Your content doesn’t have to be digital

We always think that ‘content’ has to be digital in some way.  It’s a social media post, or an online video, a podcast, an article or a download.  But that’s only because you need a way to deliver your content to a customer and this is usually the easiest way to do it.  But content can take a physical form also.  Bear Nibbles make 100% fruit snacks aimed at children as healthier alternative to sweets.  You might have seen their Fruit Yoyos for instance.  Since 2009 they have also been including very cool trading cards in their packs.  It adds a significant amount to their production costs, but they more than make that back because both children and adults alike go out of their way to try and collect the full set each year.  I have, to my shame, bought an entire case of Fruit Yoyos in the past from my local store to try and boost my (then young) child’s Bear card collection to make him the envy of his also-collecting friends!

You can do this with stickers that you give out free with orders, or badges at event, and there is a place where content also overlaps with your merchandise.  Put your message on some free t-shirts and then ask customers to send you photos of the most remote or ridiculous places they have worn them.  I did this strategy with a festival and they got photos from the tops of mountains and even one great shot of the shirt on a young riverboat man in Thailand, who they had given the t-shirt to just because he liked it so much.