5 lessons from Rapha’s content strategy

When it comes to content, cycling brand Rapha leads the pack. As far as retailers go, Rapha has always been a little different, with retail stores and a membership central to their go-to-market approach. They offer a wide range of products and experiences including regular local rides and international trips, whilst their retail environments are considered ‘clubhouses’ with cafes and events.

Since it was founded in 2004 by Simon Mottram and Luke Scheybeler, content has been key to their success. The brand has built a content strategy that enables it to drive multiple business goals, creating an extensive suite of engaging content whilst still retaining a clear brand look and feel. Here’s five lessons you can take away from their approach:

1. Make it foundational

Content is Rapha’s go-to market strategy. For Rapha, content is central to the business and approach to market, this decision has been key for them. It has orientated the company around storytelling and creation, not just for creation’s sake - but to constantly connect back to business goals. Spend five minutes browsing Rapha’s site and you’ll see that content is the connection across the platform, linking inspiration to product.

TAKEAWAY: Define the role of content early, orientate your business around using it to drive your business goals - it creates a value exchange rather than pure pushing of products.

2. Create with consistency

With content central to how the brand communicates across all its channels it’s pivotal that they do so with consistency. Rapha has defined a distinct ownable look and feel for the brand which extends across its products and storytelling. This has ensured that no matter where their audience engages with them it feels like it is coming from the brand. As a relatively high-end cycling brand, their content has always followed suit, with slick production values evident in their short films and rich, design-led printed product reflecting the thought, care and workmanship in their clothing range.

TAKEAWAY: Establish a clear look and feel early and ensure that extends to your content.

3. Tell product stories

Content is central to Rapha’s go-to-market strategy and business as a result it changes how each department thinks about their output. Product is a great example, in selling product it’s important to not just outline the product benefits - but tell the story of the product itself, how and where can it be used, why is it better, what need will it deliver on? Rapha tells the story of its products so that they connect to their users’ interests and needs. The stories used in their media are always a tantalizing but just-about-attainable stretch from the average cyclist’s normal experience on their bike, reflecting the fact that their gear should be thought of as slightly beyond the average piece of kit - but worth it.

TAKEAWAY: Consider what your products or experiences really deliver to your users, what needs to they solve for and interests enable and tell those stories.

4. Make it actionable

Rapha’s content is not just pure inspiration, it connects the dots between its users interests and how to get out there and do it and what to use and take. In many ways it’s this connection that ensures it delivers on business goals for the brand. Without defining those, content can lose its purpose.

TAKEAWAY: Define your business goals and align them to your content to drive user action.

5. Consider the aspirational

Rapha’s audience is not the professional cyclist, it’s much more the weekend warrior. But one of the aspects to the success of their content is that it appeals to their target audience, they feature people who look like them in much of their storytelling, regular club riders alongside professional cyclists. Their storytelling makes what they do and wear aspirational but not out of range. This helps drive engagement and inspiration.

TAKEAWAY: Consider how you create content that inspires your audience and yet makes it aspirational.