Do Your Content Marketing Elements & Campaigns Need A Big Idea?

I'm asked this often. The answer is no, you don't need a big idea to create and manage an effective content marketing campaign. But it sure helps if you have a reason for doing what you're doing that involves your audience and inspires them to action, which is usually part of your big idea. Having a big idea makes your communication tasks easier than not having one.

Because the 'big idea' provides a consistent foundation for your content elements. Without a 'big idea' you run the risk of producing content that is unrelated, doesn't present a logical progression or is just plain contradictory in nature. And that's sloppy content marketing.

Big Ideas Are Not Always Creative

A big idea is not the same as a creative solution. Big ideas are strategic in nature, not tactical. Big ideas do not change every year like TV commercials do. Big ideas are the foundation of all your messages, and can sometimes influence brand. A big idea is usually an offshoot of your positioning, creating focus and energy behind your efforts to create meaningful brand relationships. Big ideas are rallying cries. And I'd say big ideas are the glue holding you and your current customers together.

Action

The job of the marketing pipeline is to inspire people to take action. The big thought here is "inspire". Some marketers are focused on getting leads from prospects, or getting sales from leads. That focus is on "getting"; which is actually "taking". They become so obsessed with conversions and transforming strangers into leads that their messages can be strident.

Content marketing is all about giving, not taking. We actually aren't responsible for the transformation from prospect to lead to customer. Just as we aren't responsible for the brand meaning our audiences derive from the brand. Content's job is to provide the right mix of information and motivation that appeals to your audience and inspires them to take action that causes change.

Real People Make Decisions

It's your audience targets and segments - whom are real people by the way, that make the decision to move forward from consideration towards the buying decision. They themselves are responsible for the change in their status. Our job is to create a relationship with them that gives them the confidence and security that moving forward will be OK, with minimal risk and lots of protection.

And that's where the big idea can help. Big ideas capture the imagination. They can motivate. They can lead. They can be compelling, moving and inspiring. Which is exactly what we would like to see happening. Because the common theme is movement from one state to another. Action.

What Is A Campaign?

My definition of a content marketing campaign is:
a series of messages delivered over a period of time designed to inspire the recipient to take action.

I'll add that a campaign normally has a unifying theme and idea that identifies each message element as being a part of the campaign, which jogs the audience's memory of the previous message and predisposes them to consume the current message.

I think a recurring idea and narrative helps each campaign element be identified as belonging to the brand and helps the message element cut through the marketing noise, attract attention to itself, and get itself consumed.

Where Do Big Ideas Come From?

Start with your current customers. Talk to them, find out why they choose to do business with you. What are their stories? It might sound corny, but an old TV Police series had a great line you can use. It went something like this: "This is the city. Home to millions and these are their stories..." You never know what unexpected avenues you'll discover when you talk to your customers. Best of all, you'll be exploring their language, their reasons, their logic, their perceptions and point of view.

What's your competitive positioning? Look at your position in the marketplace and seek out natural extensions of that strategy. Each extension has the possibility to spark an idea. Then seek out the intrusions; how can you shrink and simplify your competitive positioning?

Have you any research? I once founded a successful business based on a single sentence from a 104 page research report on oral hygiene practices and habits in North America. It was an insight the contractor of the report overlooked because it didn't fit their preconceived beliefs about their business and the potential opportunities. Check back into your research with a new reason for reading.

Previous campaigns. There might be a successful print brochure or series of letters from the past. Repurpose anything that's been proven to work.

List everything negative about your stuff. Approach the problem as a problem. Make lists of negatives. What doesn't it do? Where will it not work? Keep at the negative attributes until you reach the "aha" moment.

Reverse engineer your stuff. If you were the competition, what would you be trying to do to steal mind share? There will be a series of improvements and simplifications and features that might be the ignition for a big idea.

Play the "what if" game: what if we did..., what if it was made from... That can get you digging into the core of what you do for answers to your value proposition and essential positioning.

Inspiration

I want you to comprehend that big ideas come from looking at your world differently than you normally do. You have a mission to grab attention and create interest. The big idea is the wrapper that holds together a campaign from start to finish. Also, big ideas aren't necessarily creative ideas. Creative executions can vary widely based on a single big idea. Which is why big ideas are more strategic oriented rather than tactical/executional.

You're going to find your big idea has everything to do with your competitive positioning, which just underscores the importance of doing the hard work to figure out and apply a competitive positioning strategy. All your marketing efforts depend on your positioning, of which brand is the forward facing character.

Make sure your idea is congruent with your positioning and brand. You would not expect a gasket manufacturer to use a fashion-based big idea to interest and introduce gasket buyers to his line of gaskets.

Find your big ideas inside your stuff, inside the business and service and product. Those are the big ideas with the most credibility. The kinds of ideas that create belief which leads towards trust. Remember that the big idea is only there to give "legs" to your message and support your various messages which fuel your audience's journey from awareness to decision to buy.

Big ideas are rarely campaign specific. If you find you have this amazing idea for a traffic campaign but it doesn't work for your loyalty building efforts, then you don't have the 'big idea', you probably have a creative execution. Check to see if the creative has a foundation in what you do and in the value proposition customers respond to. I've seen hundreds of campaigns go no where because the great idea didn't seamlessly communicate the essence of what you do for your customers in a novel and interesting way. There are a lot of 'rogue' content elements cluttering up the web, don't add to that mess.

Finding the inspiration that interests your customers, leads and prospects can be fun, because it opens up plenty of room for creative executions.

Think about how different your offer and creative appeal will be for a traffic campaign compared to a loyalty campaign. Traffic campaigns are about making enough noise to be seen, and giving enough substance to that noise that a stranger will become curious and interested enough to consume your message. Your loyalty campaigns are about giving back to your customers and helping them use and apply your stuff to solve their problems. Yet both campaigns, different creative and different appeals - both campaigns will share the same big idea premise.