- Contest Factory
- April 12, 2022
This single focus fuels almost every single piece of marketing you do. Copywriting is one of the most complicated and most compensated jobs in the industry due to just how powerful words are. Words matter and advertising works. Add in that a picture is worth a thousand words and we have storytelling at its best. Welcome to content marketing in 2022.
Copywriting testing can yield wildly significant results – remember when testing your copywriting that all other variables must remain consistent. You must use the same image, same color graphics, same font type and only different words; results may vary into the thousand percent range that one set of copy earns over another. Go ahead and start counting the profits of ensuring you are always using the BEST copy. You must always be testing and learning in an iterative process to keep copy fresh and your audience engaged.
Now since we are referencing content marketing, it is much more than just copy — this in fact is your storytelling tools, including imagery. So just as you would isolate copy as a variable in your ads, you will also isolate your imagery in one set once you found your best copy to see which imagery resonates best. And continue further with your color scheme once you have identified the right image and copy.
One of the greatest parts of content production in 2022 is the methodical approach to research, construction, and development of the copy, assets, imagery, and theme. Each piece of content can typically be repurposed into many relevant and interesting content pieces that resonate through different mediums to different audiences. Also, consider that the content will be marketed on different platforms that may have different tones.
Your most foundational piece of content will be a blog based on research; people love factoids and information that is unknown. Wrap your brand around that and share information that will surprise and endear your audience. Do this in an authentic style with a brand personality that is positive and provides value and you may find yourself with a fan club. Now consider this blog can be turned into any and all of these additional content elements and you find your economies of scale in content production. However remember, anything worth doing is absolutely worth doing the best you can – do not skimp on design or repurposing… these are your fans after all.
Video / Commercial / YouTube
One of the most important items when shooting video is to get your primary and secondary footage. The secondary footage is called B-Roll and used often in transitions, backgrounds, and used as context for part of your storytelling. Keeping a well-stocked library of B-Roll will make your video production so much easier.
Slideshow
One of the easiest types of content repurposing for storytelling is a slide show; simply shorten your copy or story and add an image per slide and voila, you have a new type of content that requires engagement to consume the slides. The user must select next on each slide, and this ever so slight engagement makes them more endeared to the brand than no engagement. And as we all know, engagement leads to conversions.
Infographic
An infographic is genius at its core. Men prefer to consume images and women prefer to consume words or read content. Now combine both the words and imagery into one content format and you are appealing to 100% of your audience.
FAQs
This is the perfect place to brag a little. Pose your question with a tilt towards the value proposition you offer, and your FAQs may well become sharable brags that folks find interesting enough to repeat and share. There’s a famous mattress retailer that did this in a television commercial quoting how much skin debris settles into your mattress over 10 years – you can bet this drove quite a bit of sales from the phobic.
Top 10 List
Everyone loves a Top 10 list and these are often viral. Top 10 Marketing Tips, Top 10 Skin Care Tips, Top 10 Dog Training Tools, Top 10 Restaurants, etc. Be sure your list always compliments your product or service.
Crossword Puzzle
Another extremely engaging marketing tactic is to provide a crossword puzzle with hints all relevant to your brand. Consider someone focused on your brand for over an hour. You may combine this with another tactic and turn it into a contest and provide for uber engagement and attention.
Must-have E-book
Create longer form content, add images, calls to action, QR codes and more to provide a meaningful piece of content that may be downloaded in exchange for contact information; add that directly into your CRM and start dripping your way to conversions.
Quiz
Another powerful engagement tool that puts your customer in the right spot to soak up information while they imprint your brand in their mind. Offer points, rewards, or leaderboard to your quiz and you’ll see how the impact of gamification can play with your customers, engagement, conversion, and loyalty.
Quotes
Another simple and understated way to elevate your brand by aligning with famous industry leaders and their words. From Maya Angelou to Henry Ford, there are plenty of colloquial references you may find that will ignite thoughts in your customers of virtues your brand represents.
Press Release
EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: Newsworthy and ready with a press release; this content has so many legs it’s uncanny. You can send this over the wire, tweet it to your favorite journalists, post on your website, and share via email with your client database.
Meme
Humor has a way – and memes are the new-fandangled way to humor and entertain by pairing images with short humorous copy. The more clever you are, the more likely this meme will be shared.
Each of these asset types has a purpose and should be considered when you decide where you will post these items. Not all platforms serve all content, so some of this will fall into place without expertise; though you should test and track all postings for your reach, impressions, engagement, and conversion. After all, we’re here to do business.
Consider a strategy that uses all forms so you may maximize your learning opportunity to understand what resonates with your audience. You should now be set with some foundational pieces to start your branded storytelling journey. Happy Creating!
