When you’re selling something, regardless of what it is, your content marketing must be on point every time; if it isn’t, its shortcomings, and not your product, could become the audience’s focus.
And it all begins with copywriting and editing. Whether you’re producing and disseminating a tweet, video, brochure or blog, or anything else marketing-related, it all rests on the written word. This is why it’s always a great idea to get professionals (such as Flow’s writers and editors) to help you get your messaging spot on and effective.
Imagine a Nando’s advertisement that’s not funny. A waffling Facebook post. A bland thought leadership article. An incomprehensible infographic. An interminably long video. A blog full of spelling errors. A press release punting a product to media starved of ad revenue.
What do they all have in common?
Simple: their content isn’t up to snuff and they won’t achieve the desired effect – be it selling products or services, showcasing people and/or brands, growing customers, achieving media coverage (effectively a coveted third-party endorsement), engendering customer loyalty, standing out from the crowd or adding value to people’s lives.
Until the internet really took hold in the early 1990s, consumers were reached almost exclusively through advertising. But advertisers were interested only in sales, and not in connecting with their customers beyond the act of parting them and their money.
Online changed all that. Advertising in traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television) – an expensive undertaking – took a huge knock as brands realised they had digital marketing options at their disposal that were quicker, cheaper, more targeted and provided a much better return on investment. And they could do much of it themselves.
So content marketing, a term first coined in 1996, really came into its own.
One of the most important elements of content marketing – and what truly differentiates it from advertising – is that customers should feel better off for it; that somehow, value has been added to them. Whether they’ve learned, laughed, connected or been given something for free, they’re richer, smarter or stronger in some way.
It must be said that while the advent of the internet, and in particular social media, has led to a meteoric rise in content marketing and the influence it has on our lives, it is by no means a novel concept.
In fact, the famous American polymath and statesman Benjamin Franklin published and distributed Poor Richard’s Almanack between 1732 and 1758. Filled with useful information, puzzles and satirical humour, the almanac added value to his audience’s lives while simultaneously promoting his printing business. It was the very definition of content marketing.
It’s a truism that anyone with a smartphone is a publisher these days. Until the internet, social media and smart devices came along and democratised everything, the means of publication rested in the hands of a few.
But while it’s exciting that virtually every one of us can quickly and easily tell the world something, there’s no guarantee that what we publish is any good. No doubt all of us have waded through too much of other people’s nonsense, lamenting that life is too short, as we look for something worthy of our attention.
It’s worse when brands go DIY and can’t even get basic spelling and punctuation right, leave alone grasp communications and marketing concepts such as pitching, tone, audience and, of course, calls to action. When you’re selling something, regardless of what it is, your content marketing must be on point every time; if it isn’t, its shortcomings, and not your product, could become the audience’s focus.
And it all begins with copywriting and editing. Whether you’re producing and disseminating a tweet, video, brochure or blog, or anything else marketing-related, it all rests on the written word. This is why it’s always a great idea to get professionals (such as Flow’s writers and editors) to help you get your messaging spot on and effective.
Let’s put it this way: if you owned a racing car and wanted to win a championship, would you ask anyone with a licence to drive it – or would you get a Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen to do it?
To find out more about how we can help you with your content marketing needs, contact us on info@flowsa.com.