11 ways to make your content marketing more experiential (and effective)

I've been teaching a new class at CCAD. While similar to previous classes on branding and marketing, this one leans heavily into experience (or experiential) marketing as part of a brand strategy. It does not explicitly get into content marketing (which is what I do for my main gig), but in discussing both concepts with colleagues and students, I realize there is a bit of a disconnect between the nature of the thing being marketed and the type of marketing.

TL;DR version: you can -- and should -- create experiential marketing content for any product or service, even if you are not selling an experience. In fact, the closer what you're selling is to "not an experience at all," the more you should lean into including experiential content in your marketing.

The longer version, with some economic and marketing background/history

If you look at the history of economic eras, it breaks down into

• Agricultural Economy: Wealth and value primarily related to farming and livestock. Related commodities (minerals, lumber, cloth, etc.) generally went towards improving agriculture or to military efforts to acquire more arable land. Most people worked at jobs that had something to do with keeping most people from starving most of the time.
• Industrial Economy: Value created by the mass production of goods in factories. Improvements in farming, food storage and preservation, travel, communications, and logistics meant that many fewer people were needed to service farms; instead, we serviced the machines that made stuff, and then bought that stuff.
• Service Economy: The majority of the workforce is engaged in services rather than manufacturing. This includes sectors like healthcare, education, and finance.
• Experience Economy: A focus on creating and selling memorable experiences and activities, rather than goods or traditional services.

The main difference between services and experiences is that services are generally things you don't want to do for yourself or can't (lawncare, haircuts, surgery, education), and experiences are things you really, really want to do for yourself (vacation, entertainment, fitness).

Now... how does this related to content and experiential marketing?

The three basic types of marketing

If you want to break marketing down into three broad categories, I'd suggest the following:

• Brand marketing: creates feelings and ideas about your brand in the absence of any specific call-to-action. This can involve everything from choosing a spokesperson to which sports to advertise with/in, to visual elements, to the story aspects of your brand. If you look at marketing and think, "That's cool," it's probably brand marketing.
• Promotional marketing: drives sales directly. This involves pricing, how- and where-to-buy, features, value statements, etc. If you look at an ad and think, "I'd consider doing/buying that," it's probably promotional.
• Content marketing: creates a connection to the brand through materials or activities that provide direct value regardless of intent to buy or overall brand awareness/preference. This can include videos, blogs, white papers, research, training events, speaker series, templates, advice, consumer groups, community activities, etc. If you engage with content marketing, you should come out of it having felt that YOU did something (learned something, met someone, created something) with value, whether or not you go on to purchase from the brand.

Obviously, these overlap and mix together. But I would generally say that almost all marketing I've done falls into these three camps. Am I sharing or promoting thoughts/feelings about my brand, moving prospects down the sales funnel, or providing content that has value outside of any economic activity?

Why experience matters

In the broad sense, everything we do -- even sitting and reading or thinking -- is "an experience." You have to read or watch a brand or promotional ad. So is that "experiential marketing?"

No. Because the experience is ONLY related to the marketing. There is nothing for the customer to experience outside the funnel of your marketing/sales efforts.

Inversely, almost all content marketing is at least somewhat experiential. Even if one is just reading a blog post -- as long as it's not blatant brand hype or a promo push -- you should come away having felt like you've done something good for yourself, not just the company providing the material.

Experience matters in marketing for the same reason it matters in the economy: it is the kind of activity (whether the service itself or the marketing) that is most personal and active.

One of the things we learn in my branding class, though, is that for marketing experiences to be effective, you want to make them MORE LIKE X, where "X" is the type of experience being offered. That's why (for example) "edutainment" products are often so laughably bad. When we seek entertainment, we love it more when it's more entertaining. Education is better when the learning activities are better at teaching us.

Your content marketing is TRYING to create an experience. Can you make it work and land harder?

11 ways to make content marketing better by making it more experiential

So what are some other "experiences" that good content marketing can create or improve?

1. Engage. The term "engagement" is terribly overused. But, broadly, what it means is that you give your audience more ways to interact with your content. That can be as easy as a (well moderated) comment section, a way to share ideas, something to download or do, etc. All of the following are, essentially, engagement opportunities.
2. Discover. Provide avenues to further explore the content you provide. If the experience ends with the blog post? That's not a rich discovery experience. Links to related materials, "learn more" content, ask-an-expert contacts, etc. Give the audience the tools to dig deeper.
3. Interact. Like engagement, but in real-time. Quizzes with results right in the feed. Games that showcase ideas or features. Tools that can put the information to work. A way to upload personal examples.
4. Participate. Somehow join into activities that are curated among a group. Creating a hashtag is a start. Providing a place to share examples and ideas. Ways to connect with others in the community.
5. Create. If you can get your users creating something for themselves using your marketing content? You win. Just like helping someone do a favor for a friend is even better networking than doing it yourself, providing content that lets your users create content is a major plus. Because they will then associate your content with theirs and feel like their creative endeavors owe some of their successes to you.
6. Connect. Create ways for people to meet others for whom the content is meaningful. Events are good, online forums with actual interactivity that take audience participation seriously (not "webinars that suck") are good. Convening artists, writers, developers, etc. around a cause or learning activity. Anything that helps me expand my network and influence.
7. Immerse. What is "immersive content?" It's content that moves beyond the frame provided (the blog page, the white-paper, the YouTube video) into the work, play, creativity, life streams of the user. Can I (should I?) use this video in my teaching? Does the blog content provide a list I can pull out and put to work?
8. Learn. Educational content is great, but tricky. People often like to dedicate specific times/places to learning, and trust certain established players to teach them. If your brand wants to educate, that's great... but be aware that your audience may know a LOT more than you do.
9. Collaborate. Literally, does the event or content allow for me to create, learn, immerse, etc. with other people? We like doing things together. Adding collaborative elements immediately makes branded content more experiential.
10. Innovate. Is there a way your audience can take what you're sharing and apply it to their work or life-flows? Can you help them improve their lives in new ways? This isn't YOU being innovative--it's helping your audience innovate.
11. Enjoy. Is it fun? Is it appropriate for it to be fun? If yes, is there humor? Music? Wonderful art? Interesting tidbits that readers can share? People prefer to not be bored, regardless of the other aspects of the activity.

There's more. I stopped at 11 because they get a bit repetitive and redundant and repetitive. And the distinctions become a bit fuzzy. But basically, you can add to this list by coming up with verbs that your audience can somehow activate within your marketing content.

Also: Improving all of these at once is impossible. Don't bother trying. Pick a couple and focus on them. Try adding different experiences at different points in your marketing/sales funnels. Try targeting them based on audience or where you are in a product cycle. For example, a new product might lean more heavily into educational content (letting people know about how to use it to innovate, for example), whereas a more established product might do better linked to marketing that creates community around its use.

Why bother? What's the payoff?

Great question! Thank me for asking.

As we've moved through the types of economies mentioned above (agricultural, industrial, service, experience), audiences have become very, very good at deconstructing brand and promo marketing related, especially, to the first two. We have been soaking in commodity and product ads for more than 100 years now. Service brands are a bit newer... but we're still talking 50 years of "old school" marketing to get us to use a specific bank, law firm, tree service, barber, etc. And all of the brand/promo advertising in the world is and has been clearly aimed at getting customers to engage with your brand (here comes the punchline)...

with your brand at the center.

Content marketing--especially content marketing that is more experiential--puts

your audience at the center.

Just like experiential products.

And when you center your marketing around your audience and their needs and joys... when you provide them with content that lets them [VERB] something other than buy your stuff?

You're providing branded, content marketing experiences that can create more lasting, personal, effective, and authentic connections.