Why Your Brand Strategy Should Power Your Content

“Most B2B content out there sucks. Big time.”

Jason Vana said this, not me.

But I agree, and here’s why…

Jason advises us to treat content as a branding tactic, not a marketing tactic.

Use content to power your brand and position your business as THE CHOICE for your ideal customers.

The framework is simple: Don’t focus on generating leads. But do focus on positioning your company as the ONLY solution for your ideal customers.

NOW, I DO use content as an SEO tactic sometimes, especially with local clients.

BUT as a tactical framework for creating engaging, helpful content that resonates with your ideal customer, I agree with his message.

Why?

Branding is step #1 to marketing done right

Branding should power your marketing.

Branding a business as the go-to resource for its ideal customers is how we start every project.

This approach requires a focused strategy (more than creating a PPC campaign or pumping out a keyword-laden blog post/checklist).

To become your ideal customer’s go-to brand, you must establish trust, provide expert advice, and dish up the insights they crave.

And the only way to start this process is to define and understand your ideal customer.

This step doesn’t mean you grab a stock photo and put together a quick buyer persona.

No. No. No!

You have to walk a mile in their shoes, understand what pains them, their motivations, and why they are looking for someone like you.

The words you write should be words that engage and serve your ideal customers.

Think about the content you might create:

– Homepage copy
– Interior page copy
– Blog posts
– Marketing emails
– Social media posts
– PDFs (whitepapers, eBooks)
– Video scripts
– PPC ads
– Etc.

👆 When your ideal customers read your content, you want them to know you’re the one they will hire.

To be your ideal customer’s go-to brand, you must…

• Establish trust
• Give them expert advice
• Provide the information they want and need.

Creating a magnetic brand must be step #1 for your marketing strategy to succeed.

To build your brand. And to brand your content, do this:

1. Define and understand your ideal customers.
2. Interview current customers to understand their needs, how they found you, and why they picked you.
3. Learn about them: What pains them and what would trigger someone like them to contact you?
4. What do they want to learn from you?
5. How will you help them? How can you frame this to show them the outcome of working with you (Their Transformation)?

Use steps 1-5 to build your brand.

Generating a ton of leads can be easy.

Think about it.
• You buy a list or scrape one together (it’s easy to do)
• Create a simple checklist as a PDF
• And publish (in blogposts, organic social, paid ads, etc.)

This CAN be a great strategy, but most businesses get it wrong because they haven’t done the up-front positioning work required to make it work.

And this leads to a boatload of weak leads.

What if you did this instead?

Worked your fingers to the bone to do the following:
→ Define your ideal customers
→ Understand their journey
→ Create messaging AND educational content based on what they want and need?

If you operate like this, the people you reach will want to buy from you because you’ve built a story (your brand) that speaks to them (and their needs).

They’ll see you as the solution to that ugly thing they need to fix.

Learn about ideal buyer personas

Then get busy creating your powerful, magnetic, and engaging brand!