What are some effective strategies for creating unique content in a competitive market?

Before diving into creating content, make sure your brand building framework is in place. Including the unique brand promise, brand values, brand character and of course how we look like and how we sound. Then execute with relentless constancy in each and every touchpoint. No matter how tempting, always remember: tactical is off strategy!

Brand voice is not just a component of your content strategy. It's the essence that brings your brand identity to life. It's how you communicate your brand's personality and differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace. A well-defined brand voice resonates with your audience, fostering deeper connection and loyalty. Your brand voice should also adapt to the context while maintaining its core identity. Just like a person, a brand may communicate differently in a formal report than on social media, but the underlying characteristics should be unmistakably consistent. Review and refine your brand voice regularly. As your market evolves, as new competitors emerge, and as you learn more about your customers.

To create unique content in a busy market, remember this: focus on what your audience cares about, tell stories, use pictures and videos, provide lots of useful info, share your own thoughts, and work with others. These things make your content special and interesting to your audience.

You are you, and people listen to you for who you are. Solidifying your brand voice and values will build the foundation for all of your content as you can think outside of the box while staying true to who you are and what you stand for. - What's your mission and purpose? - What are your values or principles? - What's your brand personality? These are all great questions to determine your brand voice and how you speak to people.

Knowing and consistently using my brand voice has been pivotal to my business. It's like having a distinct personality that resonates with my audience. To define it, I considered my brand's values, mission, and the emotions I wanted to evoke. With clarity on my brand's voice – be it authoritative, friendly, or inspiring – I've been able to maintain a consistent and authentic tone across all my content. This has not only built brand recognition but also established a deeper connection with my audience, fostering trust and loyalty.

Understand your audience! Use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or even AI-powered sentiment analysis to gather data about your audience. Create buyer personas to better visualize and understand the different segments within your audience. By understanding your audience's behaviors and preferences, you can create hyper-targeted content that addresses their specific interests and needs.

Understanding my audience's needs has been a cornerstone of my success. I've invested time in researching, listening, and engaging with them to uncover their pain points, desires, and preferences. This knowledge has allowed me to tailor my products and services precisely to meet their requirements. By addressing their needs, I've built stronger customer relationships, improved user experiences, and ultimately achieved better business results. It's an ongoing commitment to putting my audience at the center of everything I do.

A deep understanding of your audience is pivotal. Once, by analyzing customer feedback, we uncovered a gap in resources for advanced social listening tactics. Addressing this with targeted content, we not only filled the gap but also significantly increased our authority and engagement rates in our niche.

To truly cater to your audience, you need to get to know them inside out. It's not just about who they are but understanding what makes them tick, what keeps them up at night, and what dreams they chase after. Once you know their needs and can create purposeful content, magic happens – connections deepen, and your brand becomes more than just a product; it becomes an experience.

Understand your audience = Building Trust and Credibility Demonstrating that you understand your audience's needs fosters trust and credibility. When customers see that your brand consistently delivers value, they are more likely to trust your recommendations, engage with your content, and advocate for your brand.

Setting clear content goals is the cornerstone of any successful content strategy. It's like setting a destination before starting a journey. Without knowing where you're going, you can't choose the right path or measure your progress along the way. In my experience, content goals should not only align with broader business goals, but also reflect the customer journey. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, your content should be designed to capture attention and engage new audiences. This might mean creating shareable content that highlights the unique aspects of your brand or leveraging platforms where your target audience spends time.

Knowing your content goals is vital for a successful strategy. It's about defining what you want to achieve with your content, whether it's raising brand awareness, increasing website traffic, generating leads, or providing valuable information. These goals guide your content creation, distribution, and measurement. By setting clear objectives, you can create more focused and effective content that aligns with your broader business or marketing goals.

Setting clear content goals is crucial. For SentiOne, focusing on thought leadership drove our content strategy. We aimed to not only inform but also to spark conversations, positioning ourselves as industry leaders. This strategic goal helped us tailor our content for maximum impact, leading to a marked increase in lead quality and client engagement.

If you could map out success, goals would act like checkpoints along the path. They need to be crystal clear, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. When it comes to content - Sure, you can choose to sprint and create without a goal, but without those checkpoints, you might end up running in circles. Define your goals first to ensure each step you take leads you closer to success.

Content goals should not be set in stone. They can be adjusted as your brand evolves or as market dynamics change. By having clear goals in place, you can make informed decisions about when and how to adapt your content strategy to stay responsive to shifting consumer needs and market trends.

Research for valuable data is mandatory. Conduct original research or compile existing data to create industry reports, white papers, or trend analysis. Use infographics to make data more digestible. Original research can position your brand as a credible authority, and sharing unique insights can attract backlinks and social shares.

In-depth research can unearth golden content opportunities. Our dive into industry trends led us to create a whitepaper on AI's impact on customer service, a topic barely touched upon by competitors. It became one of our most downloaded pieces, highlighting the importance of well-researched, unique content.

Research supports,informs and validates your opinion. Even if you don’t have a large amount of information. Having a single article share the same ideas, or one prominent voice in the same line of business as you goes a long way. Be strategic about your research and find support from relevant resources.

It's not just about what people are talking about; it's about what they're not saying yet. Research will help you find the gaps and hidden sweet spots your brand can use to excel and stand out.

Do your research = Low Risk Research helps mitigate the risk of creating content that misses the mark. It allows you to base your decisions on informed insights, reducing the likelihood of costly missteps and content that falls flat.

Creativity in content creation is the lifeblood of engagement and differentiation. It's what sets your content and brand out of the ordinary. In my practice, I've found that creativity is not just a spark, but a process that can be cultivated and structured. Brainstorming, mind mapping, and free writing are excellent techniques for generating ideas. They can be especially effective when done in a team setting, where the collective energy and diversity of thought can lead to unexpected and innovative ideas. Encourage your team to think freely without judgment during these sessions to maximize creative output.

1.) Instead of trying to look like every other brand professional in the field, draw on your unique differences – maybe you have an initial background in wind energy or pharma before switching careers. Pull out the perspectives that many won't have and use them to enrich your content. 2.) Think about an area you want to create content for and map out what you want to achieve... then go for a walk. Sometimes the best ideas come when you're not forcing your brain to produce them. 3.) Write not just around today's topics (the ones everyone's covering) but where you think we're heading tomorrow.

Creativity in content creation is about connecting dots uniquely. When we blended insights from social listening with trending topics, we crafted content that resonated on multiple levels. This approach not only showcased our expertise but also sparked curiosity, setting our content apart in a sea of sameness.

Ah, the quest for unique content! Start by hiring a dragon, preferably one with a flair for the dramatic and a love for hoarding unique ideas instead of gold. This dragon becomes your chief editor. Next, instead of saving princesses, focus on interviewing them. Discover their deepest, most un-princess-like qualities. Expose these in a reality TV style series titled “The Real Princesses of Fairytale Land.” Invest in a magical mirror, not for beauty checks, but as a lie detector during interviews. You're also going to want to make sure to include a subplot about the dragon's secret life as a gourmet chef, specializing in fire-grilled delicacies. This adds a culinary twist, engaging foodie audiences.

As a general rule, I'd initially prioritise quality over quantity - and behavioural science supports this approach: ?? Information Overload: High-quality content eases cognitive load, combating decision fatigue. ??Anchoring Heuristic: Quality content anchors your brand positively, fostering trust and engagement. ??Consistency Principle: Consistent quality content strengthens relationships and encourages repeated engagement. ??Emotional Engagement: Quality content can evoke emotions, influencing decision-making. ?? Reciprocity: By consistently providing high-quality content, you encourage reciprocity and loyalty. Quality content that's informed by behavioural science, can help build lasting engagement, trust, and brand loyalty.

Consistency is the basic need of any strategy. This provides clarity to both the advertising team and the end consumers. Why is consistency the basic need? Well, it allows the strategy to convey the same message, understood in the same way by consumers, ultimately reinforcing the focus.

Consistency is a fundamental principle when developing a content strategy, with multiple studies showing that people prefer content that aligns with existing brand expectations. According to Robert Cialdini, pioneer of this principle (as explored in "Influence: Science and Practice"), brands that maintain committed to delivering top-quality content quickly cultivate trust and reinforce positive relationships between their brand and the audience. This consistency not only prompts repeated audience engagement, but also helps build a robust connection between your audience and your brand.

While brand consistency is important for brand recall, brands can go too far in the templatization of their brand assets. Think of brand identity as malleable and evolving rather than concrete and stoic. Audience preferences have changed. Subtle branding and brand identity signals are in right now. The polished branded TV commercial or Instagram feed is dead. Long live random, chaotic and authentic content.

Consistency in content doesn't equate to predictability. By maintaining a steady voice and quality while also regularly introducing fresh formats and topics, we kept our audience engaged and looking forward to what's next from SentiOne.

Consistency is the glue that holds your brand's voice and message together. It's not a one-time thing; it's a daily practice. From your tone of voice to posting schedule, keep things steady. Your audience should know what to expect when they see your logo or read your name.

1. Be innovative. Lead, don’t follow. Continuously improve your product, service, and messaging to stay relevant to the ever-changing landscape. 2. Deliver a solution to a real problem or need. A deep understanding of your consumer and customer needs allows you to deliver deep emotional and relevant solutions to their problems in a way your competition cannot. 3. Narrow your target market. 4. Be honest with yourself and your audience. 5. Deliver an outstanding experience. 6. DO NOT focus on price. A truly differentiated business, product, or service has real value and merits a premium price.

Beyond strategies, never underestimate the power of storytelling. Even in B2B marketing, it's the stories that make data and facts relatable and memorable. By weaving narratives around our data, we transformed SentiOne's insights into compelling content that drove action and fostered a deeper connection with our audience.

Consider what you're doing / offering that others are not talking about - sometimes it's not that different to what another brand is offering, but if they're not talking about it, then you can capitalise on that opportunity. Especially if it’s something that resonates with your target market. For example, GoPro is not the only action camera brand out there, BUT, their inspired use of user generated content (UGC) is key to their brand strategy. Other action camera brands might also be doing it, but GoPro are talking about it all the time, using their UGC to showcase their products and continuously engage with their customers on various platforms. So when you think action camera, you automatically think GoPro because it’s now top-of-mind.

I challenge my clients, and myself to dig deep into what drives our audience to move. Can you bring any personal experience into the mix? Personal and brand stories can help fuel content that stands out in a busy market.

Nailing unique content means really getting your brand and who you're chatting to. A steady brand voice, backed by brain know-how, makes things click and stirs up feelings. Dig deep into what your crowd wants for stuff that hits home. Set clear targets, let research lead to fresh spots, and keep it steady. Stay true to your game and you'll stand out from the pack.