When I canvassed Imaginaire Digital’s office for nominations regarding the subject for this interview, every single reply was the same: Brittany Berger. Not only is this a sign of how respected she is within the content marketing (and wider marketing) industry, it also shows that she is considered one of the most powerful content marketers expert in the world of marketing today.
Specialising in working with companies to both improve their existing content, and create exciting new content for their businesses, means Brittany has built up a fantastic knowledge base over her career, and we were very excited to get the opportunity to tap into that.
As you might expect, her schedule is very cramped and she is an incredibly busy person, but she is also generous with her time when available.
And without further ado, here are Brittany’s thoughts on content marketing:
What would you say is your favourite kind of content to create and why?
I never would’ve imagined giving this answer a few years ago, but I love creating video content most. I still create more written content than video stuff since video takes a lot more energy and resources, but it’s also more enjoyable.
What I love about video content – particularly the videos I’m creating for my own businesses – is that when writing the scripts I really have to lean into my personality. My brand and personality is loud and bold, and focused as much on entertainment and humour as education. Translating that well into video requires going hard on the brand voice and personality, and it’s so fun.
Do you have any specific techniques when deciding the tone, style and voice of your content?
Talking it out. With any kind of content, text included, my editing process includes speaking the words out loud. The best writing doesn’t sound like writing, it sounds like talking. So if your writing doesn’t feel conversational enough, working it out verbally can be the easiest way to nail the voice you’re looking for.
Do you prefer to entertain or educate your audiences? Or both?
Definitely both! One of my brand values is that the best learning balances them both. I like to call it infotainment. Being funny or entertaining isn’t a replacement for valuable information, but valuable information can sometimes be hard to take in. Being entertaining in your delivery keeps your audience engaged an in a better position to take in that information and remember it.
How did you first get started in the marketing/content marketing industry?
I was originally studying PR and journalism. I really liked the idea of telling the stories of businesses, but in college didn’t know if I wanted to be on the brand side, like in a PR department, or on the journalism side writing the stories. In one of my college PR internships, I saw that businesses were starting to combine the two in creating blogs and stuff and could tell it sounded perfect. That was in 2010 and I’ve been helping B2B brands tell their stories ever since.
What do you think makes a remarkable piece of content?
You might see this coming by now, but for me what makes something stand out is voice and entertainment. Remarkable content can multitask – it can generate SEO traffic and inbound leads while also telling a story or making a joke.
Where do you see content marketing going in the next 5 years?
I see us getting more options. It’s the way content’s been headed for awhile. When content marketing first started, it was mostly about creating content for blogs. Then social media and video became bigger parts of the puzzle, and then podcasting entered the equation as well. Some people stress about which one’s dying or which one’s a must-have, but really, what’s happening is that we’re getting options. The more we have, the less there will be a right or wrong channel and the more you’ll be able to choose one based on what makes sense for your business.
Who do you think are the thought leaders in the content marketing industry? Apart from yourself of course!
Some of my favourite content marketers to follow and talk to are Nichole DeMeré, Alaura Weaver, Lucia Fontaina-Powell, and Benji Hyam.
How would you usually promote a piece of content?
My content promotion plans are always very reliant on a company’s existing audience or customer base as well as their strengths and weaknesses, but I’ll walk you through the strategy for my personal brand’s business.
For this, the core pieces of content are usually videos or blog posts. The first thing I’ll do is get my current community talking about the post and helping me promote. For that, I’ll look at emailing my list, going live in my customer Facebook group, and showing a clip on Instagram stories. Then I’ll move onto social media like Twitter and Facebook, where I’ll schedule to share the content several times over the next month as well as add it to a library for recycling. From there, I look at long-term strategies like earning links or visibility around the topic.
Finally, which companies do you think are doing particularly well with their content marketing?
I really love the content from YNAB, You Need a Budget, especially their product marketing content. For example, their resource library for app tutorials is one of the best I’ve ever seen. The customer is totally in the driver’s seat of the user experience but it still encourages you to binge and learn everything there is to know about their software. Speaking from my own experience as a user lol.
