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About this guide

Written by:Jane Hunt, Marketing Director

Research by:Lauren Harrison, Content Specialist

Design by:Megan Amirghiasvand, Graphic Designer

About JBH

The content marketing agency reimagining diverse brands all over the world through bespoke campaigns.

We enhance brand visibility for our clients by planning, creating, managing and distributing out of this world content. Pioneering leaders in bespoke interactive infographics and masters of all kinds of killer content, we help brands of all sizes and verticals channel the very best in design and digital trends.

GET IN TOUCH

If you need help creating content for your brand contact hello@jbh.co.uk

For more information visit jbh.co.uk or call (+44)1604 211 227

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We can’t all work for Nike and Apple, but with the help of our 10 clever content tips any product can shine.

Brands aren’t boring - only boring content is boring. Coming up with something memorable and original when you are representing a “cool” brand can be difficult enough, but when the brand or product you are selling is more practical than pretty, the challenge becomes even greater.

Some brands were born to steal the spotlight and sell products that practically sell themselves. Others require a spoonful of imagination. Create a marketing masterpiece for a wallflower brand and the sense of accomplishment will be even sweeter.

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“ If people aren’t talking about you, they’re not talking about you for a reason. And the reason isn’t that they dislike you. They’re not talking about you because you’re boring.”

- Seth Godin

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How We Use the InternetFacebook now drives 25% of all web traffic (Shareaholic) with 2.46 million pieces of content being shared across the network every minute. (Jeff Bullas)

277,000 tweets hit the Twittersphere every minute. (Jeff Bullas)

2014 saw the use of video content increase by 8% to 58%, while infographic usage increased by 9% to 52%. (DemandGen Report)

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Which Content Works Best?

Facebook posts earn 340% more shares than each of the other four major social networks - except for food content, which performs best on Pinterest. (Contently)

70% of people prefer to learn about products through content as opposed to through traditional advertising. (Inc)

Case studies (73%) overtook webinars (67%) as the second most popular form of B2B content in 2014. (Demand Gen Report)

LinkedIn accounts for 21% of shares of high-engagement publications in the business vertical. (Buffer)

92% of consumers say they trust earned media while only half trust paid ads. (Digital Stats)

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Social media is clearly uniquely powerful in terms of reach. With so much being said online, it’s imperative that you select the right content to make your brand a part of the conversation. Teach yourself to pitch less and entertain more.

“ There are no dull products, only dull writers.”

- David Ogilvy

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Masterful content is anything but boring.

Many brands sell products and services which serve a legitimate purpose without being particularly attractive or inspiring. These products need inventive and effective marketing just as much (if not more) than smartphones and brightly-coloured smoothies.

When you started your career in marketing, an unimaginative interviewer might have turned to you and said, “Sell me this pen.” To get the job, your answer would have had to stand out, or at least come across as slightly more creative than those given by everyone else interviewed that day.

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Would you have been excited by the pen? Probably not. But if you wanted the job you would have done whatever you could to make it seem interesting.

A well-executed strategy ensures that you’ll only ever be boring to those outside of your target market. With a little imagination any product can be showcased in an interesting or surprising way.

“SELL ME THIS PEN!”

Dull brands need love too. Take a look at our 10 tips, unleash your imagination and get creating the sort of killer content that could sell a two-wheeled bike to a unicyclist.

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TIP

ALWAYS BE YOURSELF

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“ Good stories give big voices to small ventures”

- Neil Patel & Rikita Puri, Quicksprout

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While whisky probably isn’t what can be called a “boring” product, the lesson is there. Using brand storytelling to give potential consumers a real and direct experience of your values is key in establishing human-to-human connections. Create something authentic and your story could be inspiring or at least interesting to certain groups, earning their respect (and with any luck, recommendation).

You could use your content to tell the story of your people; what motivates your team, what attracts your customers. You could place your product or brand in historical context. Whatever you do, choose something which marks you out as unique and, more importantly, as human.

Selling an everyday product doesn’t mean that there’s nothing cool about your brand. Every company has a unique story to tell about its origins, its people and its own way of doing things. Products and services are only one part of that story.

Megabrand Jack Daniels stepped outside of a crowded marketplace by concentrating its marketing on heritage and tradition; think black and white imagery, Frank Sinatra and a focus on JD’s romantic charcoal-filtered Tennessee backstory.

What’s your name and where do you come from?

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TIP TURN YOUR CONTENT INTO A BIG, SHINY MIRROR

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74% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content appears that has nothing to do with their interests. (Janrain)

86% of consumers say personalisation plays a role in their purchasing decisions. (Infosys)

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While using software and tokens (such as calling your users by name) is a great start, reaching audiences on a deeper level requires showing that you know them through the very nature of your content. Focus your content on the consumer - not the product. Showcase your readers’ interests, lifestyle and passions and create results that resonate in your community.

In the past, digital marketing required little more than wide-cast-nets, one-size-fits-all messages and generic actions. Today’s content requires relevance and context. There are a complex spectrum of users out there, with different needs, using a range of devices. Showing your customers that you recognise their needs as individuals is a highly significant gesture - and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Coca-Cola mastered personalisation back in 2013 with the Share a Coke campaign - by replacing its usual branding with 150 of the UK’s most popular names the brand became a continuous presence on social media.

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TIP CELEBRATE WHATEVER UNIQUENESS MEANS TO YOUR BRAND

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“ No business, particularly a small one, can be all things to all people.”

- How to Start Your Own Business, The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

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iconic design and continued attention to unique patented innovation means that the brand continues to dominate its own high-end corner of the market.

Your unique selling proposition will lead the way to an understanding of your niche. Dyson aims its products and content at consumers with a little more to spend looking for a high-quality, durable and trusted product. It is far easier to develop and pitch content at a clearly defined market - the people most likely to be interested in your unique strengths and features.

The first rule of business tells us that if you’re not cheaper than your competitors, you need to be better. Identifying and promoting what sets your brand or product apart is key in effective marketing. It could be a small screw that makes a big difference - make sure your customers and potential customers know about it.

In the late 1970s, James Dyson deduced that incorporating cyclonic separation would allow for a vacuum cleaner that didn’t lose suction. While it’s true that vacuum cleaners aren’t particularly sexy, Dyson’s combination of playful marketing,

Is there anything unique about your product? How it is made? What can you do with it?

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TIP

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING HILARIOUS

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A great tip is to work using opposites. If you are selling something dull and useful, silliness can work brilliantly. If you are selling something fun, a deadpan serious advertising campaign often goes down a storm.

The effectiveness of a lighthearted approach has been proven across a wide variety of industries, from flat-pack furniture to politics. Humour doesn’t have to be particularly elegant, silliness works too - just look at funny, memorable and manly brand Old Spice. Selling refrigerators? Think outside (or inside) the box and conduct an experiment to see how many people you can fit in a fridge.

Be playful, but be careful. Unfortunately, in the wrong hands, humour is easy to get wrong. Random is fine, bizarre is good and witty is better but there’s a fine line between funny and awkwardness which must be observed at all times if you want to avoid damaging your brand’s reputation.

Comedy is the most-watched type of YouTube content, with 58% of adults watching humorous videos online.

Why so serious?

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TIP IF IT’S USEFUL, IT’S NOT BORING

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Of the millions of websites in existence, WikiHow ranks at a very respectable 206 in terms of traffic. (Alexa)

How-to guides are the second most watched type of content on YouTube. (Pew Research)

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on Method’s Soap Dish blog underline the brand philosophy of natural cleanliness, organisation and comfort within the home.

To appeal to those actually in need of your content, jazzing it up will amount to no more than depth, design and presentation. Give your consumers the information they need, delivered in an attractive, friendly package that makes it easy to digest.

If you can’t make your content exciting, make it as educational as possible. “Boring” or not, whitepapers remain extremely effective in terms of influencing buying decisions.

Eco-friendly household cleaning product company Method have nailed compelling, useful content for a typically “boring” niche. With colourful design, beautiful photography and rich instructional content, the tips, tricks and how-to guides featured

People love instructional content - it’s practically what the internet was invented for.

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TIP THE WEIRDER, THE BETTER

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“We appeal to human beings, not Googlebots.”Luke Lewis, Editor of Buzzfeed UK

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The seemingly random approach has been working since before Compare the Market took insurance quotes from mundane to meerkat and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.

Using strange facts, concepts, images and ideas is particularly effective when creating content with a hook for journalist outreach.

Just ask niche masters Buzzfeed UK. Relevant, different and shareable - strange content is a great way to engage and entertain audiences.

In 2012, Melbourne’s Metro Trains enjoyed phenomenal success with its cutesy yet controversial public services announcement video, “Dumb Ways to Die”. The video went viral and is still popular more than 3 years later.

Weird works.

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TIP

SHOCK VALUE

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“ Truth makes many appeals, not least of which is its power to shock.”

- Jules Renard

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Shock value can be particularly useful when creating content for appeals and charities. Save the Congo shocked us in 2013 with Unwatchable - a film which awakens the reader to the violence involved in the Congo’s minerals trade by bringing it home to the leafy Cotswolds.

While that particular stat may have been invented for the sake of irony, there’s no doubt that credible facts and numbers can be incredibly persuasive. Surprising readers and journalists with hard-hitting stats is a great way to get them to sit up and pay attention. Present some stats that represent a problem and then show how your brand or product can offer the solution.

Did you know that 73.6% of all statistics are made up?

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TIP

SHOW AND NO TELL

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While retaining naked information can be difficult, a story told visually or through the use of different mediums can have a much greater impact. Working in this way might mean a greater focus on things like concept and design or making use of different types of content in order to make your data pop.

We are visual creatures.

While only 10% of people remember what they hear, 80% of people remember what they see and do. (Hubspot)

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“ A good piece of content should be like a good skirt...long enough to cover what’s important, short enough to keep it interesting.”

Infographics are a great way of showing complex data in a creative and concise way. Ideally, you want to create something memorable and distinctive - beautiful, considered design goes a long way.

Good presentation doesn’t just refer to the way things hit the eye. Using relatable analogies to explain complex problems shows your human side and makes your data easier to digest.

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TIP

BE A PEOPLE BRAND

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In a world where technology and automation have become increasingly more adept at replacing human work, demonstrating your humanity has become one of the best ways of setting yourself apart.

No matter what brand you work for, your greatest resource is your people - your staff and your customers. Find out how they use your product, then ask them to show others. Asking your customers to share their experiences of your brand

on social media can be extremely effective - and means that your customers and potential customers will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

With B2C customers (and more often than not with B2B customers), business babble can be both dull and alienating. Be human - eliminate shoptalk and write like you speak.

82% of buyers say they trust a company more when its CEO and senior leadership team are active on social media. (GroSocial)

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“ Cats are better than dogs. Discuss.”

Another approach is starting another conversation altogether. Like shock tactics, polarising people is a simple concept, but one that works. Encouraging people to talk about a subject - even if it’s not about the product itself, makes your brand a part of the conversation.

DEFINITELYNOT TRUE

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TIP USE YOUR WHITEBOARD

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If your staff feel that they are more creative when working independently then encourage them, but make sure there is regular time allotted for collaborating with the rest of the office.

According to The New York Times, the “new groupthink” is taking the business world by storm.Introduce “Whiteboard Wednesdays” (other weekdays are available) and have a good brainstorm.

There are no wrong answers and the process will give you and your team the opportunity to get everyone on the same page, screen or board regarding the direction the brand is going in.

Don’t shy away from expressing half-baked ideas, that’s often where the magic happens! One person’s offhand remark might just be the seed that grows into a successful campaign.

Choose the work dynamic that fits your brand and your people.

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A Final Word of Warning...

Breaking away from your comfort zone can be risky and you may leave yourself open to criticism.

If you are open to taking on an entirely new aesthetic - make sure above all else that it makes sense as a chapter in your brand’s ongoing story.

These days, the world of marketing moves quickly . If something hasn’t been as successful as you might have hoped, try to learn from the experience without dwelling on it too much. Ask yourself why it didn’t work, breathe and move on.

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THANKS FOR READING!

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