TMI #57: How your culture defines your content

You can learn a lot about a business’ culture by reading their content.

Maybe this is the next recruiting frontier; an easy way for potential workers to determine if they want to seek employment at a carrier or brokerage. Read everything you can that the business puts out. Then, decide if you want to apply for the job.

I can just imagine the job headlines on LinkedIn…

"This DIY broker expects you to download your onboarding — remotely"

"ABC Underwriting cares only about your sales success"

Bottom line: Your content is the first glimpse at what it will be like to work with you.

When a potential insured downloads an eBook, a white paper or clicks on a post with a great headline they found on LinkedIn, they’re experiencing your business for the first time.

If they find your content helpful, they'll read on. If their user experience includes friction, i.e. if they have to weigh entering their email address vs. the promise of another eBook on 2024 Business Trends, they may move on. If they read something one of your SME’s authored in a trusted magazine, they may look you up online to learn more.

First customer touch points are critical — and often end up determining your future relationship with the insured. Kind of like our first impressions of people in real life.

?? Have you ever met someone and connected with them instantly? ????♀?

?? Have you hung out with someone all night and only after you got home realized they talked about themselves the whole time? ????♀?

The challenge is, as marketers we have almost zero insight into some of these critical customer experiences. It’s nearly impossible to capture the experience of eBook download #515, or what the lurkers on social media think of your brand positioning.

What you can control is the content you put out into the world. How you do it, when you do it, where you do it and why you do it.

The best way to dream up a list of content topics, outline a magazine article, build out an eBook, report or a webinar is to imagine being the consumer yourself. You’ve heard this a million times. Some of you have even said it yourselves, but too many of you put away your own consumer hat as soon as you don your marketing hat.

Big mistake.

User experience is ubiquitous. And you’re a consumer too. The minute we don’t see ourselves in our readers, we lose our ability to effectively reach them.

The result? Content that’s filled with hidden sales pitches or, worse, the dreaded — product focus. News flash: No one wants to read those blogs. I don’t. And neither do your readers.

Businesses that are built on a culture of consultation, education, collaboration and inclusivity will all bleed this in their content because it’s in the hearts, minds and on the lips of their leaders and their experts. Their published stuff will be consultative and educational in nature. As a consumer, you know their content will be a mirror to working with them.

At the same time, businesses that prioritize top-down talk on how to win the sale and which features are superior to the competition will bleed that language into their content. Don’t get me wrong. These topics have a place in business culture — at the annual sales conference, just not in your day-to-day nomenclature.

The outside is always reflective of the inside — with content as with people.

All the best, Mindi :)

INSIGHTS? Stuff worth reading

Entrepreneur: How a LinkedIn algorithm change could boost your posts for MONTHS

MarTech: Little ways to make your email marketing stand out in a BIG way

Heinz Marketing: How to streamline your content development with minimal lift

Medium: How to craft an effective content strategy on a budget

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