Content is just storytelling .. don’t be scared of it

If you read anything about marketing now, it’s all about the content (this post is no different). Maybe 18 months ago it was all about Social Media. The big ‘buzz process’ before that was web 2.0. Who remembers that now?

But what exactly is Content?

Content really is an extension of storytelling which brands, in both B2B and B2C, have been doing for a number of years. For me what content allows you to do (or describes) is having a mechanism to tell your story in different ways and / or to get your story out there in new and innovative ways.

What the label ‘content’ has given is more legitimacy to story activity (case study development) with the need to provide more content in the digital space. This allows marketers the opportunity to prove return on investment (ROI) to other parts of the business.

Companies (or specifically marketing departments) used to produce endless case study packs, sitting in a store cupboard that never got used; now more focused delivery of content, including via marketing automation, allows customers to define what type of content or information or stories of success (see below) they want to get from companies.

Content is just stories?

What’s great about storytelling is that having an interest in stories is basic human nature. Stories make life interesting and give people a way to connect. It’s how we have been taught to remember things for a very long time (think any religion), so it’s a great way to get prospective customers to remember you.

Some of the best stories come from heritage and what you can say about the history of your company, service, product or brand.

Get to grips with producing content?

Professional services companies should develop stories or content about both the company brand and also those individual employee brands within it. This is the key element to develop content to build the individual brand, as the corporate brand is made up (at least some of it) by the brand reputations of the individuals working for that organisation.

In a lot of B2B companies, the most difficult parts of developing content is getting people with great stories of success to share them, first with anyone internally and then externally. This is a company’s equivalent to writer’s block! The struggle to get a story started is the skill of the best marketing people; being able to identify the great success stories in companies and bringing them to life for future customers; taking the inside-outside (of the company).

As content developers, the hardest work is at the start of the content journey, but getting this right will make the entire process easier and ultimately bring a better story to life for your customers.

Getting storytellers to share their stories is the hardest, but the most value adding, part of the content development process, stick at that to get a great story or great content out there. Don’t get scared of the label, stories are what people are interested in.