Clear and compelling content is key to every successful marketing and communications campaign. Compelling content creates interesting blog posts, successful media pitches, insightful newsletter articles and sharable social content.
But you need to have a deep understanding of your company, its industry and competitors, and its key differentiators to create compelling content. Knowing these details create an authentic and unique angle for your content.
How do you find the information you need to create compelling content?
Four tips from professional communicators on getting those interesting or important details:
1. Break free of silos. Marketing and PR pros should regularly talk with people who work in different areas of the company. Get to know your company’s subject matter experts who hold the data and insights that you need for compelling content.
For example, B2 talks with the commercial real estate brokers at Colliers International on a regular basis to learn about real estate trends. Then B2 assesses how these trends can be used for media pitches or guest columns in industry trade publications.
2. Get in the field. Find opportunities to hear directly from your company’s target audience. Tag along to sales meetings, or work the front desk and listen to customer service calls. There’s no substitute for hearing directly from customers on their pain points and how they perceive product benefits.
B2 team members worked a shift at the We Help desk at the St. Petersburg Free Clinic to better understand who the nonprofit serves and how it provides services. In turn, this approach has helped B2 better describe how the nonprofit positively impacts the community by sharing individuals’ stories in the newsletter, on the website and through the news media.
3. Find the “gold coins.” The Poynter Institute’s Roy Peter Clark dubs interesting or telling details as “gold coins” – rewards for your reader for continuing through your content. In other words, it is the part of whatever you are reading that you would remember and want to tell a friend about.
As an example of this approach, B2 principal Kyle Parks put this into practice by attending a grand opening event for a new Medley by Lennar community near San Antonio, Florida. From these conversations Parks learned what makes the area a great place to live, and heard firsthand what buying prospects are looking for in a new home. These details provided the “gold coins” that he needed for an interesting advertorial about the community.
4. Monitor online conversations. Digital discussions can also provide PR pros with details about topics that are important to customers. Look at the social content that’s resonating with followers, and find common threads across social conversations. Posts, comments and online reviews can spark ideas for content themes.
Shannon Burch, B2’s public relations director, continuously monitors major media outlets and key industry influencers for relevant topics and subjects. By doing so, she is able to better understand what drives content engagement for our client and agency needs.
There’s a real payoff for digging deeper. You’re able to write interesting and compelling content that grabs – and keeps – your readers’ attention.