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Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and the best-selling author of two books on content marketing.
Pushed to the sidelines by a worldwide epidemic, brands have been obliged to mute their commercial voice. To stay in the game, however, some have opted for public expressions of solidarity (“We’re in this together”, “We’re with You”, “We’re Here for You”). The same refrain, one brand after the other, rarely rising above the level of greeting card sentiment. These brands felt they had to say something – even though it meant nothing. Just another instance of marketers failing to create content that matters.
The reason these attempts at empathy fall flat is that brands normally prefer to steer clear of any public discourse, worried about the blowback. When they do step out into the open at a time of crisis, they like to play it safe. Which is why they all sound exactly the same.
Of course, there are exceptions – more assertive brands that have always been true to their ideals. They have earned the right to step up to the podium, having proved their sincerity in the past. Nike is certainly one of those select brands, a model for corporate citizenship. Once again, it is speaking out against racial injustice (“For once, don’t do it”, implored a 60-second video on social media). But the ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s went even further, demanding an end to “white supremacy”, a point-of-view completely consistent with its progressive values and history of social activism.
Staying relevant in times of crisis involves more than jumping on the social media bandwagon with platitudes and hashtags. Every brand should be on a mission to change minds, unafraid to proclaim its convictions. People today would love brands to do the right thing – they just lack faith it will happen. By creating content that matters, brands can be heard above the street noise. They can help to build consensus and accelerate social progress. And they can be the catalyst that turns a cause into a movement.
The idea of using branded content to empathize, inform and inspire is one that Ann Handley fully endorses. After all, she has been in the forefront of content marketing from the very beginning, before it even came to be recognized as a discipline of its own. A journalist by training, Ann was a co-founder of the digital marketing news site ClickZ before selling it and moving to the online marketing training company MarketingProfs in 2002. Today that company has grown to 600 thousand subscribers. Ann is now the Chief Content Officer, overseeing all educational content. As a long-time advocate of content marketing, Ann is a popular guest on the speaking circuit, known for her plainspoken advice and humour. She is also the best-selling author of “Everybody Writes,” and the co-author of “Content Rules”, both essential reading for content marketing professionals.
I met up with Ann in between sessions at Uberflip’s annual content marketing event in Toronto. Given the struggle brands are having creating content that matters, I started by asking whether it is a discipline in need of more discipline.
Ann Handley: I mean, yes and no. I think that where the market is right now is that there’s a lot of people who are doing great things with content marketing, who are pushing the boundaries a little bit or pushing the industry forward. But I also think that we can’t forget that there’s a whole lot of people who are not there yet. You know, I talk to all kinds of audiences and all different industries and verticals and levels of content marketing adoption. And there is a pretty big gap still between the content haves and the content have nots. So I guess it’s hard to answer your question just with one answer because I don’t think that everybody is at the same level. But I do think that most industries, most people do understand the benefits of content marketing. I think there’s a lot of companies who at least buy into it on a mindset level but really aren’t sure still where to start, what to do. And it’s kind of funny because content marketing has been around, at least in its modern inception, I mean it’s been around forever, but in its more modern inception… you know, my book “Content Rules” came out 10 years ago, you know, so… (4.48).
Stephen Shaw: I was just looking at it the other day.