In February, I spoke at the Brand Storytelling Conference by The Event Nexus. My session was entitled “The Content Marketing ‘Sweet Spot’: Create Better Content with These Ideation Hacks.” I started off by covering what content marketing is and isn’t, why companies invest in branded content, and branded content’s role in publishers’ monetization strategies.

Then, I got to the heart of the presentation: how I run a content marketing brainstorm. I shared the exact questions and prompts I use to jumpstart these discussions, along with tips and tricks for coming up with the most creative and effective content topics.

Lastly, I shared B2B and B2B examples, highlighted common content marketing mistakes and how to avoid them, and answered questions from the audience.

In the future, I will force audience participation early on because it was a bit hard speaking to the silence of a Zoom call. I prefer to get real-time feedback. Another challenge was that participants had varying levels of experience. I wish I had started by conducting a poll to understand how many of the hundred or so participants were familiar with content marketing and how they would rate their level of understanding. I highly enjoyed the experience, though. The Event Nexus asked me to speak at the next brand storytelling event and shared positive feedback from participants, so overall, I am happy with how things went.

For more on The Event Nexus offerings, click here.