Dec 08, 2022

Read time: 2 minutes

One of my clients asked me an interesting question recently:

How do I know what type of content to write?

Which made me realise how easy it is to focus on the wrong thing when it comes to content marketing.

In this case, types of content:

You’ve probably come across “thought leadership” content where the author shares unique ideas and insights. Or educational content teaching you how to do stuff. Or personal stories related back to a key business lesson.

And those types of content all play a crucial role in your content marketing strategy.

But your strategy shouldn’t start with you wondering what type of content should I write? That’s putting the carriage in front of the horse.

Instead, your content should guide your customer through their buyers’ journey and meet their evolving needs at every step.

Those needs can be roughly split into 3 categories:

1. Entertainment
2. Inspiration
3. Education

Let’s break down each category:

Let’s start with entertainment.

The goal of entertaining content is to pull people into your world (and funnel) by capturing their attention, and holding it long enough to connect.

And a great way to do this is by telling relatable stories. Stories that validate what your audience is feeling and show them you really get their pain or problem.

Whether it’s in your social media posts, on podcast appearances, or any other top-of-funnel activities, stories are the best way to stand out and connect.

After you’ve built that initial connection, you’ll want to solidify the relationship and start embedding your brand in your customers’ internal narrative.

And the best way to do that is with inspirational content.

The point of inspirational content in B2B is to help your audience shift their thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs towards their pain or problem.

So to take whatever their perceived pain or problem is and to reframe it to a symptom of a greater (but solvable) root problem.

This does two things:

1. It gives them hope and inspires them to try and solve it
2. It makes you uniquely qualified to solve their true root problem

And once they’re at that point, they’ll want to know HOW you can do that, which is where your educational content comes in.

The goal of educational content is to help your audience understand how you can help them solve their pain or problem.

You can do this through long form content like blog articles, podcasts, videos or courses, or short form content like social posts.

But regardless of the channel and medium, this content focuses on answering your audience’s questions and empowering them to act.

Instead of approaching content marketing with random topics and content types in mind, think about how you can use it to build and solidify a relationship with your ideal client.

That starts by capturing their attention with entertaining content, then building trust with inspirational content, and ultimately demonstrating expertise through educational content.

When you start thinking about your content in terms of these three categories, it also becomes easier to decide “what to write” (and where to publish).

So, I encourage you to rethink your content from your audience’s perspective…

• What would be entertaining enough for them to stick around to find out more?
• What would inspire them to believe that there is a solution out there to help them overcome their current struggle?
• And what would give them confidence in your ability to help them on this quest?

The better you understand your audience’s internal narrative, the better placed you are to build a deep and meaningful connection with them.

Don’t forget to have fun with it and let me know how you go.

Til next time.

If you want to build brand awareness, authority, and trust, your best bet is to start by nailing your brand story.

Whenever you are ready, there are 2 ways we can help you do that:

1. Join The Storydriven Marketing Academy: Our FREE course that teaches you how to consistently nail your messaging across all brand assets
2. Enquire about our Brand Storytelling Workshop: We work with you 1:1 over four guided workshop sessions to craft your storydriven brand messaging & content strategy