Society-Happens-Here Content Marketing – Thanksgiving Food for Thought

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The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a new paradox at the heart of society. Rapid innovation offers the promise of a new era of prosperity, yet most institutions, including government and the media, are not trusted to introduce these new innovations to society, and so people are looking to business leaders for guidance. That means business owners are expected to comment, not only on their own products and services, but on societal changes that affect their industry or profession…

At Say It For You, our content writers know readers are trusting our business owner and professional practitioner clients to help them with more than good products and skilled services. In addition to information, searchers need help making sense of all the changes happening in their neighborhoods and in their world.

“When customers provide more data, they expect better experiences,” salesforce.com cautions, so marketers need to create experiences that are:

  1. connected
  2. personalized
  3. immersive

What I’ve learned over the years of creating blog content for dozens and dozens of clients in different industries and professions is that, in order to “turn readers on”, we must incorporate one important ingredient – opinion. Taking a stance, I’ve found, is what gives content its “zip”. We must be influencers, I advise clients and blog content writers alike. Whether it’s business-to-business or business-to-consumer writing, the content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.
We need to be coming from a place of “who we are” as much as from a place of “what we offer”.

A content marketing alert: This Thanksgiving, an important part of our “food for thought” menu needs to be Society-happens-here content marketing.

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Convey the Concept through a Warm Human Storyteller

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Lately, brands increasingly prioritize people as the voice of their value, Robert Rose writes in “Trust the Story, or the Storyteller?‘

“Storytelling is a powerful marketing tool that can be used to connect with customers on an emotional level, build trust and credibility, and ultimately drive sales,” Oxford Academic agrees, naming three reasons stories are so important a part of content marketing:

  1. Stories evoke emotions – empathy, joy, sadness, anger.
  2. Stories offer a glimpse into your values and beliefs.
  3. Storytelling gives your brand a unique personality. There are many different types of stories that can be used to connect with customers, the authors point out, including brand stories, customer experience stories, employee experience stories, customer testimonial stories, and case studies.  No matter the type of story, the point is to use vivid language to help readers visualize the event or happening.While it’s true that stories help us remember, that’s not good enough, Joe Lazuskas explains – they have to make us care.  Your stories need to talk about why you come to work every day, and about what you believe the future of your industry ought to look like. Two particularly important elements of a story are:
    a)Relatability – you’re telling the story of a person similar to the target reader.  b) Fluency – Realistically, Lazuskas reminds us, most U.S. adults can’t read at even a high school level; we need to keep a low barrier to entry between the audience and the story level.

    As a content marketer at Say It For You, I can never forget an article I read years ago about an experiment performed at Stanford University.  Students were each asked to give one-minute speeches containing three statistics and one story.  Later, students were asked to recall the highlights in each other’s talk.  Only five percent of the listeners remembered a single statistic, while 63% were able to remember the story line.

To convey marketing concepts, use a warm, human storyteller!

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Tell Them How You Ship the Diamonds

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In Tuesday’s blog post I used the “Hear your happy holidays” headline of an AudioNova ad in the Indianapolis Star to illustrate the importance of results-driven marketing, suggesting that content marketers need to focus on results of using the product or service rather than on its features…

There’s more to it than that, however. As Seth Godin points out in his book This Is Marketing, as content marketers we need to differentiate the path our business owner or practitioner clients choose to take in helping their customers achieve those results. Diamonds, for example, can be transported in an armored car or put in a package and sent by mail. What is more likely to be valued by your customer – speed of delivery or safety? Dedicate effort to empathize with your audience, comprehend their obstacles, and reflect on how your offerings can assist them in reaching their objectives, Godin urges content creators.

“To put it as succinctly as possible, a key differentiator is a brand’s distinct and unique value that sets itself apart from its competitors within the market,” brandmasteracademy.com explains. Also known as the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) the differentiator answers the question: “Why should I choose this brand over its competitors?”

Interestingly, as Elizabeth Harr and Lee Frederiksen, PH.D point out in hingemarketing.com, many so-called differentiators make a company sound more like their competitors! To be effective, the authors explain, a differentiator must meet three criteria:

  • It must be true.
  • It must be relevant to potential clients.
  • It must be provable.

In Get Different: Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored, Mike Michalowicz remarks that, to customers, “better” might not actually be better. Different is better.The author tells business owners to discover their best “est” – Are you the oddest? Hokiest? Sharpest? Fastest? Safest?

In all your content marketing, tell them just how AudioNova will help them hear the holidays. What about your diamonds? Will you be shipping them via the U.S. Postal Service or using armored cars?

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Hearing-Your-Happy Results-Driven Content

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As I worked my way through the news stories in my Indianapolis Star newspaper (yes, I still enjoy the print version), my eye was caught by an AudioNova hearing aid ad on page 6. The headline read: “Hear your happy holidays”.

At Say It For You, we understand that the focus in both the headline and the body of content written to market a product or service needs to be on the results of using the product or service rather than on its features. While online visitors may lack experience with the latest processes or the technology in your field of expertise, they know what their own needs are. The creators of the AudioNova ad know exactly what their buyers want – they want to hear! What outcomes are going to mean the most to members of your target audience? Lead with those.

“The psychology of advertising focuses on building empathy towards a product or service to help you become more inclined to buy or use it,” Psych Central explains. “Think of amusement park commercials that show people having fun, riding roller coasters, and enjoying an activity-filled day. This creates excitement around the park and lets you believe that you can recreate this excitement if you visit.” As shown in the AudioNova ad, the concept is to have prospects envision themselves enjoying the results a purchase might bring to them.

Ad executive David Ogilvy said that, on the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar, he would say. In other words, to create a successful piece, spend 80% of your time nailing the headline. storychief.io agrees: “Direct headlines clearly state the purpose of the ad or key offer upfront. They summarize the core benefit or product in a concise, often single-sentence headline and ought to be:

  • attention-stealing
  • informative
  • relevant to the target audience.

Of course, it’s not only the headline of a content marketing piece that must be relevant; the content of the article or post itself must deliver on its purpose, Story Chief stresses, “going to the heart of the reader’s problem – their confusion, their doubt, their ambition…” What content creation is all about is “handing readers tools with which to reach their goals.”

Results-driven content helps readers “hear their happy”!

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Tell the Story Behind the Product and the Purpose

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In “So that’s why we do that!”, Karina Ebert tells where many common habits and inventions come from. The “10,000 steps” a day health benchmark, for example, was a catchy marketing move by manufacturer Yamasa, “since the Japanese character for 10,000 looks a lot like a person walking”. Credit for festive birthday candles likely goes to the ancient Greeks, Ebert tells readers, who purportedly made cakes in the shape of the moon to honor Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt, with the candles providing “moonglow”. Escape-release latches inside car trunks, mandatory since 2001, came about after armed kidnappers forced a couple into the trunk of their car in 1995.

“The story of how your company came to manufacture or sell a specific product can be helpful to a prospective buyer,” magoda.com says in advising about press releases. By sharing an original story highlighting how a product or practice evolved, the authors explain, “you can effectively link your brand with a solution while delivering details and insight to an interested audience.” While the spotlight is on the product, they caution, the content needs to explain why your company is important in the process of delivering the product to the user.

.History-of-our-company background stories have a humanizing effect, we know at Say It For You, engaging readers and creating feelings of empathy and admiration for the business owners or professional practitioners who overcame adversity. At the same time, the stories call attention to modern solutions (in terms of both product improvements and customer service practices that grew out of those past experiences).

It’s worth repeating – people relate to stories about people more than to facts and statistics, and particularly more than to sales pitches. In representing our business owners and practitioners, we need to tape this mantra to our computer screens: Let the history of your industry and the history of your own business do the selling.

Keep telling the story behind the products and the purposes for which they’re used!

 

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