Today's digital era, where the online realm is flooded with content, has made breaking through the noise a leviathan undertaking (super-duper hard).
As businesses vie for the attention of their target audience, the quantity of content and the speed at which it is being released is only accelerating. A lot of it follows the same format, argues for the same things, and uses the same tactics. AND THE AUDIENCES ARE TIRED! While content consumers are not completely leaving the media realm, they are unprecedently refining and limiting their online presence, the content they consume, and the mediums they use. Gen Z, the largest group of purchase makers in the consumer space, is leaving major social media platforms in droves. They aren’t offline entirely, but they are niching down to using one platform at a time. Millennials, whose average age is between 28 to 43 years old, are not far behind. Previously favorite platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are losing their hold, and new platforms are having a harder time breaking through (looking at you, Threads). And older generations? Their skepticism about the media is no better, as the trust in their preferred methods of consumption – TV shows and social commentary programs – is at an all-time low.
And what are content creators doing to retain views? They are making their content shorter to capture any lingering attention they possibly can, no matter how fleeting. That doesn’t mean the content is better. It’s shorter because the volume of what’s out there, and the fact that most of it is a copy/ paste of something else, means content consumers are a lot less likely to sit through the whole of it. So, instead of tapping into engaging storytelling and fixing their content, many companies continue to increase their content volume and lean into absurdity hoping to become viral. Anything for the clicks.
Why not just slow down and make the content better? – More engaging, more palpable, more captivating. Well, that requires taking a moment to understand the psychology and framework of what makes great content, which goes against the current bulk of content creators who have lost patience for best practices choosing instead to compete in quantity over providing quality. It takes a little extra effort and time, which when invested properly have a monumentally scaling ROI for your content’s success.
Here's how you can reclaim your content’s success, and make content great again!
Understand “The Influence of Stories,” and how it plays out in your content.
Stories possess an unparalleled ability to captivate our minds and hearts, transcending barriers of time, culture, and language. From ancient folklore to contemporary blockbusters, narratives have shaped societies and fostered connections among individuals. In the content marketing arena, where brands compete for consumer attention, harnessing the power of storytelling is indispensable. Storytelling seems obvious, but when looking at the very basic components, most content currently produced out there, lacks it. Storytelling is a journey from A to Z with a few things happening in between. Your content narrative needs to have that. Ask yourself:
Where does your content story start?
What is the plot line of your content?
What is the conflict and how is it resolved? – also referred to as “the hook.”
Who is important to that plot and conflict?
Which of those characters can your content consumers relate to and why?
What’s the end goal of your content story?
What’s the end takeaway? – also known as the call to action (“CTA”).
Whether what you are producing is a blog post, a press release, a social media post, a reel, or any combination thereof, a story is the first part that captivates your audiences and has them say “Oh yeah, I vibe with that, let me engage.” Without having a story to tell, you have already lost an opportunity to resonate (or commiserate) with your target groups regarding whatever problem you (or your product) are solving for them.
Get emotional.
The kind of content that content consumers like to engage with is the kind of content that makes them feel something (did I say “content” enough times?). Creating emotional resonance with your target audiences diminishes the likelihood that they switch off from what you have to offer. This requires a little research into what motivates your customers to engage with you. Is it because they want to feel cool, or they are frustrated and trying to solve a problem, or they want to be part of a super-duper exclusive club, or is it FOMO, or something else? Tapping into the right emotion is what converts your audiences from a passive eyeball to an engaged community member – a customer if you will.
Learn from others, but don’t copy content.
The chances that you are a one-of-a-kind business are slim. And while the value you deliver might be packaged differently than that other business, from an eagle’s eye view, you’re not that different from the other guy. This works in your favor because the other guy, who came before you, has already done a lot of work, and if you do some content digging, you can see from their asset library what works with your target groups and what doesn’t. Look at what content gets the most traction, and the best engagement, look at the format, the style, and the “vibe.” Those are all great insights that you can tap into for your work. However, absolutely do not copy their topics, messages, and way of doing things. Use their insights to build out your content library. By doing that, you implement what works to amplify your authentic voice, without which your content consumers won’t stick around. As mentioned above, the droves of nearly identical content are turning people off and away – which is not something you want for yourself – so stay original, and authentic.
Magnetize and amplify your content by pollinating other channels.
The thing about great content is that it is dynamic and can be repurposed in different formats to grow momentum across multiple channels. A great blog post can be turned into a reel, a long-form view, a few infographics, a story, a click-funnel and so much more. By growing engagement across different formats, you can captivate slightly different audience groups (the millennials holding on for dear life to Instagram, the boomers still lingering on Facebook, Gen Z vibing on TikTok, for example). This way you can have a uniform content strategy with consistent messaging that delineates only in format and maybe a slight CTA. That requires a lot less effort than trying to plan for everything separately. Moreover, this momentum can help propel your other content pieces to more viewers, as today's algorithms give more credence and engagement to original content that is also in a systematically truncated series.
To conclude, no matter the format of content you put out into the world, you need to think through the kind of value it is adding to the space, and how it is connecting to the right audiences in a way that’s backed by the eons-old storytelling experience and the psychology of how people digest content. Only then can you create consistently compelling and dynamic content that delivers you the right kind of exposure and conversion.
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