Authentic Content Marketing

Content marketing is hard. Yes, I just said that. One of the most common things our clients talk about is feeling like they don’t have any content to post about. Honestly, producing content can be a daunting task.

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The trick is to remember that people follow you because they want your content, whatever that is. Don’t overthink it. Content marketing's main goal is keeping your audience on the hook and up to date about what is happening with you and your company.  Sometimes posting anything is better than not posting to stay top of mind with your audience.

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Ideally, your content is exciting, but let’s face it, not everything is exciting. Consistently across platforms, the content that has the most engagement is content that is real, AUTHENTIC, and maybe more importantly, content that is RELATABLE.

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Content creation and social media can be full-time jobs. But we know that we can’t all be full-time content creators, so here are some tips for creating content that works! 

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Make it Relatable

Listen, engagement is king. If your photo or topic is relatable, your audience it more likely to share and comment. People like content they can relate to. Higher engagement gives you the opportunity to reach new audiences. If you feel your content is boring or unrelatable, keep reading to learn how to connect your content to something that is relatable. Below is a great example of content that is boring but they make it fun.

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‍Use Emotion

Listen, we are all human, and emotions get our attention. When possible, connect your content to an emotion: tell a story, leverage FOMO, create a sense of belonging, use humor. A huge marketing trend right now is to tap into the feeling of nostalgia. People love to reminisce and have a deep affection for the past. Emotions are a powerful marketing tool to utilize in your content to make it relatable.

Find Trends 

Think about what is working out there for businesses similar to you. What are your competitors doing? Is it working or not? Don’t try to reinvent the wheel; follow others and credit them as you go. For example, we compiled a list of content ideas for TikTok that are commonly used but still highly effective. You don’t have to come up with something that nobody has done. It’s okay to copy others, but always credit them or, even better, find a way to partner with them! Take a popular meme and make it unique to your content. 

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Take a Risk

Don’t be afraid to take the risk. Create content that is outside your box. You won’t know if something works or not unless you try it. Trying something new can be scary, but the risk is worth the potential of it working. And even if it doesn’t work, you will most certainly learn something, and sometimes can be more valuable than the content working as planned. Content marketing is free, so the risk really isn’t that high. Content marketing takes time…like a lot of time. Keep it up; you never know what will happen to something you created and posted months ago. Mr. Beast did not have the most successful YouTube Channel overnight. It took years for his content to take off. Keep going!

Use What You Have

Start with what you have and build on it. I know it is easy for me to say this, and it may feel really hard to create content with what you have, but it genuinely is that straightforward. Write down one objective you have for creating and posting content, then begin creating content around that objective. If it is to create a podcast and post 10 episodes, then as Nike would say, “Just do it!” You will be surprised what you can build after just starting and staying consistent. When we began our Future Driven podcast, we didn’t know where it would take us, but we are now on episode 51 and learned so much along the way.

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Hopefully, after reading this, you feel stronger and ready to go out and produce content. Like most things in life, we tend to overcomplicate and convince ourselves that content marketing is harder than it really is. Someone famously told me, “Keep it Simple,” and I live by that for most things. Sure, there are some intricacies to platforms and graphic design, but that’s what we are here for. At Madak, we truly believe anyone can be successful at content marketing with solid strategic planning and utilizing the right tools.

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This week's Madak Monday was written by:

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Elli Haddick

Senior Marketing Manager

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