The WHO behind your content matters
“Marketing teams shouldn’t just be creating content, they should be creating creators.”
Jay Acunzo.
Yes, yes, yes! I got this quote from the latest podcast hosted by Mark Schaefer, in conversation with Jay Acunzo: Content marketing is no longer about the content. And I think it has real implications for the future of marketing.
In the podcast, Jay and Mark purport that marketing is no longer primarily about the content, it’s about the person who creates it.
Why? It's a matter of trust. Because people don't trust logos or ads - they don't! They trust and connect with individual human beings. The WHO behind the content you share matters. If you want your business to be seen, heard and discovered, you need to connect personally. So for marketing, it's a matter of building and supporting personal brands.
(Check out the ‘intimacy’ variable on the Trust Equation, if you’d like to understand this more deeply).
I think that this is bang on the money, and it’s a game changer for marketing teams - both in businesses and in charities. Content matters, more than it ever did if you want to connect with people. But the job is no longer about posting content carefully created by (often faceless) individulals in the marketing team or externally. It’s about motivating people from across the business and beyond to publish and share their ideas. The people closest to your audience, with the connection, knowledge and passion for the subject. People who shape valuable conversations in your market.
“Content marketing of the future may have little to do with the content, and everything to do with the person creating it.”
Mark Schaefer
The aim for marketing teams becomes inspiring and supporting people to contribute to the content drive: content creators from the exec team, experts across the business (including marketing), and importantly, bringing in key creators from your audience too.
Businesses getting this right
In the podcast you’ll hear the story of a business who reinvested their marketing budget in this approach, surrounding their executives with the resource and support to make themselves known.
I also love the idea of hiring in talent - an established player in your industry, bringing them on board as a content creator. I haven't seen this as yet, but it's smart.
I have seen experts in a business supported and given space to become great content creators (I'm looking at you, Jake Moore, and the work you do for ESET 😁), I've seen brilliant CEOs stepping up to create and share their ideas (Nick Gardham, CEO of Community Organisers is awesome at this), and it works.
“The WHAT of our story is important, but perhaps even more important is the WHO — WHO IS TELLING THE STORY?”
Content is the vehicle that carries the talent out to market, but the WHO behind the content matters.
How to make this happen?
So, how best to pinpoint, encourage and upskill people to create content, to share their knowledge and ideas?
Check out the Met Office’s content story I wrote some years, on the transformation journey to a culture of content across the organisation.
I think that content writing workshops are a helpful part of this drive too.
Welcome your thoughts on the subject.
(Big thanks to Mark Schaefer and Jay Acunzo for kicking off this conversation. Here’s a link to their podcast again. )