EPISODE 3 OF 3:
—HOW TO BUILD TOUCHPATH CONTENT—
(Catch up with episodes 1 and 2)
TouchPath Content Approach
Great stories come from how things unfold rather than just the events themselves. TouchPath content strategy follows the story and brand experience (BX) of each of the stakeholders—employees, intermediaries, and customers—and the events leading up to the point of customer value.
Content can be delivered in video, static media, audio, digital, or a combination, using each medium to add more dimension to the brand’s value. To heighten engagement, formats can include dramatic, humorous, or docu-style storylines, game show or gaming formats, or a combination.
Creativity is the catalyst. Whatever combination is used, the key is to develop the customer life event story, showing how the purpose and people behind the brand unite to create customer value. Using a storyline and actors/animation/images /personalities that draw from the brand personality adds depth, color, and promotes brand differentiation.
Make it Engaging and Episodic
In contrast to advertising, TouchPath stories are ideally episodic in their delivery. In the Netflix era, engaging stories take time to develop, whether they’re in video, audio (podcasts), text, or graphics. An episodic approach allows the reach of short form content with the depth of long form.
A 360° Alignment Tool
Producing a 360° view of a life event situation as seen by customers, distributors, and employees, provides an engaging storyline that’s highly relevant to each stakeholder group. It simply and efficiently connects brand values with customer situations while adding depth and dimension. It can even showcase best practices and ideal brand behaviors.
As these short form episodes show how a united brand can resolve customer problems, they also form an emotional connection across the ecosystem. This connection helps simplify alignment.
Execution is Everything
Today’s digital access has made content king. Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, and a myriad of other options have conditioned people to be entertained, even when they are consuming information. The bar is high, but the TouchPath strategy offers a way to infuse relevant entertainment with education, wrapped in brand personality. Innovators are taking seriously the power of edutainment in a TouchPath strategy to dimensionalize, differentiate, and engage.
Not all content producers can create effective, engaging TouchPath-style content programs. To develop successful TouchPath content for any medium, a background in creating content for entertainment, education, or documentaries is important. Producing amateurish dramatic or comedic content may be worse than dry educational content. Experience producing emotive, well-crafted long form content is essential. That’s why many ad agencies are challenged by this kind of approach. The final product should look more like an entertainment micro-series than advertising.
Long Term Strategy
The TouchPath content strategy lends itself to long term implementation. In this regard, it’s similar to a prime-time TV series. Develop a successful, brand-centric theme featuring personas and situations your customers identify with, and keep cranking it out…in video, audio, digital, events, training, education…even use elements in advertising. These content episodes can be used in a wide range of ways: from edited versions for social media to carrier website content, training, internal onboarding, broker website content, sales presentations, employer pre-enrollment campaigns, and beyond. This content strategy is not only effective for marketing, sales, education, HR, and internal alignment, it’s also a solution for stretching the budget with high quality content.
Be sure not to miss Episode 1 and Episode 2 in this series for more on Content Strategy for Insurance and Benefits Marketers.
For a one-on-one discussion about how a TouchPath content strategy could look for your brand, contact GroPartners Consulting.
Need help developing effective content from experts in your industry? Learn more.
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