Linked In served this up to me today and I immediately wanted to giggle - which is an awesome reaction for content marketing. Here an ordinary article is talking about an ordinary topic, “should you leave your job” - but the image they’re using so perfectly lends itself to the topic that it brightens the topic and makes the content marketing article doubly effective.
Who didn't enjoy the Office Space character of Milton? My friends and I spent an entire year saying “I could burn down the building” after seeing that movie. His character was ridiculous and magnetizing.
So, to put in a photo of such a character, disgruntled with his employment, as the image complement to your article “unhappy with your workplace” is pure genius. It’s called a ‘ bent photo’ in advertising and it’s far more effective than just putting up a photo that duplicates the content.
Top Tips for Improving your Content Marketing Based on this Awesome Example:
- Choose a photo that complements your content. So if your article is “Don’t text and drive”, most people would choose a photo that explains the headline. However, a cartoon, or image of a person driving into a tree will be more (*ahem*) “striking” to the audience.
- Don’t be afraid to borrow from pop culture. I get tired of people advising others to “be funny” in their content marketing. It’s such lame advice because most people aren’t “stand up comic” funny - and that’s normal. A better piece of advice would be “show your sense of humour” in your marketing materials. You might not be the originator of the joke, but your ability to cite someone else’s “Funny” still puts humour into your article and builds a sense of community with your audience, in that you laugh at the same jokes.
- Always use images to complement your social media posts. Images make the 140 characters stand out more, so stick an image in as much as possible — even if it’s just an image of a quotation (words) it’s still ideal to have one in all of your social media posts, like Linked In, Twitter and Facebook.
What are your favourite examples of content marketing? Leave a comment below of ones that stick out in your mind.
