers a lifeline. And it can be done with playful humor or straightforward analysis.

Going meta—using your product to market itself—can be a clever way to draw attention, stretch your budget, and be disarmingly and refreshingly honest, all while still selling your product.

No but seriously, this is a sign

Self-aware marketing works, but for a different reason than it works in media. While “going meta” in pop culture surprises and delights because it shatters the so-called “fourth wall” and draws people out of what they’re watching, meta marketing typically draws them in. It demonstrates the product by showing it.

Take the billboard pictured below by 3M, the maker of duct tape. The tape appears to be supporting the billboard—an allusion to its utility as a fix-all. It’s cheeky but also demonstrative.

Among my favorite meta assets ever—so enjoyable that I’m still sharing it years later—is the survey software startup Typeform’s article “The Rise of the Conversational Interface.” In it, the author demonstrates the rise and uses of chatbots … by inserting a chatbot into the article. As you read, you can ask the author questions about the article.

When I interviewed Paul Campillo, now the company’s head of brand and communications, I learned that when he started writing it, Typeform didn’t even offer chatbots. Now they do. And it’s because the self-aware chatbot article was such a smash hit that buyers demanded it.

“We were pitching blog ideas about chatbots and someone had this idea to insert one into the article to provide a director’s cut commentary,” Campillo said. “We said, yeah that’s great. But we’ll need a chatbot.”

So they made one. A developer on the team spent a tremendous amount of time trying to understand the structure of a conversation with flowcharts. This raised new questions that influenced the article, which then influenced the chatbot.

“The article was a huge success,” Campillo explained. “People started pinging the heck out of me on Twitter asking, ‘Hey, is this available?’ and after a while, we built it. Now it’s one of Typeform’s three offerings.”

Typeform’s success fits a pattern. People increasingly want things they can see, try, and apply without sales pressure. Consumers are fatigued and fed up with traditional marketing tactics. If your product is good enough, enthusiastic users will indirectly do your marketing for you. Product-led advocates implore marketers to let buyers see your product organically in action rather than just pouring money into paid ad channels.

Plus, going meta can be easier on marketers who are trying to figure out how to do their jobs in the middle of a pandemic recession while also reckoning with the country’s long unaddressed racial issues. There is no easy way to be both sensitive and clever, so brands are finding simple ways to show what they’re selling with a more honest approach that doesn’t sacrifice creativity.

I’ve seen more and more companies launching webinars on how they use their own software. The really good ones are building trust with no-BS stories of trial and error—just people trying to figure it out and help other people. This path gives potential customers a chance to see what they’re paying for without PR glitz.

From the calendar scheduling app startup Chili Piper inserting “book a meeting” links into its own marketing assets to the real estate AI startup Skyline AI using its own data to run reports, more brands are trying to use their software to advertise it.

And you know what they’re all finding? It’s both earning them attention and, in many instances, saving them money.

The budgetary benefits of self-aware marketing

Now that I’ve highlighted self-aware content, you’ll start to see it everywhere.

“If you’re lucky enough to have a product you can show without having to shoehorn it in, there’s really nothing more cost effective,” said James Winter, VP of marketing at Brandfolder. “We offer a DAM—an organizational platform for your company’s creative assets. When our sales reps reach out to prospects about Brandfolder, they create a Brandfolder, fill it with that company’s own assets, and send a link. People love it. It’s genuinely useful to the situation, gets them invested and comfortable with the product early, gets the point across, and yeah, it doesn’t cost us a thing.”

Self-aware marketing can also save you agency fees—particularly in B2B software—since this kind of content relies on internal expertise. If it’s really clever and sparks a discussion on social media, you’ll get a better bang for your marketing buck.

The customer data platform Segment, for example, ran a billboard campaign across major cities that got some major social media pull-through. It demonstrated the frustration people feel with bad data by buying billboards that addressed each city by its rival city’s name—in San Francisco., it read, “Good morning, LA!”

This @segment billboard in SF is well done pic.twitter.com/1u22MoHzpd

— austin petersmith (@awwstn) April 9, 2019

“This actor in L.A. got caught up in the joke of it all and posted a picture of our billboard to his followers asking if we meant it to be there—twice,” said Maya Spivak, Head of Global Brand Marketing and Communications at Segment. “We got tens of thousands of these wonderful organic impressions.”

If cost savings, added attention, and selling without appearing to sell aren’t enough to convince you to try meta marketing, there’s one more benefit: It’s oddly liberating. Plus, if your boss asks, why are you dedicated so much time to a self-aware project, you can fire off your own laconic Deadpool retort: “Because it’s my article.”

The post In Tough Times, Self-Aware Marketing Helps You Stand Out & Save Money appeared first on Contently.

He created “Breaking the Chain of Infection,” designed with the help of Carol Navarro, a registered nurse, and spoke with multiple doctors to vet the information. To maximize impact across the globe, the infographic was translated in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malayalam, Portuguese, and Spanish.

You may not have seen Gude’s infographic before now, but you’ve definitely seen story after story about COVID-19 over the last few months. Turn the television to your preferred news outlet, stream a press briefing, read the latest article online, and you’re likely to be bombarded with an overwhelming amount of facts, figures, statistics, scientific data, and medical advice sprawled across the screen.

When done right, infographics and other types of visual content can be an antidote of sorts during the news cycle. There are many different types of visuals proving successful in relaying important content to audiences: infographics, data visualizations, charts, maps, cartoons, animations, illustrations, simulations, even GIFs.

Best of all, they simplify complex details and give learners a chance to process a lot of information.

More than just eye candy

Today, we’re seeing the most reputable sources relying on visuals to spread their messages—The Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, local hospitals, city municipalities. These visuals aren’t just eye-catching, but studies have shown that they actually increase the audience’s ability to retain important information.

“Editors have always said that graphics make great entry points for stories,” Gude said. “They’re great at attracting interest to more information about that topic.”

According to Wiley Education Services, it takes far less time to process symbols than text alone. “In fractions of a second, the brain can process symbols and attach meaning to them (Thorpe, Fize, & Marlot, 1996). Because infographics associate concepts and ideas with iconography, they naturally tap into this processing power and can help students engage more deeply with your content.”

Hundreds of studies and experiments have shown that pairing visuals with text helps people comprehend and remember information more effectively than just reading or listening. The brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text, and a lit review published in Educational Technology Research and Development found that including illustrations with text instructions helps people perform a task 323 percent better than those who read the instructions without visuals.

“The human brain evolved to be sort of like a visual processing machine,” said Alberto Cairo, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at University of Miami and director of the visualization program of the Center for Computational Science. “A huge part of our brain is devoted to processing information that is gathered through our eyes.”

Cairo cited a Washington Post story from March about why outbreaks spread exponentially, which is full of interactive graphics and quickly became one of the site’s most popular stories of the year. “It’s a model of how an epidemic changes and expands. That visual simulation [was] the most viewed story…. That says something about the popularity of these images.”

Digging through the data

As the senior program manager for the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, Mac McComas works with large data sets every day. Some of that big data gathered from public sets, or through various data use agreements, ends up being displayed through visuals.

“A lot of the research we do is on everything from housing, economic development issues, transportation, small business development, education and health outcomes—and how public policy and the private sector shape that,” McComas said.

Naturally, that research turned to COVID-19, specifically observational analysis of trends in Baltimore.

The 21st Century Cities Initiative has started by comparing data points from the first four months of 2020 to the same time period in 2019. The goal is to examine how COVID became a “shock to the city,” as McComas put it. That means examining behaviors like how often people go to grocery stores, purchase plane tickets, and even commit violent crimes.

“Visuals serve as a great entryway to get people thinking about some of these deeper research questions, but they’re never intended as the end point,” McComas said. “We always hope that they generate discussion and get people to think.”

That’s a key point stressed by everyone I interview. In a hurried society, audiences are spending less and less time with your message. Understanding the limitations of that can be helpful when communicating through a visual medium.

“Really try to do some detective work, and make sure you’re understanding the full limitations of what the graph or visual is actually saying,” McComas said.

In some cases, that abstraction can get away from the creator. Take this tornado of a graphic posted by an Oxford professor, which was later mentioned in a Financial Times article titled “When data viz goes psychotic.”

Not exactly easy to read. In other COVID-19 coverage, I’ve seen charts are comparing the number of virus deaths in April 2019 to April 2020, which obviously isn’t the whole story.

“The challenge is not just to show the numbers to people…. but it is important to add, what we call the annotation layer,” Cairo said. “The annotation layer is the words (either written or spoken) that you put on top of your charts to emphasize, explain, and highlight what they mean, why they matter, [and] what it is they are measuring.”

Creating credible infographics

Making appealing and trustworthy infographics doesn’t require an art degree, but understanding basic design concepts is key.

“Designing with the end-user in mind informs your graphic, and focuses your research,” Gude said, of his eight-step process for making infographics.

For example, handwashing graphics for children might use bright colors and cartoon illustrations. Graphics showing the scientific effectiveness of handwashing in healthcare facilities might provide more detailed instructions, stats, and text.

As far as getting started, there are some free or freemium options like Canva, Visme, and Infogram worth checking out. (Canva touts itself as the “non-designer’s secret weapon.”)

In addition to knowing your audience, another important step is minimizing the amount of info you include. Not all of your extensive research has a home in that particular graphic. Many artists make the mistake of drawing visuals first before they have all pertinent information, which is working backwards.

No matter what type of visual content you decide to use for your message, one thing is for certain: Infographics and other data visualizations are excellent tools in delivering information. In the midst of a global pandemic, media outlets of all kinds have learned on visual content to reach the public with vital information. It’s not an exaggeration to say they’re saving lives as we deal with COVID-19.

As a final piece of advice, Gude always returns to a helpful quotation from painter Hans Hoffman when encouraging new infographic creators: “Eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary can speak.”

The post Why Infographics and Other Visual Content Are Saving Lives From COVID-19 appeared first on Contently.

Marketing copy heaves with destinations that are “state of the art,” “off the beaten path,” or “sun-kissed”—phrases with no function other than to add bloat. Some are so common that they’ve spawned satirical blog posts, such as Grumpy Traveller’s The 65 Greatest Cities of Contrasts.

Travel photography fares no better—just look at Insta Repeat, which collates formulaic Instagram posts with pithy captions such as “Person standing centered at the end of dock” and “Person standing at the edge of this one cliff.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ITs93HF_z/

Clichés are the literary equivalent of fast food, easy to grab but not great for you. Original content takes more time and effort, but it provides a meaningful payoff. It gives travelers a reason to trust you. Tell them that your hotel is the city’s “best-kept secret,” and you’ll get an eye roll. Tell them about the fresh roses delivered weekly, the hand-painted murals, and the teak canopy bed, and you’ll get their attention.

“Empty phrases such as ‘state of the art’ or ‘world-class’… like, what even are those?” said Kelsey Ogletree, a freelance writer who has written for Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure. “I think we all fall back on these things, but it’s just lazy writing.”

Here are some tips to rise above the noise and never resort to a “bustling market” ever again.

1. Avoid generalizations

“Blanket statements can get really cringey,” said Skye Sherman, a freelance travel writer based in South Florida. “The things I read about South Florida are so off base and outdated, they make my blood boil. There is so much more to it than theme parks and retirement communities. They miss the millions of young people who are doing incredible things—entrepreneurial ventures in art and theatre, all these amazing elements that are super cool and unique.”

Focusing on the people who make your business or destination—the cooks, the artists, the flight crew—is a simple way to circumvent stereotypes. However, avoid overuse of the word “local,” another meaningless trope enjoying a surge in popularity.

“’The local cheese, the local market,’ that means nothing to me,” said Nick Papa, marketing copywriter at online magazine and travel company Atlas Obscura. “Has it been in the family for five generations? Do they get fish from a fisherman who lives down the street and catches the fish in the body of water next to the neighborhood? What is the actual thing that makes it ‘of the neighborhood,’ as opposed to any chain store that could open up?”

This blog post about Yemeni coffee from Nashville café Crema Coffee exemplifies this writing style. The post goes into detail about the two friends who founded Yemen’s first coffee mill in a warzone and the environmental conditions that make the coffee stand out.

2. Think about your audience

In attempting to please everyone, travel content often pleases no one.

“The statement ‘something for everyone’ always warrants an eye roll,” Sherman said. “Not every location has something for everyone, and that’s okay.”

What you write for millennial parents will differ from copy meant for boomer retirees or Gen X foodies. Keeping your audience in mind will help you to decide what details to include. This is an essential skill for writing short descriptions, which will otherwise end up loaded with empty adjectives.

Compare, for example, the blogs of Contiki Travel and Saga. Contiki Travel knows exactly what their Generation Z and millennial readers want: beautiful, shareable photography; wellness; and responsible travel. Saga, on the other hand, covers wildlife-spotting, beaches, and museums appropriate for its 50-plus audience.

If you’re unsure what your audience wants, ask them. During the coronavirus crisis, Papa has been conducting weekly polls of Atlas Obscura’s followers to ask them which destination they should focus on. He then curates the company’s new “WFH” (Wonder from Home) virtual content to reflect this.

“Our Scotland trip leader did a bagpipe concert. Our Lisbon trip leader did a virtual Aperitivo,” he said.

The series triggered a massive spike in engagement. In March, Atlas Obscura saw 743 percent more Facebook shares, 321 percent more blog pageviews, and 629 percent more website referrals than in February.

3. Use humor and personality

While working on a piece for Midwest Living magazine about Bloomington, Indiana, Ogletree was struggling to come up with an intro, so she took an unconventional route: She used an unflattering anecdote.

“We got tossed out of a liquor store because they were really serious about everyone showing their IDs when walking in there,” she said. “We are in our thirties, so we thought it was really funny. I didn’t think anything of it but then I ended up finding a way to work that into the story; my editor said he laughed out loud when he read it. If you can be comfortable with it, find a personal anecdote that says, ‘This is a real experience’ and take it up to a new level.”

While much depends on your audience—not everyone will want to read about hardships—anecdotal evidence suggests that a sprinkling of the inconvenient attracts rather than repels.

Travel writers Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux inspired thousands of backpackers to follow their lead, despite describing their trials in great detail. Chatwin frequently slept in a sleeping bag at the side of the road, while Theroux endured uncomfortable carriages and difficult companions on his train journeys across Asia.

Travel companies can capture some of this magic. The blog of adventure tour company GeoEx (edited by acclaimed travel writer Don George) sprinkles unpleasant anecdotes among tales of wonder. In recounting an ant attack, this story about a traveler’s expedition to the Congo becomes more compelling and believable.

4. Catch clichés in your revisions

During the manic, just-get-the-idea-down phase of a first draft, clichés can be useful, serving as placeholders until you think of something better. Fill that page with as many hidden gems and azure waters as you like, but on that second pass, be ruthless.

“Don’t edit as you go. You need to write it up first,” Ogletree said. “Then review the adjectives and ask, ‘Does this sentence actually add to the story?’ If you’re using words like ‘luxurious’ and ‘charming,’ use something different that is more specific and says what you mean.”

Software can assist in this process. SmartEdit, which comes in free and paid versions, allows users to create their own list of “monitored words and phrases,” which it will then scan for and flag.

5. Turn SEO insights into original content

A common complaint from writers is that SEO tactics strangle originality. Perhaps this was once the case, but Google’s algorithm updates over the years have put the focus back on expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

“A lot of writers look at SEO as a constraint,” Papa said. “But at the end of the day, SEO is all about what actual travelers are typing into Google. What is it that they’re looking for, and how do I deliver content that answers the question? I would look at it as an opportunity.”

To get this competitive edge, marketers can use a keyword research tool such as Moz’s Keyword Explorer or Answer the Public.

At Atlas Obscura, a tour business catering to nonconformist travelers, Papa focuses on longtail keywords that target niche interests. “We typically look for opportunities to rank for keywords that include more than three words,” he said. “The demand for these keywords is less, but the intent of the user is much higher.”

Recent longtail keywords like “Are tailless whip scorpions arachnids,” “Eat like a local in Lisbon,” and “Tips for better travel photography” have all led to unique travel stories.

These words and phrases can help you avoid the pitfalls of travel clichés. “Create content that is as targeted as possible,” Papa said. “That’s always a better time investment than ‘Top 5 Things to Do in Croatia.’ Everyone’s done that, so why would you want to do it again and compete in that space?”

The post No More Hidden Gems: How to Hook Consumers and Avoid Travel Content Clichés appeared first on Contently.

It turns out Churchill felt similarly growing up. He wasn’t born a natural orator. (In fact, he stuttered and had a lisp.) But through constant practice and preparation, he built up his speaking muscle. He studied effective speeches and listened to great speakers like an athlete watching game tape.

Part of my job as editor-in-chief is to inspire our audience, supplying them with engaging advice. To accomplish that, we run a lot of webinars, which means talking in front of a few hundred people each time.

After hosting and producing dozens of webinars over the years, I’ve definitely gotten more comfortable. All good webinars need unique subject matter and a strong narrative that captivates the audience. But what separates a good webinar from a great one are the logistics. Think of easily overlooked elements like presentation length, Q&A prep, and more.

As companies start to produce more webinars and virtual conferences, I put together a list of essential pointers that’ll help you put on the best show possible.

1. Limit yourself to a tight 30 minutes

Why is 60 minutes the default length for a webinar? It seems to be one of those marketing practices that doesn’t have rhyme or reason to it.

An hour is a long time for a webinar. I had college classes that were shorter than that. If Abraham Lincoln could finish the Gettysburg Address in 271 words, you can spare your audience a half hour.

Last year, the average webinar viewing time was 58 minutes, according to ON24’s benchmark report. But that number should include 10-15 minutes for Q&A. You also have to account for a few stragglers since some attendees will always join a little late. Attendance usually peaks about five minutes after you begin.

The sweet spot for the presentation part of our webinars seems to be about 30 minutes. Engagement holds steady until the half-hour mark, then people with burning questions stick around to ask while others can drop off if they have to get to their next meeting.

A shorter run time also helps you prioritize the most meaningful information. If you keep it to a tight 30, you’ll present your strongest material and keep the audience wanting more when it’s time to send a follow-up email.

2. Team up

Very few people thrive at talking by themselves uninterrupted for long periods of time. The most successful podcasts are interview shows in which hosts and guests have a conversation. Radio shows typically pair two or three personalities together, turning a monologue into a dialogue.

Most of Contently’s webinars feature two presenters. It’s more engaging, and it reduces the burden on individual contributors. It’s also a lot easier to get the hang of a 15-minute talk than a 30-minute one.

For someone like me who wasn’t born a social butterfly, you can use the opportunity to learn firsthand from more experienced speakers. I’ve co-hosted a bunch with Joe Lazauskas, our head of marketing, who has spoken at a ton of conferences and events. Joe is the Jay to my Silent Bob. During our webinars, I’ve been able to pick up little tips from him like when to pause, how to calm my nerves, and what to include in my talk track.

Now, I feel secure enough to talk through my points without needing a script in front of me. We’ve also collaborated enough that our content fits together even though we have different presentation styles.

3. Prepare the follow-up ahead of time

During every webinar, one question gets asked without fail: “Will I be able to see the slides afterward?”

It’s become a helpful reminder to put thought into how you’ll distribute the webinar once it’s done. You’re so fixated on what to say that it’s easy to forget about all the other marketing tasks surrounding it.

Plus, how you follow up is almost just as important as the webinar itself. You have a certain window to capitalize on the momentum when someone registers for a virtual event. If you wait a couple of weeks, people will start to forget the details. We always aim to follow up within one or two business days.

While you’re putting the finishing touches on your presentation, think about what you can send afterward that benefits the audience. We always send a recording of the webinar (including Q&A) and a copy of the slides. Additionally, we also may link to one or two related resources like a blog post or video, depending on the topic. Recently, we’ve even begun experimenting with quizzes, offering listeners a prize for the highest score.

The main solution here is to plan ahead because it allows you to lock in on what to cover and what to save for later. We actually design follow-up emails a few days before we present, creating two versions: one for attendees and a slightly different version for those who registered but couldn’t make it—which brings me to my next point.

4. Don’t put too much (or too little) on the slides

Since a webinar is a lasting resource, the shelf life should continue for months (maybe years) after you present.

When someone watches live, you have control over the experience. When someone stumbles upon the recording later on, they can take in the info in different ways. Maybe they’ll finish the webinar in two sessions. Maybe they’ll skim. So it helps to develop a slide deck that provides enough context on its own.

This is Presenting 101, but don’t be the person who pastes paragraphs on a slide and reads every word verbatim.Conversely, don’t be the person who barely uses the slides either.

To strike that balance, I aim to put one complete sentence with a corresponding visual or diagram on a slide (excluding title/chapter markers). Think of it like a picture book for kids. Anyone can follow the narrative as is, and if they want to hear more on a certain slide, then they can tune in to the audio and do some research on their own.

This approach gets the best out of me as a presenter as well. I have enough info on the screen to guide what I’m going to say, but it protects me from being the professor standing in front of the lectern, reading off my notes, while the audience daydream.

5. Anticipate audience questions

When the U.S. government needs to conduct oppositional research, it forms a red team to identify weaknesses and offer more objective feedback. A webinar doesn’t need oppositional intel, but putting together your own red team could be a useful exercise before you go live.

Since the point of most webinars is to convey credibility and authority, you don’t want to get caught flat-footed. But odds are, you’re going to have blind spots once you lock in your points and start practicing what to say. That’s why we block off time a few days before each webinar for a practice run, stopping along the way to give feedback.

If you can, try to find someone who isn’t very familiar with the subject matter. They’ll bring a fresh perspective and show you what details could be explained clearer. Additionally, the red team may be able to predict questions that the audience will have. In that case, you can prepare thoughtful answers and supporting examples to make the Q&A as impactful as possible.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/379083428

This happened to me a few months ago during a webinar on 2020 content marketing trends. One slide displayed some data about content formats, but the research excluded podcasts. We identified that during the walkthrough, but didn’t think the slide needed to change. I spent a few minutes researching branded podcasts just in case.

Naturally, someone brought it up during the Q&A. I was armed with relevant information, and like the other tips above, ready to give the audience exactly what they were looking for.

That kind of preparation may not quite make you feel like the next Churchill. But you definitely won’t feel like a scared kindergartener either.

The post 5 Logistical Tips That’ll Help You Pull Off a Great Webinar appeared first on Contently.