How to cut through the noise

How to cut through the content noise

Thought leadership is a vital part of any marketing strategy but how can you give your content the best chance of cutting through the noise from your competitors – and drive revenue?

It’s the greatest challenge in creating engaging content, according to almost half of respondents to a survey we ran in our recent webinar, ‘Using thought leadership content to grow your sales pipeline and engage market professionals’.

It comes amid increased pressure on marketers to create meaningful customer touch points to support sales conversations in the digital world.

What do you want to be famous for?

This should be the first question in any content creation strategy. How do you want your customers to perceive your organisation and your unique offering? How does this align with your brand and what your customers expect of your brand? A clearly defined editorial voice will lead to higher engagement with your audience.

“There’s so much content out there and there’s an expectation of you as a company where you’re ultimately going to add value in the conversation that’s occurring,” said Jim Jockle, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of global marketing and corporate communication at specialist software provider Numerix. “If you have clarity, that’s where you’re cutting out between your competitors.”

“Quality content that’s targeted in the right way will always hit the mark,” added Philip Harding, global head of commercial content at Infopro Digital, which provides a wide range of expert marketing and content services to customers in the finance sector.

Getting the right tone

It’s no good creating great content if it’s tone-deaf due to changed market dynamics and current affairs. Marketers have had to overhaul their campaigns since the pandemic to stay relevant and reflect the changing needs of their customers.

“One of the things I thought was fascinating at the beginning of the pandemic was the lack of tone,” said Jockle. “Marketing automation systems were perhaps on autopilot… I shut down my content at that point… Three months later, where we saw different challenges and models… it was an opportunity to reinsert ourselves in the conversation.”

“The trust of the brand was being tested,” added Payal Raina, global head of marketing at cloud-based technology company Torstone Technology. “We felt some of the communications were not that relevant… Connecting and building that trust so we empathise with their feelings, which absolutely was critical to the brand.”

Clear visuals

There’s nothing like a simple visual aid to help communicate highly technical subject matter such as the global capital markets.

Help out your audience with graphics and images that will instantly build the picture of your story.

“We’re talking about some very specialist markets and topics where you have dedicated teams talk about complex issues,” said Harding. “There needs to be a fundamental understanding of those topics in what you produce… If you can be that leading voice in the market, that helps your differentiation, helps you stand out from the crowd, cut through that noise.”