The advent of social media introduced an entirely new playing field within traditional marketing channels. As platforms grew, so did the most engaging accounts. The best creators, public figures, and influencers rose to prominence within the social-sphere due to several reasons, but no reason more important than their content production. Potent content is captivating, it’s optimized for the audience it serves, it’s formatted properly, and it’s consistent. These are just a few of the remarkable traits of powerful content.

You may have heard the saying in the last few years, “Content is King.” It’s been almost 20 years since Bill Gates published this iconic quote in an article on the Microsoft website; it still rings true! Nearly every article or blog on media creation for social media, digital advertising, and marketing will reference this concept at some point–at least the good written pieces will. But it would be naive to assume that this idea was birthed after social media; content has always been important. Since the early days of advertising, marketing, and sales, content has been the foundation on which social engineers craft their message to create a desired outcome. Whether it’s written, photographed, videographed, or computer designed, potent content has always been a crucial part of building a compelling story, campaign, or brand.

The challenge is, many marketing experts don’t understand or underestimate the power of premium content. We’ve compiled a few important categories to consider for producing content that is powerful.

Medium Specific

One of the first things to consider when planning content creation is where will it be seen? What medium or mediums will host the content? Is your media asset strictly for digital placement or will it also be used in print? Does the platform hosting the asset have strict guidelines for dimensions, file quality, color, or design details? Will the medium hosting your content be a good match for the content itself?

A few examples…

• If your video will be seen on YouTube, on theater screen, or on TikTok determines which orientation you will need to capture and edit the content. Vertical video that’s 1920×1080 is much better suited for TikTok vs. YouTube.
• Will your article be published in print or is it strictly going to be shared through digital mediums such as websites and blog forums? A hyperlink isn’t suitable for the newspaper, as you know.
• If your media asset is shared on a social media platform that has an extensive list of community guidelines or terms and conditions, does it abide by the platform’s rules?

Always plan your media creation around the medium in which it will be viewed. By prioritizing  medium-specific content generation, you take a step in the right direction to achieving more potent content.

Audience Specific

Ever seen an advertisement that felt like it wasn’t made for you? Of course you have. The ad may have done a great job of appealing to another audience or demographic, but it wasn’t well-suited for you as a consumer. As a business owner or marketer, it’s imperative to fully understand your target audience as much as possible before creating content for them. The more time you spend evaluating the habits, tendencies, and demographics of your audience, the more likely your content piece or advertisement will appeal to them.

To get started in audience research before generating your media, look for relevant and recent data that pertains to your target audience’s behavior. Additionally, there are many industry tricks and tips that can come in handy for scouting audience patterns. For those looking for help with this, a zero Ω expert is at your disposal as needed.

Campaign Specific & Brand Specific

Content that is truly king will be designed with the medium and audience in mind but will not omit the importance of the campaign itself. Every marketing campaign is unique and should have its own set of goals. Those goals, whether it be a new customer conversion or a lead form sign-up, should be represented by content that is optimized for the campaign’s goals. Some campaigns may be more subtle or more polarizing than others. What is the mood and approach of the campaign itself? Your brand’s content should match the intensity and vibe of the campaign without disturbing the overall brand personality

Many times a business’ content needs to stay aligned with the brand character. Brand guidelines may allow certain degrees of flexibility to accommodate one-off content creation or media that is less traditional to your company. However, be careful of distinguishing your content too much from the normal look and feel of the brand. Deviating from your business’ brand guidelines is a challenging line to walk and should be done with caution, even when it comes to creating content for a specific campaign.

Content Testing

Last but not least, potent content is typically not born right away–it evolves to reach a powerful level of intrigue and captivation. Just with channel marketing or testing advertising pieces, businesses should A/B test their content to determine which asset the audience reacts most favorably to. One can conduct all the market research in the world and make predictions backed by data to the full extent available, however, sometimes the content turns out to perform poorly. It is challenging to predict an audience’s reaction no matter how much planning goes into the media generation plan. Powerful content is usually refined over and over through testing methods and audience feedback. Even if you have created a media asset that performs well from the start, don’t hesitate to deploy small tweaks here and there to test what content variation may perform optimally in the long run.

Creating Potent Content

Content potency should be the goal of every creator, brand, and business. Simply put, potent content is a great catalyst for stronger business performance and better campaign results. Powerful content can stand the test of time and is more resilient to trends and changes.