The Juggling Content Marketer: 5 ways to amuse your audience

One of the great aspects of working at Stylight is the diversity. With employees from over 19 countries, we have a clear competitive advantage as we’re in constant contact with the local and global markets, jump on the latest trends, and avidly follow the most interesting domestic updates. Our last stop-over? The Web Marketing Festival in Rimini: definitely an event that all Italian marketers should keep an attentive eye on.

With a team fully committed to content marketing and eager to “break the internet”, we are always keen to learn even more about web marketing. Inspired by the conference, and by juggling (you’ll find out why soon!), but most of all by our daily content strategy experience, we listed 5 important reminders for content marketers everywhere.

1. Surprising content. An entertaining juggler varies and doesn’t always go for the same trick.

Provide the unexpected! It’s not just about the content you publish online: great events provide unconventional and surprising content as well! It’s science: according to a study conducted by Emory University and Baylor College of Medicine, surprise activates pleasure centers in the brain and a study conducted at the University of Magdeburg suggested that novelty enhances memory. This means your content will delight and “stick”, or will be responsible for a blog post about content marketing and juggling! Either way: a win!

In this regard the Web Marketing Festival itself can be taken as an example, as it offered surprising and unique way to connect with other attendees, such as jugglers (the main inspiration for this post: thanks!).

2. Content beyond infographics. You can use balls, oranges, apples, or…

Infographics: they’ve been used by everyone in every possible way and it’s hard to create one that stands out. But how can you move on and create different content? In order to answer to this question, we need to define what infographics are exactly. Here’s a definition: “graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.” The important thing is to focus on what the format is intended for: if it does not serve that purpose, it’s not useful for the reader. If you have information that you want to spread, you need to ask yourself: how do I want to take advantage of it? What’s the story I want to tell? Do I want a functional or educational piece? A humorous or emotional one? Then pick a medium accordingly: infographic, interactive game, video, podcast, etc. The thing you don’t want to forget is that visuals and images are very powerful: they are processed incredibly fast, much quicker than text and can complement it perfectly. Images also have the advantage to trigger emotions instantly. With the big buzz revolving around the Apple Watch, we collected some playful data and presented it visually; this resulted in our piece being mentioned in over 250 articles across international media outlets.

 

3. Keep it simple. You can entertain using just a handful of things.  

The philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once famously stated, “I have made this [letter]longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.” It takes a lot of work to subtract and reduce your content down to just the essentials: what’s most relevant? And why? The simplest ideas are often the most effective: if you can pitch the concept using 5-7 words maximum, it means your USP and, ultimately, your message, is clear. You have already read about Stylight’s Cannes vs.Oscars campaign: it was a great success with more than 260 mentions by international media. The graphics were minimalistic, the copy reduced to the bare bones, yet it works and it’s powerful because it’s simple and intuitive.

 

 

4. Global or local? When juggling content you’ll find that each ball can have a different shape or weight, but you can still find the right rhythm and balance!

If you want your content to be relevant and valuable on an international level, you have to find a balance between global and local. Stylight provides global fashion inspiration with the opportunity to shop locally, and this delicate balance is crucial. During the festival Gianluca Fiorelli, SEO pro and MOZ associate, gave some very interesting insights into international social media management that are a good memento for content creation and distribution in general. What kind of Facebook posts work in different countries? In Italy it’s the ones that leverage on people’s emotions, in Germany it’s the informational ones, in Spain it’s contests, in France: fun content. The most popular brand on Facebook in the UK and Germany is Amazon and the most popular in Italy is… Nutella! Our piece of advice? Always take the local cultural differences into account to keep the level of relevance and value high, and to spread and seed your international content effectively. That’s exactly what we did for our latest ‘Summer Campaign’: the content in France, Italy and Spain is different and tailor-made according to habits, locations and trends.

 

 

5. Keep it relevant and timely. Experienced jugglers have no need to see the ball, they know when and where it will land from the force they applied when they threw it. Content marketers do not always have that type of control: we team up with skilled PRs and social media experts to make sure our content gets out there, but you never know for sure where your content is going to land. However, the success of the campaigns mentioned above had the same element in common: the topic was relevant because it was promoted at the right time. Within our team the cooperation between content creators (marketers and designers) and PRs is close and constant: to better create and promote the content we’ve worked on.

So, let’s sum it up:

• When creating content, remember how powerful surprises and visual stimuli can be; pick the medium that best serves the story you want to spread.
• Once the concept is final, make sure you can pitch it using 5-7 words: it means that your message is clear and easy to grasp, therefore more likely to be received.
• If you are doing international marketing, never forget the cultural differences of the countries involved, both when you create and distribute the content.
• When promoting, remember great content is more powerful when it meets great PR: monitor and take opportunities, and you’ll be relevant and timely.
• Content marketing, like juggling, takes focus and persistence: you have to try again and again, and again. The key is not to get discouraged by failed attempts but to learn from them. When you start mastering it, it’s fun, it generates value for your audience, and is extremely rewarding!

 

|By Giuliana Catalano|