3 Ways to Breathe New Life into Your Content Creation

Are you using the “rinse-and-repeat” approach when it comes to content marketing? While we do believe in leveraging evergreen content, never underestimate the importance of also coming up with fresh content too. Many businesses trying to market themselves end up looking through previous work for inspiration, but be careful. Too much of the rinse-and-repeat approach makes your brand feel predictable.

If you want to stand out against the most competitive brands, you need to pluck up the courage to look for fresh ideas. We know it can be difficult so here are three surefire ways you can use to approach content creation from a different angle; one that’s sure to pay off!

Capitalize on Trending News Stories

The news is a great way to discover events or innovations that could affect your target market. Think of every trending news story as a possible chance to connect your content to a big-picture story that will boost your marketing efforts.

Remember back when Brad and Angelina broke up? Although this was sad news for fans, it brought about one of our favourite newsjacking examples. Norwegian airlines jumped at the chance to advertise flights to Brad Pitt’s hometown of Los Angeles with the headline, “Brad is Single: Flights to LA starting from $169.”

Genius! Norwegian airlines received positive feedback from the vast majority of people who saw it, and the company was able to connect with their target audience by mirroring the conversations people were having at that time. It’s marketing genius that any business owner can capitalize on.

Don’t be Afraid of Controversial Content

When your marketing efforts use polarizing ideas, audiences are more encouraged to click, read, and share what you’re saying because they have an opinion and they want the rest of the world to hear it.

Just keep in mind that this strategy will only work if you link the content back to your brand and your product or service. Here are two great ways to use controversial content to your marketing advantage:

Controversial content that disproves an assumption usually forces audiences to rethink a common belief. One of the best examples in 2019 was Gillette’s #MeToo ad for razors ad on ‘toxic masculinity.’ The commercial, titled We Believe: the Best Men Can Be, immediately went viral and in only 48 hours it had well over 4 million views on YouTube, generating both praise and also a lot of criticism. All that controversy helped it to go viral and people are still talking about it today.

Mark Borkowski, a PR expert praised the commercial stating that in today’s world customers want brands to do more than just sell a product; they want the brand to stand for something.

Another great way to use controversial content to your advantage is to make a taboo subject more approachable. Dove soap is a shining example of trying to make the taboo subject about body image more approachable. The Campaign For Real Beauty is one of the most widely discussed marketing success stories. In fact, the 2006 video “Evolution,” went viral before “viral” was even a thing.

Rework Complex Ideas

One of the best ways to build your brand is to establish yourself as an expert within your industry. However, that doesn’t mean spewing lengthy content and explaining every last detail of something. Trust us; you’ll only lose your audience’s attention. Instead, the best way to establish yourself as an expert is to rework complex ideas for your audience so they can understand them easily.

A great example comes from Ikea. Ikea is an expert in small space storage and to help explain the complex idea of how to maximize space in even the smallest of rooms, IKEA created an ad banner about their smallest IKEA store: a 10.5 X 8.8 cm virtual store. Even though the ‘store’ was so tiny, it still featured a visual representation of ALL their merchandise and users could actually browse by department, select an item, and click to purchase it. Not only did the ad engage their audience by being interactive but it fully embodied their brand and highlighted their space-saving expertise.

The bottom line is that content needs to be engaging if it’s going to support your marketing efforts. In today’s digital world, consumers are only interested in content that addresses their immediate needs.

It’s important to leverage these techniques and think outside the box. If that sounds time-consuming… well it is! But, here at Barker Social, we have a team dedicated to coming up with engaging, fresh content creation for your business. We offer a FREE consultation, so let’s talk.