The One Question to Ask About Your Next Article

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When you’re selecting a topic for your next piece of content, there’s one key question to ask yourself: does this solve a problem for someone in my audience?

Consider the broader goals of our thought leadership efforts. In articles, white papers, newsletters and videos, we try to accomplish a few things, like: building the brand. Staying on the radar of clients and prospects. Fostering some kind of conversation or engagement. But underlying all of these goals is a more fundamental aim: to earn and retain the trust of the audience.

How to foster trust

Earning trust in corporate-branded content is probably not so different from earning trust in a face-to-face relationship.

In this framework of trust put forth by Harvard professor Frances Frei and entrepreneur Anne Morriss, trust is about authenticity, logic and empathy.

• Authenticity means that people feel they are hearing from or interacting with the “real” you.
• Logic means they believe in your competence.
• Empathy means they feel you care about them and have their interest at heart.

Thinking of the hundreds of client projects I have helped with over the years, most clients have an easy time with authenticity. And they’ve got tons of logic/competence to share.

It’s the empathy piece that seems hard to communicate as a brand.

How do you show your audience that you care about them and have their interest at heart? You try to solve a problem for them. You show them you understand their challenges, questions and concerns. You help them gain knowledge on a key area or probe into the complexities of a problem they face.

The problem of your editorial calendar

As a freelance financial writer, one of the most common situations I see in client projects is that people come at their projects from their own benefit. They ask: what does our brand want to talk about?

But the most effective pieces – the ones that gain PR attention, drive SEO rankings higher, garner interest at conferences and get shared around – are not crafted from that starting point. They always, always, always start with the goal of solving a problem for the audience.

Marketing requires persistence. But effective marketing must also prioritize trust. Happily, starting with a goal of trust is also likely to produce more popular, higher-value content.

Looking for a partner in trust building? Reach out.