For example, imagine that your company is trying to establish a reputation for being trustworthy, innovative, and secure. You can leverage your content to help reinforce those brand aspirations by: » Sharing customer testimonials that underscore how the company has gained their trust » Not only explaining how your products and solutions are innovative, but also finding an innovative way of doing so » Reiterating in your case studies, fact sheets, and videos key messages around why your products and solutions are so secure Most expansion-stage marketers fail in this regard, largely because their companies either don’t have defined brand aspirations, or because they don’t understand what they are. The better you are at articulating your company’s brand aspirations, the easier it will be to create content that aligns with those aspirations and leaves your audience with the impression of your brand that you want them to have. Driving Conversions In Chapter 2 we noted that just as every content strategy needs to have conversion goals, every piece of content needs a call to action that encourages your target buyers to take some kind of step to move them through the buying process. No matter whether your conversion goal is to get someone to open your e-mail or to sign up for a free trial, for your content to have maxi- mum impact you have to do everything you can to drive those conversions. There are a variety of different tactics that you can use, all of which are outlined in Chapter 6 of this eBook. Promoting Virality and Engagement With the incredible success of business videos like this one from DollarShaveClub.com, which has garnered more than 11 million views on YouTube since it was created in 2012, many content marketers aspire to going viral. It’s almost become the holy grail of content marketing. The reality is that there’s a lot of luck involved in the virality of content and it is impossible to predict what’s going to go viral and what isn’t. If you are a B2B marketer for an expansion-stage technology company, you may also face the challenge of trying to create viral content about topics that don’t inherently lend themselves to virality. When’s the last time you saw a viral video about WAN optimization? It Takes a Content Factory! | 28