It’s impossible to ignore the variety of entertainment options nowadays. We can stream the latest movies, watch reruns of our favorite TV shows, and instantly head to social media to see what’s going on in everyone else’s lives. Once we’re done spying on our loved ones, we can craft the perfect post to make sure everyone knows how awesome our life is. If all of that gets boring, we can jump on a video game and save the world. The crazy thing is that you can do all of these things from your phone — it’s like the word is literally at our fingertips!
With unlimited options for entertainment, we are entertaining ourselves to death. Regardless of what anyone thinks of all the media and entertainment options we have, one thing is for sure: Society’s attention span is shorter than ever. According to research, our attention span has dramatically decreased in the past 15 years. Some even say that a goldfish has a larger attention span than most humans.
That’s where edutainment marketing comes in. Edutainment marketing is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: education-based marketing that is also entertaining. This isn’t a new idea or concept. From “Sesame Street” to documentaries, there are all sorts of ways to learn in an entertaining way.
As marketers, we need to make sure we are not only educating but also entertaining so that we can hold the attention of our customers and prospects. The idea that people will only watch 97-second videos is false. The idea that people won’t read a long-form sales letter is also false.
What people won’t tolerate is being bored.
Why Purely Educational Content Fails
Millions of people will happily watch “The Avengers” for 3 hours. Or they will binge watch a new show in a day or weekend with no issues at all. Why? Because they’re entertained by it. Like it or not, all of us have been conditioned to constantly want and, in some cases, need to be entertained 24/7.
When you’re creating your marketing or content pieces, you need to keep in mind that people don’t consume boring content for very long. This is why your Newsletter Pro team will tell people that if they make a newsletter all about what they do and remove all the personal stories, entertainment, and edutainment marketing, their campaign will fail.
While your educational content may be rich with information that can benefit your readers, people simply have too many entertainment options to spend time reading, watching, or listening to anything that is boring — even for a few minutes. Additionally, the jargon you use within your content may not be recognizeable for your readers, making them more inclined to exit out of the blog or scroll past your post.
If you want your readers to stay engaged with your content, you must have the perfect combination of education and entertainment. In other words, you need to be using edutainment marketing. You can still talk about the data, reports, and other educational pieces in your content, but it’s best to add components that will keep your readers plugged in and wanting more.
But how do you create compelling edutainment marketing content?
3 Strategies to Help Create Edutainment Marketing Content
The first (and most important) factor you need to consider is making high-quality content. Today, as you scroll through social media and surf the web, there are thousands of links you can click on, but is it bringing value to your audience? You can find low-quality content on the web now that is poorly written, full of grammatical and spelling errors, and hard to follow. If your business is making content, but it’s low quality, you will not see any revenue come from it.
If you want to nurture the relationship you have with your targeted audience, it’s essential to create high-quality content. You want to write something that’s helpful, engaging, informative, comprehensive, and accurate. If you’re having trouble determining what to write about, ask yourself this question: “What would I find useful if I were in my readers’ shoes?” What are some of the frequently asked questions you receive when speaking with your audience?
After you decide what you want to write about, this is when edutainment marketing comes into play. Add a personalized story to your post that will give your readers something to relate to. Today, people will spend hours on social media or binge-watch their favorite show or movie because they want to feel something. A personal story will catch your reader’s attention and allow them to feel connected to you and your experience. Your story will also give them something to grasp and help them understand why it’s connected to the educational pieces in your article.
For example, if you’re an estate planning attorney and you want to talk about the importance of estate planning for your pets, you may want to talk about your own pets, what they mean to you, your bond with them, and how you view them as family. Most pet owners will agree that they view their animals as family, and if they learn more about your animals and the measures you take to ensure they are taken care of in case something happens to you, they will be more inclined to continue reading and learn more about how they can estate plan for their pets.
Personal stories will help you create a bond, engage, and interact with your audience. It will show them that you’re not just a business owner; you’re also a human being — just like them.
Finally, after you incorporate personalized stories within your educational pieces, you don’t want your article to just be words on a screen — now it’s time to add infographics!
If you want to deliver your information quickly and simply to your audience, infographics are the way to go. You can see these tools being used across different platforms. Not only can you educate and entertain your audience with your content, but infographics also allow your content to stand out even more due to the design. It can make your edutainment marketing pieces look organized and trendy due to the colors, fonts, and format you use.
Infographics are visually appealing, and when you use it with other web elements, your SEO will skyrocket and your brand awareness will increase as well.
If you’re having trouble creating edutainment marketing pieces, allow your team at Newsletter Pro to assist you. Our project coordinators, writers, editors, and designers will ensure all of your content is educational, entertaining, and visually appealing. Our Pros can help you with both print or email newsletters. All you have to do is hop on an interview with one of our writers and then edit, revise, or approve your newsletter afterwards — it’s that easy!
How Entertaining Customers Pays Off
Rachel Hollis was once one of the most popular lifestyle and motivational authors on the planet. When our CEO, Shaun Buck, saw her speak about 3 years ago, she said that 75% of her content is entertainment and 25% is her message. Are you doing too much educating and not enough entertaining? How often do you use stories that are fun or personal but still have a business lesson?
We understand that having to both educate and entertain seems like more work. Frankly, it is. But there aren’t any other options. The longer you’re in the field, the more change sucks. Few people like the fact that we need to communicate and advertise differently today than we did 10 years ago, but we do have to change our tactics in order to be successful.
And, to be clear, we’re talking about “success” in business. You can be the best in the industry, but if no one is paying you any attention, who cares? Here is the secret about edutainment marketing: Most people aren’t good at it at first. Many of us are good educators, but being good entertainers takes practice and guidance.
One easy way to shortcut the process is to hire someone who can help you create this marketing, like Newsletter Pro. We have several trained, skilled storytellers who interview and tell our clients’ stories, their brands’ stories, and their customers’ stories.
If you’re more of a “do it yourself” person, that’s fine. The best advice we can give you is to become a good storyteller. That skill translates to all media. Even God used stories in the Bible to get his message across. It is time-tested.
If you’re ready to take your edutainment marketing strategy to the next level, then we have the perfect tool for you. Our Content Marketing Guide is full of expert tips, tricks, and strategies to boost your overall content engagement levels. You can fill out the form below to download your free copy!
About the Author: Shaun Buck is the CEO and founder of Newsletter Pro. In a little over a decade, he has been able to grow the business from a small newsletter company to a business that has serviced thousands of clients. To learn more about his story, you can check out our about us page here.
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