Here’s the thing. When you start thinking about using content as the focus of your marketing the natural question is: “what, exactly are we going to write about or talk about?”
When you think about advertising or direct mail or leaflets or PPC ads, the answer has almost always been (rightly or wrongly), ‘tell people how great we are’. For the more progressive it might be ‘write about what our products can do for customers’.
Your company news isn’t that interesting to anyone else
Unfortunately those answers don’t make for an interesting read.
Imagine reading a magazine that was one big advertorial. Imagine reading a book that was little more than a company brochure. Imagine searching online for useful information and finding a sales pitch in its place.
Chances are those are not resources you’d return to.
People choose to consume your content – or not
And therein lies the problem. When companies make the well-meaning decision to invest in content-led marketing (blogs, monthly newsletters, articles) the initial reaction is to treat these tools like advertising vehicles.
But no prospective customer will choose to receive regular monthly advertisements by email. No prospective customer will choose to subscribe to your daily sales pitches. No reader will choose to read 500 words about how brilliant you are – written by you!
If you’re considering putting content at the heart of your marketing – and I’d certainly applaud that – then you need to start thinking more like a journalist and less like a marketer.
A marketer promotes.
A journalist tells the story that the audience wants to hear and answers the questions that their audience wants to know.
A marketer starts with a product or service and brings out the benefits.
A journalist starts with the reader and figures out how to deliver for them.
A marketer talks features and benefits – it’s product-centric.
A journalist talks problems, solutions, pros and cons.
That’s not to say that there’s no place for selling and promoting your business. Far from it. In fact, content without a clear business objective serves no business purpose. Content must be linked to your sales process for it have value but content about you and your business is a similarly wasted exercise.
The point: Great content is not about you – it’s about ‘them’.
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