Three Cost-Effective Strategies for Original Content that Pops

Producing original content is hard, but it’s still easier than you think.

Here’s what marketers often get wrong about originality – they think it costs money. And it doesn’t. At least, not always.

Original ideas are hard to come by, but most of us sit on mountains of original insight within our staff, executive team, and business partners.

We’re just not making that good use of it.

In a world of generative AI, where any individual can produce piles of content in an hour, it’s original content that’s going to make any marketer worth their salt truly stand out.

Here’s how you can infuse originality into your content without investing in fancy tech tools that are, in fact, expensive.

Build frameworks around your solutions

As marketers, we often have our go-to frameworks for developing our marketing content. Are you an AIDA kinda gal (and if you’re not sure, that stands for attention, interest, desire and action)? Or, perhaps you’re partial to the ACCA framework (awareness, comprehension, conviction, action)?

Whichever way you lean these are commonly known and used frameworks and, therefore, not that original.

But what if you developed your own original frameworks that have your solution at their core, yet are much bigger than the solution itself?

I’m talking about the Building Bridges Framework (a meta-way to illustrate my point).

Here’s what I mean:

When I worked with a business coach, I noticed that he often gave common problems and solutions a catchy name that clients could remember them by.

For example, when a coaching client asked him how to handle a prospect who’d requested a type of sample they simply didn’t have, the coach didn’t just answer the question. They shared The Triangulation Technique framework.

What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s a solution where the mentee uses what they do have to justify they can deliver what the client wants (have, justify, want. The triangulation reference. Easy, right?).

When you talk about your solutions, steer away from talking about your solution in generic terms (saves time, improves ROI) and, instead, build a bridge between their problem and your solution with an easy-to-remember framework.

Do your clients struggle with a disjointed IT infrastructure?

Here comes your Optimization Blueprint to save the day — a framework of good practices where your service or product is just a small part of it. You can build a whole process around it and give your customers guidance beyond what your product can deliver. That right there is the added value that customers won’t be able to find anywhere else.

Do they lack visibility into their data?

They should definitely consult your Data Clarity Compass — a framework for cleaning up their data and organizing it in such a way that will drive visibility and improve insights. Again, make this system holistic and useful for your clients beyond your product and they’d be eternally grateful.

That’s how you deliver value, build trust, and attract loyalty.

Solve future problems

Most of us focus on solving existing problems. And that’s fine. For now.

But, if we want to be around for the long haul, we’d need to put our original thinkers’ hats on and turn into fortune tellers. For real. Because that’s what it takes to succeed in the crowded digital space of tomorrow.

Anticipating and solving problems your clients didn’t know they had.

Here’s why.

Let’s go back to November 2022 — the moment OpenAI launched ChatGPT and changed the world as we know it.

We now know the disruptive power of this technology — it spurred a plethora of AI efficiency tools; made a lot of accountants, designers and writers redundant; and, yes, wrote a few best-sellers along the way (still disputed).

Your clients have probably been affected by it, adversely or otherwise, but did you talk about it in late 2021 or early 2022?

Probably not.

Now, imagine if you were there, banging on their door, giving them the blueprint to prepare for what’s to come. Telling them how to make the most of the technology while safeguarding their business from the possible threat.

Do you think they would have been grateful?

I see you nodding.

Yes, you know they would.

In fact, that’s what Thrū Content does as well. While tech companies still get by with their tried and tested ways of developing content, we know that as gen-AI becomes more sophisticated, these methods will stop delivering results.

What will drive engagement and conversions in the future are genuine stories from genuine people using your product or talking about the problems you’re trying to solve. That’s why we’re so big on customer advocacy and SME-led (subject matter expert) content today. And that’s why we’re hammering about the importance of original content.

The best nuggets of wisdom are hidden somewhere in the precious minds of your customers and your in-house experts. Use them.

Infuse expertise throughout

Let’s talk about expertise some more, shall we?

We all like stats, but is that what we, as humans, really respond to? You know the adage, “people buy on emotion and justify with logic,” right? We’re so focused on numbers that we forget that buying decisions are often made on emotional cues.

In B2B, there are two ways you can trigger that cue:

Customer-led stories are one. Expert storytelling is the other.

And expert knowledge doesn’t mean reciting a database of stats that illustrate a point.

Experts know data, but they don’t talk about it in its raw form (at least not exclusively). Instead, true experts paint pictures with words.

Throughout my career, I’ve interviewed many CEOs and tech executives and aside from knowing their stuff, they all had one other thing in common – they were amazing storytellers.

They illustrated problems through anecdotes, drew parallels between seemingly unrelated topics, and made me view a problem (or a solution) in a completely different light.

That’s what’s missing from most content today. And that’s what’s going to make the most difference between meh content and content that customers truly love and relate to.

There’s no reason you can’t infuse expert storytelling into your content today. It certainly won’t break the bank to interview your inhouse staff or reach out to partners whose opinions you value and are happy to share.

In a world where we’re competing against thousands of voices across channels, original storytelling is what’s going to give yours the power to stand the test of time and win against them all.

Want to know how we infuse originality and drive results for our enterprise clients? Get a cuppa and give us a ring. We’d love to talk.