NewsCred just released a nice report on how millennials respond to brand content marketing – The Millennial Mind: How Content Drives Brand Loyalty. They surveyed 501 millennials about how, why, and where they consume brand content.

The report is smart, concise, and easy to digest. As I read the results though, I had to laugh just a little. I’m far from the millennial demographic (farther than I care t admit) yet most of the takeaways from this study are as relevant to me and my content habits as they apparently are to the average 25 year old. And they’re not really new (sorry). Here is my basic takeaway and the rules I’ve been trying to follow for years.

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Be
inspiring

Make it meaningfully relevant.

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Be educational

Make it smart and useful.

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Be entertaining

Make it funny and clever.

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Make it bite size.

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Make it visual.

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Make it sharable.

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Be where your audience is most likely to hear you.

Simple enough. I even made it big so it’s easier to remember. So, why though, do we need to keep reminding ourselves of the same rules that we should be able to recite blindly no matter what market we are trying to reach, whether it’s B2B, boomers, or moms with babies? Maybe because we tend to make the same mistake over and over. We talk about ourselves, instead of communicating with our audience.

It’s easy enough to remind ourselves what kind of marketing content works – pay attention to what and how you yourself consume content. I’m not saying that we’re all the same, but when it comes to the basics I don’t believe we’re all that different. Who would you rather spend time with a party… someone who only talks about themselves, or someone who seems really interested in you and tells great stories?

If we could only remember one thing, I think it should be…

Self-serving content sucks.