The church is constantly faced with a content dilemma: Market the church or market the church message?
Those are uniquely two different audiences, messages, techniques, and deliverables. There is a line between evangelism and marketing. In fact, because of modern commercial cynicism, the well-intended evangelistic message may often be looked at as marketing. Churches struggle having conversation with non-church members (potential customers) without sounding like a commercial.
This is not unlike the struggles of any other business. The content may be different, but the problem is the same. How does a company have conversation, in this new social media world, minus commercialism? Consumers are cynical. If you say “How was your weekend?” they want to know why you are asking.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:9
In either of those cases, business or church, the audience quickly turns away when the content becomes too commercial. In fact, they have seen the message before. It’s the equivalent of a politician calling the same 10 voters. The customer knows the message already and “there is nothing new under the sun”. The odds are if you want content on a topic, it’s been done before.
The merging of the message, the conversation, and the evangelism into a content strategy plan becomes the Holy Grail.
Content strategy is more than writing copy, although, that is certainly part of it. It’s developing plans and practices to implement the content. As web solutions and the user experience becomes more interactive and complex, the need for more complex content solutions arises. Writing sticky copy, although essential, is not enough.
Content includes the text, graphics, media that make up an online presence. Content is anything that appears on a website, including words, pictures, video, sounds, icons, and logos. In essence, content is everything, but yet it becomes secondary.
Content is often taken for granted at the planning stages of an online marketing campaign and website. A web project will include designers, developers, marketers, but seldom are content strategists added to the project. Instead, content becomes an afterthought. The end result of a lack of content strategy is customers (or potential customers) will not find the answers to their questions.
The lack of content strategy often leaves the separation between brand, messaging, (evangelism) and conversation. Instead of one seamless message, it becomes disjointed. The result is customers will see the commercial in the content.
Content strategy is essentially the roadmap for a successful web presence. In turn, content strategists are needed to develop content plans based on statistics, user behavior and potential behavior. Not only do marketers need to react to consumers’ content needs, they need to anticipate future needs. Content strategy defines the what, the how, the when, and the why of content.
To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. – 1 Corinthians 9:22
Often marketers are forced to present content to a user that has seen it thousands of times. Presenting data in a comparative, or metaphorical, way allows editors to show the same data to users in a new light. Metaphors help readers reconnect with old data.
By adding a comparative story or analogy, marketers can attach to emotion. Consumers will react more to a brand if they have an emotional connection. Stories, and parables, can allow content to be all things to all people.
Sticky Sheep, among many things, is one big metaphor. You can say we “eat our own dog food”. We have an emotional connection to many of the topics we share, so we hope that connects with many of our readers. We also invite other writers to contribute to our blog in hopes that they will bring a new connection and new angle to our stories.
Like you, we have seen the latest marketing books and we are fans of many of them. However, the ones that are the stickiest are the ones that present old ideas in a new light. It’s the emergence of content (evangelistic, marketing, social, and more) into a new vision that leaves customers with inspiration.
I would love to know more about your message. How are you delivering unique content? Better yet, how are you delivering the same content in a unique way?
