How to Leverage Content Communities to Expand Your Brand Reach

Posted by Julianne Staino
?Content is King!?

Ah, the wonderfully overused statement that makes me want to throw my monitor at the wall and then hang my head in shame because it?s actually true. I feel like I can safely assume that we can all agree on the increasing importance of awesome content. Recently, it seems like everyone is championing for companies to evolve the way in which they approach creating content. (Ie. Coca-Cola?s 2020 content strategy. If you haven?t watched these videos, I?d highly recommend investing 20 minutes in order to see how big brands are changing the way they think about a cohesive marketing strategy) Here in the Distilled NYC office, I?m surrounded by Tom Critchlow and John Doherty who are single handedly pushing companies to have inspired content and changing marketers mindsets.

This is great and all, and ?imma let you boys finish, but shifting a companies? mindset and creating inspiring pieces is tough!

Note: I am in no way suggesting we don?t strive to achieve this, we should always try to effect change and produce content that strikes a nerve within. I?m just pointing out the obvious fact that these content strategies are a longer-term play.

Besides the obvious SEO benefits to having unique content, engaging materials also help your customers remember your brand. So by having things people find interesting on your site, the more likely it is for them to come back. However, what if you?re not Coke and don?t have a huge fan/customer base to rely on along with a marketing budget that has a lot of zeros? All this amazing content you?re producing is falling on deaf ears. Of course you?ll most likely push the content through all the various social channels to hopefully gain some traction, but again this will mainly reach people that already know about your brand.

So how do you create excellent pieces of content that attracts a new audience and spreads your brand reach?

Well, if you are a company that doesn?t have time or resources to invest