Your 8th Grade History teacher was a content marketing strategy giant.
Who knew?
You see, content marketing isn't rocket science (Well, unless your company deals in rocket science, in which case, I guess it is. But I digress.). There is some basic strategy and some guiding principles that will propel (like that rocket reference?) your content to the head of the class (ok, ok, I'll stop now.).
If you are able to get these 4 concepts worked out for your company, you'll begin to create content that people actually enjoy and look forward to reading/watching. And that means only good things for your company.
If you only remember one thing from this video, I want you to remember to "make it fun." That doesn't mean everything has to be silly or have some "game" element to it.
A book I've been reading, Thinking Fast & Slow, (Not an affiliate link. Just being helpful.) by Daniel Kahneman has really confirmed some intuition that I had about making people smile when they read your content. While it's not really the point of the book, Kahneman confirms that when people physically smile, they are more likely to view your company in a positive light. That's why so many television ads and social channels are so interested in making you laugh at their stuff. But that doesn't mean that you have to be overly funny.
In fact, the Harvard Business Review has done research that shows that you should be funny, but not too funny if you want customers to buy what you're selling in ads. And I believe that can be applied to content marketing as well. So, you don't have to be a side-splitting comedian, just don't take yourself too seriously.
For shareable content marketing, go for the smile, and not the laugh.
Just for kicks, what's your favorite piece of advertising from any era that makes you smile?
