Content Rules Everything Around Us these days.
As brands strive to strengthen their digital imprint, content has become essential to capturing—and holding—the attention of your target audience.
In the grand scheme of advertising, it’s a relatively new concept on the surface level. But the essential marketing principles being employed are age-old practices.
We’d like to demonstrate this through Biggie lyrics.
Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G., wasn’t just a gifted emcee—he was a smooth-talking, flirtatious fellow. He demonstrated as such by divulging his game plan for casual encounters in the second verse of “Big Poppa.”
And in five easy-to-remember steps, this same strategy tells us everything brands need to know about how to improve their content marketing.
Presenting: The Biggie Smalls Guide to Content Marketing.
We begin with Biggie dismissing the strategy of his peers: “Who they attractin’ with that line? / ‘What’s your name? What’s your sign?’” Biggie believes that these hooks for basic information don’t go deep enough—they don’t effectively engage the audience.
So he decides to “creep up from behind” and try his own series of questions, beginning, of course, with consumer interest.
“And ask you what your interests are”
An effectively simple icebreaker. To properly engage your audience, you must present something that interests them.
This is often an easier task for brands providing everyday necessities, such as food or clothing. For brands with more niche markets, however, it can be a challenge to relate your product on a wider scale.
Targeted media is an invaluable asset when it comes to finding out what your audience is into. It can also help with…
“Who you be with?”
The social identities of your audience members can be defined, in large part, by who they…be with.
Are they students? Seniors? Parents? DINCs? SINCs? What social circles do they interact with most? This can be a way to expand from simply targeting based on interests to targeting based on lifestyle.
Then, of course, there’s always the universal language.
“Things to make you smile”
Make ‘em laugh. Humor has been one of the key ingredients in advertising since its formal inception, and this method transcends all social barriers.
This strategy is especially effective in the digital age thanks to the phenomenon of viral marketing. And as any of you with a social media presence are well aware, nothing goes viral quite like funny business.
We’ve seen plenty of brands take a playful approach to their content, like Oreo, DirecTV, and KFC, all yielding positive traction for their campaigns.
“What numbers to dial”
You’ve broken through. You’ve made a connection. You’ve earned engagement through likes, favorites, shares, retweets, regrams, repins, and comments—and ultimately, hopefully, a follow.
But once you’ve made enough of an impression on your target audience to earn their attention, your work is not yet finished.
“You gon’ be here for a while?”
A lifelong fan. The ultimate goal.
In order to keep the fans you’ve already earned, you have to stay at the top of your game. You must constantly analyze your methodology used in steps 1-3 to see what works and what doesn’t, then let your best practices rise to the top.
Once you’ve done all these things, finally, you can go call your crew, they’ll go call their crew, and you can rendezvous at the bar around two. (Or, in other words, you can continue to provide your multitude of dedicated fans a steady stream of engaging content for your invaluable products or services.)
Represent (your brand), baby bay-bay.