How to Use Content to Clarify

As a business journalist, marketing writer, researcher, or content creator of any other stripe, the first step in my process is to decipher exactly what it is your company does. I used the word “decipher” because you, the marketing professional, don’t always make things easy to understand.

You mean well, but let’s face it—sometimes you get so bogged down in marketing-speak that you end up delivering a somewhat convoluted message. I’m sure it’s not your fault. You probably have a lot of bosses. They probably all insist that you position the company’s products and services as “all things to all people.” I get it.

Because of all that, the result of the first step in my process (which typically begins at your website) is often a bit of confusion. I might stop by your website, peruse your “About Us” and “What We Do” pages, read through some or all of the site’s content, and still not be all that clear on what exactly you do—or, to put a finer point on it, exactly where your company fits. That “all things to all people” phenomenon tends to mean that your company ends up defying categorization.

That’s not good. You want to fit in a category. In fact, you want to demonstrate that you lead a category—in terms of market penetration, brand recognition, product or service performance, and thought leadership. You not only need to lay claim to a market sector, you want to own it. And you can’t do that until you it’s immediately evident to every customer, analyst, journalist, and even every regular Joe exactly where you fit in the industry scheme of things.

Here are a few ways you can use content to make your mission and your important position in the industry abundantly evident to all:

• Use strong and clear titles and headlines. There are buzzwords that define your market—terms that everyone uses to describe your corner of the industry. Use them. Give them definition. Lead people back to you by demonstrating that your company is the one defining what the buzz is really all about.

• Use pictures to enhance the story. Everybody loves the infographic format. It’s accessible and informative. Use it. Use it to illustrate your industry’s challenges, as well as how the category of products and services you provide addresses those challenges. Use it to frame your industry sector, which of course includes your company’s position in it.

• Publish sector-defining content. Make it your company’s mission to educate the industry about your corner of the world. Not just about your company—about the entire sector. Create content that’s objective, relevant and timely. Allow your company’s strength to speak for itself. Put content out there that that helps people learn and think.

• Comment, comment, comment. Always be engaged in whatever relevant topics your sector of the industry is talking about right now. Better yet, lead the discourse. Use social media channels to both amplify your educational content and spark discussions. Be controversial. Ask for the professional opinions of others. Link to compelling content in your blog (even the compelling content of your competitors). Engage, educate, and lead.

High-quality, relevant content has the unique ability to illuminate, clarify, and define. Take advantage of those qualities, and you can immediately replace confusion with clarity.

[photo courtesy mediabistro.com]