“Content is not just King, it is the Emperor of all things electronic” – Rupert Murdoch, a media tycoon

The ongoing digital transformation has democratised the channels of marketing and communications. Gone are the days, when we were constrained by the number of editions and space in a print press, limited by physical boundaries and broadcasting opportunities. Technology has thrown open the floodgates, and communication channels are expanding exponentially. A classic case where constraints leads to innovation. Today, each one of us is a broadcaster to an ever-available audience.

While opportunities are now unlimited, the downside of this democratisation is that communications and marketing space is now extremely cluttered and noisy. Already active brands have now become super active and the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) has ushered in even the most media & marketing shy brands to join the bandwagon.

This brings us to the million-dollar question – how does a brand cut through the noise and not only make themselves heard, but stand out?

The key, I believe, lies in the content strategy employed in any branding, marketing, and communications effort. An engaging and relevant content is that pebble in a sling shot, which will propel your brand through the clutter and create a deep impact on the minds of your target audience.

Amongst other key principals of devising a content strategy, one must keep the following in mind while crafting content that sets you apart.

The KISS Principal
KISS, an acronym for ‘Keep It Short & Simple’. Any content should be long enough to convey the message but short enough to retain the attention. Lengthy content does not necessarily display greater knowledge. Also, content works best if its kept simple rather than complicated. Always remember, Less is More and Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.

Theory of 2+2
In this theory, you don’t give the audience ‘4’, but you give them ‘2+2’. Involve your audience such that they deduce, deduct and infer the idea or proposition. Lead them to putting the whole idea together. This kind of story telling gets engraved in the minds of the readers, thereby, cutting through the noise and leading to a strong brand recall. Like Benjamin Franklin had once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn”.

Means-End Analysis
It’s a problem-solving technique used widely in creating AI models. When it comes to content, the ‘end’ is capturing the attention of your target audience. What is the ‘means’ to reach that end? Your audience will engage with your content only if it offers solutions to their problems or pain points. Keep ears to the ground and listen into what your audience want, what are they talking about, what are the narratives being pushed out by your competition and so on. Then, introspect and see how you can offer creative solutions to those problems and then re-engineer your content bucket to provide a means to an end.

A Visual Imperative
It’s said that 90% of the information processed by the brain is visual. Visual content is easy to dissect, triggers emotions and most importantly sticks in the long-term memory of the viewer. Digitally sharable content like memes, infographics, posters, videos and so on, drive in more traffic and lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. Even when creating a textual content try and include visual forms of communications, like for example use infographics and reference pictures to articulate your point.

There are multiple algorithms that can be applied to arrive at that perfect communication piece. Keeping the brands core essence at heart, one has to figure out their own framework, write their own rules and arrive at that ultimate algorithm that leads them to success.

A perfect content strategy is such that it keeps giving – it should not only capture the audience’s attention at that moment but raise enough curiosity to make them come back for more. Hence, creating an infinite loop of continuous engagement.

Mark Twain once said, “Secret of getting ahead, is getting started”. So, get started on your journey of devising a content strategy that helps you get ahead of your competition.

Author: Sheena Khara is a Chief Digital Officer of iE3 Innovations Pvt. Limited, a technology firm.

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