Remember that little minx, Ms Red Riding Hood? She who hopped into bed with Mr Wolf despite the size of his eyes/ears/teeth – and without so much as a by-your-leave.
It was a helluva story – even when you were six. Temptation, horror, betrayal, gluttony… the fairy tales of that guy Grimm spared us nothing. Without stretching a point, even now we’re older – suited and booted, and masters of our respective universes – we all love a good story. Especially if there’s a crock of gold at the end of it.
So, despite all the rubbish that’s spouted about Content Marketing, we all love to be in thrall to the prospect of a future-with-benefits. As Samuel Johnson said – and keeping it in the marketing way: ‘Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.’
The most effective Content Marketing, reputedly, tells a story. It wasn’t for nothing that legendary comedian and Cockney raconteur, Max Bygraves, coined his own catch-phrase, “I wanna tell you a story.” So we don’t need research or split-testing, or even focus groups, to let us in on our very own dirty little secret.
In the case of Content Marketing, we should be telling more than one story – so long as it’s ‘on-message’ and follows the corporate hymn-sheet. Consistency shouldn’t preclude originality of course.
Persuasive content needs credibility too. That means you’ll need to find a copywriter with enough walk-on-water attributes to meet your needs. Continuing the biblical metaphor – experience begets insight begets originality.
You will of course need to support this with useful and/or meaningful information. And as with all the best stories – from Aesop to Shakespeare to Grimm – it’s all about how you tell ‘em!
About the Author
Mike Beeson is a highly experienced UK journalist, copywriter and PR consultant. Mike’s company, Buzzwords Limited, was established over 20 years ago and is located near the city of Manchester.