One of the key messages of Content Rules—the book I’m writing with C.C. Chapman, to be published by Wiley this December—is that creating content as a cornerstone of your marketing offers your organization an enormous and unprecedented opportunity. Among them:
• To engage directly with customers (or would-be customers)
• To communicate with personality, empathy and real emotion
• To create value
• And also: To have a little fun
It’s tempting to dismiss that last point, maybe. Who cares if your content is fun, right? Does fun make the cash register ring? And what if you’re a business-to-business company selling dead-serious stuff? Won’t it undermine your credibility, marginalize your message, and disrespect your products if you don’t approach your marketing with gravity?
In business, it’s tempting (and easier) to use the same boring words everyone else uses. But you’ll be far more approachable (and a whole lot more engaging) if you lighten up a little.
Approaching your content with a sense of fun and personality doesn’t mean you don’t sell something dead-serious, or even what some might consider boring. Consider marketing automation company Eloqua, for example.
Eloqua created The Conversation as an interactive sales tool for companies that want to make their online marketing more effective. This week, during a meeting with the team at Eloqua, I noticed the 2009 Groundswell award the company won for The Conversation’s funny, smart, engaging approach.
Similarly, this morning Hubspot released the first episode of its animated (cartoon) Web series, The Adventures of Captain Inbound, in which marketing superhero Captain Inbound defeats the Sultan of Spam. (And saves the day. Of course.) I particularly liked the cameo of David Meerman Scott’s “Great Oz”-inspired talking head. His counter-terrorism advice to combat the Sultan? “Create exceptional content that people will want to share, and point the world to your virtual doorstep.”
The takeaway for marketers is this: Creating content alone isn’t enough. The key is to create exceptional content that sets you apart from the crowd, drives viral sharing, and enhances your company’s profile and personality. Which, by the way, includes creating the unexpected, the unfamiliar, and occasionally the oddball and fun (or perhaps even the animated cartoon series!)
What’s your take? What compelling and surprising content have you seen? Share it below!
Tags: ann handley, Content, Content Marketing, Content Rules, David Meerman Scott, Eloqua, hubspot
Ann, couldn’t agree more and always been a fan of Jon Spoelstra’s “Marketing Outrageously” approach. However, “fun content” sometimes runs smack dab into corporate voice and/or brand guidelines esp in bigger B2b companies where the prevailing attitude is “we’ve always done it this way…” Any good cases or examples you’ve run across for larger B2B enterprises?
Hi Paul,
Yeah — clearly enterprise B2B is where I’d expect the most resistance to fun content. I can’t say I know of many that are embracing the element of fun in their content, but EMC comes to mind as a company that is doing some interesting stuff. Many of its employee blogs have some personality. “Confessions of an eBiz Junkie” comes to mind:
http://lensblog.typepad.com/
And the video EMC produced with Erik Estrada (yeah.. THAT Erik Estrada!) was pretty funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFZWx7UY14Y
To clarify my point, I don’t think ALL your content should be hilarious and amusing… but I do think it’s good to surprise your audience once in a while, and do something unexpected. My hope is that as social media becomes more prevalent, other large enterprise B2B companies will truly see the value in lightening up a little, in truly speaking the language of their customers–who are still people, after all, even if they do represent companies. (I would say that a good start for them would be to buy cases of my book, but that would be self-serving, wouldn’t it?)
Check out manpowerblogs.com. Manpower is a serious workforce management company with a serious North American Chief Legal Officer. But Mark Toth has an extremely fun sense of humor and it comes through in his blog. He’s got quite the following there and in the webinar series where he talks about employment law. The sales teams use this content (which is updated often) as one tool in their box for local business development. A great example (I think) of funny and educational content that works in support of a serious message and within a global brand framework.
Thanks, Kristen. Will do! I like the way you describe the “serious North American Chief Legal Officer”!
[...] Content Rules: One Key Element That Can Set Your Content Apart | MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog [...]
[...] Content Rules: One Key Element That Can Set Your Content Apart | MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog [...]
[...] Practicing what they are preaching. The video was also mentioned as a great example of how “Content Rules” on the MarketingProfs blog today by Ann Handley. [...]
[...] Practicing what they are preaching. The video was also mentioned as a great example of how “Content Rules” on the MarketingProfs blog today by Ann Handley. [...]
Hi Ann,
Will your book outline how to create an “effective” editorial calendar and align it to your marketing communications objectives? It would be great to see real world examples as to how these strategies are implemented.
Hi Rafic — There’s a bunch of detailed case studies in the book, as well as a B2B chapter on aligning content to specific objectives. In other words: Yes. : )
Ann…Thanks – Your post really caught my attention.
I agree with all of your points, especially on creating value and having a little “Fun” along the way.
The other aspect of creating effective content relates to “understanding different users.” One type of user is obviously the individual consumer of any product or service. The other important type of users are the Major Search Engines. Unless Website Content is also attractive to Google – http://www.stellarpointgroup.com/internet-marketing.html – our online content never reaches individual consumers. In our experience, the key to effective content comes down to “Balance.”
As with most things, “Balance” is a key element. Thanks Again…(I will keep an eye out for the book…Good luck with it)
Ah yes.. balance. The key to so much in life, right? ; )
I should have specified that there’s lots more involved with creating effective stuff other than an element of “fun,” (or, as someone said it over on the Content Rules Book blog, “Enjoyment,” which I thought even more apt). So yes, you are quite right. You definitely want to make sure you are doing everything possible to be found by the major search engines. In line with that, I’d also say you want to make it easy to be shared, so that your community of readers/viewers can help you reach your audience for you.
Ann, I agree wholeheartedly! Love the cartoon.
Thanks, Elaine! ; )
[...] Content Rules: One Key Element That Can Set Your Content Apart … [...]
Humor is definitely underappreciated in most corporate marketing departments. ESPN is the best example of a large company who has leveraged humor to set themselves apart. One of the engineers (ironically) at LoopFuse came up with this funny spoof of the Dos Equis “most interesting man in the world” commercials.
http://www.youtube.com/user/loopfuse#p/a/u/0/UFiy3ohWusw
Ann,
Wholeheartedly agreed with comic potential. Specifically though for awareness campaigns. It’s tough to be funny all the way through the conversion process.
And gosh, while I love HubSpot and all the thought leadership they’ve provided to the inbound space, I’m starting to find the shtick annoying – even when it’s creative and repackaged well.
- Tewks
If I were to write this piece again, I’d add the qualifier that humor/fun can add an appealing element, but isn’t necessary the dominating factor. At least, consistency. In general, I think marketers should look at developing content that their prospects *enjoy.*
Completely agree with the thrust of this article. Too many times, we take ourselves way too seriously. Rohit Bhargava’s “Personality Not Included” should be mandatory reading for anyone who struggles with this. And I suspect your upcoming book should be, too (Congrats, by the way).
While we should not strive to be boring, we also should not appear to be trying too hard. Both come with their own set of drawbacks.
One of the key messages of Content Rules—the book I’m writing with C.C. Chapman, to be published by Wiley this December—is that creating content as a cornerstone of your marketing offers your organization an enormous and unprecedented opportunity.
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