The saying “work smarter, not harder” is a little deceptive, in our opinion. If you work smarter AND harder, you won’t have to work as long or with as many team members, and that’s where the sweet spot of multimedia content development lies.
To fill your funnel in the era of rich media marketing, you’ll need multimedia content that supports any phase of the buyer's journey.
Unfortunately, creating unique video content for each of these phases (and regularly refreshing the content) is likely to become an arduous task.
Here are five steps to develop multimedia content that works throughout the buyer’s journey, with any size of budget or team:
1. Building relationships and connections through shared interests or values
Most branded content stems from something the brand has in common with its audience. For example, if we created a branded podcast, we would explore content marketing from a production, strategy, and ROI perspective because this subject is a primary topic of our agency and an audience of potential partners.
2. Telling a brand’s story in an engaging, entertaining way
Before smartphones were invented, we probably read a few brand stories on the back of cereal boxes in the morning when we were kids. Those days are long gone. Today, if your target market has a choice, they’d much rather watch a video about your brand than read the “About Us” page on your website.
Fortunately, there are a million different ways to tell a brand story through rich media. You can focus on the main challenges you solve or how you do business differently from your competitors. You can cover your feel-good brand beginnings or the customers you’ve served along the way.
Just make sure it reaches your audience on an emotional level and clues them into your brand values.
3. Opening up cross-marketing opportunities
Branded content marketing enables you to work closely with other brands, professionals, or thought-leaders and cross-promote your content to each other’s audiences.
For example, if you create a branded podcast that features a weekly guest from your industry, your reach will extend as your guest shares the episode with their audience. In return, the guest has new exposure to your audience as well.
Another option is to co-produce branded content with another entity. For example, an Italian restaurant could produce a series of cooking lessons using a specific brand of tomato sauce. Both audiences receive an extended marketing reach from this type of content.
4. Using one piece of content across multiple channels (social media, YouTube, and podcast platforms.)
Branded content also allows you to fill your content calendar without producing new content for each channel and marketing purpose. This is done by using the Content 2.0 method, in which you start with a larger piece of content (such as a video podcast) and break it down into length and formats that are optimized for social media posts, YouTube, and other channels.
5. How can my business start producing branded content?
A video podcast is a simple, accessible way to begin creating branded content at any level of budget or experience. If you need more help with content strategy and project management to kickstart your content, don’t hesitate to reach out to your friends at Tobe Agency.
