An A-Z Tip-Sheet On How Custom Branded Content Creates Attention, Interest, Desire and Action

If positioning is personality, then consider branding the characteristics that establish and project character and personal style. Custom branded content is content that supports your competitive positioning and displays your brand through inclusion, brand voice, brand standards and attractiveness.

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Here's 26 fast tips on improving your content marketing campaigns by designing and building branded content elements for traffic, lead generation & nurturing, and loyalty building content marketing campaigns.

Content without character is just the same old kind of content everyone in your category is producing. Your customers, leads and prospects are hungry for content that inspires them to do something about solving their problems. Interesting content. Stimulating content. Engaging content that draws them in and provides information.

Branded content provides context and differentiation to your messaging that lifts your content marketing efforts out of the ditch and gets you speeding down the highway towards increased conversions and closed sales.

is for Adaptable

Custom branded content has one job: to get read or consumed. Brand characteristics need to be adaptable to a wide variety of executions while remain visible and intact. Adaptability is the hallmark of well planned branding that supports and extends the corporate positioning while attracting and reassuring customers and skeptics of the brands inclusiveness and reliability. Ensure your brand is adaptable.

is for Bold

Does your content stand out or blend in? To get attention and interest and be perceived as engaging - your brand and branded content elements need to be bold as well as attractive. Bold posts headlines. Provocative videos. Maybe a subversive "kit" that exposes the secrets in your category. Whatever the big idea is for your campaigns, make your brand be brave by being bold. Stand out from the crowd.

is for Connect

You should already know a lot about your ideal customer. How does your branding support your position and connect with them? Content marketing is about presenting the right message at the right time to the right people. If the message doesn't connect though all your effort is wasted. Ensure your branding connects with the needs and wants of your ideal customer for maximum effectiveness.

is for Distinct

Is your branding distinct? There are a few parameters, of which your competitive space is the most important. How does your branding, and therefore your branded content look, feel, sound and act compared to your competition? When branding is used to support positioning the brand experience becomes inclusive and rewarding for your customers. Make sure your branding adds distinction by being distinct.

is for Empathy

When customers, leads or prospects encounter your branded content marketing elements, how close do they feel your brand represents their interests. Customer 1st branding emphasizes the importance of reflecting in the brand some of the qualities your targets need and want. To cut through the clutter and get close to the hearts and minds of your targets your brand must demonstrate empathy for how their problem is affecting their life.

is for Friendly

This may appear like a crazy remark. Who would want an unfriendly brand? There are some out there. Some brands can be too intellectual which makes them distant and appear to be uninvolved. The perception of your brand in relation to the experiences customers, leads and prospects have when interacting with it are one key to bypassing skepticism and moving into a position of consideration in the buy cycle.

is for Glue

Glue? Yes. Branded content shares values, standards, language and perspective. What this accomplishes over time is a certain type of recognizable and consistent approach to the market environment that customers, leads and prospects will come to recognize and appreciate. Branded content glues together the subject matter and narrative of the content element to the character of the brand and the personality of the positioning. The result is an instantly recognizable content perspective amidst all the chatter and noise on the web.

is for Honesty

Your customers, leads and prospects all experience your brand differently. Depending where a person is in the buy cycle, and what market segment you have created for their persona, one over-arching imperative must be communicated. The brand needs to be honest to itself and it's users. Brand honesty means no exaggeration, no false claims, no dirty tactics. Ensure your brand meaning and the brand experience are mutually supportive through brand honesty in all your content vehicles.

is for Inclusive

This may sound counterintuitive. It's not. Even the most exclusive brands are inclusive. Inclusive means they invite and embrace your target segments no matter who they might be. All of your branded content needs to be inclusive. As do your campaigns. It's true that the purpose of all your content marketing efforts is to disqualify toxic customers. Disqualifying prospects is very different than excluding them and creating a negative and fragile brand experience.

is for Jolt

Get your target segments attention. Jolt them awake. Jolt them out of the ordinary. Make them slightly uncomfortable with where they are now, and let your branded content move them to take action to remedy their problem. Great branded content moves people emotionally and intellectually. Approach your content campaigns with the idea that a sale can't happen until the reader/user decides you have the answer to their want. Create content that has personality, a point of view, and direct purpose. Because that's remarkable and engaging content. What's your brand character like? Are you maybe trying to be too nice?

is for Keynote

Your brand needs one keynote characteristic to lead in the marketplace. Just as position is about one thing, so is your brand. Objects can not occupy more than one position in space. Your brand likewise needs a single identifiable character - or it risks multiple personality disorder. Across all your content marketing campaigns, ensure your brand is portrayed and delivered through the single leading attribute that supports the brand experience, and allows your targets to connect with it.

is for Listen

Listen to your best current customers. Your most profitable customers represent your ideal customer -- and they'll tell you why they selected you and your stuff. But only if you listen. Listen attentively, carefully and patiently. Listening is exhausting hard work, I agree. But look at the payoff. You'll gain insights that'll help you adjust and strengthen your competitive positioning, increase the attractiveness of your brand voice -- and ultimately create branded content campaigns that work harder and pull a better quality of target customer. That sounds like revenue to me.

 is for Might(y)

Strong. What's the prevalent perception of you and your stuff? Are you the Casper Milquetoast, Vanilla of the marketplace, or do you have some strength? Leaders are strong. It's that straightforward. Leaders have vision. Leaders have opinions. Leaders have character and backbone. Your content and content campaigns can be leaders in your market or followers. Or worse, unnoticed. Best practices are the hallmark of the crowd in the middle. Are you following best practices or creating one of a kind material?

is for Natural

How real is your brand? Is your brand approachable. Do you think people find it easy to connect with your brand? I mean, if your brand was a person, who would it be, what would it do and say? This isn't theoretical at all. The success of your content campaigns is measured by speed of activity and sales success. If your brand is too artificial no one is going to be attracted to your content, or you, or your stuff. Is it time for a brand audit and reality check? Maybe you're out of date. What about your content?

is for One-on-One

This can be an elusive concept. One-on-One is about having a brand experience that's personal. It's about perceiving the brand voice as aimed at me, and talking WITH me -- not AT me. This can be a problem that results in corporate speak. You know the stuff. The crap you'll find in the fine print. The crap that some businesses think constitute communication. Take the "you" test. Does your website home page talk about what you do, or does it talk about what your customers get? If it's about you -- you're talking AT people. And I think we can all agree, no one likes being talked at.

is for Purpose

Meaningful brands generally have purpose, actually two purposes. Brands adopt character traits to personify themselves, making them appear friendly, or smart, or any number of things. And this has been the focus of branding, branding speak, and branding activity for the last 75-100-125 years. Nothing inherently bad about that. Except. You knew there had to be an except. Brands must have purpose. 1) to create business value for what otherwise is "stuff" with features. 2) to solve problems. There aren't enough brands 'out there' that communicate problem solving. That looks like opportunity to me. Is your branded content all about feel good attitudes?

is for Quality

Brands have quality, as in first-class, A+, this is really good or well made or lasts. What exactly is it that users/buyers find so magnetically attractive about brands. Like a good friend, brands don't let you down. They're reliable, consistent, predictable. Your content marketing campaigns need to be almost the same: consistent and reliable, yes. Predictable? No way. And this could be one thing you haven't noticed because you're too focused on the brand and have ignored your audience. Make sure your messages aren't boring.

is for Revealing

Brands reveal themselves over time. For a brand experience to be meaningful to you audience, it needs depth and quality. The journey from suspect to prospect, then converting to a lead and becoming a customer takes time. And many interactions that will probably be through your various content campaigns (traffic, lead generation, lead nurturing and promotional). In a similar fashion to a movie, the brand experience can be designed to reveal more through a story arc. Content marketing campaigns can build upon one another to add depth and dimension to the brand and your target's brand experience.

is for Story

Brands contain stories. Every person interacting with your brand has an experience, and all those experiences have a narrative. Experiences are 'moving', not static. Have you designed a campaign from start to finish with the concept of story included? It's about presenting distinct chunks of information in a predetermined order which paints a full picture only at completion. Story is a dimension of brand that is under utilized. Maybe your next campaign should include story elements.

is for Trust

It's probably the fundamental quality of every brand: trustworthiness. When your content campaigns are branded, they borrow trust from the brand. Making them more accessible and immediate to your audience. Take this one step further -- create content and campaigns centered on trust and you foster hope, belief and confidence in your audience. What a beautiful trio of concepts and feelings to infuse the brand experience. How often do your content campaigns explore the issue of trust. You can deliberately create positive emotions for you and your stuff in your content.

is for Under

Your brand exists to support your positioning. It's like this: positioning is like a suitcase, it holds your stuff. Brand is like the handle on the suitcase; it makes it possible to grasp and hold the suitcase. People immediately notice your suitcase, and take the handle for granted. The same thing should occur (don't over think this) with branded content campaigns. Make your content about the big issues and let the branding support the concepts and messages. Don't make the brand the focus of your content.

is for Vigorous

How do you spot bland content? I actually mean - how do you? Bland content blends into the background. It's not noticeable. Engaging content that draws attention and creates awareness is vigorous. It's usually full of life and actively pulls interest and attention away from your competition. Do you have "vigorous" on your content campaign checklist? If not, get it in there and add some pepper to your campaigns.

 is for Welfare

Your customer's welfare needs to be the prime purpose you and your stuff serve. Same goes for your content messages and campaigns. Content designed to qualify and disqualify prospects and leads is essential component of your marketing pipeline. Keeping in mind that problem-solving is the purpose of the business will ensure your customer creation activities are focused and coordinated.

is for "X marks the spot"

If you're thinking pirates, maps and treasure, you're with me on this one. Branded content marketing is about leading your audience on a treasure hunt. Their treasure is getting their problem solved. Your treasure is making the sale. The thing is, very few buying decisions are instant, there's almost always some kind of journey involved. Try thinking of your content and campaigns as treasure maps of a sort, leading and pulling your audience towards the sale and close. It's a great way to add some life to your withering campaigns.

is for Young

Have you ever experienced an 'old' brand? I can't think of one. Even brands that began in the late 1800s have been refreshed and updated, re-branded and 'polished' to keep them contemporary. How stodgy and creaky is your content? Are you running any content campaigns or just randomly producing whitepapers and the ocassional webcast? There's a saying about youth; they think they're invincible. That's a very healthy outlook for your brand. And it will infuse all your content marketing efforts with a refreshing attitude.

is for Zag Zig

Zag zig, not zig zag. Anyone can zig zag. Only the daring zag zig. It's about a brand that can be decorous and adventurous. Content campaigns that are a little bit unpredictable but still remain in character. It's about brainstorming. It's not about 'outside the box' thinking and doing. That's what everyone else is focused on. It's more about never having a box, or circle, or sphere. I think it's mostly about surprising yourself. Try it.

And there you have it. 26 different ways to consider branded content elements as the essential components of your marketing pipeline campaigns.

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