NOTE: This post originally appeared on my site RecessionSolution.com here.
I am reposting it here because I want to show content marketers and copywriters to see they might have more in common they realize.
Content marketing is very popular nowadays and it should be.
I believe it’s one of the most powerful ways to market in our current climate.
But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized there is an overlooked similarity between content marketing a successful sales letters of the past.
You might be wondering, “What could possibly be similar about these two things that seem to be polar opposites?
Let me give you an example and see if you can see the similarity I’m thinking of.
The Wall Street Letter That Ran for 28 Years
The Wall Street Journal Letter below is one of the world’s most famous copywriting pieces around.
It ran non-stop for 28 years without them being able to find another letter that was more successful.
The Overlooked Similarities Between Them
Notice something? It starts with story.
What do content marketing and successful sales letters have in common?
Here it is: classic, successful sales letters use stories and content to lead to a sale.
People don’t usually think of them this way, but successful, classic sales letters always use a LOT of content.
They are never just about pitching whatever product or service they’re selling. Oh course not! The legendary copywriters were too smart for that!
When they wrote those classic sales letters they made to do many things BEFORE asking for the sale:
- They engage the reader.
- They address the problem and the pain the reader is dealing with.
- They educate the reader about their problem and the solution the product or service offers.
- And only when they are done doing all of those things, do they ask for the sale.
That’s why classic sales letters were so many pages long. All of that takes a lot of content and information!
Sound familiar?
Effective content marketing does the same thing nowadays. It just does it over time, over a series of published chunks of content (blog posts, videos, audio, whatever), instead of trying to accomplish it in one letter.
Content marketing is like a sales letter that’s been dismantled and delivered overtime.
Content marketing is like a sales letter that's been dismantled and delivered overtime. Click To TweetSo before you go thinking that these old forms of marketing have nothing to teach you as a content marketer, think again.
You need to realize that content marketing and sales letters are distant relatives.
You need to realize that content marketing and sales letters are distant relatives. Click To TweetIf you want to see the second page of the Wall Street Letter, then go here.
Andrew Cavanagh also has a Wall Street Letter that many people have never heard of that you might want to see here.
(Both are found on Andrew Cavanagh’s blog.)
Check them both out. You might learn something about effective content marketing from a surprising source!
