How to Give Your Content Heart
The best content can add value for companies on many levels. It can generate and nurture leads, boost brand awareness, create demand, improve customer retention, increase conversions, enhance customer lifetime value and more. But to be maximally effective, content also needs to connect with your audience on a gut level. After all, many buying decisions are emotional. And getting prospects to feel positive about your offerings — and your business — is at the core of brand building.
Consider these aspects of content creation to help your words, pictures, videos and sound resonate emotionally with your audience.
Customer-centric topic selection. Answer common questions, address pain points and seek out subjects that are highly relevant to your customers’ personal experiences. Putting their needs front and center in your ideation process will give your content the best chance of connecting.
Moving customers with moving pictures. Video can convey feeling in more ways than the written word. The combination of vibrant and dynamic on-screen images, a professional an expressive voiceover and evocative music tracks can all add layers of emotional impact to your content. If video isn’t a part of your marketing strategy, it’s probably time to add it.
Find your voice. The choice of voice for your content will greatly impact its emotional resonance. And in this case, we’re not talking about a video voiceover or podcast. Consider the difference between the tone and point of view of a journalistic news story versus an advice coumn. The formality and descriptive qualities of the language used in a piece can make it connect more (or less) with readers and viewers.
Say what? Interview-based pieces that integrate first-person narrative and quotes from interesting and compelling sources are a great way to give your content a personal touch. The expressiveness of your interviewees can become the emotional core of your content.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Use vivid and thought-provoking imagery to accompany your blog and social media posts to convey what words often can’t. But don’t settle for generic stock imagery. Whenever possible, use original photography or commission illustrations for greater authenticity and relatability. Even if your own snaps lack the polish or technical expertise of those of a professional, you may find the greater emotional depth of a few DIY shots well worth the tradeoff.
A writer walked into a bar. Humor is a great way to draw in an audience while deftly maneuvering past their defenses. But here’s the rub — you actually have to be funny. You never want a near miss in the humor department. If you find yourself questioning whether or not something is funny, it probably isn’t.
You can inspire a chuckle or snicker with words or images, but always be appropriate and respectful. To avoid coming off tone deaf, be mindful of your audience and timing with respect to current events. And remember that if all else fails, there’s always funny cat videos (that last bit was a joke).
What’s Your Love Language?
They say that love makes the world go round. And that holds true in the world of content marketing too. From finding a life partner to turning prospects into patrons, finding a way to communicate with heart is always a fantastic first step.
Happy Valentine’s Day from Nexus Content.
xoxo