The Benefits Behind Investing in Authentic Content for your Brand’s Digital Presence

by Grace Morrison

Picture yourself scrolling on your Instagram feed. Your neighbor just posted a picture of her cat, Marshmallow, for the second time today. Your college lab partner just got married. You continue scrolling through your feed and a post pops up from a brand you follow. It’s over-designed and unengaging — it definitely looks like someone trying to sell something. You scroll past the offer so quickly you don’t even realize it’s highlighting a new product that you might actually enjoy.

CATER TO YOUR MARKET

In today’s world, consumers are inundated with push notifications, #ads, social media posts, emails, you name it. The sheer amount of brand messaging that consumers have available to them daily has trained viewers to tune out the ad noise. But when content truly resonates with your audience, you will captivate your leads and stop the incessant scroll. When content is authentic and relatable, consumers will engage. To know that something will be relatable, you have to know and understand your audience and cater your posting to them. From there, expect to see more clicks, comments, shares, even purchases.

When content is authentic and relatable, consumers will engage.

FIND THE RIGHT CONTENT TO PUBLISH

Having great content is not a new concept. We’ve all heard the saying “content is king.” Jeffrey Zeldman, one of the leading web designers of our time, comments a lot on this idea. This concept was developed far before we were targeting our markets on social media. In fact, it was more of a reminder to designers to find the message and context behind an industry’s brand before we ever tried to navigate design.

And while this message still stands in design today, now we market through a much more dominating social world. Social being a primary means to an actionable website, the now, secondary response. For social, we need to refine Zeldman’s concept of just content as king to original content is king. Original content on social means ditching stock photos and instead creating highly produced, authentic imagery and copy that captivates your audience. It can be challenging and time-consuming to produce unique concepts, but the benefits of investing in authentic digital publishing far outweigh the challenge. Show up consistently and plan ahead — focus on your desired gain, target market, and message.

FIND THE “LOYAL LIKE”

Authentic and original content helps to build trust between consumers and brand. With all of the digital noise produced, consumers can tell when something feels too staged or too generic. They want to see real people using real products in real ways. They want to see real-time photos. When they see your brand as someone who can engage them in a way that other brands can’t, they will become “loyal likers” and followers. Have a strong fan-base of engaged loyal likers already? Generate content by sharing their stories and repurposing their content supporting your brand.

CONVERT YOUR FOLLOWERS TO CONSUMERS

Original and unique content helps to drive intrigue and traffic back to your website for viewers to get to know more about you and your product or service. This safe environment allows viewers to click and convert, transitioning the relationship of potential lead to consumer. Content that can also educate a consumer on a product or service helps to make you an expert in your field which naturally sparks curiosity and trust which can lead to conversion.

FOCUS ON “MICRO-INFLUENCERS”

Great content goes beyond the “like” and creates opportunity for sharing and engaging. Shareable content gets “DM-ed” to consumers’ friends, diversifying the exposure and audience of your brand to potential customers that previously would not have known about you. Forget about word of mouth, in today’s digital world you really want the word of private digital messaging. In this sense, you can create “micro-influencers” out of your current audience when they share your digital content within their network. 

Forget about word of mouth, in today’s digital world you really want the word of private digital messaging.

The more you can cater your brand message to your audience the more engaged your leads will become. Promoting your brand message through real content, informative insights, and shareable messaging leads to viewers that are willing to subscribe, willing to buy, and willing to share. As consumers begin to recognize your brand as a producer of great content, they start to see the undeniable value in the services, products, and resources you have to offer.

In today’s digital world where consumers are smarter and busier than ever, how are you engaging your customers from behind the screen?