Breaking The Mould: How Being Different Pays In Content Marketing

Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and yet it generates more than three times as many leads.
 

You need a content marketing strategy for your brand and to succeed it has to be memorable.
 

Think about all of the iconic brands you can remember or catchy jingles from the radio; you remember them is because they did something different – hey thought outside of the box to grab your attention.
 

This is the same way you should tackle your content marketing.
 

Make your business stand out against your competitors by capturing your users’ imaginations and enriching their lives. Here's how doing something a little different look for you...
 

Go Guerrilla

Guerrilla marketing is best described as "unconventional advertising tactics that create a buzz."

 

It creates statement campaigns that punch holes in people’s chests and grab them by the heartstrings, and does so on a budget – low cost high impact.

 

If you’re a company who doesn’t have a bottomless budget, it pays to take advantage of guerrilla marketing – because if you can come up with a unique, attention-grabbing idea (like a crocheted bike) you could get yourself a host of new customers.

 

Guerrilla marketing is a great strategy when coupled with a product-based business. For anyone seeking to take advantage of this tactic, I would suggest that you create an online store on the cheap and start experimenting with a combination of guerrilla campaigns and paid ads to validate your ideas.

 

Some online store builders offer you a free trial period. This means that you can test out the platform and see how it works for you, without having to sign up to an ongoing service.

 

The important thing is that you try out different things – while not every new idea you try is going to work for your business, plenty will and some might lead you to find solutions you hadn’t previously considered.
 

Get Creative with GIFs and Memes

The popularity of GIFs has exploded in recent years, with the attention sucking moving images even snagging a place in the Oxford Dictionary in 2012.

 

You’ve seen, viewed, liked, shared, facepalmed, and laughed at these little bouncing beasts. But do you know what? – your customers have too

 

You can take advantage of their popularity by using them to show off new products by creating a GIF on GIPHY.

 

Memes are also very now – meme marketing is totally a thing.

 

Memes are images or short videos, usually with text overlayed, that are shared by internet users who want to pass on a joke or witty phrase.

 

Taking what is already a well-known meme and altering it to fit your brand is a great idea – get started by taking influence from Someecards.

 

If you have a visual and social audience, GIFs and memes are a great way to enhance your content marketing strategy without needing a well of technical expertise or a magic money tree.

 

They can also be used as part of an ecommerce sales strategy; you could use a GIF to highlight your products and display them in a way that is distinctive and eye catching; or you could give your customers a glimpse behind the by creating a meme.
 

 

Inject a Bit of Humor

Don't be afraid to add a little humor and personality into your content marketing – even if that means poking fun at your own brand.  

 

A study that looked at the 10,000 most shared articles online, found that 32% of them evoked laughter or amusement – adding a little laughter to your brand could increase your shares by a third.

 

More shares from your audience mean more people see your content and what marketer would turn their nose up at that? Not you, that’s for sure.   

 

Laughter makes your brand more memorable to your customer. Just be sure to know your audience well so that you can gauge what level of humor to deliver – you don’t want to be cracking out jokes that either offend or leave a flat punchline, meaning you remember for the wrong reasons.
 

Tell Your Story

It’s time to warm the cockles of the cold, hard world of business and show off the softer side of your company.

 

Give your customers an incite into your brand by sharing your story – this can be anything from a ‘day in the life at HQ’, right through to a video of the owner, sharing anecdotes about your company.

 

Giving your business a human face and revealing any interesting, personal facts will help your customers understand you a bit better and hopefully encourage them to buy into the brand ethos.

 

You could also get involved in story-doing – where you get your customers to become the storytellers and tell their peers why your company is so important to them.
 

Ditch the Business Voice

It’s easy to fall into the company persona when it comes to producing your content marketing packages, but here’s where it’s a good idea to inject some real personality.

 

Try talking to your consumers with a more informal, casual tone rather than with polished business speak.

 

Creating personalized emarketing messages is a great start, but also think about transforming the tone of your blog posts, and social media updates to encourage user engagement.

 

Even consider whether you email tone is appropriate – even with the explosion of social media, your emails remain one of your key marketing tools.
 

Team up

Most people view webpages on their phones and research suggests that people scroll through their Facebook newsfeed 41% faster on mobile – so you have to fight even harder to get your posts noticed.

 

Your followers may be bored of hearing about your brand (shock horror!), so organise a series of guest posts from someone relevant within your industry.

 

The change of voice and tone is can spark interest with your users who usually scroll past your posts, as well as drawing in new potential customers – if the expert has a good social following themselves then you can use this to enhance your exposure.

 

It’s also a good idea to consider co-marketing – a simple agreement between two relevant brands to market each other’s products.
 

 

Start a Podcast

Podcasts a have seen a surge in popularity in the past few years. They’re engaging, thought provoking, and easy to listen to while you’re working – win, win, and win.

 

They are also cheap and easy to produce, can help to increase your brand reach, and help you to build trust with your audience – win, win, and, again, win.

 

Many businesses are still to bring podcasting into their content marketing strategies, meaning now is the perfect time to jump on board the good ship pod.  

 

The scope of content marketing is so vast that it’s great to experiment with lots of different methods and tactics. But, as there are so many companies out there vying for the attention of consumers, pushing the boundaries a little and thinking outside of the box will help your content stand out from the crowd and broaden your customer base.