You wouldn’t start a first date with a marriage proposal, would you? No, that’s absurd. Brand content that jumps the gun on selling before wooing an audience comes across the same way – desperate and way too much too soon.
At some point, marketing became synonymous with selling, but it’s so much more than that. Marketing gives your audience the information they need, so they can get to know, like, and trust you. You’re giving them a reason to engage with you and share your content with others.
We’re not saying you should never sell to your audience, just do it strategically (and be cool about it, nobody’s into smarmy sales tactics). Let them get to know you first by using different types of content to build a relationship. If your content comes across as purely for profit, you’ll be unfollowed superfast.
Five Content Pillars
At Good Digital, we’re all about the 5-point content strategy. Since we’re nice people who believe in sharing, here are the five content pillars you should be using in your social channels, blog posts, and other digital communications.
1. Personal Content
Show off the human side of your business and the personalities behind your company. Personal posts or behind the scenes content make you more relatable and trustworthy. Don’t be afraid to be candid, people love authenticity.
2. Educational Content
Teach people what you do, how you do it, and show them you know what you’re talking about. These posts help position you as a thought leader in your industry. Teaching, rather than selling, offers value and holds your audience’s attention and gives them a reason to keep coming back to you.
3. Passion Content
Part of who you are as a company is what you care about. Be vocal about who and what your organization supports in the world. Whether it’s eco-friendly practices, LGBT rights, mental health, the latest tech, or anything else, wear your figurative heart on your sleeve.
4. Promotional Content
See, selling does come into play somewhere. Use the four other types of posts to give your audience a reason to listen to you and interact with you. When you have trust, and you’ve given your audience value in other ways, THEN you’ve earned the right to sell to them. Frankly, if you do an excellent job with the other types of posts, audience members will transform into consumers without the need for promotional content.
5. Engaging Content
These posts are about getting interest from followers and having them interact and form a relationship with your brand. Engagement includes likes, mentions, shares, views, comments, follows, poll answers, and more.
There you have it, a well-rounded content plan that doesn’t rely on promotional material or sales pitches to grow your audience and garner attention. Using a mix of themes makes your content more interesting to your audience. It offers them insight into your brand and makes you more memorable.