By Bob Wheatley
Twitter: @BobWheatley
One of the greatest marketing evolutions in the Internet era: brands have acquired the ability to be content creators - publishers, producers of their own media. This fits perfectly with the other important strategic upheaval - brands can no longer simply attempt to exert "control" over consumer behavior by pushing messages at consumers.
As I write this, many brands still believe this will work.
The brand/consumer relationship is tougher to build now and demands a more unselfish form of engagement. It requires singular devotion to understanding and mining relevance to the consumer's lifestyle interests and passions.
Brands that matter to their users can earn permission for a relationship by connecting tangibly, emotionally to activities and interests their consumer already cares about.
So doesn't it stand to reason that working hard to become a source of valuable, interesting, engaging and entertaining information about these lifestyle passions could be important? For a fashion or jewelry brand it's the opportunity to tap into that creative self-expression that is at the core of what drives a fashion-focused person. For the food brand it might be enabling the culinary creativity, learning and emotional payoff going on everyday in the kitchen (experimenting with new dishes, tastes and techniques).
In virtually every category insight research can help you unearth this unique emotional grist that drives the personal interests of your most devoted fans and followers. And from there is an enormously powerful opportunity to cement that relationship by casting the brand as an enabler and provider of stories and content that offers intrinsic value - How? Information, ideas and experiences that help the consumer enjoy, do what they do better and connect with others that share their interests.
Trust is the key to engagement...
But the word trust looms large in this. How does a brand successfully establish itself as a trusted and valued source? Here are five ways a brand can develop a respected and sought-after channel of rich-content media:
1. The value of respected outside voices. In the news business, outside quote-able sources are employed to validate assertions made in a news story. Similarly, outside experts, influencers and knowledge-brokers can bring their own credibility and cachet to the story telling in brand-owned media. Bring in the experts as contributors and steer clear of putting them in a compromised position of directly selling your product.
2. The type, tone and tenor of the content matters. Your media mission is to be helpful, useful. Think like a magazine editor or TV producer working to build exciting, interesting stories that add value to the reader's lifestyle. Operate like a traditional media organization focused on reader and viewer benefit. Take a reportorial approach to the content. If the communication comes off like reporting and informing rather than persuading, you'll earn the attention of your best followers.
3. Identify the storytellers. Create an editorial board of editors and contributors. If you identify and position the writers and producers, you humanize the entire interaction for your audience. You also create an environment for trust to take root because the contributors are identified and thus "real people" are engaged in the communication.
4. Transparency. How do real friends speak with each other? Honest, straightforward, real, open communication is fundamental between true friends. Treat your audience with the same respect. When issues and complaints arise, don't hide or spin. Be matter-of-fact. Admit mistakes - probably the hardest thing to do, but also the most refreshing and endearing behavior you can show. Nobody's perfect. No one expects your organization or brand to be perfect.
5. Be entertaining. You can't bore your customer's into loving you and coming back for more. Valuable, useful information is a prerequisite. How that information is served up can vary from tedious to fun and interesting. Make them laugh and make them cry. Video may be the most powerful medium available and offers the magic of words, picture, sound, music, personalities and color. It's a bite-size world we live in now so keep it short. But most of all keep it entertaining. Mainstream media is working overtime to achieve this and so should you.
What's the end game? Once a respected source, you have an open channel of communication that's direct. And you've got their attention - which is a long way from the good old days of beating people over the head with repetition and self-serving messages you hope and pray will break through the noise. Ten years ago brands could only dream of creating such a conversation. Now it's possible.
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