Most marketing, especially branding and demand/lead generation, is content marketing. Creating compelling content is often the rate limiting factor when executing a well-conceived marketing plan, and often the reason plans stall. Here are a few tips to create content Here are a few tips to create content efficiently and effectively.
1. Start with a strategic product or creative brief, which should provide a clear and thoughtful framework for campaign or launch messaging. Too often messaging is not documented or detailed. Product and marketing managers often do not take the time to write down descriptions of what the product or service is, who benefits, what problems are solved, and differentiators/unique selling propositions. The brief should establish a messaging hierarchy, identify target audiences, and detail the pain points, solutions, and proof points for each persona. It’s important not to use industry or technical jargon. You want concise, relatable, repeatable narratives.
2. The brief should also provide a list of assets required to execute the marketing plan (emails, social media posts, videos, blog posts, whitepapers, web pages, campaign landing pages, digital ads, print ads, presentations, etc.) Understanding the scope of work and timing upfront is critical to success. Nothing will derail a plan like going back to a project manager or creative director with “one more thing.” Those last-minute requests are killer.
3. Providing a sketch, mockup, outline, or rough draft of major assets is often very helpful. This provides a tangible foundation on which to build.
4. It’s ok to provide direction but be careful not to step over the line into dictation. The messaging doc or brief should provide the goals and the guardrails for the content creation. Do not dictate the font style or size, the color choices, the layout, or design. As a product or marketing manager, your job is to ensure that the copy and visual language of each asset is accurate and aligns with the brief. If during the creative process there is an element that is misleading, inaccurate, or inconsistent with the brief, or if you notice something that will expose the company to legal or financial risk, simply point that out and provide a specific reason why. Do not try to solve the problem for the creative team, merely identify the problem you need addressed. Similarly, “I don’t like it” is not a fair comment. First, that provides zero insight or direction. Second, it doesn’t matter if you like it or not. You are not the customer. Unless you plan to buy out the inventory, the content is not for you.
Not everyone can provide this level of detail or insight. The common experience among product and creative teams that operate without a well-defined process is that each blames the other, time and effort are wasted, and people get frustrated, which adversely affects morale and creativity. The product team believes the creatives “just don’t get it,” and the creative team says that they’re “not getting complete or accurate information.” Marketing will say, “garbage in, garbage out.” The product team will complain that they “have to do all the work for marketing.” In the end, content is not produced in time and/or the content lacks the impact it should have.
There is a vital position that most companies overlook that bridges this gap between “product” and “marketing” that facilitates an efficient and effective content execution process – Product Marketing. This person understands the industry jargon, translates that into compelling messaging, clearly articulates the positioning and messaging in a way that creatives understand, and provides the support and guidance for both teams.
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