Content Marketing: Purpose Driven Marketing – How do you shout with confidence? (episode 077)

by April Buencamino-dy

Maria is an award-winning marketing consultant who helps purpose-driven businesses achieve growth and revenue with better marketing strategies and impactful content. She has almost 10 years of experience in marketing and communications roles across a variety of sectors including media, non-profit, B2B multinational, and travel. Maria is passionate about working with brands that value people and the planet as equally as profit.

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About Maria

Maria started out in journalism before moving into communications and marketing. Having had to build her own website as a degree requirement, she found she enjoyed digital publishing and creating content.

Over the last ten years, she worked with various organizations and in different industries, but the pandemic prompted a career shift for her. She founded her own consultancy, focusing on and working with purpose-driven businesses to grow their impact.

Focusing On Purpose-Driven Businesses

Maria works mainly with and helps purpose-driven businesses on their strategy or content production, and this covers research, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and creating end executing campaigns.

The companies she works with are those who care about doing good for both the planet and the people at the same time. Marketing strategies are based on the brand’s core values and spans all possible customer touch points and content produced.

Marketing With Confidence

To market the good things your brand is doing with confidence, you have to make sure that what you’re producing and sharing is accurate and can be backed up by data. Do an audit of your content marketing, including all points where there are claims about your products and how you do business. You will be more confident in promoting when you know that your message is the absolute truth.

The Competition and Markets Authority will be enforcing the Green Claims Code beginning January 2022. It’s important because it’s ensuring that businesses are being truthful about their claims in the content they come up with, specifically around sustainability.

The Green Claims Code And Its Impact

The Green Claims Code provides guidelines for businesses to use in determining whether their green claims are genuine and not misleading.

It’s about being truthful and accurate with whatever content you produce, especially because consumers believe what is being put out there and are inclined to support brands who claim to be sustainable.

How To Improve Ethical Marketing

Start by learning and educating yourself, beginning with the Green Claims Code.

Another way to become more ethical in marketing is to sign up for The Ethical Move which introduces a new marketing standard that is transparent, responsible, and honest.

The 100 Points Sustainable Marketer Challenge

Marketers Michelle Carvill and Gemma Butler came up with this manifesto for marketers to pledge to more sustainable and ethical marketing.

It’s a good resource for learning more about sustainability and how it interconnects with marketing your business.

Insider Tips

If we’ve inspired someone to take their first step with content marketing – what do they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success?

Avoid reactionary short-term gestures because they can do more harm than good.

Don’t do it especially if you’re just jumping on a bandwagon or getting in on a trend.

Once you’ve started of course you’ve got to ‘keep optimising’! So what’s your favourite way to improve content marketing performance?

For Maria, it’s getting customer insight and understanding your target audience. When you have the data, use that to create content around what your target segment would like to see. 

Another thing she mentions is emphasizing the emotional benefits of your products or services, and your initiatives. This will resonate with your potential customers and improve performance.

If someone listening wants to learn more about content marketing is there one cheap/free resource you’d recommend?

Visit the Resources section on Maria’s website where there’s a list of websites, newsletters, and communities to help purpose-driven businesses or those who want to learn more about becoming purpose-driven.

Crystal ball time – what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months that we should be getting ready for in content marketing?

Read up on and get familiar with the Green Claims Code. It’s important, and it’s already coming up in January.

Interview Links

Maria on Social media:

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