Four Steps to Land More Eyes on Your Digital Content

By Lisa Apolinski

Think you know how much data is created every day? Think again. Here is some shocking data on data creation from the website techjury:

1. Every single day, humans create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. A quintillion is a one followed by 18 zeros.
2. Ninety percent of the world’s data was created since 2019.
3. Just today, people will share 95 million photos and videos, send 306 billion emails, and create 500 million tweets. And that will repeat tomorrow.

Digital content is the fastest way to share your company with prospects. As more content is created, however, it becomes harder for others to discover.

Every company wants to have content that resonates. What many companies have not learned is that persuasive content starts with your company’s story. This communication shift is important to breaking your content out of the digital fray. Here are four steps to land more eyes on your digital content.

1. Create values-based marketing that leads with the organization’s values.

Values-based marketing is described as leading with “purpose” and aligning with customer values. Issues with digital content arise when companies use customer values as their center point instead of the company’s own core values. As smart companies know, the customer base often shifts as the company matures and grows. If this same company makes the organization’s values the same as those of the customer, there is a high probability those values will be in flux.

Companies that jump from value system to value system erode the very thing that makes content stick. Understanding your values makes sense in theory: demonstrate how your company values are similar to those of the people who buy your products. The execution of this marketing strategy is mixed at best when companies do not clearly articulate why they were created.

Keep Calm and: Document your company’s birth story. Every company started with an idea, comment, or thought. Interview the founders to learn about that moment of creation, or review historic documents and interviews to find hidden information. The company’s values are woven into that story.

2. Share your organization’s values as a digital story.

Once your company has identified its birth story and uncovers its values, it is time to create the digital story that shares those values. There are several reasons to share your company’s values. First, sharing those values allows them to become part of the fabric of your digital storytelling. Why your organization solves problems is as vital to your prospects as how your organization solves problems.

Second, sharing those values helps reinforce them with your customers, moving them from words to action. Your company’s values have a life of their own. Sharing them helps strengthen their use in your company’s everyday existence. Finally, if you are not sharing that story, someone else might develop and share it for you, and that narrative may be not only inaccurate, it could be negative.

Keep Calm and: Create digital stories that make your values come to life. If your company has a value of sharing knowledge, for example, it should be a cornerstone action in stories of client engagement and how that knowledge made a difference.

3. To build trust, allow your company to be relatable and human.

When companies identify and share their moment of existence, they create a space for being open, and audiences understand the company’s reason for existing. A human element to a brand’s story gives it meaning. But because of the inherent vulnerability of this step, organizations often resist it.

By sharing a digital story that is relatable, companies allow their audience to trust in the company’s message and brand. This type of communication can touch, move, and inspire beyond an organization’s target audience. Each organization’s moment is uniquely theirs – a single moment in time when the founder took a new and completely unforeseen path. That makes this type of communication powerful. Identifying that moment is simple but oftentimes the hardest thing for a company to master.

Keep Calm and: Let in the human element of your brand story. While many marketers talk about B2B or B2C communication, it’s P2P (people to people) communication that is occurring. Each company has people behind it, so instead of resisting the human element of your organization, embrace it.

4. Once you have shared your company story, focus on the audience.

Your company has just experienced the powerful shift associated with sharing its story. Many companies continue to focus their communication on the company instead of the audience. Once that birth story has been shared, the focus now needs to be on prospects and their pain points.

The rationale for sharing your company’s birth story is to establish its reason for being and the values created from that. Now comes the shift to taking those company values and highlighting them in your client success stories. Consumers want to read content that is relatable. While they may not see themselves in your company’s brand story, they may see themselves in client success stories. That does not, however, shift the values you have ascertained and established.

Keep Calm and: Consider what your audience gets from purchasing your products and services. In your client success story, the focus moves from what your company did to the benefit the client received. Your brand values help guide you in showcasing those benefits.

These tips help your organization guide the audience through your digital content, showing the relatable qualities of your organization. Even with digital content being created every day, current content often misses the first step of establishing the company story. By sharing that story, you share values, and prospects learn about your organization on a human level.

Lisa Apolinski is founder of 3 Dog Write and author of “Persuade with a Digital Content Story.” She works with companies to develop and share their message using digital assets. For more information, visit www.3DogWrite.com.