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How Personable Is Your Content? A Few Unique Ways of Reaching the Right Audience
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MONTH YEAR
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Have you been trying to get to know your audience and reach out to them by personalizing your content marketing strategy? That’s great, and you should be able to see results immediately. However, if you want to take your connection with your audience to the next level, there is one more thing you need to do: create and distribute personable content.
Personalized and Personable Content as a Way to Connect with Your Audience
As I was explaining in a previous post, content personalization is all about knowing your audience, segmenting it, and reaching out to each segment through custom content. Personable content on the other hand, lets your audience know you, the person/team behind the products or services you sell.
If you’re thinking of posting photos from some industry events, media references to your company, bragging with your awards or your involvement in various community projects, don’t bother. That’s not what your audience is interested in, and it is not what I’m suggesting for your content marketing strategy.
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What Personable Content Is All About
A few years ago, when content and social media were just beginning to gain ground, I accepted a marketing gig with a small construction company. It involved writing an article and taking some site photos for the company to distribute to the local newspapers.
I found the company owner on site, where his team was about to finish renovating a historical building. He wore a neat, impeccable designer shirt (I had heard rumors about his unique style) and made me wonder how come it had no dust traces or stains, given the conditions on site.
I took photos, from various angles and in different lighting conditions, all meant to show the amazing transformation of the building, the miracles they could work with colors, sponges, and their bare hands. Most photos turned out useless.
Can you guess which photos received the most attention? One of them was taken after one of the boys came to my client and told him they had trouble obtaining the desired color for the window frames. He rolled the right sleeve of his impeccable designer shirt, and started stirring the paint with his bare hand, feeling the texture and adding color gradually, until he was satisfied with the results.
The other one was taken when they finished work. They celebrated with pizza and cold beer, right there, on the floor they had just installed. The fine colors and elegant details of the interior faded as the young men in their paint-stained, dusty allovers clinked their beers with a big smile on their face – the satisfaction of a job well done.
As my client later confessed, our marketing efforts paid out. He received hundreds of calls and inquiries, 80% of which were related to the two photos. Everyone wanted to work with and congratulate the man who did not hesitate to ruin a fancy shirt and get dirty in order to get the job done and the workers who celebrated their success as a family.
That day, I realized people want to know the story behind the brand, behind the products/services they buy. They love to see that the people who made it all possible are vulnerable, likeable commoners. I’m not the only one who feels this way. Jen Schrauben, from MarketingLand makes a strong case in favor of personable content.
In times when the most successful marketing campaigns are centered on storytelling, few marketers realize that personable content is just another side of storytelling. It tells the story of the company, of the brand, of its creator, the story of all the other stories, therefore the most important. The only questions you should ask are not whether it is worth investing in personable content and whether sharing your story is a good idea, but how much of your story you should share, and how you should do it.
3 Tips for Creating Awesome Personable Content
1. Allow Everyone to Get Involved
I understand why you want to have the last word on what gets published on the company blog or social media profiles, and I’m not saying you should change that. I’m just suggesting that you give your team members an opportunity to surprise you.
They could give your audience an attractive inside perspective, no matter if they post a funny story from one of their brainstorming sessions, photos from the last teambuilding session, or some of the pranks they play on one another. You can still review their posts and delete any photos of you losing your temper or after having one too many drinks.
2. Let Others Praise Your Actions
I’ve never liked people and organizations who brag about their accomplishments. It’s amazing that you participate in charity actions and you support local organizations. However, rather than throwing your generosity and care into everyone’s face, you should let the benefiters of your actions make you famous. This way, you’ll show everyone you actually care and want to help, rather than just look for more, not necessarily good, publicity.
3. Show Your Vulnerability and Ask for Help
Your audience doesn’t take you for a genius and doesn’t expect you to do everything perfect. Rather than trying to mask your mistakes or failures, expose them and show that you’ve learned from them and you are trying to improve. Instead of claiming your products are the best, tell your target customers what you did to stand out from your competitors, and ask them to evaluate the results.
This will show them you treasure their opinion and you aren’t just forcing products or services down their throat. When embedding personable content into your content marketing strategy, the general rule is to appeal to your audience’s emotions and sense of humor. If you can get them to empathize with you, to like you, if you can make them laugh, your job is half-done and your return on investment is guaranteed.
If you need help embedding personable content into your content marketing strategy, Iris Content can provide it. We love getting to know and presenting our clients in a favorable light, we love bringing stories to life, and we love seeing people fall in love with the brands we promote. Contact us now and let’s make your target customers fall in love with your brand through personable content!
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Want to learn more how to leverage your online content for better results? Our newest eBook has the answers. Learn how to become a content superhero with just a few smart tricks from this imaginative collection of content marketing tips. Order one content piece today and get the eBook for free.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”groove” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/aNNIE-dm.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”right” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” _builder_version=”3.0.67″ /][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_team_member name=”Annie Ianko” position=”Chief Content Officer” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https://www.facebook.com/IrisWebContent/” twitter_url=”https://twitter.com/Iris_Content” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,.1);||” _builder_version=”3.0.67″]
Annie has 20 years of experience as an editor and content creator and manager. With work in television and written media, she has dedicated her past 10 years to learning the ropes of online content creation, from writing to editing, from SEO to content management.
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