As a marketeer, you want to tell a story. A story that touches, inspires and moves people - that's what storytelling is all about. You bring this story to life with content, the essential building stones of your story. The right content, cleverly deployed through various channels and in the most effective form, to share your message with your audiences. High-quality content connects your brand story to the needs and desires of your target audiences. But then, what is 'good content'? And perhaps more importantly, where do you start? We will walk you through our approach.
Content Building Stones
At gr8, we strongly believe in the power of storytelling 'through' content. Content building stones are the elements we use to get your story out into the open. Whether it's catchy blogs, engaging videos or inspiring social media posts, we use different channels and formats to strategically share your message with the right audiences.
It always starts with an objective
Simply creating content is like a scattergun approach - it lacks direction and purpose. It is essential to know why you are creating something and what results you want to achieve. Great content serves your specific goals: measurable goals that contribute to your marketing results. Whether it's about generating more leads, increasing brand awareness, or obtaining thought leadership - together we examine what the most important objectives are for your organisation. Once you know what and why you want to create specific content, we shift the focus to whom you want to reach.
Audiences: segmentation & being relevant
Previously, we wrote a blog about Audience Thinking. In it, we explained how important it is to think from the perspective of your audiences, but most importantly: how to handle it properly. While many organisations create content from their own perspective, we switch it around. What do your audiences really want to hear? You can say as much as you like, but if your target audience is not interested, you will never get any results. We ensure that your content is carefully tailored to your target group by means of segmentation. Here, we not only consider basic characteristics such as age, gender, location and disposable income, but also lifestyle and mindset.
Every audience has their own unique needs - and what appeals to one may be completely different from what interests another. That is why we identify these different needs for you, so that your message best matches the specific interests and expectations of your audiences. This allows you to effectively and purposefully reach the right people with your story. You can only be relevant if you know what your audience likes to see. By being relevant and offering genuine added value, we increase your audience's involvement and trust, which ultimately leads to a stronger connection with your brand or organisation.
As Brian Carroll aptly puts it, "instead of trying to sound interesting to others, be interested in them".
We help you focus on your target groups by means of an audience analysis, using, among others, Motivaction's Mentality model. A unique segmentation tool that allows you to define and better understand your audience. We examine what really interests them and where they connect with your brand.
Customer journey, in which of the stages is your audience?
You also want to know what your audience is looking for and how they want to be assisted. This is essential for a good customer experience. A good starting point for this is to look at the 'customer journey' your audience goes through. To avoid being drowned in the content overload of all the other providers, you want to be present at the right time with the right content. We divide the customer journey into different phases with corresponding customer needs, allowing you to create content that is relevant to the audience at that specific moment in their journey.
To do this, we look at the search behaviour of your audience, and keywords play an important role in this. We do extensive research to find out what they are looking for and what information they would like to find. Based on these insights, we can tailor your content to their interests and needs.
We present these insights conveniently in a content canvas, in which we include themes, topics, formats and type of your content. Here we also add the content needs. For instance, do they want to be entertained? Motivated? Or purely informed? What will help them? And therefore what do they desire from you and your content? We make sure you know exactly what each content element needs to do.
Match with your DNA
You obviously want your content to match your own corporate DNA, tone of voice and 'domain' - it should match your business to talk about it. And only then will you come across authentic as an organisation. In doing so, it is important that customers get to know you. Who are the faces behind the company? What is your story? Our approach focuses on developing content that fits you and your organisation perfectly. So that it reflects who you are and what you stand for. This way, we build a strong connection between your brand and audience.
Need to sharpen or rebrand your current brand positioning? In a workshop, we make clear choices for your brand positioning. We determine the thought leadership and matching archetype of your brand and go through the steps of the brand key model. We also define the why, how and what of your brand.
Stay away from 'dime a dozen' content
It is also important that your content is distinctive enough from what has already been written. Not 'more of the same', but an extra insight or cool example from your own practice. Do you offer more breadth or depth than others? Do you have your own cases, examples or data? What is the added value of this content compared to existing content or content that others can easily generate?
We know how to tell your story in an original and captivating way. Storytelling is and remains a powerful way of touching people and holding their attention. By choosing an original angle, we know how to engage and captivate your audience. We go for unique content that adds value and communicates your story in a catchy and surprising way.
Measure, analyse & optimise
We want to make sure that your content actually has the desired effect with your audiences. By measuring accurately, we analyse the performance of your content and make sure you get a clear picture of what works and what does not. Based on these insights, we can optimise and improve if necessary. We show you what can be done differently or better and give you the right tools to do so. This way, together we get the maximum return from your content and achieve your goals.