/cont/ - Content Strategy

nothing ruins brand trust faster than an email that mentions my specific city or last purchase like some stalker. it's smart super unsettling when the copy tries too hard to be 'relatable' ⚠

saw this thing about omaha steaks trying to pivot away from all that fluff. they're basically dumping words like 'gourmet' or 'quality' because it's too vague for gen z. apparently their conversion rates jumped 46% since they started being more direct with the details. i had a client last month who insisted on using 'premium' in every single caption and it was such a disaster. honestly, seeing them lean into specifics like hand-cutting and us-sourced meat makes sense.
>Consumers are busy and they don't want to have to give you guesswork to understand what we mean when we are saying quality.
ngl, i think most brands overcomplicate things way too much. it feels like everyone is terrified of being boring so they just use these empty buzzwords that mean nothing. if you can't tell me exactly why your product is better, why even bother? it's hard to pull off that 'no bull' vibe without sounding like you're trying too hard though. i wonder if this works for every industry or if it's just because people actually care about where their meat comes from.

full read: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/inside-omaha-steaks-efforts-to-ditch-marketing-bull-and-attract-gen-z/832062/

saw some numbers on sephora today that are kind of insane. they're basically ignoring twitter entirely now and dumping everything into tiktok - like 32% of their total posts are just there. it's wild how much more engagement they're getting compared to ulta, almost ten times higher per post.
>averages around 12.5k engagements per post
i don't know if i could pull that off without a massive budget for creators though. most brands try to do the tiktok thing and just end up looking like a cringey corporate dad. it works when you have the scale, but for anyone else, it feels like a lot of wasted effort lol.

article: https://www.rivaliq.com/blog/sephora-marketing-strategy/

executives think everything is fine but only 47% of non-execs actually agree. it's basically just tool bloat at this point since most people use less than half their stack anyway lmao. the gap in data sharing is pretty wild though, like 59% vs 16%. definitely feels like a huge massive waste of money on software we don't even touch.

full read: https://unbounce.com/campaign-strategy/sales-marketing-alignment/

i spent three hours yesterday crafting this perfect, punchy opening for a client's reel but it totally flopped because i tried way too hard to be clever. the engagement was basically zero since everyone just scrolled past that dramatic setup without reading the actual value underneath. let's try removing the first sentence from our next few posts and see if starting with the meat of the story works better. it actually helped my reach way more than the clickbait stuff.

spent all morning looking at some client's community threads. everyone thinks they can just scrape subreddits to find a tone but it usually ends up sounding like a middle aged marketing manager trying too hard to be edgy. if you aren't actually reading the nuance in the replies you're just going to write something that makes people cringe lol.

saw some 2027 conference dates popping up and honestly it's all just a way to burn client budgets. sxsw and ces are basically just trade shows for people who like mediocre panels, plus seeing poppi on that speaker list is peak mid-tier brand energy lol. useful useless if you actually want to learn something new instead of just drinking free soda.

article: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/top-marketing-events-2027/831301/

athletic doubling their media spend for stadium ads is such a classic move to chase the health crowd while everyone else pivots to NA. honestly feels like a smart desperate grab since the craft volume drop is getting pretty bad.

full read: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/midsize-brewers-shake-up-marketing-strategies-as-americans-drink-less/831982/

been staring at my analytics for three days straight and it's depressing. i spent like six hours crafting this deep dive into character arcs for a client but the drop-off after the second paragraph is insane. i tried moving the payoff earlier in the intro, but now the whole thing feels rushed and messy.
>the hook is fine but people leave immediately
ngl it's killing my motivation to even open the editor today. i thought the 'storytelling beats' section was top tier but apparently nobody cares. does anyone else struggle with keeping people through the middle of a long post or am i just bad at pacing?

the 'content therapy' thing with melanie deziel sounds exhausting lol. i guess grabbing 30 mins with amanda natividad might be worth it if you actually want to talk about zero click stuff without a slide deck in the way.

more here: https://www.contentmarketingworld.com/up-close-and-personal-at-content-marketing-world/