Content marketing has often been labelled as storytelling. Indeed, content marketing authority Joe Pulizzi describes a theoretical head of content marketing position as the ‘chief storyteller’.
However, too frequently, good storytelling is not on the agenda of those working in content.
The question is, why is this? What are the causes? And how do we become better storytellers with our digital content?
Good content should have a beginning, a middle and an end
The old adage of narratives should apply to content marketing if we subscribe to the view touted by the experts.
However, if we look at how we assess content marketing (and I include myself at times in this broad generalisation), we typically review our messages in piece-meal format. I.e. the amount of likes or re-shares a given piece of content receives, or the CTR from our closing calls-to-action in blog postings.
But are we trying to tell our content story in one tweet or Facebook post? Or are we telling a far deeper, richer and arguably more effective story through multiple content objects working harmoniously together?
Assessing each content object in isolation appears contrary to the art of storytelling and limits our understanding of our content endeavours. We become channel-centric, with expectations placed on the distribution platform used, rather than the broader story told.
Essentially, we’re judging the merits of the story we are telling, by the response from our clients to the book cover.
This channel view is problematic as it limits monitoring and management of content marketing to story ‘snippets’, rather than the full story presented to customers.
We know our customers may well receive an email, visit a third-party blog with a customer review of our products, or see an update from ourselves via their Twitter feed in the space of a working day, but for many of us, our lack of sophistication in our assessment of content marketing means we are not reviewing the broader story we are trying to communicate.
