How many times have you heard the old mantra, “Content Is King”?
It predates the Internet, and it relates to all kinds of marketing efforts.
These days, it’s a catch phrase that is usually used in the same paragraph with terms like “social media,” “engagement,” “conversions,” and “click-through rate.”
It’s true that content marketing works. It’s true that good content is vital to the success of any marketing effort. I wouldn’t be a good custom content provider if I tried to suggest otherwise.
I think that particular catch phrase, however, can be downright dangerous when left to itself and outside the context of the broader picture – a picture that involves people (without whom you would have no market consuming your content to begin with).
The goal of good content isn’t simply to entertain. Engagement is more than just holding people’s interests. The key to successfully engaging your audience is making a connection with them. The content needs to be the connector.
Many marketers regard and use content like a sideshow caller, but today’s consumer doesn’t want to hear about the bearded lady. He (or she) wants to know why the bearded lady matters. Why would I want to see a bearded lady? Why is my life incomplete without seeing a bearded lady? What pain of mine will be soothed by a look at a bearded lady? What makes this bearded lady worth the expense of my money and time?
The only way to effectively answer those questions is to connect your audience to the thing you want them to experience. It is your job to explain the answers to those questions, and better if you answer them before they have the chance to ask them or even think about them.
Years ago, advertisers understood the importance of connecting the user to the product. Television producers were masters of it. They didn’t simply run commercials to tell us about their sponsor’s products – they integrated the product into the narrative. Lucy and Ricky sold us cigarettes. Danny Thomas sold us coffee, and the list goes on. They did it in character to add the extra degree of relatability.
We can learn a lot from that particular paradigm. People these days are starting to realize just how much they’re being talked at and how little they are really being engaged.
So what’s the answer? We need to take a leaf from Lucy’s book and start writing our product into the narrative again. We need to make the right connection with our audience.
Here’s the problem…
The early days of the Internet really made content into a numbers game. The right number of keywords, links, and visits would get your site indexed by the search engines. Believe it or not, there was a time when Google wasn’t even a thing. There were plenty of search engines that predated it. I’ll stop short of blaming Google for the paradigm shift that put all the emphasis on content and took it away from connection, but I will say this: It sure didn’t help.
Some of the shabbiest content out there was being indexed by Google. Before the Panda update, any site that was loaded down with particular keywords and phrases made the cut, and your site could rank extremely high even if it was complete fluff. Realizing the error of its ways, Google started driving the “meaningful content” angle, which to this day drives SEO efforts and keeps marketers focused more on the content than the connection.
It was a double-edged sword because it’s a waste of time for users to get connected to information they can’t use. But if the information is relevant but static (if it talks at them as opposed to speaking to them), is that really any better?
The job of the Internet marketer today really is twofold: Come up with great content, but get the audience involved. You can’t expect people to respond to information. No, the information needs to be presented in a way that moves them, motivates them, and has points of relatability that let them know that your brand understands them. The process then looks like this:
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Present good, engaging, and unique content.
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Present it in a way that makes you and your brand look friendly, inviting, understanding, and relatable. Let’s quickly look at all of those so you can see what I mean.
Friendly – Positive, upbeat messages will get you far. Always take the positive approach. One of our clients recently commented on how, when one of our writers simply changed a headline from “Why Your Last Diet Failed” to “How to Successfully Lose Weight Without Fad Diets,” the conversion rate on that page skyrocketed. People like success. They don’t like failure. Success makes a connection. Failure disconnects.
Inviting – Use language that evokes emotional responses. “Experience,” “discover,” “unleash,” “explore.” When people see these words, it evokes mental images that equate with ideals. Do you want your product to be positioned as the “ideal” solution to the customer’s problem? Of course you do! That’s why your message has to be inviting.
Understanding – Use words and visuals that convey that you feel the customer’s pain, but balance it out with messages that convey or even dictate the emotions you want your customer to feel interacting with your brand. If customers are convinced you “get it,” it builds trust.
Relatable – Your content should have a degree of believability and feasibility built in. If you set too lofty an expectation, your customer won’t be able to relate. What is the maximum benefit to using your product? Be honest, but don’t be afraid to use a few superlatives if you think they’re warranted. Remember, though, that it’s not enough to just say your product is the best. You need to explain why and do it in a way that can easily garner agreement.
So stop thinking in terms of content alone. Start brainstorming ways you can use your content to make a connection. Master that and you will have more loyal followers, fans, and customers than you can handle.