Content marketing works very well for small and medium size business.
Content creation can be a huge win for marketing and selling, if it's really useful and relevant to prospective customers and it causes some kind of action from them. Here’s a video about some of how I think about it. You could call it my "creative brief format”.
(Video Transcript)
First, for the vast majority of small and medium sized business marketers and creatives, who probably don’t have an unlimited budget when it comes to a content creation strategy, I say...
Don’t avoid the obvious.
What’s the obvious?
That first serious communication course you took in college said…
Know your audience.
That’s obvious…. Right?
And yet, we've all seen marketing and advertising efforts that seem targeted at “us” and yet you wonder why the agency produced that, or the client approved it?
Currently in the area I live, there is a rather large local campaign that is sort of notorious and very, very, well known. They have paid for lots of local advertising and consequently they have really good brand awareness.
But I might never use their service because to me, their "creative”, makes their rather important service look juvenile and stupid. Why would I want juvenile and stupid service?
Now… I’m sure the folks doing their creative would argue otherwise, but for me, the creative just doesn’t work. Anyway, here’s the creative strategy outline I created and have used for years.
It’s “the obvious”.
It’s who, what, and why, with some detail.
Specifically, Who…
Who is the audience? What is their demographic information? What is their attitude. What are their pre-conceived notions. What's their “psychographic?” Do we know why they have this attitude? What are the relevant issues?
And then What…
What is the message? What are we trying to communicate and “say” to this audience? What’s the communications goal? What do we want to be different after the audience gets this message?
And here's a little bit of a different different kind of “what.”
What is the scope of work? What is the budget? How does budget relate to what is possible. And what is the role of this creative in the larger campaign, or brand?
It’s important to include scope of work and budget because the resources you have relate directly to the range of “creative” solutions you can afford to propose and produce.
Often, if budget is tight, simplicity and clarity-of-thought win over more creative or subtle approaches. Come to think of it….
Simplicity and clarity win most of the time.
So, get really clear on who you are talking to and what you want to say. Then, choose a creative approach or technique, and test it with “the whys.”
Why do we think this approach will be successful?
We must have, at least, good plausible answers to the following questions:
Why do we believe the approach we are using will work, for THIS SPECIFIC audience, given their attitude about the subject? How and why will our choice of media work? Why will this message be effective? Why will this design or creative approach "work" given the audience, media, and their attitude?
And how can we be most effective with this budget?
Success depends on clear messages delivered using creative techniques specifically chosen to enhance the message.
And here’s a final point I’ve added…that sincs with the web and inbound marketing:
What are our measures of success?
Online… the process of attracting, converting, closing, and delighting customers is far more measurable than traditional advertising has ever been.
Specific goals and measures matter.
So that’s “the obvious.”
If you have a good creative content strategy, your chances of producing really effective marketing are way above average.
In fact, they are probably ensured.
So don’t avoid the obvious. Embrace it….
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For more information on video and creating remarkable content check out these posts:
