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In case you haven’t noticed, content is everywhere. How can business owners develop the best content for their brand? It starts with the three E’s:
Educate
Engage
Entertain
It’s pretty self-explanatory, right? But many businesses struggle with the how. How can they compete with all other available content and create something that really connects with people?
Start by creating a rock-solid, accurate brand personality.
Clear, well-defined brand characteristics make it easier to determine which content makes sense and which doesn’t.
Look at it as if you were planning a party.
There’s different types of parties, right? Wild ones, quiet ones, low-key game nights, family barbeques, bachelorettes, cocktail parties… the list goes on and on.
Say your brand is classy, cultured, and intelligent. Maybe it’s a cocktail party type. So, when you organize a cocktail party, you’ve gotta curate your guest list accordingly. You don’t want unrefined guests spoiling the mood, right? So, look at your content as if they were guests you’d invite—or not. Each piece of content needs to be driven by the overall vibe and purpose of your party (slash brand).
Let’s go a little deeper into each of the three E’s now.
EDUCATE: The Smart Guy (or Gal)
Valuable educational content offers readers (or watchers) information they can use. This can range from thought leadership to a simple statistic. The key is making the reader feel like they’ve learned something.
So, to continue with our cocktail party analogy, a great educational person to invite might be your college professor friend. But if you’re having a trivia game night, you’ll want to snag the friend who retains more useless information than anyone else you know.
It’s the same concept for your brand. If your target audience is well-educated brainiacs who love diving deep into data, give ‘em white papers about the latest trends in your industry. Or, are they busy people that like bite-sized info to read on the go? Maybe an infographic would be a better share.
ENGAGE: The People Person
What do all incredible conversationalists have in common? They’re engaging. This can mean they tell amazing stories, but it can also mean they ask great questions to keep you active in the conversation.
This party guest is the glue that holds the whole shindig together. They know how to keep the party from becoming stale, and somehow they’re able to understand the individual needs of everyone in the room so no one is left out.
Again, the type of engaging content you offer will depend on your brand. Retail consumer brands often lean on light-hearted polls that are fun for users to click on. Serious financial brands might consider posting human interest articles about the struggles American’s face, along with solutions they’ve helped provide their customers. This E is all about catching—and holding—people’s attention.
ENTERTAIN: The Funny One
Entertaining people turn any gathering into a party. But while most of us love to be amused, it’s important that your entertainment suits the crowd! If you’ve ever told an inappropriate joke to an unreceptive audience, you know exactly what we mean.
It’s great when small businesses can take advantage of current trends or capture the attention of Gen Z-ers on TikTok, but don’t force it. Back to our friends at the cocktail party—chances are, they won’t be inviting a 22-year-old influencer to their get together, so maybe you shouldn’t either.
Video is one of the best ways to entertain people, and there are lots of ways to create them on the cheap. Low budget videos made by your employees (or even customers) can be a perfect way to show your brand’s personality, while fitting in seamlessly with user-generated content (meaning, it won’t look like an ad).
Still not sure which content will resonate best with your audience? Test your content and see which performs best. Or, shoot us an email at Hello@ReifyCreative.com and we can help!
