We recently discussed what branded content is, and how it can help brands and businesses. Now that you’ve hopefully got an understanding of what this type of content is, it’s time to look at how to make branded content. Keep reading to hear our top tips for making this type of content, and feel free to check back in with our previous article on ‘What Is Branded Content & How Can It Help Businesses & Brands?’
What Is Branded Content? (Recap)
Before we jump in, let’s just quickly do a recap on what branded content is.
Branded content is content that is directly related to your brand. It’s more about showing your brand values and generating awareness than pedaling products or services. The point of this type of marketing is to create a stronger connection with existing and potential customers by providing value and evoking an emotional response to help them understand who you are and what you stand for. This can come in various forms, such as videos, blogs, news articles, podcasts and more.
With that said, let’s dive into our top tips!
How To Make Great Branded Content: Our Top Tips
1. Focus On Storytelling & Showing Rather Than Telling
Your branded content should tell a story, but this should also show your audience:
- Your brand or business’ beliefs and values
- Who you are and what you stand for
- How great you are!
Instead of saying ‘we are committed to’ or ‘we believe in’, you should aim to show this in your content. Remember that a compelling story and how you go about storytelling is important, and should make them curious about your brand whilst providing value such as education or information. It should also be memorable to keep you in the back of their minds for the future, or to research you further!
2. Aim For An Emotional Connection
This type of content should appeal to your audience’s emotions, creating a stronger connection and bond between you. This encourages brand loyalty, word of mouth recommendations and more.
Try to narrow down what it is you want your audience to feel from this content. Is there a specific emotion that you want to encourage? Is the content inspirational? Hopeful? Sentimental? And lastly, remember that your message should inspire your audience to get involved, for example by staying tuned and maybe following your brand or business. It could also inspire them to stay as a customer of yours, change their perspective, or get them thinking.
3. Use Relatable Characters
It’s a well-known fact that people like to see themselves in something to invest in it. Viewers love things that they can identify with.
Therefore, using real stories from real people in your branded content can help increase the authenticity and deepen the emotional response from your audience. Remember to stay genuine, as audiences will be able to see through false attempts to make a connection, which will most likely put them off. If you don’t use real people on-screen, you can still be inspired by some real testimonials or stories that you can reconstruct, retell or repurpose, of course.
4. Keep It Relevant To Your Brand
As much as branded content is less pushy and forward as other forms of sales or marketing, you still need to highlight what’s good about your company, product or services. The content won’t necessarily advertise the product, but it should subtly highlight the benefits in a different way.
The story you’re telling doesn’t have to be about your product, but more about the people who enjoy it, use it, or have something to say about it. A great example of this is Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign, which touches on female empowerment.
Dove’s video shows an artist drawing a group of women individually. Each woman then gives a description of herself, and the artist re-sketches them based on their description. Lastly, a stranger describes how she sees this woman, and the artist draws another illustration. The difference in the sketches shows that women don’t always see themselves in the most flattering light, reinforcing Dove’s core values of empowerment, self-love and self-care.
5. Consider The Format
It’s important to think about which format makes the most sense for your brand. Some examples of formats include:
- Videos
- Infographics
- Blogs
- Social media posts
- Case studies
- Podcasts
- White papers
Conduct some competitor research to find out which formats perform the best, as well as trialing some and checking in on your insights and analytics. Remember your branding, core values and who your target audience is. Make sure that your content’s tone of voice matches your brand, and that the content is relevant, helpful and share-worthy.
6. Consider Your Channels
As well as planning out what content you want to create, you also need to think about how you will make it visible to audiences. Some options for distributing your content are:
- Social media
- Website
- Paid media
- YouTube / Vimeo channels
- Blog
- Influencers/Brand partners or advocates
Think strategically about where your content would be most likely to succeed. If it’s an educational article, it will be best off on a social media platform like LinkedIn, or on your blog. If it’s a simple, visually appealing and shareable infographic or short video, Instagram will likely be your best bet. Do some research to find out what makes sense for both your brand and the content itself in order to get the most visibility among your target audience. Don’t forget to add engaging captions, also!
How To Make Branded Content: Final Thoughts & How Audiosocket Can Help
This article is all about how to make branded content that helps you to reach as many potential customers as possible. If you’re planning on creating content for your business such as website content, YouTube videos, podcasts and so on, it’s time to start planning aspects like music. That’s where we can help!
If you are looking for authentic, top-quality music for your project, why not check out Audiosocket? Your content deserves the best, so sign up today and access 80,000+ songs to bring your vision to life!
If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to check out our articles on content creation, affiliate marketing, small business marketing strategies and creating corporate videos!