The internet has forever transformed how we access facts and process information. Yet many marketers still produce content based on the assumption that there is value in merely curating information and facts. Sorry, but if content is to succeed today, it has to be a lot more than just ‘factual’.
If there is one argument I love to have, it’s debating the concept of professional language. Too often, it describes flawed attempts to emulate an academic thesis or a Victorian bank manager. You know the sort of stuff—a white paper, official email or corporate website where the language is so dense, formal and archaic that your brain melts from the sheer dullness of it all.
When I went freelance in 2012, the question arose of what I should call myself. Over the years, I’d become known (and employed) as a copywriter, social media manager, blogger, journalist, digital marketer, SEO writer, event speaker, workshop trainer and communications manager. Popping just one of those titles on my business card or LinkedIn profile could seriously limit how people viewed my abilities.
The title I eventually chose was ‘Storyteller’. At some level, storytelling was the common thread that linked my various skills and inspired my approach. Unfortunately, ‘storytelling’ went on to become one of those horrible marketing buzzwords. By 2014, digital storytelling was definitely a thing; which, because Gartner’s hype cycle is also definitely a thing, led to the inevitable trough of disillusionment and backlash in 2015.
We’re drowning in a flood of content. Whatever your interest, there is enough content published every day and vying for your attention that you could never hope to discover it all—let alone consume it. Yet most content marketing struggles to stand out and attract an audience because it often lacks a unique or effective angle. When planning your content, the goal should always be to produce content not found anywhere else. Otherwise, what’s the point? If a hundred other brands or content hubs got there before you, how is your generic and derivative listicle going to cut through the noise?
The internet loves quotations. Social media definitely loves quotations. These days, it seems all you have to do to achieve viral gold is slap an inspirational quote onto a sunset and then spam it to every network. But while the right quote, correctly attributed, can lend authority and gravitas to your content, an inaccurate or dodgy quote can just as easily undermine it.
Just because you’re telling stories on behalf of a brand doesn’t mean the rules are any different than if you were telling fairy tales to young children. There may be more complex ideas and a little less fantasy, but for any story to work, it must still adhere to certain principles. While they might seem arbitrary, these principles are central to how good stories tap into our natural thought processes, sparking imagination, conveying meaning and resonating long after the final line.