Don’t Talk About Fight Club
We’ve all been there before and desperately tried to escape the scenario. Somehow at a friend’s birthday celebration you have drawn the lucky card of sitting next to the person who talks about who they are and what they do….. the entire time. Luckily, there is another person at the gathering who has always been a good storyteller and you want to know what great stories she has today. Companies get it wrong when they talk about who they are and what they do nonstop. Companies get it wrong when they talk about Fight Club.
Why You Should Avoid It
Marketing to consumers is changing and companies should evolve to change with that preference. Heavy advertising was and is still the way for many industries, but consumers are changing the way they approach the market. It is no longer good enough to just push messaging through social platforms to gain traction and build a base. Given all the advances in technology and the plethora of information available, consumers have changed how they make decisions (The Inc). They now make decisions based on leaders in the market, recommendations, online discovery. While talking about how great your product is might help with online discovery, it could also hurt. People tend to post articles that are helpful in general and avoid posting or sharing articles with a heavy tone of self-promotion. When digital content is shared from a company’s website, it is a form of promotion even if it does not contain the direct call to action. Again, which person is more likely to attract a crowd at a gathering? The person talking about how great they are, or the one discussing relevant topics and telling great stories?
How it will help?
Focusing on helpful digital content and not pure promotion will provide an opportunity for your company to gain traction as a thought leader in the field. Additionally, it will challenge the content creators to be more creative and provide valuable digital content. That content will then be shared and increase the number of links guiding traffic to the company website. Thinking about this in a practical manner, if given a choice between the one upper at a party and the person sharing great life hacks, who would you pick?
If not here then where?
It would be ridiculous to suggest companies should avoid digital promotion altogether. On the contrary, content-based online promotion is still promotion. In addition, there are still other avenues such as paid advertising campaigns, promotional swag, and channel partnerships. The overall goal of digital content strategy should be to behave in a way consistent with the consumer’s expectations. As more consumers back away from brands that interrupt their experiences with constant promotion , businesses should consider a new approach.
