For centuries, human beings have connected with one another through content writing. A well-constructed narrative enables the articulation of complex concepts that may otherwise be misconstrued, misunderstood, or simply ignored.
Take for example the ancient texts at the heart of a complex belief systems such as Christianity, Buddhism or Judaism. The content written in these tomes makes extensive use of parables and fables to establish and maintain the behavioural expectations of the faithful.
They elicit emotional reactions in the reader that transcend socio political status, gender and age group and create bonds between large numbers of practitioners that can, and do, extend across millennia.
Without these texts at their core it could be argued that there would be no continuity of messaging and therefore the ability to maintain an organised set of behaviours within these large groups would not be possible.
Such is the power of content writing to establish a brand.
“Wait a minute” I hear you say, “what do you mean brand? We were just talking about religion that has nothing to do with branding.”
Actually, it does.
We often talk about brand in terms of logotypes fonts and colours but this is actually confusing a brand’s style with the thing that is at its heart – The Brand’s Promise.
So what is a brand’s promise and why is it important?
A brand’s promise is the thing or things that inspire an emotional connection between an individual and an entity whether that be practitioners and their religion, supporters and their team, or purchasers and a product.
Big brands spend millions understanding their target audience and the things that are important to them. They go to great lengths to create descriptions of their ideal customers and then set about building a laser focussed messaging framework designed to resonate specifically with them.
Taking a look at communications from some of the world’s best defined brands it is clear to see who their target personas are simply by examining their content they create to promote themselves and their products.
Apple
This video, in Apple’s own words talks about “Greatness behind the Mac”
It leverages the personal brands of celebrities and influencers that Apple know will resonate with their target audience. It then ties in almost subliminal Apple product placement to those personalities and in doing so it positions those products as the unifying element that lead “Making it”
If you reverse engineer it, it is not difficult to see that every word of content written for this video is articulating the Apple Brand Promise that desire, drive and commitment plus Apple equals success.
The target persona? Intelligent young people who are creative, rebellious, and highly aspirational.
Menu Log
In this video Menu Log, like Apple, have tied a killer personal brand with their own to articulate their brand positioning. That “There is nothing more Pimpin’ than ordering from Menu Log.”
Target Persona? This one is a little trickier to divine.
You must consider the audience that a personality like Snoop Dogg would resonate with. You also need to think about the individuals for whom using a premium service like menu log is a low involvement decision.
Picture the following scenario and you have your answer.
Kids: “Mum what’s for dinner?”
Mum: “It’s dad’s turn to cook”
Dad: in a thought bubble “Get delivery like a G … See”
The persona in this case would appear to be Men aged 35 to 50 with kids who are earning a decent income and are low on cooking skills.
So what does Snoop Dogg have to do with writing content for my clients?
Of course, not every organisation has a budget like Apple or Menu Log but that does not mean you can’t write killer content for them.
Talk to your client and their customer facing staff, find out who the people are that are responsible for purchasing decisions related to their products and services. In many cases there will be multiple customer archetypes to deal with and each of them will have a different set of purchasing triggers.
To successfully address your client’s customers, you must develop a positioning statement and content for each persona with whom they wish to engage.
As an example:
Acme Door Widgets is a company that manufactures door hardware. Two key purchasing decision makers that they need to influence will be Interior Designers and Carpenters.
For the client to secure an order for their door handles you will need to create a positioning statement that reflects the concerns of each of these individuals and then write content that will substantiate both of those positions.
For the interior designer it is important that every element of every room is tied together from a visual perspective. They need to feel that door handle supplier they choose will give them a range that will enable them to reflect their vision in every room in the building.
For them the positioning statement might be
Acme Door Widgets, Providing Interior Designers with a range of door handles that will never fail to perfectly offset their vision.
In this instance it is important that the content you write reflects the way that that Acme Door Handles’ range of styles, finishes and colours can be combined to create a limitless set of combinations to deliver on any aesthetic choice the designer makes.
On the other hand, the Carpenter has to fit 250 door handles to complete his part of the project. He may have an opinion about the look and feel but his key concerns are likely to be related to ease of installation, quality of fitment and product longevity.
Our carpenter hates it when the fitment of handles is inconsistent, and he has to modify his fitting process to accommodate this. He also worries that a door handle may randomly fail due to a manufacturing fault causing him to have to return to the job and replace the offending component.
For him, your client’s positioning might be something like:
Acme Door Widgets, Providing Carpenters with door hardware solutions that perfectly fit first time and last a lifetime
For the Carpenter Persona, the content written should speak to the rigorous quality control that Acme Door Widgets apply to the assembly of their door handle kits and the product testing they do to ensure that their door handles continue to open and close for decades to come.
Why should I go to all that trouble for the sake of a few blogs and social posts?
Whilst it may seem a lot of work to define and establish your customer’s buyer personas before writing a single word of content you will find that it pays significant dividends in the long term.
These dividends include but are not limited to:
- The ability to create a content delivery roadmap means that your content team will never have to wonder what they should say in the next blog or social post.
- Fewer issues around tone and subject matter mean production delays due to client pushback and the need to rewrite content become a thing of the past.
- Communications that resonate with your client’s ideal customers will deliver better results than ad hoc posts that may completely miss the mark.
At the end of the day, a client who is happy with the results your content writing efforts generate is far more likely to stay than one who is not. Everything you can do to ensure that client retention is money in the bank for you and your agency.
If you need help creating quality, targeted content for your clients then Agency Stack has your back.
Our team of content creators are capable, on deck and ready to roll with messaging that is guaranteed to resonate with the key decision makers in their target markets.
Contact us now for an obligation free content consultation.