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This is something I have been thinking about for a long time. And the truth is, there is no reason to do anything other than doing aggressive Digital Marketing in today’s digital age.
It just access. Never before have brands and consumers had the ability to create and consume content at scale. Because of the smart phone and the internet, and social media, anyone can produce and distribute. Just 5 years ago, if you wanted to create a commercial to promote your brand, you would need to spend thousand and lakhs of Rupees on media and marketing. Today, you can literally use your smartphone, record a 2 minute clip and run ads on Facebook. The cost of entry has dropped 100 fold.
To me, It’s all about participation. Users are agnostic to where they consume your story. But if you focus on content, and attempt to build brand, you will win.
And that’s why I think this post is so strategic.
There is ZERO excuse not to be creating content around your brand, your product, your service or your business. If you don’t have something to say, do something, Create a podcast, start a blog, do a Q&A show. All of it works.
Show me your day-to-day process, interview your employees, interview your mom. Create a selfie on Instagram. Write three sentences about the news in your industry. Share and re-share other’s posts. All you have to do is start.
Think like a publisher, then you are going to start prioritizing brand. And don’t get me wrong, no amount of marketing is going to sell a shit product. But brand is everything if you are trying to create a business of value.
The sad thing is that we’ve been growing up in a world, where for the last 70 years, every business has been selling to us, with every single word out of their mouth. And the reason for that is because they only had one right hook. It used to cost a lot to produce a commercial. It used to cost a lot to do a Hoardings. It used to cost a lot to do a radio ad.
But now in the modern digital landscape, you can produce SO much more content. You have access to volume while still maintaining quality.
This opportunity alone, has created an entirely new way of marketing to consumers. Instead of trying to sell, now you have the luxury of creating entertaining or utilitarian content as the gateway to the long term sale. This is the difference between building a brand vs being in sales.
This is the key. No sale required.
The content you produce doesn’t even need to be related to your product. You can post your favourite articles saying “these are the articles you need to read” You can post about the weather, the news, your users, yourself! As long as you are focused on bringing value to the end consumer, you are going to build reputation and relationship.
For example, a Car service speaking about the india pakistan game in a Facebook post isn’t going to confuse their customers into thinking they sell cricket tools. But what it does, is it potentially connects a fanatic india or pakistan fan to use their service.
It also creates a culturally relevant piece of content that humanizes the brand and builds relationships.
And lastly it provides a real and simple way for anyone, anywhere to begin creating content organically and easily for their product, service, business or brand.
But this is also where people sometimes underestimate distribution. Content is not always enough. Everyone can create something interesting, but if no one ever sees it, it becomes irrelevant.
The latter is simple. Deploy a 2000 rp against your content on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat or Google and you will attain reach. Now there’s no guarantee that people will follow you or buy your product but it’s 100% guaranteed that someone will see it.
You can target a specific audience by age, geography, likes, and more. The possibilities are basically endless.
Facebook targeting. I mean, that’s really it. You can literally put your business address, run a radius around it, and everybody in the 560052 pin code or bangalore, mumbai city will see it in their feed. It’s a piece of cake.
The second and much more difficult way is hacking culture. A lot of you don’t know what this means but let me explain.
Dissecting the zeitgeist and understanding what is truly relevant in culture is a unique talent that creates a tremendous opportunity. I am going to do a much longer post on this topic soon but here is the essence.
How can you attain consumer ATTENTION? Who in your space is relevant and potentially interested in promoting your brand. How can you foster that relationship to help your business grow?
If you are a restaurant offer food. If you are a clothing startup offer a t-shirt. If you are plumbing service offer a free check up.
Reach out, collaborate, connect and provide value. In return they might promote your brand, bringing awareness to your product, service or business.
The problem is, it’s much harder to do. It’s about re framing consumer attention. It’s all about providing value. These are the tools and tactics that can help. It’s the number one opportunity of this generation. I just think you should all be doing it.
If you don’t start thinking like a media company and prioritising brand along with content, you are going to lose. This is the way the world works. This is where the attention currently is. Content is the cost of entry. If you want it, and you are building something you hope others will use, then this is the article for you.
If you are worried or confused where to start contact us and we will get you started