How to Create Compelling Content
As content owners and creators, we’re responsible for how Arm is perceived by internal and external audiences. Whether your words describe a product launch, a thought leadership idea, a new solution, or our brand or culture, the content you create can be widely read. Maintaining consistency can be challenging, especially when authors come from a variety of Arm business units, contractors, freelance contributors, and content partners.
Articulate the Arm voice and tone.
Provide stylistic guidelines for Arm-branded content, regardless of channel, audience, or topic.
Explain online user expectations and provide an editorial guide with tips on how to translate these expectations into perfectly pitched copy.
Help unify communications produced by different business units, as well as those created by our agencies, contractors, and partners.
These best practices and tips for creating compelling marketing content can help you better serve both your stakeholders and your audiences with content assets that not only fully align with your business goals, but that inform and compel your readers.
This is an important first step because it helps determine the channel, format, type, and structure of the content. To help ensure you get off on the right path to successful content, first consider:
What is the story I want to tell?
Who is the audience?
How is the best way to tell it?
When do I want to publish it?
Where should it appear?
Why tell it now, what are the business goals?
Whenever you write, remember that you’re a human being talking to other human beings. Be aware of the variety of the roles those people play as they relate to your content: customers, prospects, partners, investors, press, job seekers, and more. Though each audience has different needs, your goal is clear: Provide information that informs, educates, and helps them solve their challenges. Below are some tips for communicating with each audience.
Customers and Prospects
Arm customers and prospects can be divided into these broad groups:
Business Decision Makers
Business decision makers are usually senior management with titles like VP, SVP, and CFO.
This audience cares about:
Profitability/financial performance
Reputation management
Competitive differentiation
Recruitment/employment
They have little time and many claims on the time they do have.
To communicate effectively:
With rare exceptions, don’t lead with speeds and feeds. Instead, discuss the business outcomes and impact of Arm products.
Use visual content. According to a study by HubSpot, 59 percent of company decision makers would rather watch a short video than read an article or blog post.
Be succinct, be direct, and provide concrete proof points for all claims.
Business influencers ("decision influencers," not to be confused with broader "influencer marketers") report to decision makers and are responsible for researching solutions (or directing the research). To communicate effectively:
Provide content in a variety of types and formats. Since this is a broad audience, we want to engage as many different types of people as possible. Content variety helps achieve this.
Back up all claims with credible proof points. Include references from analysts, industry groups, and other third-party sources.
Technical decision makers usually have titles like CTO, CIO, Chief Architect, and VP Technology. This audience signs off on enterprise-level projects, allocates budgets, and usually delegates the research process to technical influencers in their company (see below). Technical decision makers care about:
Interoperability/legacy systems
Post-sales support and services
Product vision and roadmap
Compliance and regulatory standards
Technical influencers engage in the broadest and longest purchase journey, so it’s critical to provide information for them at each step in the process.
Research the audience needs and answer those needs honestly. It’s better to articulate the true capabilities of Arm products than to claim that Arm products "do it all."
Educate them. This audience is often tasked with researching an issue and providing a solution. Make their job easier by providing crisp explanations of Arm products and the pain points they solve.
Tailor the level of technical details and descriptions to your audience and include only what’s needed to guide a purchasing decision. A good rule of thumb is:
Content type
Business or technical audience?
Technical whitepaper
Both
Data sheet
Technical
Video (non–how-to)
Business
Video (how-to)
Blog
Infographic
Thought leadership article
Research survey
We do not refer to companies we do business with as customers. Instead, we refer to them as partners because they are part of the Arm ecosystem.
Some of our partners are also our competitors, so it’s important to be careful in our communications with them. Be cautious when referencing partners to ensure we have their permission to mention them, and that they are publicly known partners. Take particular care when relaying information that could be considered proprietary, such as product test results, benchmarks, and new partnerships. When in doubt, leave it out.
These are critical audiences. If approached by an investor, member of the press or analyst firm, or job seeker, you must direct them immediately to the respective internal team at Arm.
Investors: Investor.Relations@arm.com
Arm Global PR: Global-PRteam@arm.com
No employee outside of the investor and PR teams should be in direct contact with investors or media without the appropriate team consent and prior agreement.
Be respectful. These audiences may want information or opportunities Arm cannot provide. Be courteous in your communications and keep in mind that these audiences are just trying to do their jobs (or find a job).
Respond promptly. Response time matters with these audiences, so if you are unable to provide the information they need in a timely manner, let them know.
Be circumspect. These audiences are a valued part of the Arm ecosystem, but they are not Arm insiders, and all information communicated to them should be carefully considered.
1.3 Writing for Different Channels
Consider the channel!
Writing is not one-size-fits-all; different channels have different editorial requirements. Before you start writing, research your medium. Is it print, web, advertising copy, an email, a blog post, or a LinkedIn company page? Look at a variety of content on that channel to determine the tone, length, frequency, and appropriate format.
Love it or hate it, it’s a fact of life: Online readers scan content. They rarely read every word. As a result, web writing has developed into a unique discipline. These five web content principles are important to keep in mind when you create any kind of content for web publication.
Many experts estimate that a web page has 10 seconds or less to engage a casual browser. If you haven’t engaged their attention by the time they reach the end of the first paragraph, they’re off to view a cat video. Note that we use the same verb—surf—to describe the actions of browsing web pages and clicking through television channels. That’s not an accident. Think of your web audience as channel surfers holding the remote control. Make sure you serve up something of interest quickly.
In print, readers usually start from the beginning and read until the end. As online marketers, we try to craft content that leads people on curated information journeys. However, on the web, people often discover a page through search and navigate through multiple pages in the sequence of their choosing. That’s why each page needs to provide a consistent, standalone information experience.
Words, images, and technology all work together on a website. To do this effectively, content creators need to be familiar with the back-end technology that drives the Arm website. Understanding the basic permissions and restrictions of Arm’s content management system is essential when organizing and presenting information. It’s a good idea to consult with the content, design, and technology teams to understand technical constraints and explain your requirements when creating new content or significantly updating existing content.
Web content can become stale quickly. Keep in mind that your website is an extension of your company’s brand and personality. Schedule regular reviews to prevent outdated, inaccurate website content from lingering on the Arm site. (See Evergreen vs. time-sensitive content for recommendations on content review cycles.)
Despite advances in resolution, reading on a screen is much harder on the eyes than reading on paper. Eye-tracking studies also show that online readers tend to skim over large blocks of text. Help online readers absorb your information more easily by:
Writing succinctly.
Using subheads and bulleted or numbered lists.
Incorporating visuals like pull quotes, graphs, and charts.
These "entry points" create breaks in your copy and give readers a way to access your content.
Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to promote the fantastic work happening at Arm, create connections with industry peers and celebrate your personal and team achievements. To help you to do this effectively, we’ve created the Arm Employee Advocacy Program and Toolkit. When paired with our PR & Social Media Policy, this empowers you to create great social content that adheres to our professional standards.
If you’re looking for additional guidance on the types of Arm-based content to share on your social channels, opt-in to our Employee Advocacy program, where weekly social post suggestions are shared with you via email, including a mix of @Arm posts we recommend you engage with and social copy for your personal channels.
When creating posts for your personal social channels, the most important thing is to be yourself. Be honest, authentic and considered in what you share. To help shape this, consider the type of audience you want to attract and create content that you think they’ll enjoy.
When creating posts, please bear in mind that you should not disclose any confidential or proprietary information about Arm, our partners, suppliers, or any third party. If you have questions about whether information is confidential, refrain from posting until you consult a member of the Arm legal team. Avoid posting information regarding unpublished features, products, technologies, marketing plans, or financial results or projections, especially as they may contain confidential, insider, or trade-secret information that should not be disclosed to the public until required or permitted by law.
Should you have any questions or require any additional support, please email the social media team on socialmediateam@arm.com.
If you have a social request for the @Arm brand channels please email socialmediateam@arm.com who will work with you to understand your request and confirm the next steps.
Arm encourages employees to write posts on company blogs that are helpful to our prospects, customers, shareholders, and employees. When creating content for publication on these platforms, follow these guidelines:
All blog posts for Arm Community or Blueprint must be reviewed by a marketing colleague or a member of the Arm content team before being published.
Company news blogs and announcements (usually published on Arm newsroom) are led by the Arm PR/external communications team. If you have a product launch, business update, significant partnership or customer win or any other announcement that you feel is best suited to the newsroom, get in touch with the Arm PR team to discuss before progressing.
Blog Do's and Don'ts
To help you write blog posts, follow this list of do's and don’ts:
Do:
Interact as an Arm employee.
Be authentic.
Be factual.
Be respectful.
Reply within 24 hours to comments on your blog posts.
Tread carefully regarding negative comments. Do not engage someone trying to pick a fight. If a negative comment poses a legitimate complaint or raises a valid issue, however, responding to that comment can be a great opportunity to change hearts and minds.
Be sarcastic.
Get personal or take anything personally and react inappropriately.
Engage in debates with competition.
Share proprietary or confidential content.
Share customer wins, unless approved by customer marketing.
Mention partners unless you have clear approval to do so or they are already public.
Share financial information.
Share numbers (including financial performance, product test results, and benchmarks) that are not publicly communicated by Arm.
Share images (including company logos and stock photos) that are not owned by Arm or allowed under a Creative Commons license.
Below are links that provide guidance and rules around Arm employee blogging.
Community governance links:
Community-specific terms of use (public)
House rules (public)
Moderation guidelines
Blogging guidelines (requires login at community.arm.com with an Arm email ID):
Blog review process description
Quick start, blog review
Blog publishing checklist
Website guidelines
Who can blog
As a public company, Arm has a responsibility to follow legal best practices that ensure the company is compliant with relevant regulations and advertising standards. While many communication do’s and don’ts are including in Arm’s Annual Code of Conduct Training and Policy Acceptance, there are other best practices to keep in mind when crafting copy:
Avoid superlatives, such as best, greatest, fastest, and so on. Instead use language such as "one of the best," or "an industry-leading ecosystem," "world-class," "superior performance," "maximum speed," "improved performance," "reduced power," "increased efficiency," and so on.
Do not make claims without firm, documented evidence or facts you can easily cite to back them up.
Avoid hyperbole—it’s arrogant at best, and at worst could sound fraudulent.
Get documented permission to quote or mention any other company or person. Even though some partners may have signed a general publicity agreement, it is still essential to request authorization for commercial use.
Consult the Legal Hub and/or Arm Investor Relations if you have any doubts or questions.
