THE BUSINESS OF CONTENT

There's a secret that all great salespeople know:

Never tell a story without a point…

....and never make a point without a story.

Selling through content is the same way.

You've heard about storytelling in business. Here is what this really means.

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If you are a sales-driven organization you need stories.

If you are a brand-driven organization, you need stories.

But these are not the SAME stories!

THE SALES STORY

SALES stories seek to generate a transaction.

Sales stories are built around MONEY.

They focus on immediate financial benefits like cost-savings, financial returns or personal ?improvement. They almost always involve the time factor of fleeting opportunity.

Scarcity. Urgency. It's the push of immediacy.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of the expiring invitation or the limited offer.

These are covert forms of pressure. But they are actually a necessary component of any transaction-oriented content.

THE BRAND STORY

BRAND stories seek to generate loyalty.

?Brand stories are built around RELATIONSHIP.

They focus on longer-term emotional connection. They are almost always based on shared values.

Purpose. Mission. Friendship.

In contrast, this approach does not focus on short-term transactions to “move the needle.”

Brand uses pull, rather than push. We've all received the newsletters fostering shared ideals like empathy, vision and community.

It takes a long time to build that trust. But over time, this approach yields a bulletproof connectedness.

WHICH IS BETTER?

Sales-driven content is overwhelmingly more common in the business world today.

Sales-driven content is often found in the money verticals such as Financial Services, Real Estate and Media. But it’s not your industry that determines your content. It is your company leadership.

This is why a technology firm, like IBM, might seek sales, while a technology firm, like Apple, might seek brand. Same field. Different leadership. Different content tilt.

You've even seen this dynamic inside the exact same firm.

Former Disney CEO, Bob Iger focused his company on the customer experience of brand. Yet his replacement, Bob Chapek, moved the focus to maximizing sales. Anyone who's been to a Disney Park recently can spot the difference in the company focus. From a business perspective, shifts like this have implications on content strategy.

Neither is necessarily right or wrong. But the role of content in any business is to reinforce the strategic goals of the business. In practice, this means answering the content question of selling versus branding.

WHY NOT BOTH?

Of course, every organization wants to expand both their sales numbers and their brand strength. But in reality, two separate goals require two separate strategies. And then two separate executions. The truth is that most companies are struggling to gain clarity in their messaging. Most companies are just committing random acts of content, without a palpable strategy.

So your first task is to get clear on the functional role of the content your company needs.

No matter what you do, your company must tell contextual stories. This is the fastest way to move your organization towards its business goals. So whether you primarily want to build sales or brand, there are some simple steps to improve your content strategy:

STEP 1:????Be Honest

In the end, content creation isn’t just about being honest with your customers. It’s about being honest with yourself.

The first step in improving your content game is to improve your understanding of your organization. Identify the leadership philosophy at play. Then and only then, can you begin to craft the content and stories that will be most effective in engaging your prospects and customers.

STEP 2:????Define The CX

The next step is to develop your understanding of your customer’s experience. More importantly, you must define precisely what you want that experience to become.

This is crucial in fashioning the appropriate stories needed to engage customers. You must be deliberate in the ?anecdotes and yarns that your content shares. This starts with the WORDING of your messaging.

STEP 3:????Craft The Stories

When you are clear on where you are and where you want to go, the content creates itself. It will become easy to identify customer stories that summarize your effectiveness. Testimonials. Illustrations. Insights. All of this comes to the fore when you have the eyes on for it. ?

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EFFECTIVE CONTENT

Effective content is purposeful content. That means it exists for a reason. It has a specific job.

To make your content more effective, start by looking in the mirror. Are you playing the long game of building a brand? Or the short game of immediate revenue?

Either is fine, but each requires a different messaging strategy.

That is where you begin.

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Marc Angelos is founder of Anvictus Communication - a content marketing firm.?He is a business strategist and speaker with a 3-decade FinTech career.

Marc and his team design content strategies for fast-growing blockchain, Web3 and FinTech companies. This includes messaging and content to drive business development.

Marc has published several hundred articles and videos outlining how to build client trust and increase revenue through content. His work has been featured in media such as Informa, Bloomberg, Traders Magazine, CNBC, The Tilt, Sidecar Global, GreenFig and many business podcasts.

[email protected]