Content Marketing Final Project: The Bonn Group
For our Final Content Marketing Assignment was had to create three different types of content for a local business; our group chose The Bonn Group. The Bonn Group is a business entering the Kingston market with an innovative housing alternative. The Bonn Group is transforming shipping containers into modern, modular homes that can be customized to fit your lifestyle. The benefits to living in these homes are substantial. They can be built to be completely off the grid; a definite advantage with the rising hydro prices and they have technology integrated into the home, creating a “smart-house” that allows for complete control and customizability from a user perspective. Tiny homes, tree houses, and pallet homes are all examples of alternative housing options that have seen significant growth in popularity in the last few years. The Bonn Group is definitely jumping on the bandwagon of the very trendy alternative/sustainable housing craze that seen major growth online in the recent years.
When it comes to shipping container homes and content marketing are aim isn’t to create content that centers on selling homes. Rather the approach was to encourage a lifestyle change and all the benefits that living a more minimalistic, downsized lifestyle in a shipping container could afford. We were trying to target empty nesters, those whose children are now moved-out and independent and are looking to rid themselves of a lifetimes worth of clutter and materialistic possessions. Building awareness and consideration for this target was our main goal, as shipping container homes is still a relatively obscure and unknown living option.
Understanding the pain points for this target group was at the center of our content plan. We understood that becoming an empty nester is a very transitional and emotional time. It isn’t always easy ridding yourself of the many memories that a family home can accumulate. However, downsizing and ridding yourself of all the “stuff” can be a cathartic, liberating experience that creates more time and money to be put towards more meaningful things. Our target of empty nesters is looking to rid themselves of the unnecessary costs and space that a large home creates. Instead they want to enter a new chapter of their life with complete freedom; free from the monetary constraints of maintaining a large home, and being able to live the rest of their life in a meaningful way that centers around focusing on their passions.
We wanted to create content that would ideally target the key demographic mentioned above. We wanted the content produced to be educational, entertaining, and useful. We wanted to tap into the emotions that empty nesters are feeling and create content that is relatable and helpful as they enter a new chapter. The first piece of content we made was a podcast called “Lifestyle Ladies”. In the podcast we interviewed an empty nester in order to create a connection with the target and discussed how transitioning to a smaller space would be valuable. We also wanted to connect to the emotional component that many empty nesters are feeling; the fact that they are missing their children.
The “Lifestyle Ladies” segment continues in the second piece of content. A space saving “hacks” video that offers helpful home décor and DIY tips that you can use to maximize and fully utilize a small space. This aligns with our overall vision of downsizing and leading a more minimalist lifestyle. Demonstrating clever ways to really enhance a small space could show the target that living in a small space isn’t as difficult as you may think.
The final piece of content we produced was an Infographic on “How to Clean out the Closet. This simple Infographic is a quiz that asks some key questions that really make you reflect on whether or not you truly need that clothing item. This idea of reflection and purging is really what we are trying to promote to our target. Giving them helpful tips that will hopefully make the downsizing process easy was the motivation behind this piece of content
Creating content that was relatable, helpful and entertaining was what out content aimed at promoting. By offering hacks, tips, and creating a fun space to discuss the pain points of the transition into “empty-nesthood” we created content that we feel would be of interest and utility to our target audience.