The real objective of content marketing lies not merely in promoting products or services of a brand, but in crafting narratives that resonate with consumers, creating affinity, salience and brand love. For emerging brands seeking to carve their niche in a crowded market, mastering the art of creating thumb-stopping and engaging content is pivotal. The five pillars of content marketing for emerging brands are:
Identifying objectives:
The pillars of content marketing will stem from the brand and business objectives that a brand wants to achieve through content. Is content a lever to engage your customers, bring them to your site, increase stickiness on your website? Is it a means to tell your brand story and what the brand stands for or what is the difference it’s trying to make in your life? Is investing in content a strategic means to stay ahead of your competition and strengthen your positioning in the market? Is it a vehicle to stay relevant as a brand? What really arethe objectives your content marketing strategy and how will you reach there? These should be thought starters for emerging brands and the content roadmap should be built from here.
Authentic storytelling:
Once the key objectives of content marketing have been defined, it’s important to focus on creating authentic content. With over 65% of India’s population being under 35, authenticity has never been more important for brands wanting to appeal to the millennial and Gen-z consumer. Because authenticity as trait is the most attractive to this generation of consumers. And creating that authentic voice for your brand comes from understanding the core ethos of the brand, along with its reason for existence. It’s about spelling out the key problems your brand is solving, and building your narrative from there. It’s about staying true to who you are, and not trying hard to be something you are not, because that’s not sustainable. It’s about
knowing what you stand for. But more importantly, it’s about knowing what you are not, and will never be. Authenticity starts with creating a clear voice for your brand and owning your story with pride and glory.
Building a community:
Content helps build a community. Today, brands from Nike to Nykaa are looking to build communities, and not just create customers. The focus is on mobilising people that have similar passion points, interests and tastes and being a part of their lives. So, it goes way beyond serving their specific needs as a product or a service offering. A brand is a living, breathing entity intertwined with the lives of its consumers. This symbiotic relationship forms the essence of community engagement. Food-tech start-ups such as Swiggy and Zomato have had remarkable success in building a community of food lovers, mainly through their cutting-edge content on social media. This has helped them own the category of food entirely. When you think of food, you instantly think of Swiggy and open the app. This association has come through its brilliant content marketing efforts over
the years. And that’s the power of great content. Emerging brands have a responsibility to etch out a brand personality that is truly unique, loveable and relatable. Consumers want to follow brands that have a great personality. They want humour, wit, or then they are looking for something that’s truly unique. A brand’s ability to build a community depends largely on the brand personality it is cultivating.
Value addition and thought leadership:
Brands can be beacons of knowledge. They can add value to the lives of their consumers by giving them information that is helpful, sharing DIY tips that could come in handy, or even curating information nuggets in an easy-to-consume format. Beauty brands such as Nykaa, have been able to attract customers not merely through their products, but also by helping
them learn the art of make-up. So, it almost acts as a one-stop knowledge bank for all things beauty. Thought leadership is important for emerging brands in new categories. By creating content that drives visionary ideas, shares knowledge about the business and the category, brands can not only be seen as leaders in their own categories, but also influence bottom-funnel
activities such as consideration and purchase decision.
Mining data and insights:
Content leads to conversations. And conversations lead to understanding consumer behaviour and psyche. Therefore, content can be used to gather insights on changing consumer behaviour and preferences. It can also be used to gather customer data, which can then serve as a key lever to tailor-make and personalise promotional content and offers. We live in an age of hyper-personalisation; that is crucial today because consumers have access to ad-blocking if they don’t find your messaging and content relevant.
