Branded content. Tips for creating successful content

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In the modern business world, product quality is not the only thing that matters. To gain loyal customers and be successful in the long run, you need to develop a compelling content strategy and build a strong, memorable brand. Branded content is one such powerful tool that you can use to boost your digital marketing efforts and achieve your goal.

By using well-written articles, social media posts, podcasts, and videos, you can gain the attention of your target audience , build trust, and get your customers to emotionally attach themselves to your brand.

We give you some tips that will help you create branded content that your clients and potential clients will love.

1. Focus on the values ​​you promote
Let’s get one important thing straight. Branded content isn’t about promoting goods and services. It’s about discussing the values ​​that are important to your customers and relate to your brand .

Branded content and traditional advertising are two very different things.

The purpose of branded content is to increase brand awareness, foster customer loyalty, not accelerate sales .

Check out the video below produced by Dove. It's a masterpiece of branded content.




This video was created to break beauty stereotypes. It promotes the ideas of diversity, equality, body positivity and emphasizes the need to review beauty standards.

This video makes viewers believe that every woman is beautiful as she is and deserves a happy life.

This branded content does not promote Dove products and does not praise Dove as a brand. Therefore, this video will not help the company increase sales of a particular product by a certain percentage.

However, it helps to increase customer loyalty and keep sales high in the long run.

Do you want to create branded content worth sharing?

Think about the values ​​and issues that both your target audience and your company face. This could be anything from supporting the climate change movement to the gender pay gap.

Focus on these values ​​and find ways to contribute to solving these problems . This will be the first step to writing engaging brand content.

2. Know your audience better
Naturally, to create branded content that appeals to your target audience, you need to be clear about who your target audience is .

This means you need to research not only the demographics, but also the psychographics of your audience.

In other words, you need to know not only your customers' ages and where they live, but also what attitudes, values ​​and beliefs they have.

There are many digital tools that can help you research your target audience. However, one of the easiest ways to learn more about your customers is to check out their social media profiles .

Yes, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can tell you everything about the person.

Review your customers' social media profiles and try to answer some of these questions:

What lifestyles do your clients have?
What social movements do they support?
What topics do they discuss on social media (for example, do they support a particular politician or talk about an issue related to climate change)?
Do you travel? What destinations do you choose?
What accounts/brands/influencers do you follow?
By being aware of these issues, you can create winning content and even make it go viral (although this is more complicated).

3. Take advantage of storytelling
Want your branded content to be noticed? Write a good story.

People love stories, and that's a fact. Scientists explain it this way. When we see characters interacting with each other, our bodies release a neuropeptide called oxytocin. And as the action increases, our attention sharpens and our bodies release more cortisol.

Therefore, if you write a great narrative, you will create “chemistry” between your target audience and your brand . You will connect with your customers on a deeper emotional level.

Who can be the main hero of your story? Anyone who is somehow connected to your brand. It could be an employee, a customer, your business partner, or even you.

What kind of story should you tell?

It all depends on the brand message you want to convey. It can be an inspiring, funny or sad story. Feel free to create any story you think will appeal most to your audience.

"Writing a story" does not literally mean "writing a novel-like piece of content about a hero."

Your story can be presented in the form of a short text, video, image, infographic or other visual content.

You can also combine a few short stories into one big one. A good example can be Nike, which featured stories of six girls in a video to inspire women to pursue their goals and not pay attention to discouraging comments.


4. Appeal to emotions
Happiness
Sadness
Fear / surprise
Anger / disgust
Some marketers don't want to create branded content that evokes negative feelings because they believe it will lead to negative attitudes toward the brand. However, this isn't entirely true. In some cases, well-written weight loss email list content that taps into anger and anxiety can drive engagement better than "happy" content .

Non-profit organizations like The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) create videos that cause anxiety and disgust.

To draw people's attention to the problems of climate change, they present shocking facts and use dramatic and unpleasant images. Watch this video:


So if you want to cover a serious topic and discuss global issues, don't be afraid to leverage negative emotions to get your message across .

5. Keep your brand voice consistent
You can experiment by creating different types of content and discussing various topics. But you should always keep your brand tone consistent .

You want to make sure that when customers come across your Instagram post, blog post, YouTube video, or an email sent via autoresponder, they immediately understand that this content belongs to your brand .

If you haven't yet defined your tone and style, you should do so right now. First, you need to decide what tone best suits your brand: friendly, helpful, informative, fun, edgy, etc.

Second, you need to decide what language you will use: formal or informal, sophisticated or simple, technical or jargon-free.

Consistency in tone will help you create more engaging branded content and boost your marketing efforts. If you have a great content marketing team, make sure all team members use the same tone and style.

6. Focus on creating shareable content
Do you want your blog post/video to go viral? It's not enough to make your branded content interesting to read or watch. It needs to be "share-worthy."

Your content should make the reader think like this: “OMG! This post/video is super valuable! I must share it with my friends, family, and colleagues right now!”

Before you start working on new content, ask yourself a few questions:

What content is my target audience most likely to share (videos, infographics, blog posts, etc.)?
What themes/issues/memories resonate most with my audience?
What content is trending in my niche right now?
Once you understand the difference between “good” and “share-worthy” content, you’ll create more quality content and double your marketing and branding efforts.

7. Show your authenticity
Do you want people to love your brand? Make your brand authentic and unique . Don’t try to copy branded content created by other companies. Think outside the box and come up with unique content ideas .

Some marketers mistakenly believe that if they create branded videos similar to the videos produced by Dove, Red Bull and Nike, they will achieve great success. However, this is not true – customers have already seen those videos and are now eager to see something new.

Let your imagination run wild and don't be afraid to bring your original ideas to life. Create something your customers have never seen before and you'll create a great buzz .

8. Be open to collaboration
You will never get very far on your own. If you want to make a difference and share your values ​​with a broad audience, you need to collaborate with influencers and industry experts .

Check out the following Instagram post. It is one of the best examples of branded content based on collaboration with influencers.