5 Steps To Build Your Brand With Authentic Content

In content marketing, the fittest contenders stand out because they are ready and flexible. Like good baseball players, they have their eye on the ball, willing to give their spirit to the team to drive their content out of the park and into the world.

These last few years have seen an organic shift in online marketing, strewing these home runs all over the place.

But, where can you find this action and join in on the success? With an arsenal of content tools by your side, you won’t need to venture far to find the new exciting trends that are currently flooding the worlds of online and retail advertising. Let’s look at five helpful hints that will help you to create a unique voice in digital marketing this year: 

1) Strong Business-to-Human Relationships

Business-to-human relationships are the forerunners for better business practices this year. It’s time to shift the balance of power from firms to consumers.

The strongest focus of this change should be a more evened-out ratio between data-driven analytics and the notion of “giving the people what they want.” As we see more and more partnership-building potential behind consultative selling while advancing secondary sales cycles, I beg you to ask yourself: How service-oriented is my content? This talk at Stanford Business lays out some great ways to approach redefining or reinventing your company’s B2C activity, with actionable advice from industry influencers such as Google’s Chief Evangelist for Brand Marketing, among many.

2) Customizable Publishing Platforms

Publishing platforms are teeming with great content; screaming even… the new routes to getting your brand published are plentiful and proving themselves well.

The freedom to customize and personalize the content that you encounter across these various publishing platforms ensures that even the most discriminating readers will find satisfying and valuable content.A recent PWC report page shows the marked changes in the publishing platform industry. From self-publishing books and do-it-yourself video marketing (webinars) to social media ninjas/gurus/masters and mavens, there are a myriad of quality ways to fuel your brand’s mission and get your marketing message on target.

3) The Value of a Word

Essentially, marketers are storytellers, each piece of writing expresses not only the content inside but also the relationship that the writer has with his/her message. Through words, marketers convey their level of relatability to their market and their degree of passion about the brand. So in order to bring value to your brand through textual content, a marketer must be a good writer. These talented writers can contribute to a better world filled with more enthusiastic marketers by paying-it-forward with one of their stories. A little collaboration can go a long way.

4) Advanced Wearable Technology

We’re going to approach wearable technology now… gear down for news that is strange but true. Various drone devices and “Glass”-wear that project and broadcast content will be a tempting content tactic for some go-getters. To offer wearables as content mediums focuses solely on mercurial content (oh, shiny…), though the advanced (and intensely trippy) technology behind these products deserves some sort of honorable mention.

5) Back to the Basics

That’s right, we’ve come full circle, people. Through all the cajoling and sign-spinning out there, we pare it down to the clear and solid character behind the content that gives us a straight-shot at reaching the engaged and returning customer: just be yourself.

When the smoke clears and the new approaches fall at bay, we’re left with the classic interaction between business and community: a nod from the company and a smile from the consumer. Be Authentic. Now use the earlier steps to make that authenticity unique.

Reach out in 2016. Be you, as only you can be…