Wow! 3 Ways to Make Your Brand Shine with WOW-Worthy Content
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This article is the third in a three-part series on creating unique marketing content by expressing yourself with creativity and color.
The first piece talked about three techniques for infusing your marketing content with subtle humor.
The second piece covered three ways to say goodbye to blah content by using fresh, detailed language.
In this piece, we’ll look at three ways to differentiate your marketing by infusing your content with the best of yourself and your brand.
When you look closely, you’ll see that your life, passions, and hobbies—and the lives, passions, and hobbies of your company’s leaders—are overflowing gardens where you’ll find many opportunities for colorful expression.
Specifically, we’ll talk about dipping into those gardens to:
Find and own your language.
Weave in details about your passions and hobbies.
Use unconventional elements like poems and personal artwork.
First up—find and own your language.
1. Make your marketing content stand out by finding and owning your language
Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash
The first place to look in the garden of color is at yourself.
Each of us has a different way of speaking. We’ve all developed catchphrases that the people around us consider part of us because we repeat them so often.
Do you recognize any of these catchphrases? (Answers at the end.)
Make it work.
Just keep swimming.
Work hard, play hard.
Ew, David!
Yada yada yada.
What words or phrases do you repeat often?
If you need help identifying your catchphrases, ask your family. Or email five people who know you well and ask them what words or phrases they associate with you or that you tend to repeat.
If you’re comfortable with those words and phrases, look for ways to integrate them into your marketing content.
Here are a few of my catchphrases:
Hey, man.
You guys...
Chump!
Something fierce.
I rarely use those catchphrases in formal marketing pieces, like one-pagers, web content, and social media profiles. But I incorporate them in my more-conversational content, like social media posts, blog posts, and emails.
For my formal marketing, I favor the phrases “beyond copy”—because great content incorporates so much more than just “copy”—and “the content experience,” which I define as how content looks, sounds, feels, and functions, all from the reader’s perspective.
via Authorra2studio
Catchphrases versus slogans: What’s the difference?
Whereas catchphrases are connected with individuals and characters, slogans are connected to brands.
Just do it—Nike.
I’m lovin’ it—McDonald's.
Build what’s next—Google Cloud.
Where work happens—Slack.
If you’d like to develop a catchphrase or slogan, keep the following in mind:
Place your audience at the forefront.
Know your audience’s preferences, interests, aspirations, and values so you can tailor your catchphrase or slogan to resonate. For instance, if you run an environmental consultancy and seek government contracts, you likely won’t want a catchphrase like Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!” Instead, you might want phrases like greening government, environmental excellence, or a greener government landscape, all of which could become slogans, too.
Make it memorable, emotional—you.
Choose phrases that are easy to say, spell, and remember. Use short, powerful language that sticks in people’s minds and taps their emotions. Whether you use humor, inspiration, or empathy, aim to evoke feelings that match your brand or personal image. Also, aim for a catchphrase or slogan that reflects your values, personality, and what sets you apart, the way my “content experience” sets me apart from other writers.
Avoid infringing on intellectual property rights.
Check for possible infringement before you move forward with any word or phrase by searching TESS, the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) electronic search system. The last thing you want is to begin to use a word or phrase that someone else has already trademarked.
Author tashatuvango
Consider protecting your catchphrase or slogan.
If the word or phrase you want to use is available, consider protecting it. The USPTO offers many free resources and services to help you with the process.
Check if the domain name is available.
Check if the domain name is available, too. You never know when you might want to set up a new website or landing page using your catchphrase or slogan.
2. Make your marketing content unique by weaving in your passions and hobbies
Another way to bring yourself and your brand into your content is to weave in your hobbies and passions when writing content.
Here are a few examples from my life:
I looked at the postcard from Paris and thought of how changing your environment is good for creativity.
This morning, while journaling in my beloved Monolith notebook, content inspiration struck again.
When I considered how many people were busy living their lives within the scope of my view over Atlanta, I realized how easy it is to forget the individuals who make up your audience when creating content.
Photo by RENAE GREGOIRE
How about you?
Are you into cooking? Perhaps you could translate your culinary expertise into “recipe” content related to your business.
Do you have a pet snake? Perhaps the way its skin sheds reminds you of the transformation your business takes people through.
Or, perhaps your family is your burning passion. While you’re spending time with them, feeling an open, expansive love, think about your business and customers. How do the feelings relate? How might you weave those feelings and experiences with your family into your content?
via Unsplash+
Weaving in details from your life makes for fabulous content, whether on your blog, in your emails, or on your social media channels.
And a bonus—by weaving yourself into your content, you create unique material no one else on the internet can replicate.
That’s just the kind of content people—not to mention search engines—crave.
3. Differentiate your marketing content by expressing yourself in unconventional ways
Suppose conventional marketing content is “business people speaking to people,” along with stock imagery and charts and tables on a page. What would you make of marketing content that included an original poem, children’s artwork, or a you-branded version of a much-loved piece?
I envision unconventional content like that for mom-and-pop shops, small businesses, and even a blog post by a McKinsey author. And because most marketing content does not include such elements, content that does stands out.
Let’s walk through a few examples.
Original—or even AI-generated—poetry
Haiku is one of my favorite forms of creative expression.
Here’s a haiku I wrote to thank my social media audience when I ran an event a few years ago:
Photo by RENAE GREGOIRE
If you like the poem idea but don’t fancy yourself a poet, try this fun Poem Generator. You can quickly create haikus, couplets, sonnets, and more.
Or, ask ChatGPT or another generative AI system to write a poem for you. I explained to ChatGPT about this piece you’re now reading and asked it to generate a haiku for you.
Here’s the result I liked best:
Photo by RENAE GREGOIRE
Cool, and perhaps even a little spooky.
A borrowed piece of popular literature in the public domain
Gabe Howden, director of business development at Tribyl.com, likes to send unconventional content to his prospects during the holidays. Recently, he sent a version of “The Night Before Christmas,” tweaked for Tribyl’s audience of product marketing managers—PMMs.
Screenshot by RENAE GREGOIRE
Warning: If you use this technique, be sure you’re using a work that’s in the public domain, meaning that it no longer has copyright protection and is free to use. “The Night Before Christmas” was first published in 1823, so it is in the public domain.
Personal, meaningful artwork
My husband, who owns a pest control company, used the unconventional content technique, too, by sending his customers postcards with artwork and text by our children.
Photo by Renae Gregoire; Artwork by Annette Gregoire
Many of his customers commented on the treat when he showed up for service even many months later. Several customers even make a point of contacting him just to say they appreciated the card.
He also used the technique to great effect on direct mail postcards.
Photo by Renae Gregoire; Artwork by Annette Gregoire
Now it’s your turn: Go forth, create, differentiate
In this three-part series, we covered nine techniques you can add to your toolkit. Use them as you create new content. Also consider auditing your current content to see which pieces need a bit of tender, creative, loving care.
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Answers: 1 - Make it work; Tim Gunn, Project Runway. 2 - Just keep swimming; Dory, Finding Nemo. 3 - Work hard, play hard; Elon Musk. 4 - Ew, David; Alexis Rose, Schitt’s Creek; 5 - Yada yada yada; Elaine Benes, Seinfeld
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Originally published on Forbes.com.