First things first…
What’s “POV or POV-driven content?”
It’s content that helps to share your points of view (POV), opinions, and/or observations about a topic or subject.
It’s different from the usual, everyday marketing content because it’s more opinion-based.
And it helps to cut through the noise in your industry because it’s what you think as a person or as a brand about any given topic. It represents YOU.
Or, as I put it in a recent Moz article, “When asked, “What are your thoughts on {insert topic}?” Your response is your POV, and it is unique to you and your brand.”
But is POV content important “right now?”
AI has increasingly been making it easier to publish commoditized content.
And I have nothing against using ChatGPT, Jasper, etc. as an assistant in the content creation process, but anyone can use these tools today to create almost any type of content and put it on the Internet.
It doesn’t even matter if they’re an expert on the topic or not.
So, more than ever before, businesses need content that shows their unique expertise and points of view (POVs) on topics important to their target audiences.
It’s almost the only way to stand out from all the “AI content” pieces that don’t offer any original perspective.
Smart marketers get this, and they’re taking the bull by its horns, creating POV-driven content to separate themselves from the competition.
I talked to 18 of them to hear why they’re creating POV content and the specific results they’re getting from it.
So you’ll get all the scoop on that here. Let’s get into it.
18 ways marketers use POV content & why they do it
Fun fact: these are some of these best use cases of POV-driven content you’ll find on the internet:
1. POVs for targeted sales opportunities
One of the first marketers I talked to for this article was Yulia Olennikova — Head of Marketing at N.Rich, a company that provides software solutions for account-based marketing.
Yulia has been creating and sharing content with strong POVs around account-based marketing (ABM) on LinkedIn and has seen amazing results there.
She shared how one of her LinkedIn posts went viral with almost 200 comments because of a strong POV she shared about ABM:
I asked her two questions:
- What results have you seen from sharing strong POVs in your content?
- How do you make sure all your content reflects your POVs — especially if you’re using freelance writers?
Here’s what she said:
And then, she shared how writing super detailed, 2-page briefs help to make sure her content reflects her POVs:
“I haven’t figured out a way that would work better than writing super detailed briefs. I can’t imagine a good brief for an article being shorter than 2 pages.
“Content with strong POVs should have:
- A unique structure – not yet another recycled SERP top 10
- Unique examples that back up your POV
- Visuals that illustrate those examples
- A clearly articulated goal for the article – how do we want to conclude it and what do we want the reader to do after?”
2. POVs for opening conversations with niche audiences
Shop Circle’s head of brand, content, and community — Amanda Hiebert — shared how their business model already presents an interesting POV/narrative.
And it’s one that makes it easy for them to open up conversations that drive business from potential customers.
Here’s how she described it:
“Shop Circle is an interesting model for the Shopify space because of the nature of our model. We purchase trusted apps, and continue to build and innovate them to serve the evolving needs of merchants and brands on Shopify.”
It’s a narrative Shopify merchants would already want to talk about — because it’s an important conversation about the apps they use to run and grow their businesses.
When I asked Amanda how she infuses this branded POV across Shop Circle’s content and the results they get from it, here’s what she shared:
3. POVs for improving lead quality and shortening sales cycles
Almost nothing improves the quality of leads and shortens sales cycles more than POVs your target buyers agree with.
And I’ve experienced this firsthand; when I share a perspective or narrative that prospects agree with, I’ve noticed it doesn’t take too long for them to make buying decisions.
So when Swarmia’s head of marketing Pinja Dodik said “Our point of view works as a (sales) magnet…” I could immediately relate.
Hear it from her:
4. POVs for increased brand searches
When you share POVs that strike a chord with your target audience, you’re likely to trigger searches for your brand.
And that was Andrei Faji’s experience last year when he and his team focused their content on specific narratives (POVs) they’d set up for PandaDoc.
Andrei is the director of marketing for the brand and he shared a whole lot about how their unique narratives worked for them.
“Our core focus is on SMBs,” Andrei added. “And we feel many of the larger solutions in our category aren’t as empathetic, flexible, and impactful at understanding their pains.
“So our content and overall GTM is really about amplifying that narrative by first calling out the problems/gaps in that category and then showing how we solve those shortcomings.”
5. POVs for beating competitors at sales deals
When I asked UserGem’s senior content and SEO manager, Dozie Anyaegbunam, if they typically use any brand POVs in their content and how they use it to drive results, he said:
“Yes, we do have a narrative. The goal here is to earn mindshare through thought leadership. While creating or capturing demand for the problem we solve.”
Dozie couldn’t share the specific narrative he was referring to here because it was still being worked on, but when I asked about:
- how they make sure their POV shows across their content and
- the results they were getting from using POVs in their marketing content…
Here’s what he shared:
6. POVs for more podcast plays and newsletter subscribers
Cognism’s senior marketing manager, Joe Baron, and his team created a narrative that’s helped them increase podcast plays and newsletter subscribers.
Here’s a glimpse into his insights on their approach:
“Implementing this narrative and way of working has had a huge impact on Cognism and the marketing team’s success,” Joe added.
“So far, our Easy Mode strategy has generated record-breaking LinkedIn engagement, podcast plays, and newsletter subscribers.”
7. POVs for more humane content
For Method’s senior manager of digital communications, Eilis McCann, and her team, the focus has been on creating narrative-driven content that speaks to the human side of their audience.
8. POVs for an increase in sales inquiries
I’ll go straight to the point with this one because John Porrini — Content Marketing Manager at Homebot.ai — shared really detailed insights on how their team was able to increase sales inquiries directly from POVs.
My first question to John was…
“Do you currently have a process to make sure your content reflects strong POVs at Homebot.ai? (E.g. maybe you’re inviting SMEs, etc)”
His response:
My second question to John was, “What results have you seen from sharing strong POVs in your content?”
“Results – better content that resonates,” John said.
“To understand this, I’m usually looking at both data and those subtle, qualitative aspects.”
“On the qualitative data side of things, which often doesn’t get the attention it deserves, it boils down to being attentive to feedback.
“It’s essential to actively listen to what people are saying about the content. Over time, this helps in developing a more intuitive sense of what resonates with the audience and what doesn’t.
“From past experience, I’ve found when speaking with customers on a call that it was some aspect of a piece of content that I wrote that got them to sign up with the business and interested in the first place. These are the insights that attribution tools never show. Many times, it’s a particular POV within the content that strikes a chord with them.
9. POVs for word-of-mouth buzz
Another major benefit of sharing strong POVs in your content is the word-of=mouth buzz it generates for your brand.
People tend to organically and publicly talk about content that has interesting POVs and the brands that publish them.
When I asked Josef James — Employment Hero’s Content Marketing Manager — to share his experience with POV-driven content, that’s almost exactly the results he shared.
Here’s what he said regarding how they create POV-driven content and the results they’ve driven so far from it:
10. POVs for audience engagement & “dark social shares”
For context, “dark social sharing” is when people share content via private messaging apps, email, or other non-public platforms.
The main idea behind it is, rather than relying on traditional SEO as your only content distribution strategy, you can craft content your audience will be happy to share in communities they’re a part of.
And that’s where POVs come in; by taking a strong stance on important issues in your industry, you can easily foster meaningful conversations that will fuel engagement and organic promotion (dark social sharing).
Instapages’s Senior Marketing Manager Tess Pfeifle shared that adding strong POVs to their content has led to an increase in both audience engagement and “dark social” shares.
To get the best POVs for her content, Tess looks to industry experts for their insights. She values their experienced perspectives and actively seeks out their opinions to elevate her work:
“By incorporating diverse perspectives and highlighting thought leaders beyond just the C-suite, I have aimed to create content that resonated with our audience and provided valuable insights.
“We largely integrate it into our video marketing programs, which include landing page reviews, webinars, and thought leadership fireside chats.”
11. POVs for building a unique brand identity
As of the time of this writing, Sensilab’s Content Director, Maja Kalaš, had only joined the team two months ago. But she’d quickly immersed herself in the company’s main narrative, values, and mission.
So when asked if there were any particular ideologies, narratives, or POVs she’s trying to push in the food supplements space for Sensilab, Maja pointed to their focus on preaching how consumers should be taking a holistic approach to supplements and why they should.
Maja also shared a bit about how they’re making sure their content reflects those strong POVs — and the results she typically sees from pushing narratives like this:
12. POVs for driving niche popularity
Noelina Rissman — Content Marketing Manager at Constructor — shared how they use POVs in their content to build popularity and credibility.
And when asked, “Do you currently have a process to make sure your marketing content (emails, video, etc) reflect strong POVs?” this was her response:
“I wouldn’t say we follow a process to a T when it comes to ensuring our content strongly reflects POVs.
“Any time we launch a campaign, there’s a lot of internal and cross-functional collaboration that goes on behind the scenes to ensure the best messages get transmitted across appropriate channels. We use a mix of video calls, Slack, documentation, etc. to keep track of it all. Then each individual stakeholder knows their role in campaign/message success.
13. POVs for content that surpasses industry standards
I’ve always believed there’s such a thing as “industry standard” with content.
So when UserTesting’s content strategist Jennifer Henderson told me they found that their POV-driven content often surpasses “industry standards” and achieves remarkable engagement levels, I was definitely intrigued to hear more.
Her entire process is centered on finding unique perspectives from the audience’s point of view, rather than just your own, to create content that truly surpasses industry standards.
I went ahead and asked Jennifer to share the results they’ve seen from sharing strong POVs in your content.
She said, “When we create content from scratch, taking into account customer feedback throughout the process, we’ve found that it often surpasses industry standards and achieves remarkable engagement levels with our campaigns.”
“We believe that this indicates that aligning our content with the viewpoints and preferences of our target audience, in turn, enhances its effectiveness and resonates with them on a deeper level.”
14. POVs for boosting engagement
Still on the matter of engagement, Natalia Dinsmore, Head of Content & Comms Balance, says their POV-driven content often drives more engagement than other types of content.
15. POVs for building credibility
Not many marketing activities build credibility like featuring POVs of actual thought leaders in your content — especially those with high profile in the industry.
Spendesk’s Head of Content Patrick Whatman shared that they built an entirely different website just to produce content that almost only features advice from industry thought leaders.
And then they use that content as much as possible on their main website. So far, this has helped them build an authoritative presence in the world of corporate finance.
16. POVs for content that outperforms generic content
For WordPress.com’s Director of Inbound Marketing Ben Sailer, POVs help to create content that stands out from the generic, bland content that’s a dime a dozen in the website building space.
17. POVs for LinkedIn & blog engagement
Speaking about the challenges involved in extracting POVs from subject matter experts (SMEs), Datavid’s Head of Marketing Arrigo Lupori says it’s often not a walk in the park.
And that’s because SMEs aren’t always within reach.
But when they do get the opportunity to share content that contains POVs from SMEs, Arrigo says they notice a huge boost in LinkedIn and blog content engagement.
18. POVs for better content than AI normally produces
In an AI world, where content has literally become a dime a dozen, adding personal perspectives or POVs to your content will make it stand out.
That’s one major point GetResponse’s Michal Leszczynski shared when I asked him about his experience adding POVs to content.
Is POV the same as thought leadership content?
POV content is pretty much thought leadership content.
But personally, I prefer calling it “POV content” to emphasize the “point of view” element — because that’s what really makes any content “thought leadership.”
It’s the POVs you share that help you demonstrate the “leading thoughts” or “expert opinions” you have on any given topic.
Share your POVs, make your mark
In the end, your POVs can make all the difference when it comes to making your content stand out in the crowded digital space.
You can start by sharing your unique take on an existing topic, exploring a fresh angle or concept, or making bold statements that challenge the status quo.
These approaches will help you break through the noise and establish yourself and your brand as a thought leader in your field.
