Content Marketing is a big advertising watchword lately. “Let’s do some Content Marketing!” “Let’s do some Content Marketing!” It can take on a lot of different guises and there are a lot of people out there talking about it right now, but what I have seen people do in the name of content marketing makes me wonder if people really understand how content marketing works.
At its core content marketing is really simple, give your audience something that they are interested in to read about and somehow associate your name or product with that information while you’re doing it.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people, including professionals, who think that content marketing works by giving your audience information about your product to read that miraculously catches their interest and makes them want to buy your product.
The truth is, and this is hard for some people to hear, nobody cares about your product. They care about what it does for them. Does it make them happy? Does it make life easier for them? Does it make them look good to a prospective mate? It’s always about them, never about you. (Don’t worry, we can find counseling resources for you if that comes as too big a shock for you to handle.)
So, understanding that, this is how content marketing works, as far as I understand it…
Imagine for a minute that you are a single mother with two active and extremely energetic kids—one boy, one girl. You have just finished cooking dinner, two different meals; reading stories, two; brushing teeth, two times…twice—because of the candy you forgot was under the bed; getting a glass of water, for two; finding “Dinosaury,” who was also under the bed; and tripping over two Transformers in your bare feet, in the dark.
Oh, and reassuring both children that there are definitely no giant hairy creatures with hands bigger than garbage can lids hiding in the closet, even the really sneaky kind, no matter what they think they saw.
And you did all of this after you came home from a hard day dealing with bosses and co-workers and customers who insisted that they couldn’t find the right size even after you had pointed it out to them twice.
Now it’s your time, and you’re going to spend it surfing the internet looking for something interesting to read to help you unwind…say, something on ADHD or “Ten Easy Tricks You Can Use to Control Your Hyperactive Child.”
After a little searching, you find something that looks interesting and settle down to read. Now here’s the important part…you read it all the way through. Why? Because you are interested in what it has to say. It doesn’t mysteriously turn into an advertisement halfway through the article, or have hidden pop-ups proclaiming the wonders of some marketer’s product. Just happy little words about something you care about that engages your interest. That’s all. Simple. Easy. Doesn’t waste any of your time with advertising nonsense. Deep breath, you can feel the muscles unknotting already.
Content marketing is about engaging the interest of your audience through a subject that they care about, it’s not a page-long advertisement. As soon as your audience sees you advertising to them, you lose them. More importantly, you lose their respect because in their eyes you pulled a bait-and-switch on them and they never read your articles again.
Sure, you can cite experts in the field that just happen to work for your company, or mention a product as part of a bigger story, but only if they are pertinent to the content in some way. So write the content about something that’s pertinent to your services or product, but not about you, or your product. Sponsor the website that talks about the things that your audience cares about. You can even write and curate the website. But never ever write about you, ever. Remember your audience is there because of the content, reward them for that by making the article about the content too.