Content Marketing
5 Keys to Crafting Compelling Digital Content
Jul 19 2022
Let’s talk about digital content. With digital marketing, many businesses focus on the technology or the technical aspects of implementation that they forget about the content. Many businesses who run Facebook ads spend tons of time focused on the audience and budget, but the actual posts perform poorly, so their money is being wasted. Businesses rush to create chatbots without first understanding what their customers may want from them on this channel.
Shift your focus from digital to the content.
In most traditional marketing we focus on brand value – does the creative effectively sell our product or service. This was because we were paying for a set impression with people. In digital marketing, people can choose to pay attention or ignore you. There are fewer “forced view” mediums, so smart brands focus on creating content that consumers want to view or interact with.
This is true for all digital channels. If people don’t like your website or find it difficult to use they’ll move on. When your email subject line is not good they won’t open it. If your email doesn’t inspire them they won’t click, or they’ll unsubscribe. When your Facebook ad is boring, they’ll scroll by. If you don’t entice them, they don’t give their email address.
Content for digital must be consumer-centric in order to drive attention and ultimately achieve your business objectives.
Think consumer first.
People are more distracted than ever before and have more messages (both advertising and otherwise) targeted at them every day. With the proliferation of social media, people can be exposed to thousands of updates from their friends a day – just on Facebook.
In order to break through the clutter and stand out your content must have thumb-stopping power. It must attract attention and drive someone to stop and pay attention.
Think thumb-stopping power in your content.
In addition to having thumb-stopping user value, your content also needs to have brand or business value – immediately present. Some marketers think that if your content contains too much branding that people will scroll through and it won’t have the thumb-stopping power to draw people in.
The reality is that great content integrates brands in natural and authentic ways. Over-branding in content is definitely a turn-off to consumers, but naturally integrating your brand isn’t.
Integrate your brand naturally in context.
People are more distracted and consume more content more quickly than ever before. Images and visuals are arising as the key digital content as a result of this – because they communicate more information more quickly vs. text.
Facebook talks about the “speed of feed” and highlights that people spend under two seconds on each post on mobile devices. On websites, people spend an average of 6 – 8 seconds on homepages. This means that we need to communicate quickly and efficiently. Think about how to bite-size your message and prioritize what is really important to communicate to create digital content.
Make all of your messages short, clear, and simple. Reduce the number of communication points and focus on a single clear message to allow someone to quickly understand your point. More is just more and will lead to you getting lost in the noise.
Make messages instantly understandable and short.
If it sounds tough to achieve all of the items listed above, it is! Combining these elements requires creative and strategic thinking – and it may take time and testing to find the best way to bring your message to life in the digital space.
Content optimization tips apply to any digital channel in any format. Always assume that people are busy, they aren’t inherently interested in you, and you have to break through a noisy marketplace where they are only going to give you a few seconds to capture their attention.
This is an excerpt of Krista Neher’s best-selling book, Digital Marketing That Actually Works, available on Amazon.
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