As the week wraps up, we offer some of our thoughts on content marketing, curate a few interesting articles we’ve come across, and tell you what we’ve been up to.

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be among the more than 72,000 fans who went to Minneapolis for the NCAA Final Four. Many left disgruntled. But not me—I bleed orange and blue and was thrilled to witness one of the greatest redemption stories in sports history.

Interestingly, this weekend was about more than the trophy and confetti. Over the course of the tournament as a whole, I picked up some content marketing lessons that any business can add to its playbook.

Tell a story

My team’s story is pretty hard to beat—and it’s also hard to escape. Wherever you turn, journalists are still pounding the drum about Virginia’s loss last year to UMBC. But Tony Bennett and his squad used all the criticism—external and internal—to fuel their run to the championship this year. It’s the ultimate story of redemption and a compelling, emotional story that resonates with people. (That is, except for the salty Auburn fans who sat next to me at both games and came to the final clad in homemade Texas Tech t-shirts. It was a foul, people, and there were multiple uncalled fouls on Auburn before the double dribble. Let it go.)

Your organization’s story may not be so dramatic, but you still have a story worth telling. You just have to find the nugget that resonates with and is accessible to your audience.

Identify your audience

To know what will resonate with your audience, you have to know who they are.

While the die-hard fans with me in U.S. Bank Stadium probably knew their basketball, the millions more watching or streaming from home likely didn’t—but they were invested nonetheless. They may have been watching because of their bracket, because their school was playing, or just because they were bored on a Monday night. Whatever the reason, the NCAA and its commercial sponsors worked hard on various channels to engage these folks and get them to tune in.

You can take this lesson on a less grandiose scale and apply it to your business. Who is visiting your website and reading your content? Which prospects do you want to attract? What are their attributes? Build buyer personas using these attributes, narrowing in on their needs, wants, and pain points, and then build your content strategy with those personas in mind.

Does all of this sound overwhelming? Need help figuring out the story behind your story or the ideal audience you should be targeting? Let us help.

(More) tips to improve your content marketing

What’s new in the legal industry

Corporate law is ready for an infusion of legal technology
DLA Piper has updated its global data protection law survey
Did you know that there’s a new disclosure pilot in England and Wales?

Something to ruminate about aside from your broken March Madness bracket

Why should you start saying “pyt”?
Can you define what a hole is?
Is your smart home hack proof? (Definitely not)

So, what has Scribe been up to this week?

Sweating bullets as the Virginia Cavaliers played in the NCAA tournament
Writing about the role of IT in eDiscovery
Drafting an article on how law firms can optimize the client intake process
Interviewing staff at a law firm for fresh bios as part of a website relaunch
Researching how technology can help with multidistrict litigation

Ready to draw up some new content marketing plays for your business? Let’s talk.

Friday scribbles: content marketing lessons from march madness