A good marketing strategy is crucial to enhance your brand’s relationship with your audience and promote the growth of your business. Among the practices that stand out to achieve this goal is content production.

This is how the content strategy is linked to branding – the concept that aims to consolidate a brand and make it recognized by the public, investing in techniques to strengthen its corporate image.

In this article we will tell you how content marketing and branding manage to transmit the value and positioning of the brand, in order to enchant the audience and turn the company into a reference. Read on!

How are content marketing and branding related?

Content marketing and branding have basic characteristics that connect them in their objectives. Here are the main premises that both concepts have in common.

Increased brand recognition
Content production is a functional tool for companies to create a relationship with the audience through useful and relevant information.

One of the objectives of content marketing is precisely to show the public that the brand is always there for whatever they need, which generates a positive perception of the company.

In this context, content plays a fundamental role in branding. Its actions allow the brand to remain active in different channels and make users identify it as closer, participative and accessible.

Humanization of the brand
Humanizing a brand means giving it a human condition, with feelings, desires and expectations, to generate public empathy and an identification effect. This concept is part of the main fundamentals of branding and involves different techniques that rely on the production of content.

The creation of a unique style, the use of a language close to the audience, personalization and the development of a relationship with the audience based on interaction are some of the ways to humanize a brand – and all of them are applicable to content marketing.

The purpose of content is to soften the corporate image and bring the brand closer to the public by speaking their language, helping them with their main challenges, producing materials adapted to the characteristics and needs of the Buyer Persona and encouraging interaction with the user.

Increased trustworthiness
A brand that generates trust is able to transmit its values and establish a strong and unique relationship with its audience. In addition, it also manages to increase its conversions, since trust is one of the decisive factors for buyers.

Awakening the consumer’s identification with the brand, improving the perception of the company’s value and working on its reputation in the market are principles that content marketing implements so that the audience trusts the company and, as a consequence, buys its products and services through branding and without great traditional sales efforts.

Differentiation from the competition
So far it is clear how creating a strong connection with consumers is important for a brand. When you invest in this type of strategy, you are no longer a business, a store or a supplier, but an ally, a partner. When this objective is achieved, it is the moment when differentiation in the market is defined.

Content marketing makes companies unique and remains in the memory of their consumers so that, when they need them, they are attractive commercial options instead of their competitors. All this through a line of communication oriented to the needs of the public and with an original identity of the business itself.

How to make a content marketing strategy oriented to branding?
To produce effective content that achieves visibility and recognition, some essential factors must be followed. These are practices that favor the creation of relevant content capable of generating instant interest from the audience. Find out how to achieve it.

Know your brand in depth
A brand goes beyond its logo, its visual identity or the products and services it offers. In fact, a brand is not defined by what it sells, but by its relationship with its customers and why it does what it does. In other words: its mission.

In order to establish effective communication strategies (and here we are not only referring to content marketing, but to all marketing strategies), it is essential to be clear about the brand’s identity and to know its vision, objectives and history in depth.

This is the only way to reflect the true essence of the business to the public and stop being just one more in the market to become a memorable brand.

Identify your audience
Another very important point to produce content that adds value and is aligned with the branding strategy is to know and understand the target audience or, better yet, the business persona.

To do this, a semi-fictional profile of the brand’s ideal consumer, also known as buyer persona, must be designed. To build the profile according to reality, you must answer some questions, such as:

What are their demographic information?
What is their educational level?
How broad is their purchasing power?
What are their main pains, problems and challenges?
How do you keep yourself informed?
Any characteristics that are relevant.
Putting it on paper allows the company to visualize who they are communicating with and how they can work their content strategy to positively impact their potential customers.

Create a style guide
With the help of content you can build the image and personality of a business, two fundamental elements for success. This is defined by the language used and the style adopted in the materials. That is, the voice and tone that the brand will use to communicate with the audience.

To create coherence in content and provide a consistent experience, your company must have a guide that reflects the essence of its communication. It includes aspects such as:

brand values and principles that guide all your actions;
words that define the brand’s identity and the way it shows itself to the world;
terms related to the characteristics of the business (if it is a clothing brand, it could be fashion, beauty, trend…);
forbidden words, those that do not represent the brand and should be avoided as much as possible.
This document will serve to guide not only the construction of the content guidelines, but also the way it is produced and presented to the public.

Define your content strategy
The 3 previous factors are the basis for the content strategy, effectively. Once you are clear about your brand identity, who your audience is and how you should communicate with them, it is time to structure the production of the materials.

At this point, there are 4 elements to be defined.

What will be the publication channel (or channels)?
These are the means through which the content will be published. When we talk about content marketing, it is quite common to think of a blog, for example. However, in some cases and depending on the brand profile, there are other alternatives for content generation, such as:

video platforms;
audio platforms;
newsletters;
downloadable materials in landing pages;
among others.
2. What formats will be published?
This is closely related to the channels, but its focus is on the format in which the content will be distributed. That is, in a blog you can publish, in addition to articles, guides, lists, infographics, interactive content, among others.

3. What will be the frequency of publication?
The frequency of publication serves to reinforce the brand’s consistency in the content it publishes. Defining a schedule allows people to be more aware of what the business produces and, as a consequence, remember it more intensely.

4. What will be the content topics?
Once the previous elements have been determined and documented, everything is ready to start creating the contents.

To do this successfully, we recommend making a list of the main terms relevant to the audience, as well as their main topics of interest, which will serve as a guide to define the main guidelines of your content.

For this, you can use SEO tools, very relevant in keyword research and audience behavior on the Internet.

Don’t forget that content is important to increase the public’s positive feeling about the brand. For that reason, it is essential to maintain quality and offer educational materials that add some kind of value.

This factor will also be useful for you to build authority in the market. Once the brand is consolidated as a reference, it is easier for people and even other companies to mention it, thus increasing its reach and visibility.