The Venn Diagram of Strategic Content

The branded content bandwagon is running short on elbow room.

As more and more marketers realize that smart content can outperform advertising (and that the best ads actually are content in disguise), brands are creating and distributing branded content at increasing rates.

This should be a welcome sea change, right? People are filtering out ad messages and are in search of useful and interesting messages. More content is what we want, right? Sort of.

Just as we shouldn’t confuse motion with productivity, we shouldn’t confuse “published stuff” with “valuable content.” (Or, if you’d prefer me to sum it up in a terribly corny catchphrase: “just because it’s content, doesn’t mean they’re content.” Ok. I’ll stop.)

Adam Singer gets to the point more directly in a blog post he titled “Nobody Cares About Your Branded Content“: 

The amount and volume of branded content “pushed” over the social web continues to increase. In some instances, this is a good thing. Branded content executed well is useful, improves all of your organic marketing KPIs and can contribute to increasing returns.

Unfortunately, still, nobody cares about what most brands produce. The rash of brands creating not just unshareable, but outright embarrassing branded content.

Why is it that some content generates ROI and some content generates rolled eyes? Well, that’s precisely the question, isn’t it?

While branded content is arguably an art form, I present to you a quasi-scientific framework that might help improve your brand’s success in creating content that resonates with audiences and performs for the bottom line.

The Best Part is the Gooey Center

Great branded content does three things well:

1. Serves the audience

Adds value to their lives or their jobs.

2. Is culturally relevant

It is created in the context of what is timely in a given industry or niche.

3. Serves the brand

It positions the brand as the stage, not as the star. The brand is the provider of the main attraction and doesn’t try to steal the spotlight for itself. Or, as Doug Kessler recently put it:

“[T]he best content marketing does not hide its agenda. It’s totally open about it. It just puts aside its sales agenda for long enough to bring some genuine value to the target audience (in the hope that prospects will like you more because of it).”

And of course, above all else, remember the mantra: Be useful, be interesting, or be ignored.

[Image: crawfish head]