Content is king. That’s one of those marketing truths that gets bandied around without too much close examination, but it’s probably true more often than not.
Unfortunately, today’s marketing landscape looks an awful lot like the Holy Roman Empire circa 1600: there’s an awful lot of these kings knocking about and some of them appear to be decidedly underwhelming.
The content game is more competitive than ever before. It is harder to stand out, it is harder to “get on the first page of Google” (even writing those words makes me wince) and anyone expecting a sudden surge of inbound activity on the back of a couple of blog posts is likely to be disappointed.
So is it worth it? The short answer to that is “yes”. The slightly longer answer is “hell yes”. All that remains now is to show my working and give you a few tips to succeed.
How To Think About Content
Many marketers will tell you that the purpose of a content strategy is to generate inbound traffic and as a result leads. Well, yes and no. It can do that for sure, and if you’re doing things the right way it probably will. But ultimately the purpose of content is to help people understand the sort of business you are and the way you view the world.
Let me expand on that. Despite what many will say, most businesses don’t make purchasing decisions after diligently filling in check-lists and carefully comparing feature sets, or at least they aren’t the whole story. Obviously a seriously defective product will knock a company out of the process, but assuming a relatively level playing field, the decision more often comes down to the credibility and vision of the vendor.
Content is how any organisation builds that credibility, outlines that vision, and makes those sales happen. It is the foundation stone of all marketing efforts, because every time the camera rolls or we open up a Word doc, we are telling the world what we believe and where we stand. And if we deal in cliche or ‘SEO optimised’ content, we are telling the world that we are just like everyone else.
When you create content, remember that it serves four purposes:
It helps you understand what you believe. This sounds odd but it’s a fact. It’s easy to be all things to all people until you have to write something down and stand over it.
It establishes credibility and communicates vision. When someone is researching your organisation or is curious following a sales call, they’ll visit your website. What will they find?
It is helpful for staying in touch with prospects and customers. It gives you a reason to reach out and helps bridge what a former colleague used to call “the zone of doom” - when good prospects go cold.
It delivers inbound traffic through SEO. I only said it wasn’t the whole story - not that it didn’t matter at all
So how do you create content that delivers on these objectives? First things first, have a think about which one is most important to you, although be aware that the first 2 aren’t really optional. If you’re going to use content to reach out to prospects, create what mid-funnel types are likely to be interested in. If SEO is important, find popular terms and write to them.
But most importantly, and I can’t stress this enough, write what you know and what you care about. You can’t build credibility with cookie cutter text that could have been written by anyone. Nobody buys a vision that you took off somebody else’s shelf.
Content should be seen as an opportunity to set out how you view the world, and convince prospective customers and partners to see it that way too. That’s how you develop a connection and establish credibility. A great content strategy starts with this understanding and any content strategy is moribund without it.
Every business should have something it knows that the rest of the world does not. Or some process or understanding that is hidden from the casual observer (if you don’t have either of these, you probably have deeper problems). Talk about these things. Bring your expertise, knowledge, and unique take on the world to the fore. When you do this, as if by magic you’ll create the kind of content that users love and that ends up getting shared and delivering inbound leads. Everyone wants to talk to the expert after all.
Of course it is necessary to also think in terms of the day-to-day: content calendars, research into topics your audience would like to see covered, content in multiple channels for multiple stages of the funnel. But this is necessary but not sufficient. Without a spark at the centre your content whirlwind is empty.
Find something you need to tell the world, and go out and do it. Easy!
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