Value-first Content

Too many companies out there are producing “Look at me” content. You’ve likely seen content like this.

This kind of content often talks about:

• How wonderful the company is
• How they recently won an award
• How their founder struggled and came out a better human being (LinkedIn is full of these stories)
• How fast the company is growing
• How revolutionary their technology is
• How much better their solution is than the competition

This kind of content can feel like brand-building work. But it’s not.

It builds little affinity with customers because of one reason: it’s not about helping them.

Customers build affinity with brands that understand them and use their content to fulfill the mission of helping them.

Companies who understand this create content that instead focuses on:

• Talking in the second person
• Resolving real pain points with real solutions
• Educating customers so they can achieve their objectives

This kind of content inevitably ends up building the brand.

It’s not a bait-and-switch either. There isn’t always a sales pitch to buy a software or product at the end.

Those outcomes end up happening anyways.