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April 12, 2021 Content Chat Recap: How To Build A Craveable Brand Through Content Marketing

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Most brands continue to explore new ways to reach and engage their communities, especially given the shift in customer needs during the pandemic. Audiences expect greater levels of empathy and authenticity than before, but the emergence of Dark Social channels makes it harder to track customer conversations and understand their needs. So how can brands break through to their customers? And how can businesses develop deeper community relationships that weather even the greatest industry turbulence?

In this #ContentChat, we’re joined by Jessika Phillips (@JessicaPhillips), founder of NOW Marketing Group, to discuss how companies can build a Craveable brand—one that keeps our communities wanting to come back for more—through content marketing. Read the full recap below, where we share the challenges that marketers face in reaching their communities in 2021, the importance of a brand manifesto to explain your brand’s greater purpose, and the ways that you can leverage a brand manifesto to create personalized and audience-focused content.

Q1: What challenges do marketers face in understanding and reaching their communities and ideal customers in 2021?

Marketers face a range of challenges in 2021. Most conversations and interactions now happen online, which means brands need a way to track, reach, and engage their virtual communities.

Buyer habits have shifted this past year, so brands need to reassess their target personas and these buyer needs.

Which ties to an increased focus on social listening.

But Dark Social, or conversations happening in private or niche communities, is on the rise. This makes it difficult to fully understand our audiences.

And not to mention the struggles of efficiently collecting and making sense of your data.

This increase in online activity also means that customers expect more online resources and assistance, like chatbots and FAQs.

A common thread is that communities feel more dispersed before and marketers need to stay focused in their efforts.

And Rebekah makes an excellent point: Most often, marketers get in their own way. Brand communities look for genuine interaction, solutions to their challenges, and a sense of belonging.

Q2: What is a brand manifesto? How should a company create one, and what’s its relationship with your content marketing strategy?

Companies need a distinct personality and voice to stand out from the competition.

A brand manifesto creates an emotional connection with your community. This connection is felt long before and well after any individual transaction takes place.

Companies should create a brand manifesto to get clear on why they’re in business and what they really do.

A brand manifesto benefits everyone that an organization impacts, including its employees, investors, customers, and communities.

By documenting your brand manifesto, you can create more purposeful and personalized content than before.

Search for brand manifestos to see how brands have used them. Do your favorite brands have a manifesto?

Check out these example brand manifestos:

Q3: What foundational elements are required for a brand to reinforce its manifesto through its content marketing and social media channels?

Jessika recommends the POST method to create content that reinforces your manifesto.

Personalize content as though you’re speaking to someone sitting across the room from you.

Keep content open-ended in a way that engages your community and invites conversation. Have a team member read your content out loud to see if it sounds natural to your target reader.

Define and follow your brand style, which goes beyond the images you use and your team’s branding. All content should match the personality and tone established by the brand manifesto.

The point is to be consistent in your approach, and over time you can check to see if your brand is attracting the right people.

Remember to stay authentic in your efforts. Without the trust of your community, you will not build any meaningful connections.

Q4: How can brands identify “add-ins” to their existing services or other ways to elevate the customer experience?

Map out your customer journey and describe the experiences felt throughout the various stages. How can the customer experience be improved to reduce hurdles, increase ease of use, and create a more personalized journey?

Many teams have a goldmine of customer data to drive personalization, but teams need to make sense of the data and integrate it into their day-to-day.

Marketers should partner with other departments like sales and customer success to augment their insights. Marketers should also directly engage their communities to gauge their needs and directly ask how the brand can better support them.

Research your competition to see how they engage with their communities. How can you stand out from them?

Personalization is an easy place to start, but there is practically endless potential for how to delight your communities. Jessika has used personalized cards, video emails, audio messages, and even bobbleheads to build relationships.

Q5: How can companies turn their employees into brand evangelists?

Every employee should learn about your brand manifesto as part of their onboarding, as well as ways that they can effectively advocate for the brand.

People want to work for brands that value them as individuals.

Stay flexible with how your team works, and asks for ways that you can improve the work experience for your team members.

Genuinely listen to your team’s feedback and find ways to implement their ideas.

Assess all potential hires for their culture fit. This includes discussing your brand manifesto and finding team members that support this from day one.

Allow your team to create freely and explore their topics of interest. This level of trust and freedom will help strengthen your relationship.

And enable ongoing training and support systems that help your individual team members evolve through roles in your company. This includes finding new opportunities and creating roles to address team member needs.

Derek raises a great question: Should brands use gamification with brand ambassadors? Erika says that it depends on the team culture but can work great for select brands. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Q6: What other tips do you have for building a craveable brand?

Relationships are increasingly influencing buying decisions. Brands must build sustainable referral business models, which requires they look beyond vanity metrics and focus on meaningful relationships.

Start from the inside and build a working culture that is true to your brand manifesto.

Personalization is key for marketers.

Out CARE the competition with this approach:

Building a craveable brand is all about consistency and authenticity. Learn more about how to get started with these resources from Jessika:

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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