Content was once a rare thing, but now it has become a commodity.
You can’t just post any-old, average content anymore and expect to see results.
But that DOESN’T mean that content marketing and content creation are a waste of time.
The good news is that even though content is now a commodity, unique content is in demand more than ever.
I’d say that if you’re going to create content, then it has to be original.
It has to stand out.
Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
But IF your content is engaging and original, you will stand out from the pack and build a valuable audience made up of prospects and customers.
You’ll go from chasing prospects to attracting them to you, your business, or your organization.
How do you create engaging and original content?
That’s what my “31 Types of Content We Crave” training is all about.
If you’ve enjoyed my Christmas content marketing lessons and want to know how to create more unique and engaging content, then don’t miss the special offer to attend my “31 Types of Content We Crave” webinar at a special price.
I’ll not only allow you attend for a special price, I’ll also:
Give you a free PDF copy of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks
Send you the recording after the webinar
Allow you to invite any of your staff to attend with you (or in your place)
If you’re interested in being a part of the webinar, or just want more details on the date, time, etc., then DM me on LinkedIn.
This is the type of content that has been Santa’s secret for a long time.
Santa’s Secret 3-Step Content Marketing Strategy
Here are three steps he’s used to spread his fame around the world using the power of user-generated content:
1. Determine to do something so bold and amazing that people will want to share your story (content) with everyone.
The way Santa does this is to do something so bold that people can’t stop talking about it. He gives presents to strangers.
Giving gifts to people you know or have heard about is kind. But giving them to strangers around the world? That’s pretty bold and amazing.
Example of How Others Have Done This
Seven years ago the folks at WestJetdecided to borrow Santa’s method.
Watch what happened when they did….
Amazing isn’t it?
When this video first came out, people shared it like crazy!
That’s why doing something so bold that everyone can’t help but tell your story is a powerful strategy. But this is only his first step.
Let’s look at Santa’s next step…
2. Bring on an amazing team and let the story of who they are (content focused on their unique talents, qualities, and gifts) be told for all to see/hear.
Santa does this in many ways: he hires elves, uses flying reindeer, and even uses a reindeer with a shiny nose to lead them.
Example of How Others Have Done This
A woman named Tia Torres has done something similar. She has hired a team of people that most others have overlooked: parolees.
Why would she do this?
Because after her husband was sent to prison, she knew how much getting a second chance meant to someone who has a criminal record.
That’s why Tia decided to hire parolees to help her rescue pit bulls, animals who also know what it’s like to need a second chance.
Now Tia redeems the lives of parolees and pit bull’s through Villalobos.
Her team is so amazing and memorable that Animal Planet decided to do a show about her and Villalobos (create content about them).
Watch her celebrate the ending of parole for the first parolee she ever hired whose name is Earl…
Powerful, isn’t it?
But having a memorable team doesn’t just help you to have something worth creating content about.
It’s the thing that actually enables you to change people’s lives!
Now let’s look at Santa’s last content marketing strategy…
3. Allow and encourage others to freely share your story in many content forms.
Santa has never focused very much on creating his own content.
He’s always focused on doing and being someone worth creating content about.
Then he just lets others tell stories, create tv shows, movies, and even music about him.
I think that Airbnb is a good example of this. I’ve never seen many commercials or ads about Airbnb.
The only reason I originally heard about it is because other people created content about it.
This video from SoniasTravels is an example of content that others have created FOR Airbnb…
Takeaways For You & Your Business:
This post is obviously just meant for fun.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize there are three overlooked content marketing ideas we really need to consider:
Who you are
Who your staff, employees & associates are
What you do
…are ALL a rarely tapped source of powerful content.
With these in mind, here are some questions for you to think about as we enter into 2023:
What bold, different, and amazing things can you do in 2023? Focus on things to make your life and business more exciting. Think of things that will make your story worth sharing.
Are there amazing or interesting things you or your business has done in 2022 that you can share in 2023?
What interesting facts, hobbies, and stories about you and your staff have you neglected to share? (Obviously, your staff needs to give you permission.)
If you sat down as a team and brainstormed/dreamed together, I bet you could come up with some pretty interesting answers to these questions!
BONUS IDEAS:
Don’t focus on doing these things just so people will create content about you.
Focus on them because they would be fun, exciting, and meaningful to do.
Do things that help to change your industry.
Do things that change/improve people’s’ lives (the best reason to do this).
The accidental side-benefit will be that you will have a story worth sharing and content worth creating/spreading – whether it is created by you and others.
How to Create Engaging Content in 2024
Content was once a rare thing, but now it has become a commodity.
You can’t just post any-old, average content anymore and expect to see results.
But that DOESN’T mean that content marketing and content creation are a waste of time.
The good news is that even though content is now a commodity, unique content is in demand more than ever.
I’d say that if you’re going to create content, then it has to be original.
It has to stand out.
Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
But IF your content is engaging and original, you will stand out from the pack and build a valuable audience made up of prospects and customers.
You’ll go from chasing prospects to attracting them to you, your business, or your organization.
How do you create engaging and original content?
That’s what my “31 Types of Content We Crave” training is all about.
If you’ve enjoyed my Christmas content marketing lessons and want to know how to create more unique and engaging content, then don’t miss the special offer to attend my “31 Types of Content We Crave” webinar at a special price.
I’ll not only allow you attend for a special price, I’ll also:
Give you a free PDF copy of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks
Send you the recording after the webinar
Allow you to invite any of your staff to attend with you (or in your place)
If you’re interested in being a part of the webinar, or just want more details on the date, time, etc., then DM me on LinkedIn.
Yes, that’s the only way to get more information.
Make sure to subscribe so you’ll be notified when my next article goes live.
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As you probably know, content marketing isn’t just text-based content.
Content marketing can be images, video, audio, and much more. Keep that in mind as I reveal another interesting Christmas content marketing lesson.
Thomas Nast – The Man Who Created the Modern Image of Santa
Thomas Nast was a staff illustrator for Harper’s Weekly, which at the time was one of the most popular magazines around.
Santa first appeared in the January 2, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly. His outfit was an American flag. And, get this, he had a puppet with the name “Jeff” written on it.
Who was Jeff? Jeff was short for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States.
Santa dress in an American flag with a doll named “Jeff.”
Yes, it was Nast who came up with the idea of a white-bearded old man with rosy cheeks. But that’s not all, Nast is the one who showed Santa passing out gifts.
But guess who he was passing out presents to? Union soldiers. And when Nast showed Santa climbing into a chimney, it was the chimney of a Union soldier’s house that he visited as the soldier’s wife prayed.
Are you noticing a common theme yet? Yep. Santa was pro-Union Army.
But there’s more. Take a look at his picture.
Look at How Much of Santa’s Story Came from Nast
The center window says, “Santa and his works.”
The top-left circle says, “On the look out for good children.”
The image on the left of the center window shows his workshop.
The top-right circle says, “Account work, record of behavior.”
The image on the right of the center window says, “Holiday week.”
The image at the bottom below the center window shows him riding in a sleigh and says, “Christmas Eve.”
The bottom-left circle shows a pine tree and says, “Christmas tree.”
The image on the bottom-left of the center window says, “Dollie’s tea party.”
The image on the bottom-right of the center window says, “Which Dollie will you have?“
The bottom-right circle shows Santa sewing with a needle and thread and says, “Making Dollie’s clothes.”
Along the top of this illustration, it says, “Santa Claus stable.”
At the bottom of this illustration, it says, “Dollie’s kitchen” and “Dollie’s parlor.”
And the one you won’t believe… along the top-right it says, “Santa Clausville, N.P.” (N.P. = North Pole)
Isn’t it crazy how many of the things we associate with Christmas are in this one image?
But remember that Union theme? It wasn’t just in that first image. Check out this image and I’ll show you what I mean…
The Hidden Pro-Union Message in Nast’s Images
This was a picture he illustrated in 1881 that appeared in Harper’s Weekly. It looks just like a normal Santa picture, right? Nope.
If you knew what some of the things in the picture actually were, you’d realize it’s actually more propaganda.
Believe it or not, the image is actually representing the government’s indecision to pay members of the military a higher wage.
“‘On his back isn’t a sack full of toys—it’s actually an army backpack from enlisted men.’ He’s holding a dress sword and belt buckle to represent the Army, whereas the toy horse is a callback to the Trojan horse, symbolizing the treachery of the government. A pocket watch showing a time of ten ’til midnight indicates the United States Senate has little time left to give fair wages to the men of the Army and Navy.”
That shows that whenever Nast was creating images of Santa, he was subtly, and not so subtly, promoting the pro-Union message.
In other words, his content was always promoting the message he was “selling.”
3 Simple and Quick Content Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Thomas Nast
Before you go, let me leave you with a few content marketing lessons that still apply today (and apply all year long):
Never forget the value of images to capture attention and share your message. Images capture attention and are memorable.
The power of a story tied to a well-designed image is a powerful combination. Images that don’t say anything aren’t very powerful. Always figure out how to tie them to the message you want to convey.
Never overlook the astonishing power of repetition. If you really want to get your message across, you need to consistently share it. Sharing it only once will probably not have much impact. (Want to learn more about repetition? The previous bolded sentence is a link.)
If you want to see more of these articles, then make sure to come back for tomorrow’s final article.
By the way, if you’re enjoying these, why not just subscribe below?
How to Create Engaging Content in 2024
Content was once a rare thing, but now it has become a commodity.
You can’t just post any-old, average content anymore and expect to see results.
But that DOESN’T mean that content marketing and content creation are a waste of time.
The good news is that even though content is now a commodity, unique content is in demand more than ever.
I’d say that if you’re going to create content, then it has to be original.
It has to stand out.
Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
But IF your content is engaging and original, you will stand out from the pack and build a valuable audience made up of prospects and customers.
You’ll go from chasing prospects to attracting them to you, your business, or your organization.
How do you create engaging and original content?
That’s what my “31 Types of Content We Crave” training is all about.
If you’ve enjoyed my Christmas content marketing lessons and want to know how to create more unique and engaging content, then don’t miss the special offer to attend my “31 Types of Content We Crave” webinar at a special price.
I’ll not only allow you attend for a special price, I’ll also:
Give you a free PDF copy of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks
Send you the recording after the webinar
Allow you to invite any of your staff to attend with you (or in your place)
If you’re interested in being a part of the webinar, or just want more details on the date, time, etc., then DM me on LinkedIn.
Yes, that’s the only way to get more information.
In You Enjoyed This, Can You Help Someone Else Discover It?
If you enjoy this article, can you also share this article on social media and with someone that you think will like it?
You’ll be helping your friends, followers, and associates out by pointing them to valuable content marketing ideas.
And you’ll also be helping me out by helping to spread the word about this site.
(If you want to help others that you don’t know find this site, then reference and link to this article in one of your next articles.)
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“The next day, Coke sent Schulz and Mendelson the following telegram: ‘CONFIRM SALE OF CHARLIE BROWN FOR CHRISTMAS TO COCA-COLA FOR DECEMBER BROADCAST AT YOUR TERMS WITH OPTION ON SECOND SHOW FOR NEXT SPRING. GOOD GRIEF!‘”
The Show Almost Didn’t Air
As popular as the show is these days, this might be hard to believe, but the show almost didn’t make it on air.
“The network hated the idea of a religious message in a Christmas TV special. They hated that the special wasn’t non-stop action interrupted with gales of fake laughter (as if cartoons would actually have a live studio audience).
“They didn’t like the soundtrack, thought the kid voiceover actors sounded too much like children, and would rather have played a needle scratch than jazz music. Things got so bad that even the special’s producers and Charlie Schulz (not known for having a cheery outlook to begin with) thought the cartoon would be a critical and commercial bomb.
“In fact, everyone was thinking of simply scrapping the show altogether…except for Cocoa-Cola, who was the special’s main sponsor and was not about to let a half-hour of advertising not make it to air.“
Where Are the Coke Ads in the Show?
The ads for Coca-Cola have been removed from the special over the years, so you won’t see them when you watch it today.
So where were they in the original?
Ted Ryan says that the only Coca-Cola messages were “title slides telling viewers that the production was made possible by the support of the local bottlers around the country.”
Here is a video clip of the title slides mentioning Coca-Cola…
“Create content that your prospects and customers want — especially if it isn’t focused on your business: You must not only create great content, but you must also create content that your desired target group is craving and searching for. And this might seem counterintuitive, but the most powerful kind of content for you to create might actually be content that doesn’t directly focus on your business or industry at all.”
Do you want proof that it was content that marketed Coca-Cola effectively?
You might have thought you couldn’t use content marketing because you’re not a content creator of any kind.
Well, now you know that you can harness the power of content marketing without actually creating it.
You can hire content creators to create content for your business.
It doesn’t have to be someone at the level of Charles Schulz. There are many content creators out there who would gladly create content for you.
Or maybe you thought, “No one really cares about content related to my business.”
Well,now you know that the content doesn’t have to directly focus on your business or industry.
It just needs to be content that resonates with your audience. That’s the key. That’s what Coca-Cola did.
And the result is content that was so popular that it still resonates with people 57 years later.
How to Create Engaging Content in 2024
Content was once a rare thing, but now it has become a commodity.
You can’t just post any-old, average content anymore and expect to see results.
But that DOESN’T mean that content marketing and content creation are a waste of time.
The good news is that even though content is now a commodity, unique content is in demand more than ever.
I’d say that if you’re going to create content, then it has to be original.
It has to stand out.
Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
But IF your content is engaging and original, you will stand out from the pack and build a valuable audience made up of prospects and customers.
You’ll go from chasing prospects to attracting them to you, your business, or your organization.
How do you create engaging and original content?
That’s what my “31 Types of Content We Crave” training is all about.
If you’ve enjoyed my Christmas content marketing lessons and want to know how to create more unique and engaging content, then don’t miss the special offer to attend my “31 Types of Content We Crave” webinar at a special price.
I’ll not only allow you attend for a special price, I’ll also:
Give you a free PDF copy of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks
Send you the recording after the webinar
Allow you to invite any of your staff to attend with you (or in your place)
If you’re interested in being a part of the webinar, or just want more details on the date, time, etc., then DM me on LinkedIn.
IMPORTANT: Do you know the Christmas TV specials that used to only come on once a year?
Well, you can think of my Christmas content marketing video below as one of those.
How Content Marketing Gave Birth to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The video you’re about to see contains the little-known story of how a content marketing assignment led to the most famous reindeer of all.
In other words, you’re about to discover a Christmas content marketing lesson. In the video, you’ll discover:
Montgomery Ward’s use of content marketing at Christmas
How the story of Rudolph came to be
The tragedy that almost ended it all
The surprising success of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The offer he had to refuse
The big risk and the big payoff
The rejected song that became a hit
Learn How to Create Engaging Content in 2023
Content was once a rare thing, but now it has become a commodity.
You can’t just post any-old, average content anymore and expect to see results.
But that DOESN’T mean that content marketing and content creation are a waste of time.
In fact, I would say it’s needed more than ever.
The good news is that even though content is now a commodity, unique content is in demand more than ever.
I’d say that if you’re going to create content, then it has to be original.
It has to stand out.
Otherwise, it’s a waste of time. But IF your content is engaging and original, then you will stand out from the pack and you will build a valuable audience made up of prospects and customers.
You’ll go from chasing prospects to attracting them to you, your business, or your organization.
How do I create engaging and original content?
That’s what my “31 Types of Content We Crave” training is all about.
If you’ve enjoyed my Christmas content marketing lessons and want to know how to create more unique and engaging content, then don’t miss the special offer to access to my “31 Types of Content We Crave” training at a special price.
Click the button below to learn more.
In You Enjoyed This, Can You Do Two Things?
If you enjoy this video, then please subscribe to this channel.
You’ll not only learn other Christmas content marketing lessons, but you’ll also learn lessons on how to create engaging content through my behind-the-scenes videos.
Can you also share this article on social media and with someone that you think will like it?
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You might not believe this, but I’m about to show you a lesson you can learn from Hallmark movies that can help you to easily create powerful content in 2023.
And it all comes down to knowing the importance and value of patterns. I’ll explain more of what I mean in a minute.
But first, let’s look at the thing that most people think is the flaw of Hallmark movies because it’s actually the genius of them.
When a Bot Writes a Hallmark Movie
Humorist Keaton Patti forced a bot to digest massive amounts of human media to produce these absurdly funny, totally real, “bot-generated” scripts, essays, advertisements, and more. (Check out his book here.)
One of the scripts the bot wrote was one to a Hallmark movie. In this tweet, pictured below, he reveals the hilarious results….
They Laughed When Hallmark Starting Creating Movies – Until the Ratings Came In
Popular meme showing how similar Hallmark movies are
People like to make fun of how formulaic Hallmark movies are – so formulaic that even a bot could write them. But there’s one thing that can’t be denied.
Hallmark movies and the Hallmark Channel itself are both very popular. How popular are they? You might not believe it, but check out these stats:
As of October 2020, the Hallmark Channel is the 7th most popular cable channel. (Source)
Countdown to Christmas has made Hallmark Channel the #1 entertainment cable network during Total Day in Fourth Quarter-to-date among Households, Women 18+, Women 25-54, and Total Viewers, and during Primetime among Households, Women 18+, and Total Viewers (Source)
17 of the 21 original holiday movie premieres on Hallmark Channel were the most-watched entertainment programs of the week among Women 18+ (Source)
To date, the annual holiday programming event has reached nearly 45 million unduplicated Total Viewers (Source)
From @basicallyhallmark
Why is Hallmark Channel so popular? And why are Hallmark movies so popular?
One of the reasons is the fact that people need an escape from this crazy pandemic world we live in.
“That’s a polite way of saying more and more Americans are turning to the Hallmark Channel for relief from the daily news cycle.”
But I think it’s more than that. I think it comes down to people’s deep need for familiar patterns.
One of the things kids are taught in kindergarten is how to recognize patterns. They have to be able to recognize and name the basic types of patterns.
They have to be able to notice “AB” patterns (like the one in the image above that is yellow, red, yellow, red, etc.). They have to recognize “ABC” patterns such as: blue, green, red, blue, green, red, etc.
They also have to be able to recognize other types of patterns. Why do they have to learn these things?
Because being able to recognize patterns in life is an important life skill.
But do you realize that the ability to recognize and form patterns is a powerful tool in content creation and content marketing?
You see, people crave familiar things – especially in a world with so much turmoil and upheaval.
Patterns create a familiar framework that enables people to more easily consume your content.
Extended Preview – Open Hearts – When Calls the Heart
Patterns Do Two Things That Are Important In Content Marketing:
1. They help people to follow along.
2. They create anticipation.
Now, obviously, when I am talking about creating content based on patterns I am NOT suggesting that you create predictable content.
I am just saying that it should have an underlying pattern.
If you start paying attention, you’ll notice that every type of content that you like (TV shows, Youtube channels/stars/shows, websites, authors, etc.) all use patterns.
Whether you realize it or not, what you really like about your favorite content is the patterns that they use.
Two Different Ways You Can Utilize Patterns To Create Effective Content
I want to share with you two ways you can utilize patterns to help you to more easily create effective content.
External Patterns
One way is to utilize external patterns to help you create more effective content. Here’s how:
1. Notice the patterns that other effective content creators and content marketers use.
2. Try out their patterns with your own content.
3. Study the results.
4. Use the patterns that you are the most comfortable with and the ones that produce the best results.
Internal Patterns
The other way is to utilize internal patterns to help you create more effective content:
1. Notice the patterns you tend to already use when creating content.
2. Study which patterns seem to get the best response and are well received.
3. Purposely use the patterns which you determine get you the best response.
4 Benefits Of Using Patterns When Creating Content
1. It gives you a framework to start with, which helps you overcome “the blank page” syndrome that often causes writer’s block.
2. It allows you to begin to create a style of content your reader can get used to and associate with you.
3. People who resonate with your pattern(s) begin to regularly come back because they like the format and know what to expect.
4. It gives you structure and freedom. Structure for the flow of your blog post, or other types of content you use, but freedom to be creative within that framework.
A humorous (but misguided) meme about the simplicity of Hallmark Christmas Movie plots
One Way I Do This
I don’t know if you noticed it before, but I have a pattern I use on a micro-level on this site. Each article generally has a regular pattern I follow.
On a basic level the pattern looks like this:
1. I use something to grab your attention.
2. I present my main thoughts, ideas, or lessons.
3. I challenge you to take action.
Let Others Laugh at Hallmark Channel, While You Learn from Them
Let me be clear one last time. I’m not suggesting that you create cheesy, simple patterns with the content you create..
I am suggesting that you find subtle and powerful patterns that your audience loves and can’t get enough of.
When you do that, you will discover the secret to effortlessly creating powerful content in 2023 and beyond.
How to Create Engaging Content in 2024
Content was once a rare thing, but now it has become a commodity.
You can’t just post any-old, average content anymore and expect to see results.
But that DOESN’T mean that content marketing and content creation are a waste of time.
The good news is that even though content is now a commodity, unique content is in demand more than ever.
I’d say that if you’re going to create content, then it has to be original.
It has to stand out.
Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
But IF your content is engaging and original, you will stand out from the pack and build a valuable audience made up of prospects and customers.
You’ll go from chasing prospects to attracting them to you, your business, or your organization.
How do you create engaging and original content?
That’s what my “31 Types of Content We Crave” training is all about.
If you’ve enjoyed my Christmas content marketing lessons and want to know how to create more unique and engaging content, then don’t miss the special offer to attend my “31 Types of Content We Crave” webinar at a special price.
I’ll not only allow you attend for a special price, I’ll also:
Give you a free PDF copy of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks
Send you the recording after the webinar
Allow you to invite any of your staff to attend with you (or in your place)
If you’re interested in being a part of the webinar, or just want more details on the date, time, etc., then DM me on LinkedIn.
Yes, that’s the only way to get more information.
Who Do You Know Who Needs to Read This?
Did you like this article? If so, can you share it on social media and with someone that you think will like it?
Your friends, followers, and associates will appreciate you pointing them to valuable content marketing ideas.
And I’ll appreciate you helping me to spread the word about this site.
(If you want to help others that you don’t know find this site, then reference and link to this article in one of your next articles.)
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A decade ago, I came across a story on The Guardian of a man with the strangest condition I have ever heard of.
I wasn’t expecting this, but after I read his story, I realized that his story reveals something you might be concerned about: why your content marketing isn’t working.
I’ll explain what I mean in a second. But first, you’ve got to hear this man’s shocking story…
Living in a Right-Sided World
Alan Burgess’ life changed forever on November 5, 2007.
It was the day he had a stroke.
I know that many people have strokes, so that might not seem unique.
But how his stroke changed his way of perceiving the world is what makes this such a unique story.
You see, his stroke left him with a syndrome known as hemispatial neglect.
His stroke damaged the parietal lobe on the right side of his brain, which is the part of our brain that handles our ability to pay attention or be aware of certain things in our world.
That means that his stroke had a strange effect on his attention.
It caused him to ignore people, sounds, and objects on his left. It’s like the world on his left doesn’t exist at all.
Now you need to understand something. He is NOT blind in his left eye.
His brain is just ignoring one side of his world.
Before his stroke, Burgess was working as a driver. But now his “visual neglect” makes driving impossible, so he had to retire early.
Since his retirement, he has taken up painting, which he really enjoys.
But if you took a look at his paintings, you’d notice something unique about them.
Half of the picture is missing.
He has a painting that he has done of two robins, which he copied from a Christmas card.
The robin that is on the right is done in full detail, but if you look at the one on the left, you’d notice that it is still unfinished.
A doctor who studies this condition, named Dr. Paresh Malhotra described this condition in this way, “Vision is most strikingly affected because we are visual creatures, but hearing, touch, representation, and sense of self are also affected.”
The sad thing about this condition is that people who have hemispatial neglect are many times not even aware of their condition.
And because of this, many people like Alan Burgess don’t seek out help.
What does this have to with content marketing? A lot.
And it all begins with multitasking.
Let me explain…
The Short-Order Cook and the Myth of Multitasking
I actually think I am pretty good at multitasking. (In fact, I’ve stopped writing this multiple times to do other things like check my email.)
Don’t you feel the same way about your awesome multitasking ability?
Well, according to an NPR article on multitasking, we’re wrong.
“Humans, they say, don’t do lots of things simultaneously. Instead, we switch our attention from task to task extremely quickly.”
The example they use in the article to show us this reality is the example of a short-order cook.
Short-order cooks have to juggle all sorts of small tasks. Tasks that enable them to make: Chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs with sausage, an order of French fries, and even rye toast.
Cooking pancakes or eggs might not seem like that big of a deal. But on a busy day, when you need to manage all of their small details at the same time, then they become a really difficult job.
You might be thinking… “Who cares? I’m not a short order-cook!”
Well, as the NPR article reveals, we’re ALL living lives where we have to juggle all sorts of small details simultaneously.
We all have emails to answer, calls to return, errands that need to get done, meetings that we need to attend, family responsibilities that are on our calendar, etc. And many of these things are things we need to do all at the same time.
And so, just like a short-order cook, we are forced to juggle it all.
But here’s the problem. We’re living in a fantasy world.
Neuroscientist Earl Miller says it like this in this NPR article…
“People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves. The brain is very good at deluding itself.”
Information Neglect
We don’t realize this, but we all have a condition that we are unaware of. And it’s the result of living in a world where we have to multitask in order to survive.
I call this condition “Information Neglect.”
Our brains haven’t experienced a stroke that has caused us to ignore a certain side of our world.
Instead, our brains have been overloaded by so many tasks and so much information that we’ve begun to block out the flood of information that flows our way each day.
And some of that information we’re blocking out is very important. But it doesn’t matter. We’ll never see it.
This leads us to the problem I mentioned at the beginning: why your content marketing isn’t working.
You see, you aren’t the only one with this Information Neglect condition.
Your prospects have Information Neglect too.
This leads to three problems that content marketers need to overcome:
That means that some of that excess information that your prospects are blocking out is your content.
They don’t even see your content. It’s not even on their radar.
They don’t even know they’re doing this.
This is the world we now live in.
This is the condition we all have, even if we don’t realize this.
So what is a content marketer to do about this?
How do you create content that people will actually consume?
I’ll tell you…
How to Create Content That Doesn’t Get Ignored
You know, I didn’t tell you everything that I discovered when I read Alan Burgess’ story.
There was something I left out. It’s something about Dr. Malhotra that was mentioned at the end of the article.
It’s this surprising fact: Dr. Malhotra figured out a way to begin to REDUCE this problem in hemispatial neglect patients.
By offering patients with hemispatial neglect rewards for noticing and paying attention to what they are normally blind to, he is helping them to overcome their perception blindness!
And guess what?
I believe that that is the answer to solve your problem too.
Here’s what I mean…
If you want to create content marketing that is not ignored, but is actually noticed and happily consumed, then you must do the same thing.
You must reward your prospects for consuming your content.
When you reward your prospects for consuming your content, then they will gladly pay attention and consume the content you create.
I call this type of content “rewarding content.”
Three Ways to Create “Rewarding Content” That Your Prospects Will Want to Consume
There are many ways to create content that rewards your prospects.
I don’t have the time to go into them all, so let me just focus on three basic types of “rewarding content” that you can create:
Create content that answers your prospects’ questions.
If you create content about topics no one cares about, then guess how many people will consume it? That’s right. No one.
Instead, you want to create content that answers your prospects’ questions and is focused on topics and subjects that they care about.
I did that here. I wrote about a topic that you probably care about: “why your content is getting ignored”.
You need to do the same thing and create content that answers your prospects’ questions.
This type of content will teach your prospects to pay attention and cause them to want to consume your content because they know that it rewards them with answers to their actual questions.
Create content that is enjoyable to read.
The other way to create content that your prospects will pay attention to is to create content that is enjoyable.
I firmly believe that even the most boring topic can be made enjoyable to consume if you use the right methods to create intriguing content.
I just did that in this post. I wrote about the topic of “multitasking,” which isn’t necessarily the most exciting topic. But I used Alan Burgess’ story and the analogy of a short-order cook to make it more interesting.
You must do the same thing.
This type of content will teach your prospects to pay attention and cause them to want to consume your content, because they know that you provide content that not only answers their questions, but is enjoyable and intriguing.
And sometimes you can actually create content where you literally give your prospects some kind of real reward.
The above two types of “rewarding content” are based on rewards that are IN the content itself. But this last one is a reward that exists outside of your content.
It is something that your content points to.
That means that you create content that leads to, or reveals, a reward for your prospect in the form of a special report, a discount, a video, or maybe a contest of some kind. (These are just a few examples. You need to get creative and come up with others.)
This type of content will teach your prospects to pay attention and cause them to want to consume your content. Because they know that it answers their questions, is enjoyable to consume, and even (sometimes) leads them to actual rewards.
A Daily Bouquet of Love
“Attention is like a daily bouquet of love.”
-Bob Keeshan aka “Captain Kangaroo”
I love the above quote about attention from Bob Keeshan.
I think it’s a great way to think about the value that someone is giving to you when they give you their attention.
And with all of the distractions we have these days, I think that “attention” has become the treasure that all businesses are desperately searching for.
If you really want your prospects to cover you in “daily bouquets of love,” then you must learn how to create content that rewards them.
That is the only way that you can overcome the modern condition of Information Neglect.
Good luck.
P.S. Just in case you were disappointed that I didn’t show you an example of how I used the third type of “rewarding content,” you might want to look through the above post again. I included a reward hidden for you in one of the links above. (Hint: It’s towards the top.)
This article is the third one in a series of articles focused on the 10th marketing fundamental. If you haven’t read the other articles, you can do that below:
What I am about to tell you might, at first, be shocking, but please hear me out.
Because once you understand the full impact of this truth, it could change how you create content — and how it positively impacts your business.
You might think that one of thereasons your business isn’t more successful is because prospects and customers are rejecting you.
The fact is that this is probably not true. (Unless you have a generic or lousy product, then you’re right. They are rejecting you.)
The real reason you’re not more successful could be something as simple as this:They don’t remember you. (See the 10th marketing fundamental.)
Let me tell you a story to illustrate just how important memory is to successful content marketing (and a successful business)…
A Tragedy Spawns History’s Greatest Memory Technique
The great Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero aka “Cicero” was the first to record a legendary story about the discovery of a memorization method that has been used by people throughout history — and is still used by top “memory athletes” today.
Once, a poet named Simonides of Ceos was dining at the house of a wealthy nobleman named Scopas. He was there to recite a poem that he’d composed in honor of his host.
As was the custom in his day, he included a long passage referring to Castor and Pollux (twins who were commonly mentioned in Greek and Roman mythologies).
However, this large inclusion in the middle of his poem made Scopas angry, so he told Simonides that he’d only pay him half the fee agreed on for the poem.
Simonides returned to his seat at the banquet table very frustrated with Scopas. But what happened next, would be something he could never have imagined, even in his wildest dreams.
Not long after this disagreement, Simonides received a message that two young men were standing at Scopas’ door, anxiously wanting to see him. Simonides got up from his seat and went out to meet them.
The strange thing was that once he got to the door, no one seemed to be there. Just as he stood outside looking for them, a horrible tragedy occurred.
The roof of the hall where Scopas had been giving the banquet caved in, killing Scopas and everyone else inside. Later, when their friends were digging through the rubble, they couldn’t find the bodies of their loved ones, or even tell them apart, because they had been completely crushed.
It was because of this horrible tragedy that history’s greatest memory method was discovered. How?
Because Simonides was able to identify where each person would be found in the rubble by remembering where each of them had been while reclining at the table a few moments before.
Later, as he thought about this experience, it suddenly hit him: Our minds have an incredible ability to remember things spatially.
He realized that if he replaced the people sitting at the table with important items or ideas, he could remember those items just as easily as he recalled who was sitting where.
Thus, the concept of the “memory palace” was created, and from that moment on, it has been one of the most popular memorization tools people have had.
Now, hold onto this thought, because I’ll be coming back to it in just a minute.
It’s Not Personal
As I mentioned above, the reason that your prospects and customers might not be buying from you could simply be a problem of memory.
In other words, you’re not on the top of their mind when they need the service or product you’re offering. And if your prospects and customers can’t remember you in their time of need, you may as well not even exist to them.
When you realize that one of the biggest problems your business faces may just be a memory problem, then you will understand that your most important task in business is to become more memorable.
This is as fundamental to successful content marketing (and marketing, on the whole) as any other tool or technique.
Moonwalking with Einstein
Many years ago, I read a really interesting book by Joshua Foer called Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.
Though this book has nothing to do with content marketing, it still contains a powerful truth that every content marketer should be familiar with:
“The principle underlying all memory techniques is that our brains don’t remember all types of information equally well.”
– Joshua Foer in Moonwalking with Einstein
He says that while we are good at remembering visual imagery, we may not be as good at remembering words or numbers.
Basically, he feels the secret of “memory athletes” is the ability to transform the things we want to remember into the kinds of memories our brains were built to remember well.
Don’t miss this point, because it’s just as important for content marketers as it is for memory athletes.
The key to getting our content marketing noticed and consumed, instead of being ignored by the reticular activating system, is to create content that our brains were built to remember.
How do you accomplish this? Foer’s words also reveal a solution:
“The general idea with most memory techniques is tochange whatever boring thing is being inputted into your memory into something that is so colorful, so exciting, and so different from anything you’ve seen before that you can’t possibly forget it.”
– Joshua Foer in Moonwalking with Einstein
The Good News for Content Marketers
The good news is that, if it is used effectively, content marketing is perfect for making your business more memorable. But the key is to use it effectively.
As I always say, you cannot create generic content and expect to see results. It will never grab your audience’s attention or be memorable. You must create content that is unique and memorable. And here are five suggestions on ways you can do just that:
Harness the power of case studies: As I said before, stories are a powerful tool that we all need to leverage, because our minds seem to be intrinsically wired to remember them. Case studies don’t just present prospects with words and numbers they won’t remember — they tell stories that flesh out the words and numbers you use to describe your business, and give them context. This isn’t just a much more powerful way to convey information, it a much more memorable way, too.
Harness the power of repetition: Strangers aren’t memorable to us, but we do remember people we have met and liked. You want your business to become something that consumers know, like, and trust. The way to do this as a business is the same way you do this as a person: You need to keep in touch with people you want to be remembered by. You must use content to keep in regular touch with your prospects and customers. You can do this through email, blog posts, podcasts, or video posts. Repetition is a strong memory tool, so it’s essential that you frequently and consistently place your content in front of your prospects and customers.
Harness the power of descriptions: Our minds are adept at remembering things we can picture — this includes images, of course, but it also pertains to words that are highly descriptive. For this reason, it’s key that you use visuals and descriptions in your content (even if you are trying to present analytic or other data-rich information). Descriptive words help your prospects “see” and understand what you’re talking about. This means you will want to use analogies, adjectives, and any other comparisons in your content as much as possible, so your readers will be able to better lock it into their memories.
Harness the power of imagination: This next method is similar to the last one in some ways, but moves beyond just descriptive words. Simonides realized that our minds are adept at remembering things in terms of spatial relationships. Similarly, content marketers can tap into the power of imagination to form memorable bonds between businesses and customers. In other words, you want to create content that will encourage your prospects to imagine what it is like to do business with you — to use your products or services and to experience the positive results this relationship will bring. By doing this, customers can, in a sense, experience your business in relation to their needs, which will enable them to remember you on a deeper level.
Harness the power of voice: The final content marketing method I want to encourage you to use relies on the power that comes from using your own, unique voice. Remember that Foer said that the general idea of all memory techniques is to change something “boring” into something that’s “so colorful, so exciting, and so different from anything you’ve seen before that you can’t possibly forget it”? That’s what writing (or speaking) in your own voice will do to your content. It makes your content stand out from the boring “me too” content. It will make it more interesting, and most of all, memorable.
Once you realize that one of your most overlooked business problems is likely a memory problem (not an “interest” problem) and you recognize how poorly our minds remember abstract words and numbers, you’ll come to realize how vital it is that we focus on becoming more memorable in our content marketing.
While the five ideas above are just suggestions, there are plenty of other ways to make content more memorable. If you have your own ideas, we would love it if you could post them in the comments.
Riddle: What’s the Type of Content You Create Once and Get Paid for Again and Again?
Content marketing is usually about creating a piece of free content whose purpose is to directly or indirectly play a part in bringing in future sales for a product or service of some kind.
Well, how would you like to create a single piece of content just once, but get paid for it year after year after? Does that sound like some kind of internet scam? It’s not.
In fact, there is a certain category of songwriters who actually achieve this amazing feat. They create one song and then make money off of it year after year after year.
Who are these songwriters? They are the writers behind Christmas songs. Want proof?
It was the summer of 1970 and Jose Felciano was recording a Christmas album made up of classic Christmas songs. That’s when his producer and friend, Rick Jarrard, made a surprising suggestion.
He told Jose that he should create an original Christmas song, one that had lyrics in both English and Spanish. Jose then went into the other room to see what he could come up with.
He started messing around by singing the words “Feliz Navidad” and “Merry Christmas.” Suddenly out of nowhere the melody just came to him.
He didn’t know it at the time, but the song would go on to become one of the most popular Christmas songs. It would become as popular – or even more popular – than some of the classic songs he had already recorded that day.
Just how popular is that song?
According to Billboard, this song has been heard on the radio by an estimated 3.8 billion people. Yes, that’s billion with a “B.”
It is one of the top 10 best-performing songs on Billboard’s Holiday 100 chart.
According to ASCAP, it is one of the 25 most-played Christmas songs in the world.
In 2010, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
How’s that for a song that “just came to him” in the summer of 1970?
50 Years Later and That One Song is Still Going Strong
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Feliz Navidad. You heard that right. Jose Feliciano created one piece of content 50 years ago and he has been paid every year for it for 50 years.
So the story I started with, that you thought sounded like a scam, is actually the story Jose Feliciano has been living out since 1970.
There are some valuable content marketing lessons that you can learn from Jose and other Christmas songwriters that will help you to create content with a lasting impact in 2022.
I’ll share these important lessons with you in just a minute. But first, you might be interested to learn this…
To honor the 50th anniversary of this still very popular song, Jose recorded a special version of the song with 30 top artists.
These artists include CNCO, Isabela Merced, Shaggy, Jon Secada, Jason Mraz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rachael Ray, Gloria Gaynor, Big & Rich, Michael Bolton, Los Temerarios, Sam Moore, and Styx. (If you’re interested in hearing it, you can find it exclusively here on Amazon.com. )
The Surprising Content Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Christmas Songs
As I said, there are some valuable content marketing lessons that you can learn from Jose and other Christmas songwriters. I’ve packed all of these lessons in the video below.
In my video, you’ll discover:
How to capture your audience’s attention
How to create content that appeals to your audience
How to create content that can appeal to your audience for years to come
Two important content marketing lessons we can learn from Christmas songs
Two takeaways that you can apply to your content marketing
And three methods you can use to produce your content based on the way popular artists create and record Christmas songs
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Does it sound to you like I say, “Christmas sogs” at the beginning of the video? It does to me!
I’m not sure what happened, but let’s pretend it didn’t happen! Haha.
IMPORTANT: Do you know the Christmas TV specials that used to only come on once a year?
Well, you can think of my Christmas content marketing videos that you’ll see over the next few days like those TV specials.
I say that because I will be reposting these videos and related articles during this time every year.
Christmas Content Marketing Examples
If you just pay attention, there are examples of content marketing, and lessons to be learned, everywhere.
There are even content marketing examples and lessons that can be found at Christmas time.
What you’re about to see is just one example. But let me be clear.
This and the upcoming examples are content marketing examples that come from Christmas.
But they are NOT examples that can only be used during Christmas time. They can be used year-round.
How Content Marketing Gave Birth to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The video you’re about to see contains the little-known story of how a content marketing assignment led to the most famous reindeer of all.
In other words, you’re about to discover a Christmas content marketing lesson. In the video, you’ll discover:
Montgomery Ward’s use of content marketing at Christmas
How the story of Rudolph came to be
The tragedy that almost ended it all
The surprising success of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The offer he had to refuse
The big risk and the big payoff
The rejected song that became a hit
In You Enjoyed This, Can You Do Two Things?
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You’ll not only learn other Christmas content marketing lessons, but you’ll also learn lessons on how to create engaging content through my behind-the-scenes videos.
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An Unexpected Content Marketing & Copywriting Lesson from A Quiet Place II
A few weeks ago, I went to see The Quiet Place 2 with my sons. It was one of the first movies I’ve seen since the pandemic started.
It was awesome. If you’ve seen the first movie, I’d say that the sequel was as good as the first one, if not better.
It’s such an intense and powerful movie. The crazy thing about this movie is that the intensity comes from the silence.
In fact, It’s so quiet at times that you feel like if you make a sound during that moment of the film, either you or one of the people on the screen are going to die. 🙂
Have you ever wondered why or how you can feel so connected to what’s happening on the big screen?
Well, I’ve been thinking about that and I’ve come to realize that there is a neurological explanation for why horror films work.
Why should you care about how horror films work?
Because it reveals the same reason that powerful content marketing or copywriting works.
The Neurological Reason Horror Films Work
Many years ago, I read a great book by Daniel Goleman called, “Social Intelligence.”
In the book, he talked about a then relatively recent discovery of brain cells that sort of act like a neural WiFi.
You might’ve heard of these cells. They’re called “mirror neurons.” What do these cells have to do with the way horror films work?
And, more importantly for us, what do these cells have to do with the force behind powerful content marketing or copywriting?
Let’s see if you figure it out from what I reveal to you next…
Mirror neurons are what allow us to pick up on, feel, and mirror what others are feeling.
Have you ever watched one person telling an exciting story and see their friend’s face and body begin to respond with similar signs of excitement? That’s the mirror neurons in action!
The way Goleman describes this phenomenon is very powerful. He simply says…
“Emotions are contagious.”
Did you catch that?
The only reason that horror films work is because of mirror neurons! If our brains weren’t designed in a way to cause us to feel what others are feeling, horror films wouldn’t work!
Without them, content marketing and copywriting wouldn’t work either.
Powerful Content Marketing & Copywriting Lessons from A Quiet Place II
Really think about what Daniel Goleman is saying.
The most powerful type of influence is when a person shares emotions, actions, and feelings with another. It influences us on a deep, even subconscious, level.
When John Krasinski wrote and directed A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place II, he didn’t try to tell us what the characters were feeling
He wrote the stories in a way that would powerfully show the audience the emotions and feelings of the characters.
By showing us these emotions and feelings, he tapped into the audiences’ mirror neurons. This caused us to connect with the characters so that we felt what they felt.
The secret behind powerful content marketing and copywriting is to make sure that you show your audience the feelings and emotions that you want them to experience.
That’s the way you draw them into your content or copy and really influence them.
*SIDE NOTE: Just to be clear. I’m NOT talking about manipulating or deceiving people. I’m talking about motivating people in an honest way. But I am suggesting that you do this in a way that many people overlook or never think of.
How to Create Content or Copy That Powerfully Influences People
Have you ever wondered…?
Why is it that when you as a content marketer, copywriter, or business owner tell people about your product, service, or business, they aren’t influenced like they’d normally be?
In other words, why aren’t their mirror neurons activated? It’s because you aren’t harnessing the secret that John Krasinski knows.
YOUR ERROR: You are telling people things that you want them to feel.
Instead, you need to show them what you want them to feel and experience.
Telling people what you want them to feel won’t help them see, hear, and experience the problems that others like them have had.
Telling people what you want them to feel won’t help them see, hear, and experience the solution that your product or service has provided for others like them.
And telling them these things will never activate their mirror neurons!
If they don’t feel and experience these problems and your solution, you will have little hope of influencing them.
What is the solution? Again, take a cue from John Krasinski.
THE SOLUTION: Start showing people what you want them to feel through others’ stories.
Another key reason that your content or copy doesn’t influence people is because it’s coming from you.
You see, when you tell others these things, they know you want to sell them something and this causes them to put up their guard. It blocks (or at the least somewhat dulls) the natural influence that happens between two people.
It stops the mirror neurons from doing their thing. What’s the solution?
In it, he explains exactly why this type of content is so powerful. He says…
“When people are unsure about how they should act or feel, they observe people around them. This is known as social proof. Research shows that when we observe others, our brains simulate what they are feeling.”
Later, Adams explains, “Social proof can be used to show people the preferred course of action or appropriate behavior.”
– Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends Are the Key to Influence People by Paul Adams
Let me take what Paul said and put it into the context of what I’ve been talking about here…
In the same way, we begin to act like the people on the screen in A Quiet Place II (i.e. we become very quiet and afraid), people look to others for social proof.
Through that proof, they begin to act the way that they see others acting. They emulate them.
YOUR SECRET WEAPON: Social Proof
What I’m trying to get you to see is that top content marketers and copywriters know what John Krasinski knows.
They understand the power of stories that are packed with feelings and emotions that they want their audience to feel.
IMPORTANT: You don’t have to create fictional, false, or fake stories to do this. Instead, you can simply use the real-life stories of your customers.
Share their testimonials
Share their stories
Share their case studies
TIP: When do all of this, make sure that you share these things with a focus on the emotions of these stories and not just the facts of the stories. Why? Because emotions are what will make the mirror neurons kick in!
Think about it.
When you share testimonials, you are having others tell the truth about your product or service through their experience. Their words have a much greater chance of being felt than yours alone.
When you share case studies, you are allowing prospects to vicariously go through the experience that someone else has had.They get to “feel” the same process and results.
When you ask customers to submit testimonials and then share them with your prospects, it will have a much greater impact than your own words about your business ever will. This provides the social proof your prospect is looking for.
What you have just learned about mirror neurons and the neurological reason powerful content marketing or copywriting works is something that most content marketers and copywriters don’t know.
That’s why I used the word “secret” in the title of this article. (It wasn’t just a marketing trick.) For that reason, I would encourage you to read this article again.
And this time write down a couple of takeaways you can apply right away to your content or copy. Then begin actually applying them.
Over time, you will become better at creating content and copy that taps into the mirror neurons in a natural way. The end result will be that your content or copy will have a greater impact than it ever has before.
When that happens, reach out and let me know about it. I’d love to hear how this secret impacts your results.
If you liked this article, can you do me a favor and share it? I’d really appreciate it.
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Successful Content Marketers and Copywriters Think Like a Lawyer or Speaker
Successful content marketers and copywriters are successful because they realize that their job is very similar to the job of a lawyer or speaker.
No successful lawyer ever wins a case without considering the questions or objections people listening will have to their arguments.
No successful speaker puts together a powerful and convincing talk without considering the same things.
Successful content marketing or copy is written with an understanding that the task before you isn’t to influence the convinced.
Your job is to convince the unconvinced and inspire the uninspired. It’s only when you do that that your content or copy is successful and produces sales.
That means that creating successful content or copy comes down to creating content or copy that powerfully overcomes the objections and questions that your market has. (I touched on this briefly in #7 of The 11 Indispensable Elements Behind All Great Content or Copy.)
What are the objections and obstacles that are keeping your prospects from buying? The answer to that question comes from something powerful that Zig Ziglar once said.
The Five Basic Objections and Obstacles Keeping You from Making a Sale
As a former door-to-door salesman, Zig Ziglar had amazing insight into the common things that keep people from buying.
In fact, he broke them down into five obstacles. He said…
“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”
Zig Ziglar
Important Disclaimer and Why I Hope Some of You Fail:
The advice I am about to give you can be used in honest or dishonest ways. It can be used to manipulate people for your own gain or to motivate people for their benefit.
In pointing these things out, I am assuming that you will use them in honest ways in order to motivate people for their benefit. In other words, I’m assuming you are offering a legitimate solution that really helps people.
If you aren’t planning on using these things in honest ways, to motivate people for their benefit, so that you can really help them, then I hope that all your marketing fails. 🙂
Otherwise, any “success” you achieve through dishonest marketing will ultimately make you, your business, and your life a failure.
Alright, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me reveal the five obstacles your content or copy must overcome.
The 5 Obstacles All Successful Content (or Copy) Must Overcome
1. No Need
Your content or copy must help your prospect to see their need for your solution. It should do that by revealing and amplifying the problem that it helps them overcome.
Why? Because all of us tend to overlook or downplay the problems in our life because we’ve become so used to them.
If you don’t help them to see the seriousness of their problem, they will stay stuck. And they definitely won’t buy from you.
2. No Money
Your content or copy must make your prospect see such a great value in the solution you offer that the price you’re asking for it seems like a deal.
You must also help them see the cost of staying in their situation with their sane problem.
Why? Because we all spend money on things that are valuable to us. Even those of us who say we don’t have much money, spend all sorts of money on things we value.
Do you want proof?
How much total money do you spend monthly on streaming services? According to Cord Cutters News, the average American household spends $47 a month.
How much money do you spend on going out to eat every month? According to The Simple Dollar, The average American spends $232 per month eating meals prepared outside the home.
How much money do you spend every month at Starbucks (or Pete’s, Dutch Bros, or ?)? According to Cliff & Pebble, the average American spends $12 a month at Starbucks.
How much money did you spend to buy your smartphone? According to Statista, the average price of a smartphone in the consumer segment in the United States is forecast to reach $580.27 in 2020. (NOTE: According to Engadget, the average American gets a new phone every 3 years. That means these phones cost us about $193.42 a year.)
How much money do you spend on your smartphone every month? According to Money Saving Pro, the average American spends $114 a month on their phone bill.
If you take all of these together, the total amount the average person is spending every month on these things is $423 a month!
Remember, this is all based on the average American, not wealthy Americans.
Look, I am not suggesting that you don’t need things like a smartphone. But do you need to pay the amount that you are actually paying for them? No!
So when any of us say that we don’t have the money to purchase something, it might be true.
But it’s only true because we’re already spending money on the things I listed above (and many other things I didn’t list), things that are valuable or important to us.
That means that the thing keeping people from purchasing from you really isn’t a lack of money. It’s that they don’t see what you’re offering as valuable or important.
Your job is to change this perception.
3. No Hurry
Let’s face it. If you don’t give people a compelling and valid reason to purchase now/today, they will probably delay the purchase.
Why? Because most of us are afraid to make decisions – especially purchasing decisions. We don’t want to waste our money, get ripped off, or look/feel stupid.
We don’t necessarily delay our purchases because we don’t need or want the solution today. We delay them because we are afraid to make a mistake.
Now, there obviously are some purchases we should delay. There are also some that we should probably never even make. (Maybe because we’re already in debt and/or we don’t really need the item.)
But there are other purchases that we shouldn’t delay (once we gather enough info) because the cost of delaying the decision ends up ultimately costing us more.
What kind of purchases cost us when we delay them? Here are just a few that I quickly thought of:
Certain insurance
A solution that can improve our health
A solution that can improve your business
A purchase that replaces another more costly, regular expense
Etc.
If you are selling something that can really help people right away, you should always make sure to give people enough information to understand that and to see the benefit of purchasing it now.
I’m not saying you should create content or copy that forces people to make a rushed decision. You shouldn’t do that.
But you also need to balance the fact in knowing that, by default, most of us will delay a decision, even when it’s to our own detriment.
That means that you will need to create content or copy to overcome this fact. If you don’t, you will not make as many sales and/or help as many people as you could.
4. No Desire
People won’t purchase your solution if it is not desirable to them. Why would they, unless someone or something is forcing them to?
That means that unless someone is forcing or requiring people to purchase from you, you will have to overcome this obstacle.
That means you have one of two choices:
You need to make your solution desirable.
You need to tie your solution to what your prospects already desire.
To accomplish that second choice, you have to know what people desire. Here are some of the basic things we all desire:
What is attractive
What is helpful/useful
What is entertaining, fun, or pleasurable
What relieves current or future pain or problems
What helps us achieve our goals or desires
If you want to make your solution more desirable, it must honestly possess some (or many) of these qualities.
Or it must be connected to something that your prospect already wants that possesses these things.
5. No Trust
I will never, ever purchase anything from someone I don’t trust. Neither will you. Your prospects are the same.
That’s why you want to make sure that your prospects trust you or your company. You might think, “Why wouldn’t they trust me or my company?” Well, how about the fact that they’ve been burned by people like you or companies like yours?
That means that they’re not going to assume that they should trust you. They’re going to assume that they shouldn’t.
They’re going to want to trust you, and even look for clues that you or your company is trustworthy, but the burden of proof is on you and your company, not on them.
What are some ways that you can prove that you and your company are trustworthy? Here are a few ways that come to mind:
Share what customers think about you by using customer testimonials
Share your product or service’s ratings or reviews from third-party sites and sources
Share what industry experts or influencers think about you by asking for and then sharing what they have said about you
You should also share the names of influencers and experts that you/your company have worked with, alongside, or worked for.
Only create and/or sell solutions that actually work
Only offer them for a fair price
Have great customer service that helps and takes care of every customer or client
Have guarantees to take the risk off of your purchases and put it on you and your company
Those are just some of the ways you prove that you and your company are trustworthy. But the key thing for you to remember is that you do need to prove this fact.
You cannot assume that prospects will automatically believe or think that you’re trustworthy.
Greater Results Than the Competition
There are other objections, questions, or obstacles that you might need to overcome for your specific niche or market.
But if you make sure to always address these 5 obstacles, your content or copy will produce greater results than many of your competitors will see.
And you will have a much better track record of creating successful content or copy.
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New. Marketers know that people are attracted to anything new. That’s why marketers use the word whenever and wherever they can.
The funny thing is that “new” even attracts and mesmerizes marketers and companies.
Look, “new” is awesome. I love new things, new methods, new tools, etc.
But I’m here to tell you that when it comes to marketing, “new” is overrated and in many ways an illusion.
You might think that the only way your company can succeed in 2021 is by harnessing the latest, greatest marketing technique.
Well, I’m here to politely tell you that you’re wrong. It’s not the new marketing techniques that you should be focusing on. It’s the old, forgotten marketing principles.
I’ll explain what I mean in just a second. But first, I need to tell you a quick story to explain what I mean.
Ancient Technologies and Inventions You Never Knew Existed
I used to love watching a show on The History Channel called Ancient Discoveries.
The show featured ancient technologies and ancient inventions that are thought to be modern but actually existed in the ancient world.
Why don’t we know about these ancient technologies and inventions? Because they’ve been lost and then reinvented. We basically forgot about them.
What were the types of technologies and inventions that they revealed in this series? Amazing ones like these:
A computer-like device that may have been used to calculate the movements of stars and planets called the Antikythera Mechanism
Automatic doors and coin-operated machines invented by a guy named Heron in ancient Alexandria.
A jar that appears to be an electric battery
Archimedes use of solar power to defeat the Romans
And many other amazing things you wouldn’t believe existed in the ancient world
Unbelievable, right? Who would’ve thought these things were invented centuries ago?
Well, you’d be just as amazed to discover that many of the new marketing methods have been around for almost a century (some longer than that).
Ancient Marketing Methods You Never Knew Existed
I love discovering and reading old marketing books. For me, it’s like finding a lost treasure that most people have forgotten ever existed.
One of the main things that I’m constantly discovering in these old marketing books is the fact that many of the marketing methods and marketing techniques that we think are new were actually invented
Split testing& ad tracking – Claude Hopkins was talking about tracking ads and split testing in his book Scientific Advertising back in 1923 – 98 years ago
Lead generation – As I’ve been reading some classic books on advertising by John Caples, I was struck by this realization: many of the famous ads he talked about all focused on capturing leads, not making direct sales from their ads. Many of these ads are from the early 1900s (over a century old)!
Content marketing – I’ve discovered the oldest known content marketing to exist. And they are over two hundred years old!
My point?
In the same way that the ancient technologies and inventions were overlooked until rediscovered or reinvented, many of the marketing methods many think were invented in the dot-com days were created way before then.
The early internet pioneers and the early dotcom companies just were smart enough to harness these methods that the mainstream business world had forgotten.
And this is the real reason for their massive success.
The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021
As I said at the beginning of this series back in January, I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
In fact, I believe that there are 12 marketing fundamentals that all companies should be focused on if they want to succeed in the second half of 2021.
So far, I’ve revealed what the first seven marketing fundamentals are. Since it’s been a while since my last article, let me give you a quick recap…
The First 7 Marketing Fundamentals:
Here are the six marketing fundamentals that I’ve revealed so far are in this series:
The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow up at all. They don’t follow up enough.
The fourth marketing fundamental is a unique selling proposition. Because if you’re ever going to get your prospects to choose your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.
The 7th marketing fundamental if your content or copy. Once you have chosen your “who” and your most powerful offer, you must choose the right words to inspire and influence your target audience to take action (whatever you decide that should be).
I’ve already shared two important articles on this 7th marketing fundamental:
Over the next few days, I will share two more articles on this particular fundamental.
One will be about the obstacles that all successful copy or content needs to overcome and the other article will be about the secret behind powerful content marketing and copywriting.
I think you’re really going to like them so stay tuned.
Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series
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Whether you are a content marketer or a copywriter, you face the same challenge. You must make your content or copy stand out from the rest in your niche.
If you don’t, you will never sell the product or service you’re promoting. And you definitely won’t last in your job or your career very long.
That means it’s imperative that you learn how to create better content or persuasive copy.
Well, I want to show you one way you can make ordinary content or copy feel extraordinary.
Do you know the best part about what I’m about to reveal to you? It’s a method that many people don’t know or completely overlook.
In order for you to fully understand this method, I first need to tell you a story, or better yet, a legend.
Because the legend you’re about to hear contains the secret behind this powerful method…
The Legend of the Extraordinarily Ordinary Tea
There once was a group of elderly, cultured gentlemen who met often to exchange wisdom and drink tea.
Each host did their best to find the finest and most costly varieties of tea that they could.
Each host worked hard to create exotic blends that would arouse the admiration of their guests.
When the most honored and respected member of the group had them all over, he served his tea with unprecedented ceremony.
He measured the leaves from a golden box.
The elderly group of cultured gentlemen praised this exquisite tea.
They couldn’t stop talking about how amazing the tea was.
But what the host revealed next surprised his guests...
He smiled and said, “The tea you have found so delightful is the same tea our peasants drink. I hope it will be a reminder to all that the good things in life are not necessarily the rarest or the most costly.”
First of all, it is true and very important for us all to remember that many of the ordinary things in life are pretty amazing in and of themselves.
I don’t want you to miss that lesson.
But I didn’t tell you that story to teach you that lesson. I told it because I wanted to teach you a hidden lesson.
The Hidden Lesson
I want you to notice the important hidden lesson in this legend. What is the hidden lesson?
The lesson is that presentation and packaging really matter.
Do you think the elderly tea connoisseurs would have been raving if he served the ordinary tea in an ordinary way?
Do you think that his friends would have been in awe of his tea if he measured it out of an ordinary container?
The answer to both of these questions is no!
You see, he didn’t present his tea in an ordinary way. He presented itwith unprecedented ceremony.
He didn’t measure it out of an ordinary container. He measured the leaves from a golden box.
That is what influenced the opinion of his guests.
That is what created the feeling that they were drinking something extraordinary.
How This Lesson Can Help You to Make Your Ordinary Content or Copy Feel Extraordinary
After reading this far, some of you are feeling like the elderly gentleman’s friends.
You have enjoyed the “taste” and “experience” of the content I just presented for you to consume.
The possible impact of the method and truth I just revealed has really intriguedyou. If you’re feeling that way, I’m glad. That was the plan I had for you when I wrote this article.
Do you want to know how I created this content in a way to impact you? I did it by applying the same method I just revealed to you.
In other words, I used the same method that the honored and respected member of the tea connoisseurs used.
I took an ordinary (but very important) idea and I focused on doing my best to present it to you in the most extraordinary way I could.
What was my idea?
My ordinary idea was this: How you present your content will make all the difference in whether your content or copy feels ordinary or extraordinary.
How I Used His Method in This Article
Instead of just presenting the above sentence/method to you, I focused on the presentation of the method:
I started by focusing on the need you have to make your content or copy stand out.
I reminded you how the ability, or lack of ability, to do this will mean success or failure for you.
I told you that that is why you must learn how to create better content or persuasive copy.
I told you I wanted to show you a method that many people don’t know or many overlook.
Then I told you the legend of the extraordinarily ordinary tea.
ONLY after all of that did I reveal the idea/lesson.
Now, please pay close attention because this is really important…
All of the things I did before “the reveal “were important things for you to know or be reminded of. All of those things were true.
Your content or copy must stand out from your competition or it will fall short.It will fail you.
It is extremely important that you know how to create powerful content and engaging copy.
The ordinary idea that I revealed today will play a very important role in enabling you to make your content or copy feel extraordinary.
In fact, this ordinary idea is so important I COULDN’T risk the chance of you ignoring it. I HAD to figure out the most extraordinary way to present it to you.
Otherwise, you never would’ve consumed this content. This means you never would have learned (or been reminded of) this valuable, but very ordinary idea.
I couldn’t risk doing anything else or anything less. This ordinary idea was too valuable to waste.
Would You or Your Team Like to Learn How to Create Content Like This?
If you or your team of content marketers or copywriters would like to learn how to create powerful content or persuasive copy, I have three options you can choose from:
Stay tuned for the next article that I’ll be posting next week. I’m going to continue to show you how to harness the power of the 7th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. (You can read all of the 7 marketing fundamentals here.)
Contact me if you’d like more information about a small, paid coaching group I’m thinking of starting. If there’s enough interest, I’ll teach a small group of you many more ways you can use to create powerful content and persuasive copy – copy that will stand out from the rest of the content or copy out there. Contact me and I’ll give you more details on what I’m going to teach and how much it will cost.
(*Don’t worry. If you contact me, you won’t be obligated to be a part of the group. I won’t pressure you or barrage you with emails begging you to be a part. I don’t want anyone to be a part of this group unless they are really interested and excited to be a part.)
IMPORTANT: If you work for a company and you have a group of content marketers or copywriters you’d like me to coach, I would be willing to start a group with just your team. We would just need to agree on a regular coaching time and a price that works for your team and me. Contact me and let’s talk about it more.
You can choose option 1 and option 2. You can stay tuned for my next article and contact meabout the coaching. 🙂
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Powerful content or compelling copy doesn’t just happen by accident any more than a great book or popular movie happens by accident.
Engaging content or effective copy is not only written using creativity. It’s also formed with a clear purpose and strategy in mind.
If you want to know how to write powerful content or great copy, then you will want to keep reading. I’m about to reveal to you the indispensable elements behind all great content or copy.
But before I do that, I need to tell you a quick story that will reveal something interesting about our desire to know the elements that form things…
The Universal Theory of the Ancient World
There was once an interesting theory that was believed throughout the ancient world.
What was this “universal theory”? It was the theory that nature and all of matter could be explained by four elements: water, earth, fire, air.
The cultures of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Persia, Babylonia, India, and several other cultures all had similar elements on their lists. That’s really interesting, isn’t it?
It’s interesting that people who were separated by great distances all came up with a similar list of the core elements of this world.
Of course, science doesn’t believe that these four elements are what make up our material world anymore. Atomic theory now states that matter is composed of atoms.
But my point is, whether it’s the ancient cultures or modern science, all of us are always trying to figure out the core elements that make up the things around us.
Well, I have good news for you today. There actually are some core elements behind all powerful content or copy. In fact, I would say there are 11 elements.
I’ll reveal what those 11 elements are in just a minute. But first, let me remind you of what I shared in my last article.
The 7th Marketing Fundamental
In my last article, I told you that the words you use are the 7th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021.
In other words, after you’ve chosen your Who (the 5th marketing fundamental) and created the most powerful offer that you can for them (the 6th marketing fundamental), the next most important thing you can do is focus on the words you use.
The words you use or don’t use in your content or copy will make all the difference between your company experiencing success or failure from the marketing you use in 2021.
But you can’t just use any words that are randomly thrown together and expect to see amazing results.
If you want your words to have an impact, then your content or your copy must contain certain powerful elements.
The 11 Elements Behind All Powerful Content or Copy
Below are what I believe to be the eleven elements behind all powerful content or copy:
Capture Attention– You must have a captivating headline and an intriguing intro or you will never get anyone to consume your content or copy. If they don’t consume it, your company will never experience the success that it could in 2021.
Hold Attention – Once you capture their attention, you need to know how to keep hold of it. Because if you can’t keep your prospects attention, you will never be able to lead them where you want them to go.
Entertain – Your content or copy must be enjoyable to consume. If your content or copy isn’t enjoyable to read, then it will not be consumed. But if it is enjoyable to read, then people will not only consume it once, but they will also come back to read other content or copy you create. They will also share it with others.
Personality – If you want your content or copy to stand out, it must have a unique voice or tone. In other words, it must have personality. The common problem with a lot of content I see is that it doesn’t stand out. It sounds the same as any other content on the same topic. Copy without personality has the same problem. If your content or copy doesn’t stand out, it will never impact your prospects.
Educate – Great content or copy leaves people feeling like they know something that they didn’t know before. Or maybe it reminds them of something they forgot or have been overlooking. If your content or copy educates people, they will come back for more and share it with others.
Believable – Your content or copy must provide your readers with reasons to believe. I think it was Todd Brown that said this, “Not all things that are true are believable, and not all things that are believable are true.” You must tell the truth and do it in a way that people believe and accept it. If people don’t believe you, they will never purchase from you.
Answer Objections or Question – Questions or objections are a normal response to any information. You should not be surprised by them. You should expect them. Not only should you expect them, but you should also anticipate them and answer within your content or copy. If you can answer the objections and questions of the readers of your content or copy, then you have removed a major barrier that keeps people from purchasing from you.
Speaks to the Heart and the Mind – We are beings that have emotions and intellect, so both should be spoken to or I should say “written to.” If you want to create powerful content or copy, you need to create content that speaks to people’s hearts and their minds.
Inspiring – The origin of the word “inspire” comes from a Latin word that means to inflame or to blow in to. In other words, when you inspire someone, it’s like you’re blowing air over a low flame to make it grow. That means your content or copy can inspire many things in your readers. It can inspire confidence, hope, or inspire them to take action. Powerful content or copy is inspiring.
Empathetic – Your content or copy must show that you understand and can relate to the feelings of your readers. Do you want to know the secret to create content or copy that’s empathetic? You have to actually have empathy with your readers. If you don’t, then any content or copy you create with the appearance of empathy will ring hollow.
Motivate to take action – This is the ultimate sign of powerful content or copy. Powerful content or copy moves people to action. That means that it moves them to do things like: purchase from you, subscribe, share, or even comment on your content. If your content or copy doesn’t inspire people to action, it really just ends up being empty words. Empty words will not bring success to your company this year.
In My Upcoming Articles, We’ll Go Deeper
Today, I just wanted to touch on the eleven basic elements. But in my upcoming articles, I will go a little deeper on some of these elements,
Notice I said “some.” I won’t be able to go deeper into all of them. But I do want to give you some specific tips on how to use some of these elements in your content or copy.
Stay tuned. In the meantime, why don’t you sign-up below so that you will be notified when my next article goes live or when future articles do.
(While you’re at it, you should also sign-up to get access to the free resources in our DRCM Member’s Resource Area.)
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I am currently working on my next article that will reveal some of the key elements your content or copy must have if you want it to be effective.
In the meantime, here are four quotes from content marketing experts and copywriting legends that will inspire you to master the 7th marketing fundamental (aka the words you use)…
Text Version of Content Marketing Quote from Avinash Kaushik
“Content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life.”
– Avinash Kaushik
Text Version of Content Marketing Quote fromMarkus Sheridan
“Great content is the best sales tool in the world.”
-Marcus Sheridan
Text Version of Copywriting Quote fromEugene Schwartz
“Copy is not written. Copy is assembled.”
– Eugene Schwartz
Text Version of Copywriting Quote fromLeo Burnett
“The secret of all effective advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.”
–Leo Burnett
Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series
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University-educated people know around 40,000 words. (BellEnglish.com)
A child in first grade uses between 8,000-14,000 words. (Scholastic)
When actually speaking and with everyday writing (emails, letters, notes, etc.), the amount of words the average person uses goes down to about 5,000 very common words that are used repeatedly. (BellEnglish.com)
300 to 600 words may be enough to travel, but at least 1,000 words are necessary for a conversation in another language. (MosaLingua.com)
Keep those facts in mind. Why?
Because the marketing fundamental I’m going to reveal to you today has something to do with word usage.
Keep reading and you’ll discover what I mean…
The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021
If you haven’t read the other articles in this series, then you should read the next section. It will help you to understand the importance of the marketing fundamentals I’m sharing with you.
*Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series*
In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I have continued to build on. In that article I said…
Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow up at all. They don’t follow up enough.
The fourth marketing fundamental is a unique selling proposition. Because if you’re ever going to get your prospects to choose your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.
Now that you’re all caught up, you’re ready to discover the 7th marketing fundamental.
When I revealed the 5th marketing fundamental, I told you that there’s a secret that successful direct response marketers all know.
They know that the most important element in a successful direct response campaign is the list. It’s what I called your Who.
When I revealed the 6th marketing fundamental, I told you that there’s another secret that successful direct response marketers know.
They know that the second most important element is a successful direct response piece is the offer.
Well, today I’m going to reveal the third most important element of a successful response piece.
After the who and the offer, it’s the most important component to creating powerful copy or content. This component is what I am calling the 7th marketing fundamental.
What’s the 7th marketing fundamental? It’s the words you use.
5 Important Facts to Understand About the 7th Marketing Fundamental
Now, that you know what the 7th marketing fundamental is, let me clarify some important facts that you need to understand:
Most marketers start with the words. That’s the wrong place to start. You must start with the right list, the right who, or the right audience. (They are all basically the same thing.)
If you are creating content or copy that is meant to directly influence sales, the second thing you must do is come up with the most powerful offer that will appeal to the list/who/audience you’ve chosen.
That is NOT to say that the copy/words/content that you choose to use are not that important. They are very important. But their importance doesn’t come into play until after you’ve chosen the right who and the right offer.
After those things are chosen, there is nothing more important to creating powerful marketing than the words you use. The most important elements are not the images you use or the layout of your page. Even though those things are important, the words you use are more important.
The words you use or don’t use will make all the difference between your company experiencing success or failure from the marketing you use in 2021.
That means your success in implementing the 7th marketing fundamental in 2021 comes down to how you answer these questions…
Do you know the kinds of words, phrases, and sentences that will make your prospects actually enjoy reading your copy or your content?
Do you know the kinds of words, phrases, and sentences that are the most effective to useto capture your prospect’s attention?
Do you know the types of words, phrases, and sentences that are the most important in helping your prospects to overcome their hesitancy to act on your offer?
Do you know the types of words, phrases, and sentences that will cause your copy or content to stand out from the sea of sameness?
In my upcoming articles, I’m going to reveal some of the elements that you can use to create powerful content and copy. Once you know these elements, you will enable you to answer “yes” to all of the questions above.
Stay tuned.
The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021 (INFOGRAPHIC)
If you haven’t, you can click the link above to read the full article. If you’ve already read it, I’ve included the infographic below again. Why?
Because I want to ask you to do me favor. Can you share it on your favorite social media platform and/or on your website?
When you do, you’ll not only be helping your followers and/or website visitors, you’ll be helping me to spread the word about this series I’m doing.
The First 6 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021– Infographic
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As I told you in a previous article, if you choose the right audience, you will be surprised at the different results you will get in 2021 from the same marketing plan.
Those of you who are content marketers might be wondering, “Once you find the right audience, how do you figure out what kind of content to create for them?”
I’ve been thinking about it and I’ve realized that I already unintentionally answered that question. I did it when I created a video about attention back on May 8, 2019.
It was when I revealed the secret the HGTV knows…
The Attention-Getting Secrets Marketers Can Learn from HGTV
Did you know that HGTV is the 6th most popular cable network?
That means they understand how to not only CAPTURE attention but also how to KEEP attention and build ATTENTION LOYALTY.
As content marketers or direct response marketers, wouldn’t it be cool to learn just a little of what they know about attention?
Well, in the video below, I reveal one of the secrets that HGTV knows about attention. Remember, this also applies to creating content for your target market.
Watch the video to discover this secret and see if you can see both lessons…
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I’m very close to finishing my next story on how a popular brand achieved new levels of success after they found out about a new market. It will be ready tomorrow.
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In a Reader’s Digest issue, Jacob Riis just hinted at the invisible quality I want to talk to you about today. See if you can tell what this invisible quality is from what he said…
“I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow, it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
Jacob Riis in Reader’s Digest
Persistence is the invisible quality you need to possess if you want to see success with follow up, the third marketing fundamental. (Read more about the third marketing fundamental here.)
You must be persistent in following up in your efforts to gain attention, attract your prospects, and convert them into customers.
The question is: How do you follow-up with prospects without being annoying?
How to Effectively Follow-up with Your Potential Customers and Clients
When it comes to following up with the people you hope to convert to customers or clients, there are two groups you will focus on:
Prospects – When I say prospects, I’m talking about anyone who isn’t on one of your email lists. They’re not an email subscriber or they haven’t signed up for any of the lead magnets you offer. They might know about your company or products. They might not. They might have consumed your articles, blog posts, podcast, or videos or not.
Leads – When I say leads, I’m talking about anyone who is on one of your email lists. They have raised their hand and have shown enough interest to be willing to exchange their contact info with you.
Alright, now that that is clear, let me share with you ways that you can follow-up effectively with prospects or leads.
Follow-Up Tactics for Prospects
The key to following up with prospects is to continue to stay in front of them until they are ready to become a lead or a customer.
The most effective way to do this is through the use of content marketing. Why is content marketing so effective at multiple marketing touches with prospects?
Have you ever had a salesperson constantly contact you and ask you if you’re ready to buy? Annoying, huh?
Well, content marketing allows you to continue to be in front of prospects and have something more to say than just asking, “Wanna buy from us now!?!”
It helps you to not sound like (or feel like) that annoying salesperson.
Content marketing enables you to provide helpful information so that you’re viewed as an expert, not a pest.
Follow-Up Tactics for Leads
The key to following up with leads is to continue to provide them with content related to the lead magnet they originally signed up for.
While in the process of providing that information, you want to continue to educate them, encourage them, and explain to them why and how your solution is the one they’re looking for.
The most effective way to do this is through the use of email marketing. Why is email marketing so effective at multiple marketing touches with leads?
Have you ever met someone in a loud, crowded room (pre-COVID days) and tried to have a conversation with them? It wasn’t easy, was it?
But what if you got their contact info and texted or called them later? That’s a whole different story. Now your conversation isn’t drowned out by the distractions of a crowded and noisy room.
It’s now much easier to have a one-on-one conversation. That’s how you can build a friendship with someone whose messages and calls you look forward to.
Well, if you use email marketing effectively, it will enable you to speak one-on-one with your leads, through a channel that is much less crowded and noisy, instead of trying to communicate through the crowded space known as the internet.
Again, if you use email marketing effectively, your leads will look forward to your emails. They begin to enter into a relationship with you where they start to know, like, and trust.
When that happens, it’s only a matter of time (while you tap into the invisible quality of persistence) until they become a customer.
Two Resources to Help You Use Email Marketing to Effectively Follow-up with Leads
I don’t have the time in this article to go into all the details of what it takes to use email marketing effectively so that your leads will get your messages and even look forward to them.
But I can point you to two resources that can help you with that…
1) Case Study: How Brian Dean (From Backlinko) Built a Massive Email List (and How You Can Too)
Back in March of 2020, I wrote an article that revealed how SEO expert, Brian Dean, focuses on building an email list.
Yes, you read that right. He’s a SEO expert whose secret to success is building an email list of prospects that he can follow-up with.
You can read my case study that reveals what I discovered when I signed up for Brian’s lead magnet. You can see it here.
How to Grow Your Business with Email Marketing
Aweber is the company I use for my email marketing. It allows me to easily create different email lists for different lead magnets. It also makes it easy for me to create automated email nurture follow-up sequences and send email broadcasts.
You’ll learn everything you need to know to get started with email marketing. You’ll walk away knowing how to:
Create sign up forms and landing pages
Write and design beautiful emails
Build your email list in creative ways
Measure email performance
Avoid the spam folder
Plus, you’ll get access to tons of fantastic templates that help you get up and running quickly.
You can learn more about the guide and sign-up to get access to it by clicking here.
*AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER: I proudly feature affiliate links for some products that I love. It adds no extra cost to you but enables me to earn a commission if you purchase. This is just one way I can continue to provide you with valuable information on this site.
Want toCatch Up on This Series?
If you missed the previous articles, you can go to this page I’ve created for the series.
In case you’re wondering, there are currently 15 previous in this series.
(Don’t worry. If you click on them, they won’t take you away from this page. They will open up a new window.)
Pay Attention
When we think about attention, we use a phrase that I think means more than we probably have thought about before. We use the term “pay attention.”
We’re trying to get people to pay attention to us – to our marketing, in order for us to do these other things that I’ve talked about.
Now, think about that.
When you pay for something, you are taking something that’s valuable to you (your money) and you are giving it to somebody else in exchange for that thing.
When somebody is paying attention to us, they are exchanging something that’s valuable: their attention. These days attention is a very, very valuable asset because it’s so rare.
They are paying us with their attention for something in return. They might be hoping:
To be entertained
To gain an insight
To learn something
To distract themselves
Etc.
In other words, they expect to gain something. Now, if you pay for something, and you get nothing in return, then you feel like you got ripped off. You’re never paying for that thing again.
You’re never buying from that person, that company – or whatever/whoever, again. We need to remember that.
Return on Attention
If someone pays attention to us, that is just the first step.
If we don’t reward them, give them something in return – if they don’t have a return on attention (R.O.A), then they are not going to pay us attention again.
That’ll be the last time they ever pay attention to us.
But if reward them for giving us their attention in the first place, then they will pay it to us again and again and again.
When that happens, we don’t just gain a temporary moment of attention, but we gain an audience.
The Power of Building Audience
An audience is a powerful thing. As direct response content marketers, an audience is one of those things that we need to really understand the value of.
An audience has as much value as a list does. Now, I’m not saying we should have an audience instead of a list.
But we should realize the importance of both, making sure that we’re building up a list of prospects and an audience of prospects.
So you need to make sure that when someone pays you attention, that you reward them.
You reward them with education.
You reward them with entertainment.
You reward them with helpful answers to their questions, solutions to their problems.
If you do that, they will pay you their attention again, and you will gain an audience.
That’s the secret to earning your prospect’s future attention…today.
If you find them helpful, if you have felt like I’ve rewarded you for your attention today, then please subscribe to be notified whenever new articles go live.
Tell other people about it, share it, or embed it on your website. Tweet about it, share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. I will give you more great content as a reward for your attention.
Member’s Only Content Focused on Attention
I will be sharing a special post in the member’s resource area of this site that will be focused on how you can keep your prospect’s attention after you capture it.
I’ll also point you to one of the resources that members have access to which can help you to capture attention in the digital world.
If you’re not a member, you can join for free…
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Next Week: The Second Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021
Make sure to come back next week. Because next week, I’ll begin talking about the second marketing fundamental you’re going to need to succeed this year.
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Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to write another article like I had hoped to do. So, instead, I’ve decided to share another video of mine with you about attention.
In this video, you’ll discover another way to capture attention (one of the three things you need to do with attention).
I’ll not only show you how to capture attention. I’ll show you how to capture your prospect’s attention, even if you don’t know a lot about them.
If you missed my previous articles (and one video), you can see them at the links below:
(Don’t worry. If you click on them, they won’t take you away from this page. They will open up a new window.)
We Pay Attention to What We Crave
Without knowing you personally, there are not a lot of things that I can predict will grab your attention every time – except for one thing: the thing you crave.
Because I know that if it’s something you crave, then you’re going to have your reticular activating system on “high alert” and on the lookout for that thing.
That means that if you want your marketing to capture your prospect’s attention, then all you have to do is figure out what they crave.
Now I CAN’T tell you what your prospect specifically craves, but I CAN tell you what they crave at a universal level.
And it has everything to do with what I call “content we crave.”
Watch my video below to learn about the “31 Types of Content We Crave” and how you can use them in your marketing to grab attention…
After you watch my video, you can download or print out my two “content we crave” infographics. You can then use them as your cheat sheets whenever you want to create copy or content that has a higher chance of capturing your prospect’s attention.
Riddle: What’s the Type of Content You Create Once and Get Paid for Again and Again?
Content marketing is usually about creating a piece of free content whose purpose is to directly or indirectly play a part in bringing in future sales for a product or service of some kind.
Well, how would you like to create a single piece of content just once, but get paid for it year after year after? Does that sound like some kind of internet scam? It’s not.
In fact, there is a certain category of songwriters who actually achieve this amazing feat. They create one song and then make money off of it year after year after year.
Who are these songwriters? They are the writers behind Christmas songs. Want proof?
It was the summer of 1970 and Jose Felciano was recording a Christmas album made up of classic Christmas songs. That’s when his producer and friend, Rick Jarrard, made a surprising suggestion.
He told Jose that he should create an original Christmas song, one that had lyrics in both English and Spanish. Jose then went into the other room to see what he could come up with.
He started messing around by singing the words “Feliz Navidad” and “Merry Christmas.” Suddenly out of nowhere the melody just came to him.
He didn’t know it at the time, but the song would go on to become one of the most popular Christmas songs. It would become as popular – or even more popular – than some of the classic songs he had already recorded that day.
Just how popular is that song?
According to Billboard, this song has been heard on the radio by an estimated 3.8 billion people. Yes, that’s billion with a “B.”
It is one of the top 10 best-performing songs on Billboard’s Holiday 100 chart.
According to ASCAP, it is one of the 25 most-played Christmas songs in the world.
In 2010, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
How’s that for a song that “just came to him” in the summer of 1970?
50 Years Later and That One Song is Still Going Strong
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Feliz Navidad. You heard that right. Jose Feliciano created one piece of content 50 years ago and he has been paid every year for it for 50 years.
So the story I started with, that you thought sounded like a scam, is actually the story Jose Feliciano has been living out since 1970.
There are some valuable content marketing lessons that you can learn from Jose and other Christmas songwriters that will help you to create content with a lasting impact in 2021.
I’ll share these important lessons with you in just a minute. But first, you might be interested to learn this…
To honor the 50th anniversary of this still very popular song, Jose recorded a special version of the song with 30 top artists.
These artists include CNCO, Isabela Merced, Shaggy, Jon Secada, Jason Mraz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rachael Ray, Gloria Gaynor, Big & Rich, Michael Bolton, Los Temerarios, Sam Moore, and Styx. (If you’re interested in hearing it, you can find it exclusively here on Amazon.com. )
The Surprising Content Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Christmas Songs
As I said, there are some valuable content marketing lessons that you can learn from Jose and other Christmas songwriters. I’ve packed all of these lessons in the video below.
In my video, you’ll discover:
How to capture your audience’s attention
How to create content that appeals to your audience
How to create content that can appeal to your audience for years to come
Two important content marketing lessons we can learn from Christmas songs
Two takeaways that you can apply to your content marketing
And three methods you can use to produce your content based on the way popular artists create and record Christmas songs
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Does it sound to you like I say, “Christmas sogs” at the beginning of the video? It does to me!
I’m not sure what happened, but let’s pretend it didn’t happen! Haha.
Many of you who have read my posts and articles in the past know that I see content marketing lessons everywhere.
Well, in this article today, I want to share an important content marketing lesson for those of you who don’t consider yourselves a content creator.
How Apple TV+ Got Charlie Brown Fans Upset
2020 almost gave us another reason to wish it was over sooner than later.
Back in October, it was announced that Apple TV+ had purchased rights to the “Great Pumpkin”, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” TV specials.
That meant that for the first time since 1965, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” would not air on public television.
Apple TV+ probably thought that they had made a great move to provide their subscribers such beloved TV specials.
What they probably hadn’t anticipated was the backlash from people who aren’t subscribers and who are so used to seeing it every year.
For that reason, Apple decided in November that they would allow “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to be aired on December 13th on PBS stations. (Click here, if you want to know how to watch it.)
“The next day, Coke sent Schulz and Mendelson the following telegram: ‘CONFIRM SALE OF CHARLIE BROWN FOR CHRISTMAS TO COCA-COLA FOR DECEMBER BROADCAST AT YOUR TERMS WITH OPTION ON SECOND SHOW FOR NEXT SPRING. GOOD GRIEF!‘”
The Show Almost Didn’t Air
As popular as the show is these days, this might be hard to believe, but the show almost didn’t make it on air.
“The network hated the idea of a religious message in a Christmas TV special. They hated that the special wasn’t non-stop action interrupted with gales of fake laughter (as if cartoons would actually have a live studio audience).
“They didn’t like the soundtrack, thought the kid voiceover actors sounded too much like children, and would rather have played a needle scratch than jazz music. Things got so bad that even the special’s producers and Charlie Schulz (not known for having a cheery outlook to begin with) thought the cartoon would be a critical and commercial bomb.
“In fact, everyone was thinking of simply scrapping the show altogether…except for Cocoa-Cola, who was the special’s main sponsor and was not about to let a half-hour of advertising not make it to air.“
Where Are the Coke Ads in the Show?
The ads for Coca-Cola have been removed from the special over the years, so you won’t see them when you watch it today.
So where were they in the original?
Ted Ryan says that the only Coca-Cola messages were “title slides telling viewers that the production was made possible by the support of the local bottlers around the country.”
Here is a video clip of the title slides mentioning Coca-Cola…
“Create content that your prospects and customers want — especially if it isn’t focused on your business: You must not only create great content, but you must also create content that your desired target group is craving and searching for. And this might seem counterintuitive, but the most powerful kind of content for you to create might actually be content that doesn’t directly focus on your business or industry at all.”
Do you want proof that it was content that marketed Coca-Cola effectively?
If You Want to Increase Your Traffic, You Should Share Your Audience
Look, the other websites who let you borrow their audience aren’t stupid. They’re really smart. Why?
Because they realize that exposing their audience to other content creators won’t cause them to lose that audience. It will actually cause them to grow their audience.
You see, when each expert creates content for them, they each share and promote what they created with their audience – on social media, with friends, colleagues, etc.
They don’t just do that, though.
Some of them might email their lists a link to the content. And some might even link to the content from their own site (like I did in my last article).
Are you starting to see why sharing your audience is such a great strategy? Think about the kind of impact this can have on a site:
Multiple people social sharing your site on social media
Multiple people emailing their lists about your website
Multiple people linking back to your site
Etc.
Imagine if just a small portion of their social media followers, email subscribers, and audience like the content enough to share it with their followers, email their lists, and link back to it?
Imagine how that will increase your traffic, and even your search ranking, when multiple experts are doing that every time you let them borrow your audience?
Is there anyone reading this who wouldn’t like that kind of ripple effect to happen for their, or their company’s, website?
You don’t have to just wish or hope that would happen. All you have to do is decide to let others borrow your audience.
In fact, I would call this the SECOND most important, powerful, and reliable traffic building strategy that exists.
Interested in Attending a Webinar on These Strategies?
If enough of you are interested in learning more about these two powerful traffic building strategies, I’d be willing to put on a low-cost webinar ($47) in the new year focused just on these strategies.
If you’re interested, then let me know.
You can contact me here or reach out to me on social media. When you contact me, you can let me know topics you like me to cover and I can also share more details. (*I will take every suggestion that is made and consider adding it to what I cover in my webinar.)
For Now, Grab a Free Copy of “Traffic Borrowing Checklist”
In the meantime, I’ve put together a Traffic Borrowing Checklist that you can have access to at no cost.
It lists the steps that you or your company should take to discover websites that will let you borrow their audience, what to do when your content appears on other sites, and more.
This checklist, along with $38.25 in resources and exclusive DRCM content, are available in our free Member’s Resource Area.
Stay Tuned
Next week, I’m going to begin sharing some Christmas content marketing lessons that you can use now or in the new year.
The purpose of creating content is so that you, your company, or product or service becomes known.
You want people to look to you for answers, solutions, and help. To do that, you must become known by your target audience. They must look to you as an authority, expert, and influencer.
As you probably know, the way to achieve all of this is through content marketing.
*Feel free to share this definition on social or your website. Just please attribute it to me and this site.
There’s only one problem with content marketing.
If no one sees or consumes your content, then it will have no impact. It’s like to trying impact and influence an empty room.
For that reason, as I’ve been discussing in my previous posts, you must not only drive traffic. You must also build an audience.
And the main way to do that is by doing what I call “borrowing an audience.”
If you’ve missed any of my previous posts, you can see them here: (*All links will open in a new window.)
When I first began writing about content marketing on my other site RecessionSolution.com, I was getting an ok amount of traffic and slowly building up an audience.
— SIDE NOTE: The name of that site came from some books I put together to help business owners survive and prosper in a recession. (It was another form of content marketing.) —
This was in the really early days (2011) when content marketing was just becoming known. I say “known” because, as I’ve written about before, content marketing isn’t new. It’s been around for more than 200 years.
Anyway, I wanted to drive more traffic to my site and build an audience, so I did exactly what I’ve been suggesting that you do. I decided to borrow an audience.
I reached out to ContentMarketingInstitute.com and asked them if they were open to receiving guest posts.
Do you know what was interesting? The same type of post I would’ve normally written for my site, and gotten a certain level of comments and shares, now was getting many more comments and shares.
Why? Because they had a bigger audience.
Remember how in my last post I told you not to try to overly promote you, your company, or your products/services? I didn’t. The only real reference to my site was in my author bio.
But by simply doing that, and by consistently creating content for them, my traffic began to grow and so did my audience.
This simple act began to make me more known in the content marketing arena. And that began to provide me with more opportunities. What kind of opportunities?
Did you catch that? I repurposed content that I created for other audiences (with their permission) and I used it to create a book, which gave me a platform to attract an even greater audience.
None of these opportunities would’ve come my way if I didn’t first take the chance to create content for someone else’s audience.
You will never know what opportunities will come your way, or your company’s way until you take that same first step.
In case you’re not convinced yet, let me tell you about a unique opportunity that came in 2017.
An Opportunity to Create Content for a Very Unique Audience
At the end of 2016, I saw that a friend was teaching a course for UC Berkeley Extension. I asked him how he got that opportunity. He explained the process and later introduced me to his contact there.
I submitted my name and some ideas and was asked to teach an “Intro to Marketing” course for them. I ended up teaching for them in the fall of 2017 through the spring of 2019.
A picture of me after teaching one of my classes at UC Berkeley Extension
That was an audience I would’ve never imagined having the opportunity to speak to. Don’t miss this fact: this was still content creation. How? Because I designed the marketing course from scratch. In other words, I created the content for it.
What results did this bring? Here are just a few of them:
This course allowed me to teach people from important, local companies such as Oracle, PayPal, and NetGear.
I received testimonials and endorsements from former students (people in important roles at these companies).
It opened up new opportunities for me to work with local business owners.
All of these results continued to provide me with even more opportunities because opportunities produce opportunities.
Just to clarify, these opportunities weren’t just opportunities to create more content. Over time, all of these opportunities combined began to produce a financial return.
That’s why I’ve written these articles for you. It’s because I’ve personally seen the benefits of “borrowing an audience” and I know that it can do amazing things for you and your company too.
You can do this. You just need to take action.
But, if for some reason you prefer to have someone coach/consult/advise you through this process, feel free to reach out to me. We can then talk about whether this would be a good fit for both of us. And we can discuss what the time and cost commitment for a partnership would look like.
P.S. This website is relatively new (especially since I haven’t gotten a chance to write very much here in 2020). I still need to apply this method to this site and increase its traffic and audience.
If you’d like to become a part of my audience, then subscribe below and you’ll be notified whenever a new article goes live.
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Many companies fail to drive more traffic to their content because of a simple false belief that they have.
I’ll explain what it is in just a second. But first, let me test you to see how good you are at recognizing false beliefs.
Which one of these two statements is true?
Marie Antionette said, “Let them eat cake.”
An ostrich buries its head in the sand.
Believe it or not, but the correct answer is that neither of them are true.
Antionette did not actually say, “Let them eat cake.” The phrase was credited to her by people who were in opposition to Louis XVI. The reality is that this statement had been used by other important figures long before her.
An ostrich doesn’t really bury its head in the sand. It just looks that way. It can appear that way when it lowers its head in fear, or feeds itself, or when it covers its eggs for protection.
Do you see how easy it is to believe the wrong thing?
In the case of these two statements, believing either of these incorrect statements isn’t going to ruin your life.
But when it comes to getting more traffic to your website, there is a false belief that is keeping many companies from harnessing a very powerful traffic building strategy.
The False Belief That’s Limiting Your Traffic
This is the false belief: no one is going to want to share their audience with us. Today, I want to show you how false that belief really is.
In my last post, I told you about the most important, powerful, and reliable traffic building strategy that exists. One that the top content marketers and top content marketing companies use.
It’s the strategy of borrowing an audience instead of trying to create one completely on your own.
You see, the thing that stops so many companies from implementing this strategy, which in turn causes them to miss out on a lot of traffic to their site, is this simple thought…
It’s because every content creator has a never-ending need for more and more content. That’s why they are looking for people to create it for them.
That’s why they would let you borrow their audience.
If you can come up with a way to help them with this problem, and at the same time satisfy their audience, they’ll gladly let you create content for them. Not just once, but over and over again.
You just need to make sure that when you create content for their audience that you do two things:
You need to create great content that their audience needs and wants.
You need to make sure that you don’t try to overly promote your own company, product, or service.
If you do those two things, then they will let you borrow their audience. Who are these mythical people, websites, and organizations who will share their audience (aka traffic with you?
They’re actually everywhere.
Where to Find the Audiences (aka Traffic) That You Can Borrow
You might not believe this, but there are so many different types of audiences that you can borrow from. You’re really only limited by your imagination.
Let me give you a list of some of the places where you can go looking for audiences to borrow:
Blogs
Websites
Podcasts
YouTube channels
Local or online magazines
Local newspapers
Local radio
Local TV
Even local associations and clubs (speaking is a form of content)
And the list goes on…
Hopefully, this list gets your creative juices flowing and inspires you to think of even more places.
Now that your false belief has been corrected, there’s only one thing keeping you from beginning to capture and drive more traffic to your content.
Action. You just need to go out and approach some of these potential traffic sources and see if they’d be interested in letting you or your company create content for them.
Stay Tuned
In my next post, I’ll share an example or two of how I’ve successfully implemented this strategy in the past and how it increased my audience.
A Favor
If you liked this article, can you do me a favor? Any of these things would be appreciated:
Share this with your friends, followers, or colleagues
Link to it (where relevant) from the content you create
Anyone who uses content marketing is continually trying to answer two nagging questions:
How do you increase the traffic to your content?
How do you get free traffic?
Well, today I’m going to answer both of these questions for you.
I’m going to do that by showing you one of the most important, powerful, and reliable traffic building strategies that exists.
You’re about to learn a traffic building strategy that’s not only used by the top content marketers and top content marketing companies, but it has also been used for over a century.
I’ve already come up with a bunch of content marketing ideas — and I’ve only read the first 27 pages!
Anyway, one of the lessons that I discovered, or more accurately rediscovered, was a lesson that is an important one for any company using content marketing.
It’s an important lesson on finding an audience for the content your company (or the company you’re creating content for) produces.
In other words, it’s a lesson on how to consistently drive more traffic to your content. Consistent traffic and ROI producing content doesn’t come from driving random traffic to your site. It comes from building an audience.
Without an audience, your content will have no lasting impact. It won’t produce any lasting and reliable results.
Two Ways to Build an Audience for Your Content
There are two ways to find an audience for your content:
Build one
Borrow one
Building your own audience is very important, but it takes a very long time to do. It also can cost you a lot of money.
So what can you do? While you’re slowly building your audience, you’ll also want to begin borrowing one.
What do I mean by “borrowing an audience”? I mean finding ways to get your content in front of an audience that someone else has already created.
In the early days of Charles Dickens’ career, that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t try to build his audience from scratch.
He borrowed the audience of the magazines of his day by writing (creating content) for them. When he did this, something magical happened:
It was through the process of writing for these publications that Dicken’s found his voice and honed his writing skills.
It was by writing for these publications that he slowly began to make a living as a writer (aka content creator).
And it was because of the audience that he borrowed from these publishers over the years, that he was ultimately able to build his own audience that purchased his books.
The same things can happen to you and/or your company when you begin to focus on borrowing an audience.
Your content will become better.
You’ll discover ways to actually make money from the content marketing you’re creating. (Yes, that’s an additional revenue stream.)
You will ultimately build an audience that will give you access to people who want to purchase the solution that you’re offering.
Why Some Content Marketing Doesn’t Work
Besides the fact that so much content that’s created these days is too generic, there are three reasons that so much of the content produced by so many companies fails:
No one ever sees it or consumes it. In other words, the company has no traffic or no consistent traffic.
The wrong people (aka wrong prospects) see the content. (That’s a topic for another post.)
The company producing the content is only focusing on the slowest and most expensive way to generate traffic: building it from scratch.
When these things happen, it causes most companies to give up before the results come.
Why? Because they run out of money in their content marketing budget or their senior leadership runs out of patience waiting to see results.
If you want to want to drive more traffic to your content quickly and at no cost, you need to begin asking this question: Who already has the audience we’re wanting to reach?
Stay Tuned
In my next post, I’ll answer this question that’s probably on your mind:
Why would anyone let me borrow their audience?
A Favor
If you liked this article, can you do me a favor? Any of these things would be appreciated:
Share this with your friends, followers, or colleagues
Link to it (where relevant) from the content you create
I saw that the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas is on Hulu. That reminded me of some important content marketing lessons that I wrote about on one of my other websites back in 2017.
I think the lessons are still really important, so I want to share them with you here…
How Dickens Accidentally Helped Make Christmas Popular
Today, I want to show you how Dickens helped to make popular one of the most beloved holidays in the United States: Christmas.
And I want to show you how he did this by unintentionally taping into the power of content marketing.
In fact, as you’re about to discover, he wasn’t really intending to promote Christmas, but something else much nearer and dearer to his heart.
Today, I want to tell you how he did this. In the process, I want to reveal some important content marketing lessons that we can learn from Dickens.
And it all starts with a movie that I didn’t plan on watching.
(In case you’re worried, there are no real “spoilers” about the movie in this post!)
Movie – The Man Who Invented Christmas
The Great Movie We Didn’t Plan on Seeing
It was the day before Thanksgiving and all through the house… Oh, wait. Wrong story. (Sorry! I couldn’t resist.)
But it really was the day before Thanksgiving. My wife and I, and our three sons, were all getting ready to see Thor Ragnarok.
My sons and I had already seen it, but we wanted to take my wife to see it, because we thought she would love it. (She loves to laugh. We love to hear her laugh.)
But we made a fatal error.
We didn’t think we had to show up that early to a 3:30 pm showing of the movie because it was the day before Thanksgiving, the movie had been out for a while, and we thought many people would still be working.
We were wrong.
When we got there, 10 minutes or so before it started, we found out that the only seats that were left were in the front row. We didn’t want to do that, so we asked them what other movies were playing soon.
Both of the movies were ones we had thought about watching at some point — before we were forced to make this choice —so we thought for a second and decided that we wanted to see a more light-hearted movie.
So, we chose The Man Who Invented Christmas.
The Man Who Invented Christmas – Official Trailer
I had seen the trailer, and I thought it could be good. But I wasn’t sure if it would be cheesy.
Well, it wasn’t cheesy at all!
In fact, I really loved the movie.
I thought that the screenwriter (Susan Coyne) and director (Bharat Nalluri) did a REALLY great job at presenting a story that we all know in a new, entertaining, and very emotionally powerful way.
But it was what the movie revealed about how Dickens inspired the holiday of Christmas, as we know it today, that gave me the inspiration for this post.
Let me explain…
How Charles Dickens Unintentionally Harnessed the Power of Content Marketing to Make Christmas Popular
Image of Dickens’ original “A Christmas Carol” book via Wikipedia
Preface to the Original Edition A Christmas Carol
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant, C. D. December, 1843.
—
After watching the movie and researching Charles Dickens, I discovered that the way that we think about and celebrate Christmas is NOT the way it was in Dickens’ day.
In Dickens’ era, Christmas was not the popular holiday it is today.
Christmas was a second-class holiday in many peoples’ minds. Easter and Boxing Day were much more popular in that day and age.
It had been popular up until the late 1700s, back when people actually took 12 days to celebrate it. (Remind you of a certain song?)
By Dickens’ time, all of the old traditions and ceremonies had faded away.
It wasn’t a joyful time of the year. There were no decorations, carols, etc. People weren’t walking around with a sense of “the Christmas spirit.”
But Dickens loved Christmas. He had an affection and nostalgia for it.
Why? Because when Charles was young, his father used to celebrate it, in the old ways that people used to, with Charles and his siblings.
Still, his purpose for writing the book wasn’t really to make Christmas popular.
He had a much more basic and urgent need on his mind.
The Great Charles Dickens… Broke?
Original copy of Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”
Charles needed money!
He had written several flops after the huge success of Oliver Twist.
He had many large expenses, a fifth child on the way, and his payment checks from his publisher were lagging. (Things haven’t changed much, have they? 🙂 )
So he NEEDED to write another book and it had to be a good one. His family’s survival depended on it. But the inspiration for the book wasn’t to make Christmas popular.
He had a much more personal interest that he wanted to encourage/promote.
You see, he had gone to Manchester to deliver a speech in support of adult education for manufacturing workers there.
And when he saw the poor conditions of the children at the Field Lane Ragged School (a school for the poor), he remembered his own difficult childhood.
These events inspired him to go back home and write a story set during the Christmas season. A story about a struggling lower class family and a rich man who has a change of heart.
You see? His main goal – besides making money so his family wouldn’t be in the poorhouse themselves – was to have his readers walk away with a different view of and concern for the poor.
And he hoped that setting the story during Christmas would inspire his readers to become like the renewed and changed Scrooge at the end of the story.
(The way the movie portrays the process of coming up with this story is great!)
The Amazing Reception for “A Christmas Carol”
Scrooge passing out toys
The public’s reaction to the book was unbelievable!
The book was released during the Christmas season of 1843 and it became an instant bestseller in England and eventually in the U.S. as well.
Charles Dickens would go on to gain so much fame from A Christmas Carol that he was like “The Beatles” of his day.
Now, I am NOT saying that his book is the only reason that Christmas became so popular and adored. There were other factors too.
But Dickens had such an influence on Christmas and was so connected to the holiday that when he died in 1870, it is said that when a young girl heard of his death she asked her mother…
“Mr. Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?”
CONTENT MARKETING LESSON #1:
Stories, the Secret Weapon of Powerful Content Marketing
Think about it.
If Dickens had just written a book about the plight of the poor in England and the need to care for them, the book would’ve never become a bestseller and the well-known work it is today.
But instead of just writing directly about the need to care for the poor, he wrapped the idea behind the veil of a powerful, relatable story.
Don’t miss the importance of this fact. In a great book called Winning the Story Warsby Jonah Sachs, he gives an interesting perspective about how stories have the power to persuade…
Stories are a particular type of human communication designed to persuade an audience of a storyteller’s worldview.
“The storyteller does this by placing characters, real or fictional, onto a stage and showing what happens to these characters over a period of time.
“Each character pursues some type of goal in accordance with his or her values, facing difficulty along the way and either succeeds or fails according to the storyteller’s view of how the world works.”
“Your brain enters and experiences stories! Your brain can ignore dry facts. It passively takes in data and stats. But when you tell a story (if you tell it well), then the brain wakes up and plays along!”
In other words, when you speak to people’s intellect you make them think. But when you speak to their heart, you inspire them to act!
Because Dickens wrapped his ideas up in stories, they not only changed peoples’ minds about the poor, they also changed their attitudes and hearts about the poor.
This caused them to see that Christmas (the time of the year when the book was released) was the best time to DO something about their new feelings and concerns for the poor!
A Strange Example from My Own Life
Recently, I watched a documentary about writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, the actual creators of Superman.
It told the story of their struggle to gain back their rights (and income) to the character they created for DC comics.
It was so heart-wrenching to see these guys try to get just a small piece of the financial rewards for their character, while they lived an almost penniless existence.
In the end, it was so rewarding to see that decades later they were awarded by Warner Bros. (the then owner of Superman) a significant amount of money to be paid to them annually until their deaths.
What does this have to do with the way that stories and feelings inspire us to act? Nothing at this point in my story.
It’s what happened next that shows the impact of this story in a very strange way.
After I watched the documentary, I went online to look something up. As I did, I ended up being led to Wikipedia and I found this message…
In case you can’t read it from this image, it says…
TITLE: We ask you, humbly, to help.
Hi reader in the U.S., it seems you use Wikipedia a lot. This Friday we ask you to protect Wikipedia’s independence. It’s December 1, we haven’t hit our goal, and time is running out in 2017 to help us. We depend on donations averaging $15, but fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $3, the price of your Friday coffee, you would help keep Wikipedia thriving for years. Please take a minute to keep Wikipedia growing. Thank you. — Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder
I’ve never given to Wikipedia before.
In fact, I have never even wanted to give to them before.
But after seeing the story of those two creators not getting the money due them, I saw a similarity in Jimmy Wales’s request.
I have gotten a lot of benefit from Wikipedia over the years, but Jimmy never got anything from me in return.
The story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had impacted my emotions and so I decided to give.
And I decided to not just give $3. I decided to give $15. The amount isn’t an impressive amount. I only mention it because it was the higher amount they were asking for, not the minimum they were asking for.
Why did I do that? That’s how much of an emotional impact the story of the creators of Superman had on me!
It had so much impact that I gave to someone else who also seemed to be in a similar place. Because I didn’t want to be like DC Comics acted back in the day.
Did you catch that?
Their story had bled into the reality of my OWN life! I felt I was acting like DC Comics formerly acted. That made me want to change my ways.
Do you get it now? THAT’S what Charles Dickens’ story did.
People didn’t want to be like Scrooge (before his transformation), so they responded in the real world to the poor (and each other) with care and compassion.
It didn’t just change their attitudes about the poor. It changed their attitudes about Christmas… and it is still impacting people’s hearts today.
That’s the power that stories have!
Too many content marketers focus too much on getting the facts across and forget to share stories that will make those facts have more impact!
The Types of Stories You Can Use in Your Content Marketing
There are many different types of stories that you can use in your content marketing
Stories from others (like this one)
Personal stories from your own life or from individuals within the company you are creating content for (like my Superman story)
Your business’s origin story
Customer stories
Case studies
Just make sure that when you tell these stories that you make sure to do it like a storyteller would and not like an analyst would (no offense to analysts!).
CONTENT MARKETING LESSON #2:
Form Impacts and Increases Function
There is one last thing I learned AFTER watching this film. And this lesson has nothing to do with Charles Dickens himself or even his story “A Christmas Carol.”
It has everything to do with the movie – the story about him.
The book came out in 2011, but I have never heard of it!
What is the lesson that content marketers can learn from this?
It’s simple.
Never imprison your content in only one format! When you do, you limit its audience and impact.
That means that you need to remember to repurpose your content so that you can extend its reach and the reactions it causes in people.
A book reaches a smaller amount of people than a movie does. Not only that, but the impact of reading a story is different from seeing it acted out before you.
When they took the story from the book and transformed it into a movie, it changed its influence.
The wisest and most successful content marketers have always understood something. They know that each form of content has a different level of impact, reaches a different audience, and even has a different perceived value to each audience.
If you want an example, think of how people value movies over books. You can see this difference in value when you look at the typical box office earnings of a blockbuster movie and compare that to the earnings of a typical best selling book. The movie makes much more money because more people value movies than books.
In case you’re worried, your new format won’t take away the value or impact of the old format. The truth is that new formats can actually impact the original format in very positive ways. Let me show you what I mean…
Do you understand what that means? It means that the story of Dickens’ impact on Christmas, in the form of a movie, has positively impacted the sales of the book!
(I know this personally because I went ahead and put the book on my Amazon Wishlist.)
That’s why you must free your content from the limits of only residing in one content form! When you do this you will see amazing new results through your new form of the content and your original form.
I don’t think that Charles Dickens ever meant to change how people thought of and celebrated Christmas during his day.
And he could never imagine influencing people 174 years later who lived on another continent!
But that is the power of content marketing that’s infused with stories or veiled in a larger story. It can have a huge impact, even when used unintentionally.
If that true when it’s used unintentionally, then just think of the impact it can have when you use the combination of content marketing and stories intentionally!
Read the Rest of This Series
After posting this, I finally began to read the book I mentioned in this article. That lead me to build a whole traffic building series off of what I read in chapter one.
P.S. If you haven’t downloaded my free guide, The Content Marketer’s Ultimate Guide to Creating Content That Captures the Short Attention Spans of Today’s Readers, you should do that right now. It reveals how you can use a literary technique that Dickens used to become famous, then you go do that by clicking here.
NOTE: The post you’re about to read originally appeared here on my site RecessionSolution.com back on July 1, 2015.
Boudin Bakery in San Francisco
The Surprising Lesson From a Bakery
We had some friends visiting San Francisco from Washington, DC, so we went up to spend time with them.
We saw a lot of things I haven’t seen, even though I’d lived 30-40 minutes from San Francisco for most of my life.
One of the places we saw went to was the Boudin Bakery on Fisherman’s Wharf.
While we were there, I learned some interesting things about the bakery that I didn’t know.
And in the process, I learned some important lessons that apply to content marketing.
Here are some of the things that I learned:
Boudin Bakery was started in 1849 by a French baker named Isadore Boudin.
He came to San Francisco and started his bakery in North Beach because of the Gold Rush population boom that had happened the year before.
It is the oldest bakery in the West.
It’s one of the oldest businesses in San Francisco.
He used a traditional European technique of capturing natural yeast found in the air for his “mother dough”.
They still use the same “mother dough” to this day!
The 171-Year-Old “Mother Dough”
Boudin Bakery 1849
Did you hear what I said?
Boudin still uses the same “Mother Dough” that they first used back in 1849.
Isidore captured the original yeast from the air 171 years ago and he was happy with it. It produced a flavor in the bread that was pleasing to him.
So instead of trying to capture the yeast again and trying to duplicate it, he did what bakers have done for thousands of years: he kept part of that original “mother dough” to use in the next batch.
That is how Boudin Bakery has continued to produce consistently delicious bread for all these years!
They don’t start completely from “scratch” with each new batch.
They always begin with a part of Isidore Boudin’s original dough.
The original dough is replenished daily with flour and water, so that the strains of yeast that he captured way back in the 1800s can continue to survive and can be used to make another loaf of bread today and tomorrow.
The Secret of Today’s Publishing Empires
Effective content marketing comes from two things.
It comes from using a powerful content marketing strategy and from utilizing great content.
What you need to realize is that people who produce great content and harness effective content marketing strategies hardly ever start from “scratch.”
They almost always have some sort of “mother dough” that they use as a “starter”.
But you need to understand that this doesn’t just apply to content marketing strategy.
It also applies to content marketing creativity.
That means that if you want to come up with new ideas for your content marketing,you don’t have to try to come up with them out of the blue.
Great Content
Let me explain by sharing with you a practice that copywriters have been using for decades.
Years and years ago copywriters learned a powerful secret to creativity.
Instead of starting from scratch every time they wrote an new ad, they discovered that it was better to use a previously written successful ad and use it for inspiration and ideas.
They created what became known as a “swipe file,” which was a file of copywriting that had already proven to be effective.
They would look over the samples that they gathered in this swipe file and use them to unlock ideas and inspiration for any and all new copywriting ideas.
What I am trying to get you to see is that the way to come up with the best content marketing ideas is not to start from scratch every single time.
The best way to come up with content marketing ideas is to use some sort of “Content Marketing Swipe File” as your “mother dough.”
The Way That Leads to Effective and Consistent Results
The Boudin Bakery has successfully produced amazing sourdough bread for 171 years, because they use the same “mother dough” that produced the first amazing loaf.
If you want to produce effective content marketing, then you must do the same thing.
Don’t start completely from “scratch”. That’s too risky.
Instead use a portion of the “mother dough” from a strategy or idea that has already proven itself to be effective.
Then add your own ingredients and twists to it.
That is how you consistently produce great content marketing.
Want to know the secret to selling more? Are you sure?
Because it’s so obvious that it almost seems like a joke. But it really is how/why some people and businesses sell so much and others sell very little.
Here is the secret to selling more…
Gary Halbert Quote on Selling
“Sell people what they want to buy!”
― Gary Halbert, The Boron Letters
That’s it. If you want to sell more, then sell what people want to buy. I warned you it would sound stupid.
The Uncomfortable and Difficult Way to Market
But the fact is that so many times we start with the premise that we need to convince people to buy something they don’t want to buy.
That makes us feel uncomfortable. And that makes our task very difficult.
But what if we started with the premise that Gary gave us?
The Ideal Prospects
That would change things in a drastic way. Here are just a few of the ways they’d change:
We’d start our SEARCH by only looking for people who are looking for what we offer and/or who would want the solution we provide.
We’d come up with ways to ATTRACT those people so that we could offer them what they’re looking for and wanting.
We’d be so much more CONFIDENT and COMMITTED in marketing to them and selling to them, because we would know we have what they want.
Imagine not only how different you’d feel, but imagine how more effective you’d be?
And that’s just the beginning.
Decide today that you will make the simple and powerful truth that Gary revealed your strategy and focus.
If you do, come back some time and let me know how things change.
In the meantime, here’s the quote if you’d like to share it with others…
Get a Free Copy of the Book Sizzlemanship: New Tested Selling Sentencesby Elmer Wheeler
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“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein
Have you been wondering about what kinds of content you should or shouldn’t create during the Coronavirus?
Or have you ever wondered if you should be creating any content at all?
After you read it, I think you’re going to be more excited about your purpose as a content creator or content marketer.
Because the answer about the types of content you should create during this time won’t just give you content marketing ideas, it will give you inspiration.
Your Mission: Become the Voice of Hope for Your Audience
What you’ll learn in my post on ContentMarketingInstitute.com is that you don’t need to worry about if you should be creating content during this time.
Yes, you should be. You no longer need to worry about what type of content to create.
If the content you want to create will give your audience hope about the present and their future, then you should publish it with confidence.
Not only does my post about John’s SGN story reveal the type of content to create in a Coronavirus world, but there are also several things you’ll learn about how to create this type of content.
But there’s something that I didn’t mention in that post, that I want to share exclusively with all of you here…
In case you think that John just got lucky with this message of hope during this unique time, you’re wrong. This desire for a message of hope during a difficult time isn’t new.
The fact is that through SGN John stumbled upon a universal need and truth that has been true long before any of us were around. Let me give you two examples:
During World War I, after a British battalion stationed in the front line at Ypres, Belgium, came across a printing press abandoned by a Belgian, they decided to print a satirical newspaper for the troops called The Wipers Times. It became a source of hope and humor for the troops. (You can see a great movie about this on Amazon.)
During World War II, USO overseas shows began with a tour of the Caribbean. According to Wikipedia, “Within five months 36 overseas units had been sent within the Americas, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and during 1942 1,000 performed as part of 70 units.” As most of you know, the USO shows also became a source of hope and humor for these troops too.
You see? This means that this lesson isn’t just important for this strange season of life.
It’s a strategy that you should keep in your playbook for now, after this pandemic, and for the next time the economy or world is thrown into chaos.
The Skill You Can Use Now and In the Future
That means that if you can learn to master the skill of creating content that’s full of hope, you’ll not only have an impact now but also in the future.
When times of difficulty and desperation come again — and they will — you’ll have the ability to not only inspire your prospects and customers, you’ll have the ability to change their lives and change your business.
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In honor of Juneteenth, I thought I share a post about one of my favorite inventors, George Washington Carver. But I believe that he was not only an incredible inventor, he was also a person who used content marketing in a very powerful way.
He started a “School on Wheels” and went out to farms so he could teach farmers how to revive soil by planting peanuts and sweet potatoes.
Not only did he do that, but after teaching them, he went to his lab to create markets for these plants and ended up inventing 300 uses for the peanut and 118 uses for the sweet potato.
You see, Carver used content marketing (through teaching/speaking) to not only revive the soil but also revive the economy as well.
This teaches us something important that we all need to understand.
Content Marketing Isn’t About Tricking People, It’s About Serving Them
Content marketing isn’t about manipulating people or tricking them into buying your product or service. It’s about helping people.
If you have a solution to their problems, if you have an answer to their unanswered questions, if you have a way to genuinely make their lives better, it’s your duty to reach them.
Not just so that you can make a sale or receive income, but so they can be helped.
Content marketing allows you to do this by being able to educate people and build a relationship with them, so they can see working with you(or purchasing your product or service) as a natural foregone conclusion.
That’s what content marketing is really about… or at least should be.
It reminds me of this well-known quote from Zig Ziglar, “You can have everything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”
So along with all of the other important ingredients for creating effective content marketing, let me add this missing ingredient… sincerity.
Adding that unwritten and unseen ingredient could change others’ lives and yours in the process.
Here are two questions for you to focus on as you try to achieve this with your content:
What do my prospects need to know and understand so they can see greater results in their lives?
What do they need to know and understand before (or so that) the solution you’re selling can really help them?
Figure out how to answer those questions and then go and serve people with your content.
“There are no original ideas. There are only original people.” – Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
—
“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.” – Voltaire
Focus Your Originality on the “How”
Many content marketers and content creators stress out about trying to come up with unique content that no one has ever seen before.
Look. It’s important to have original ideas, so do your best to come up with as original ones as you can think of.
But the reality is that the chances of you coming up with a completely brand-new idea are pretty slim. As King Solomon said, “There’s nothing new under the sun!”
It’s also important to realize that HOW you craft and present your ideas is what really matters when it comes to originality.
Why? Because it’s the only real way for you to create anything that is new.
That means that your focus and concern should be more on your HOW than on your WHAT. What I am telling you is this…
If you like this quote, then please share it!
What Do I Mean by “How?”
You might be wondering what I mean when I say you should focus on the “How” and the most original presentation of your ideas that’s possible.
When I am talking about “How,” I am talking about things like:
Personality – The style you use to present your ideas
Stories you use
Examples you use
Structure – The order and way you present your ideas
Attitude – The tone you use to present your ideas
Perspective – The viewpoint you take or the angle you use to present your ideas
These six things will give you the chance to create content that will be perceived as original and that will stand out from your competition.
The Game-Changer
“He who resolves never to ransack any mind but his own will be soon reduced from mere barrenness to the poorest of all imitations: he will be obliged to imitate himself.” – Sir Joshua Reynolds in Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts, Delivered at the Royal Academy
Think of the 80/20 principle when it comes to content creation.
Focus 20% of your time on coming up with original ideas (the WHAT) and focus 80% of your time on crafting and presenting those ideas in unique ways (the HOW).
When you focus the majority of your energy and creativity on being creative with HOW you present your content, then that will change everything.
You will be able to stop being tormented by the fear of originality and your content will begin to stand out in your market’s mind.
A Powerful Example of “How” in Action
I have a really powerful example that will show you how focusing on your “How” can make your “What” seem completely original and unique.
The first video below is one of Justin Bieber’s songs from 2015 called Love Yourself. Listen to at least the first 57 seconds of it…
Justin Bieber – Love Yourself Lyrics
Pretty catchy isn’t it? Ok, great.
Now that you have that melody in your mind, take a listen to the first 1:20 seconds of Postmodern Jukebox‘s version of the song in the video below…
Love Yourself – Vintage 1929 Postmodern Jukebox Justin Bieber Cover ft. Sara Niemietz
It sounds like a completely different song, but the words and underlying melody (the “What”) are the same!
How did they make it sound so unique? Postmodern Jukebox focused on the “how” more than on the “what”.
And the result is a song that sounds totally different, but just as catchy and original sounding.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that you use the same exact words and content as someone else.
That’s illegal and lazy.
But I wanted to show you these two videos to show you that if Postmodern Jukebox can take the exact words and basic melody of Justin Bieber’s song and make it sound totally different, then you don’t ever have to worry again about your content ideas not being 100% unique and one of a kind.
All you need to do is what Postmodern Jukebox did. Focus your creative energy on the “How” and your content will be a sweet original sound in your prospect’s and customer’s ears.
“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.” ― Abraham Lincoln
—
“All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
But for today, I have a post that deals with a common misconception that some business owners have. Let me explain…
Many business owners ask these same questions:
Why do you need SEO?
Why do you need content marketing?
Why do you need a website?
And they never realize the answer is a very simple one that is foolish to overlook.
I’ll explain what I mean in just a minute. But first I want to share a story that I found in an old book from 1910 called The Science of Advertising by Edwin Balmer.
Why? Because it will make what I’m about to tell you make much more sense.
In the book, Balmer tells this story…
“In 1666, London was practically wiped out by fire. The printer of the London Gazette, with almost prophetic acumen, offered his columns for notices of new locations of shops
“But though practically every important shop in the city was moved, there was absolutely no response to this offer.
“The old locations had never been known through the newspapers, so why should anyone look there for the new (locations)?”
— The Science of Advertising, Edwin Balmer
Why do you need to be concerned about things like SEO, content marketing, and/or a website?
Because that is the way your business will be found today.
Many years ago, people might have found out about you through the phone book. Or maybe they discovered your business by walking by.
Well, those days are long gone.
This Is Why You Need SEO
The way they’re going to find your business today is by typing in the product or service you offer and the name of your city (or just the words “near me”) into Google.
If your business doesn’t show up, then it doesn’t exist in that person’s mind.
SEO (search engine optimization) helps you to optimize your website so it shows up when people type in what you offer.
This Why You Need Content Marketing
Another way they might find your business is if you create content that answers their questions, solves their problems, entertains, or even educates them.
Then when they go to Google and type in their questions, your business (if it’s optimized and has great content) will be discovered by them.
If it doesn’t appear, they’ll never know that your business is an option.
This is Why You Need a Website
The reason you need a website is because it increases the chance that your business will show up in Google when people go searching for what you offer.
The reason you need a website is because it is the place that can hold the content you create, which will help your business to be found.
Don’t Just Rely on Yelp
You might say, “I don’t need things. People already find our business online.”
If that’s true, then it’s probably because you or someone else made sure that your business is listed on Yelp.
That’s great. But that’s not enough.
You see, people that find you on Yelp still want to know more about you, your business, your products, or your services.
If you don’t focus on SEO, then you will always be 100% dependent on Yelp.
If you don’t create content, then you will lose a very valuable way that you could make your business stand out from your competition.
If you don’t have a website, then you will never be able to break free from reliance on Yelp. Plus, you’ll lose your ability to stand out in the marketplace.
The choice is yours. You can just keep things the way they’ve always been. That’s what business owners in London did 354 years ago.
Does that look like such a smart decision now?
P.S. If you’d like help in making sure that your business is found, so you don’t get left behind in the past, then contact me and we can discuss services that I offer that can help you. Click here to contact me now.
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Are you creating amazing content, but you’re still having trouble getting any attention with it?
If you are, then keep reading.
Because I’m about to reveal a powerful way to not only make your content stand out, but also make it more valuable.
I’ll explain more of what I mean in just a minute, but first, you need to hear this story. (This story will tie into the lesson we can learn from “Hot Ones”.)
It might seem like a strange story to start with. The reality is that within this story is the solution to your problem…
Not Your Average Albertsons
There is an Albertsons near us that is not your average Albertsons.
It’s more like Albertsons on steroids. It’s the Disneyland of Albertsons.
This is what makes it so special:
They have wide aisles.
There is a bar within the store called Talon Tap and Spirits.
They have a full-Service Asian Bistro
There’s a fresh sushi station
They have a Starbucks
There’s an olive bar
And an oyster bar
There’s also a pizza area
And more
My mom was visiting from out of town and was amazed at the store, the variety of products that they had, and the way things were displayed.
I didn’t realize it yet but I was about to come across something that would remind me of a very important marketing lesson. A marketing lesson that I am going to share with you today.
You see, we went down a spice aisle and I came across a row of salts that caught my eye.
It was salt from a company I had never heard of before calledJacobsen Salt Co.
As you can see in the picture above, what made these salts stand out to me was the unique flavors:
Habenero Salt
Basil Salt
Black Pepper Salt
And Garlic Salt (Ok,this one isn’t that unique!)
It was at that moment that an important marketing — and content marketing — lesson came to my mind.
How You Make an Average, Common Product or Piece of Content Stand Out in a Crowded Market
I realized that the Jacobsen Salt Co. had applied an important marketing lesson that we all should learn from. Let me explain…
You see, they took an average, common product (salt) and they transformed it into something that’s above-average and unique.
How? By adding something new and different to it.
They added habanero, basil, etc. And by adding to it, it became above-average and unique.
You can do the same thing not only with any product or service, but you can also do that to any piece of content that you create.
Don’t believe me? Ok, I’ll prove it to you.
Hot Ones: How to Spice Up Your Typical Interview Show
A show that’s based on an interview format is nothing new. In fact, according to Wikipedia, there are 93 talk shows.
So, if you were to create a new talk show, you’d have a really hard time standing out and building an audience.
But what if you decided to use the lesson from Jacobsen Salt Co. and add something to your talk show?
That’s exactly what Christopher Schonberger did when he created the web series Hot Ones produced by First We Feast and Complex Media.
The basic premise of the show is to have host Sean Evans interview celebrities while they eat from a platter spicy chicken wings that increasingly gets hotter and hotter.
That simple and unique concept has enabled Chris and this show to stand out in a crowded market!
If you haven’t seen an episode, check out this one with Paul Rudd. (Warning: Sometimes the guests cuss in response to the hotter and hotter wings they eat.)
How a Marketing Guru Applies This Concept to Make His Content More Valuable
In case you don’t know who Dan Kennedy is, he’s the marketing guru who many of the top online marketers trace their success back to.
Well, many years ago Dan Kennedy came up with something that he calls “Magnetic Marketing”, and it’s still a powerful way to market any product or service.
Dan is a perfect example of adding something new/different to your marketing and/or product.
How? You see, he took his same basic product and applied it to dentists and chiropractors.
The same core product (i.e. content) was the same. But he created new and additional content that showed how to apply his concepts uniquely to dental practices and chiropractor practices.
The result? He was able to sell these courses at a higher price than just the generic product. Why? Because he added something new/different to his coursethat applied to a specific group of people.
That means that when you add to your content you not only make it stand out, but you also make it more valuable in the eyes of your ideal prospects.
How to Apply This to Your Content Marketing
Here are three questions you can ask that will help you to take what I’ve talked about today and easily apply it to the content you create:
Is there something new and different you can add to your content that will make it stand out? (Jacobsen Salt Co added unique flavors. Hot Ones added spicy wings.)
Is there a different target market that you can create content for which is less crowded than the current one that you’re in? (Dan did this by tweaking his course so that it would help dentists and chiropractors.)
Is there a different format that you can create your content in which will make it stand out? (Pat Flynn, from the Smart Passive Podcast, discovered that when he created content in the form of a podcast instead of just blog posts, that people began waiting in anticipation for it.)
How You Can Learn “Magnetic Marketing”
By the way, if you’ve never heard of “Magnetic Marketing”, you’re in luck. Dan finally came out with a book that teaches you everything you need to know about it.
Stay Tuned Tomorrow for a Unique Way I Will Present Content to You
I want to reveal one other way that you can create unique content that will stand out in the market.
I’m going to do that by presenting a unique way to take the content in this post and create another post that will be valuable to you in a completely different way.
In fact, it will help you improve your content creation skills.
Stay tuned and see what I mean.
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Believe it or not, there are some powerful content marketing lessons that we can learn from Christmas songs.
In this video, you’ll not only discover important content marketing lessons you can learn from Christmas songs, but you’ll also learn valuable content creation lessons.
In this video, you’ll discover:
Two important content marketing lessons that we can learn from Christmas songs.
Two takeaways that you can apply to your own content marketing.
And three methods you can use to produce your content based on the way popular artists create and record Christmas songs
The Surprising Content Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Christmas Song (VIDEO)
Does it sound to you like I say, “Christmas sogs” at the beginning of the video? It does to me! I’m not sure what happened, but let’s pretend it didn’t happen! 🙂
I am sharing it here today because I thought you would enjoy the content marketing ideas that it reveals.
The Little-Known Origin of “Small Business Saturday”
Small Business Saturday is an American shopping holiday that’s held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
It hasn’t been around very long.
It was onlyfirst celebrated just five years ago on November 27, 2010.
It’s basically atake-off of the concepts of “Black Friday” (encouraging retail spending) and “Cyber Monday” (encouraging e-commerce).
Instead, Small Business Saturday encourages people to shop at their small, local, brick and mortar businesses.
So what does this have to do with the main secret of effective content marketing?
Simple.
It’s proof that focusing your content on helping others works.
Why do say that?
Because of how “Small Business Saturday” got started.
You see, its origins might surprise you.
Here are the origins of “Small Business Saturday” from Wikipedia:
“In 2010 the holiday was conceived and promoted by American Express via a nationwide radio and television advertising campaign. That year Amex bought advertising inventory on Facebook, which it in turn gave to its small merchant account holders, and also gave rebates to new customers to promote the event.”
Did you catch that?
“Small Business Saturday” was originally conceived and promoted by American Express!
They came up with the brilliant idea to help small business owners in this way and then got others to promote it!
The Result For Small Business Owners?
According to National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and American Express 104 million shoppers “shopped small” last year.
Are their motives in doing this purely to help others?
I honestly don’t have any clue.
But even if they’re not purely to help others, their motives at least include others!
And the content they have created and that they’ve encouraged others to create (tweets, likes, articles, and posts like this one) have all had MUCH more influence and inertia than if they only created content about themselves.
Examples of Content Marketing Focused on Others from American Express
Check out all the types of content they’ve created for this on their site:
They provide an explanation of what “Small Business Saturday” is all about.
They have a section to help small business owners promote their business.
They have a section on how to rally support in your community.
They include a map with qualifying small businesses in your area.
They provide editable tweets, posts, and emails that can be used to spread the word.
They provide videos that explain what it is, give case studies, and more.
And mixed in with all of that content are offers from American Express.
The Content Marketing Lesson We Can Learn from American Express
I think the most valuable lesson that we can learn is that when we create content marketing focused on helping others, then it has a residual impact on us and our business.
(Most importantly, it makes you feel better!)
Who/what can you help with your content marketing?
The Story of the Unbelievable Treasure Unearthed in a Farmer’s Field
It was October 3, 2016, in Lincolnshire county in eastern England, when a man named Steve Ingram made a “monumental” discovery.
Hetook his metal detector out into one of the plowed fields of a farmer named Chris Sardeson and came across something that he and Chris never expected.
He uncovered 1,000 silver coins buried on the “front line” during the English Civil War.
(He later found fragments of the pot nearby, where the coins are believed to have originally been stored.)
When his discovery was made known, Adam Daubney, finds officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme at Lincolnshire County Council, described it like this…
“This is a monumental find from the turbulent years of the English Civil War.
“The area between Grantham and Boston was a zone of intense conflict between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists in the early years of the war, so we can think of the Ewerby hoard as being from the ‘front-line.”
Then he went on to say…
“The hoard tells us about the uncertainty and fear that must have been felt at the time, but quite why it was buried – and by whom – is impossible to say. It might have been buried by someone who went off to fight and never returned.”
– Adam Dubaney Finds Officer for Portable Antiquities Scheme at Lincolnshire County Council
How Long Is It Going to Take for You or Your Business to Be Found?
Think about it for a second.
It took hundreds of years for those coins to be found because someone hid them in something that no one was looking for and hid them where no one was looking.
*You might not realize it, but this story reveals a very similar situation that many individuals and businesses are in.*
Unless you or your business are well-known, then people aren’t online searching for you.
(And even if you and your business are well-known, you shouldn’t only rely on waiting for them to search for you.)
What ARE they searching for? Information aka content.
That’s why content marketing is so important to any individual or company that wants to be found online.
Two Important Things That Happen When You Create Valuable Content
Because when you begin creating valuable content, two important things happen:
Suddenly you and/or your business becomes shareable.
In other words, by creating content you give people a reason to share you and your business with others.
This happens when people share your content on social media.
And it happens when they begin to link to your content from their own content on their own websites.
It helps you and your business to be discovered and known in your market.
Because you’ve created valuable content, you have in a sense “attached” yourself or your business to that content.
So when people begin sharing it and linking to it – and when your prospects search for and discover your content – you and your business are also found.
It’d be like taking those 1,000 coins and putting them somewhere that everyone is searching and within something that everyone is looking for.
By simply doing that, you would have exponentially increased the chance that they’d be found.
It’s the same with you and your business
That’s why if you want you or your business to be known or found in your market, then content marketing is one of the most effective ways to do that.
You see, the cool thing about content marketing is that it doesn’t feel like marketing, not to you or to your prospects.
That means there’s less resistance from you as you create it and less resistance from them as they consume it.
P.S. If thought this article was valuable, would you mind sharing it and/or linking to it?
P.P.S. If you want to learn some powerful ways you can create content to gain exposure for yourself or your business, then you can sign-up below to read three chapters from my book, 51 Content Marketing Hacks, right now…
But, in her words, she was “shipped off to study in other places”. Her studies involved a large variety of things such as cognitive science, communications, and ethnomethodology.
She eventually found herself living in the San Francisco Bay Area. And you’re not going to believe this, but after all of the education she received, she discovered that her real passion was food.
That’s why in 2005 she took an unbelievable risk. She quit her Silicon Valley job to pursue a career in food.
But what kind of career in food can someone who is not a skilled chef have? She decided to start a food blog she called chezpim.com, where she would write about her visits to some of the world’s best restaurants.
So she began creating content: writing, reporting, and taking photos about her love: food.
On her blog, she chronicled what she told FoodandWine.com was, “culinary adventures from street stalls around Southeast Asia to my longtime favorite Michelin three-star, L’Arpège in Paris.”
The Unbelievable Results of Content
In was through this blog that she became one of the early food bloggers to gain widespread praise for her blog. She ended up accumulating more than 142,000 regular readers who signed up for daily recipes, restaurant reviews and to hear her opinions on food.
Her recipes, writings, and photographs ended up appearing in the New York Times, Food & Wine Magazine, Bon Appétit magazine, and more.
One other surprising thing came from her blog: she met her longtime partner, David Kinch, who is the chef-owner of Manresa in Los Gatos. (It was through a comment on her blog that their relationship began.)
In the spring of 2014, Pim took a huge leap. She opened her own restaurant, Kin Khao in San Francisco, whose mission was in her words to “liberate” Thai cuisine from “the tyranny of peanut sauce.”
What was her inspiration?
She couldn’t find any good food like she ate in Bangkok.
That inspired her to begin learning the recipes for her favorite dishes by calling her relatives back home and on her annual trips back to Thailand.
And that leads to the most amazing part of this whole story…
The Michelin Rating
This year, Kin Khao received the highest praise: a 1-star Michelin rating. (1 star: Very good food). This is the rating from the MICHELIN Guide:
Don’t let its covert location fool you-Kin Khao is a flagrantly delicious and very distinctive dining room. The décor is unexceptional by no uncertain terms, but really nobody seems to care, as the cooking-punctuated by Californian elements and welcome seasonality-is the real deal. Northern Thai is what this kitchen is all about and pad Thai-loving palates should vacate these premises…pronto. Of course, the unique menu reads like a veritable thesis on Isaan food mingled with California love. Then there’s the easygoing and chill staff who never miss a beat-as they bestow tables with vibrant, product-driven plates. These have included crispy lima beans tossed in nam tok followed by crunchy albeit not as “hot” chicken wings massaged with tamarind and chili. Pork meatballs seasoned with garlic and lemongrass (laab tod) are enriched by a phenomenal chili (jaew) sauce; while a gorgeous platter of crunchy vegetables is accompanied by a jar of the incredible nam prik (potent with shrimp paste) layered with caramelized pork jowl, fried catfish, and a salted duck egg. Panang curry with tender-braised duck is a champ among palates less valiant. Closing arguments may reveal that this is a truly Thai kitchen turning out insanely memorable food. All objections overruled.
But you need to remember how this all began with content. It didn’t begin with cooking lessons. It began with her creating content based on what she loved.
There are many lessons we can learn from Pim, but here are four important content marketing lessons that I thought I’d point out:
Get started. Sitting around thinking about creating content doesn’t impact your life like action does.
Use a variety of content. She posted recipes, reviews, pictures, etc. Don’t get stuck one main form of content.
Interact with your fans. That’s how she met David! You never know what connections you can make when you interact with your audience on your blog, on social media, etc.
Use content to establish your authority in the market. She wrote articles for top magazines and eventually wrote her own book. These things elevated her in her niche and helped her blog to reach the #6 slot on a “50 0f the Best Blogs in the World” list.
Pim’s story is a powerful example of content marketing.
Next time you’re wondering, “Can this content marketing stuff really help?” Remember Pim’s story.
I came across a great story about Cecil B. DeMille, one of the great movie makers of the early years in Hollywood.
And this story reveals a problem that all of us have.
It’s the problem we have with communicating with our prospects in a way that they actually “hear” us.
Listen to the story and then I’ll explain…
The Hard Lesson the Founding Father of Hollywood Had to Learn
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille is acknowledged as a founding father of the Hollywood film industry, the most commercially successful producer-director in cinema history.
Between 1913 and 1956, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films.
Some of his blockbusters were:
The Ten Commandments
The King of Kings
The Greatest Show on Earth
And many, many others
Once DeMille was making one of his great epic movies.
He had six cameras at different spots who were ready to catch the overall action.
He had five other cameras set up to film plot developments involving the major characters.
To say this was a serious undertaking would be an understatement.
The large cast had been rehearsing their scene since 6 a.m.
They went through the scene four times and it was now late afternoon.
The sun was setting and there was just enough light to get the shot done.
That is when DeMille looked over the whole large set and saw that everything was perfect.
That’s when he gave the command, “Action!”
That simple, forceful command set off a chain of events:
100 extras charged up the hill.
Another hundred came storming down the same hill to do mock battle.
In another location, Roman centurions lashed and shouted at two hundred slaves who labored to move a huge stone monument toward its resting place.
Meanwhile, the main characters acted out, in close-up, their reactions to the battle on the hill.
The only thing that might have seemed wrong to you was that their words were drowned out by the noise around them.
But, that was ok. DeMille had planned for this.
The dialogue would be dubbed in later.
The whole scene took fifteen minutes to complete.
When it was finally over, DeMille yelled, “Cut!”
He then turned to his assistant and with a smile said, “That was great!”
The assistant yelled back, “It was, C.B.! It was fantastic! Everything went off perfectly!”
Enormously pleased, DeMille then turned to face the head of his camera crew.
He wanted to find out if all of the cameras had picked up what they had been assigned to film.
With anticipation, DeMille waved to the camera crew supervisor.
And from the top of the hill, the camera supervisor waved back.
He then raised his megaphone, and called out, “Ready when you are, C.B.!”
In the midst of all of that commotion, he and his crew had missed DeMille’s cue and missed the whole scene!
The 2 Requirements for Effective Communication
DeMille had to learn this hard lesson: just because you’re yelling out something to someone, it doesn’t mean you are actually communicating.
Communication only takes place when you have two things:
1. Someone speaking
2. Someone listening
Many businesses that are attempting to use content marketing don’t seem to have learned this lesson yet.
They still think that just because they’re shouting out their content at the top of their lungs that results should be happening.
They are tuning out all the screams from your competitors and they are scanning the “airwaves” for people who are providing the answers they want and need.
Those are the type of messages that they will hear above the roar of this loud world.
It starts with listening and then moves to speaking aka creating content. (Most content marketers skip the first part and move straight to the second step.)
Let’s be real.
To create content that no one ever “hears” (or wants to “hear”) is a waste of time.
It’s not something that I want to do and I don’t think you do either.
But to create content that comes through loud and clear – above the noise of life – that is the beginning of a very profitable endeavor.
I’d gladly spend my time doing this any and every day.
I’ll be honest with you, to create content that is “heard” by your prospects is not an easy task.
“Both of these now-defunct airlines were terribly mistaken.
“A Spanish speaker would think Braniff was asking its riders to ‘Fly Naked,’ and a Spanish translation of the Eastern slogan evoked a final destination in heaven, following death.
“A few classic marketing blunders: General Motors discovered too late that ‘Nova‘ literally means ‘Doesn’t go‘ in Spanish.
“Coors encouraged its English-speaking customers to ‘Turn It Loose,’ but the phrase in Spanish meant ‘Suffer from Diarrhea.'”
Today, we’re about to go back in time. 98 years to be exact.
What you’re about to read below is pulled from a book published in 1921 called (get ready for a crazy LONG title)…
BETTER ADVERTISING A Practical Manual of the Principles of Advertising, Embracing Institutional and Direct Advertising, Reason Why and Human Interest Copy, Elements of the Advertisement, and the Make Up of Advertising Circulars and Folders by John M. Manly and John A Powell.
That’s quite a title, huh? 🙂
The title might be more exhausting than it is breathtaking, but this book really does reveal one of the keys to creating better advertising (and marketing).
I want you to pay close attention to the powerful truth from Manly and Powell that I share below.
Because it will reveal to you one of the ways to make your marketing more effective.
Ready? Let’s open the book and take a peek…
“Advertising is ‘sales talk’ reduced to type.
“Scientific principles must underlie any kind of successful sales talk, but—and this is the important feature—the personality of the talker envelops the scientific features with his magnetism and personal qualities, his persuasiveness, his knowledge of his subject, his very manners, even.
“His talk is not cold and formal, but sincere and warm and winning—with the psychological ingredients so well mixed as to be invisible in the solution.
“Advertising copy, then, is not to be thought of as a mere formal announcement, not a mere listing of goods with prices attached, not even as a formal solicitation to buy, but as a talk from the prospective seller to the prospective customer.
“No matter how highly educated the seller may be, he does not talk to his customer in the formal language commonly called ‘rhetorical.’
“He brings into his conversation all the elements that will make it interesting. He avoids anything but ‘homely’ language, suited to the occasion. He talks, he does not ‘converse.’
“So should advertising be — it must have the same warm elements of a conversation that draws and interests by being human.
“An attractive analysis of the proposition itself, accompanied by a common-sense appeal which is based on a thorough knowledge of the motives and instincts that actuate the average purchaser—that is the secret of good advertising.”
BETTER ADVERTISING by John M. Manly and John A Powell
The Best Content Marketing and Direct Response Marketing
I really love that excerpt above.
In fact, I would encourage you to reread that excerpt above a couple of times.
Because as I think about it, the wisdom it contains is the secret behind all of the best content marketing and direct response marketing I’ve ever seen.
But the four things that stood out the most to me are these:
Write with personality
Write as a real person would speak, with real people in mind
Write in a way so that you draw people in
Write in a way that presents your ideas in an interesting way
Many rules/secrets that apply to direct response marketing also apply to content marketing.
In the short video below, you will understand exactly what I mean.
Why? Because as you will see in this video from Joe Polish’s Genius Network, legendary marketer, Joe Sugarman’s, copywriting tips apply to both content marketing and direct response marketing.
Learn to Write Copy That Sells with Joe Sugarman (VIDEO)
VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Joe Polish interviews the copywriting legend Joe Sugarman. Learn how his system can dramatically change your business.
Content marketing is a powerful form of marketing that can really help you to sell more and gain more customers.
But if you think you can just post average content and see amazing ROI, then you’re fooling yourself.
Check out this infographic below from Domo to see why thinking this way today is so crazy.
Data Never Sleeps 6.0: How Much Data is Generated Every Minute?
In the early content marketing days, online content was a rare thing, but those days are long gone…
That’s what your content is competing against EVERY MINUTE of every day! Believe it or not, but content has now become a commodity.
That means that you can’t just post any-old, average content and expect to see results. It’s not going to happen!
But don’t get me wrong.
FACT:Unique Content Is Still In Demand
That DOESN’T mean that content marketing and content creation are a waste of time. Effective content marketing and skilled content creation is needed more than ever.
The good news is that even though content is now a commodity, unique content is in demand more than ever.
In fact, I’d say that if you’re going to create content, then…
It has to be original.
It has to stand out.
Otherwise it’s a waste of time. But, if our content is engaging and original, then…
You will stand out from the pack.
You will build a valuable audience made up of prospects and customers.
You’ll go from chasing prospects to attracting them to you, your business, or organization.
The key is going to be figuring out how to answer this question: “How do I create engaging and original content?”
If you stick around and keep checking back on this site, you will learn the answer to that question.
Take Any (or All) of TheseFour Next Steps
In the mean time, here are four things you can do:
This post originally appeared on my site RecessionSolution.com in a post called Jesse James: The Legend That Content Marketing Created on June 23, 2016.
I want to share it here because it reveals three powerful ways you can use content marketing to become an authority or star in your industry.
Jesse James: The Legend That Content Marketing Created
Well, the surprising example I am going to show you today is thanks to my wife.
You see, I came home the other night and when I sat down in the living room she said, “You’re going to want to watch this special series on AMC called ‘The American West.’ It told the story of Jesse James and I think there’s a content marketing example you might like.”
The next night I was up late and decided to watch the first two episodes that were on-demand to see what she was talking about.
First of all, the series is great! I learned all sorts of things I never knew about Jesse James:
I learned he was a former confederate soldier who might have had PTSD.
I learned that he robbed trains because they contained the wealth from the North.
He didn’t see himself as a bad guy. He saw himself as a hero for the South, stealing back some of what was taken from their families and their land.
It was some amazing stuff.
But then, during the second episode, there it was. My wife was right! Content marketing was involved in creating the legend of Jesse James!
Let me explain…
Not long after Jesse James and his brother committed their first major crime, Jesse got a message from Missouri newspaper editor John Newman Edwards who was a former adjutant to the famous Confederate General Joseph O. Shelby.
Editor John Newman Edwards
Edwards was a hardcore confederate who felt like Southerners had been robbed and made into outlaws.
Edwards was looking for a new way to push his Confederate agenda.
But when he heard about Jesse’s daring robbery, he believed Jesse James gave him a new opportunity to energize the “Southern spirit” of his readers.
He felt that the South needed someone to believe in. And he believed that Jesse James could be that person.
According to The American West, when Jesse James met with Edwards in Kansas City, Edwards toasted James for his work for the Confederacy. And he told Jesse, “You don’t have to be a common criminal. I can make you a hero!”
And that’s exactly what Edwards did.
Edwards went on to write dozens of articles in which he portrayed Jesse and his brother Frank as if they were some kind of modern-day Robin Hoods who stole from the rich so that they could give to the poor.
And it worked! Across the South, Jesse James went from being known as a criminal to being seen as a hero of the Confederacy.
Why do I say content marketing created the myth of Jesse James?
Because John Newman Edwards created content that sold Jesse James to his audience and, more importantly in Edward’s mind, sold the dream of the Confederacy that he wanted to keep alive in his reader’s minds.
As I sat and watched, The American West, I heard it explained powerfully like this…
“It’s impossible to talk about Jesse James without John Newman Edwards, who really just becomes Jesse James publicist, and is the one who manufactures the myth of ‘Jesse James the Rebel’ who is on this mission to stick to the establishment, justifying these criminal acts.” – Historian David Eisenbach
That’s when I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that content marketing created the legend of Jesse James.
How come Jesse James is such a famous outlaw that we’ve all heard of? It’s because of John Newman Edwards and the content he created that made James a hero who was larger than life.
Now that you see the power of content marketing in Jesse James and John Newman Edwards lives, let me share with you what I believe is an important content marketing lesson we can learn from them.
An Important Content Marketing Lesson We Can Learn from the Legend of Jesse James
About seven months ago, I did a podcast interview with Ed Gandia in which I shared what we called Taking the First Steps to Becoming an Authority in Your Field.
Ed Gandia, host of “High Income Business Writing”
In that interview, I talked about the major error that most people make in their marketing and content marketing: They put all their focus on marketing WHAT they are selling.
Instead of focusing only on what you’re selling you need to start working on promoting the WHO of your business.
And when you focus your marketing and content marketing on your “who,” it changes everything!
Why is this so important? Because who you are influences your prospects and customers.
If you are perceived as an expert or an authority and if you have a certain level of status in your niche or subculture, then you will be more desired and you will be able to charge more.
That means the important content marketing lesson we can learn from the legend of Jesse James is this…
Never overlook the power of content marketing to position yourself powerfully in the minds of your audience.
So how do you use content marketing to position yourself in your industry or niche? I think there are some lessons we can learn from Jesse James and John Newman Edwards.
Keep reading and you’ll see what I mean…
3 Ways to Use Content Marketing to Become an Authority or “Star” in Your Industry
If you look again at the Jesse James story, you’ll see the importance of “Who,” but you’ll also discover a lesson on how content marketing can change our “Who” and position us as an authority in our market.
The lesson is this: Be seen on other people’s platforms.
When Edwards decided to feature Jesse James in the Kansas City Times it changed Jesse James’ life. Content Marketing can allow you to experience the same kind of life-changing experience.
Here are three ways you can use content marketing to be seen on other people’s platforms:
The more I began to read and research about it, the more I realized I had been accidentally using content marketing for years, even though I didn’t even know what it was.
With that post, I began writing for CMI two to three times a year. And in the process, I learned the importance of being seen on other people’s platforms.
By writing for others, it helped increase the exposure of my ideas to others and it changed “Who” I was in their eyes.
A while ago, people were saying we should stop doing guest posts because they thought Google would penalize that kind of content.
But the most important reason I didn’t stop is because I have never written guest posts for SEO reasons.
I have always written guest posts because of how they impact my “Who.” And I have gained clients, exposure, and even respect from any/all guest posting that I have done.
So I would encourage you to do the same and make sure that a certain amount of your time is focused on creating content for other people, so you can be seen on their platforms.
2. Keep an eye out for opportunities to be interviewed
The reason I take advantage of every opportunity to be interviewed on any podcasts (like Ed Gandia’s) is because it is another way for me and my content (via my words) to get exposure on someone else’s platform.
And when I am seen or heard on other people’s platforms, and positioned as an expert, it impacts and elevates my “Who” in my own arena and also in the arena that I am being interviewed in.
How do you get interviewed on other people’s platforms?
It all comes down to content marketing again.
You need to create powerful blog posts on your own site, write guest posts for other sites, and publish reports or ebooks.
If you do that, then you become someone worth interviewing!
And then one of three things will happen: People will approach you to interview you, people will recommend you to others to be interviewed, or you can approach people to see if they’d like to interview you.
(All of these methods have gotten me interviews.)
3. Get your content syndicated on other websites
This is an overlooked way for you to get exposure on someone else’s platform, but it’s a great one.
Instead of writing guest posts for other sites, see if there are any websites that will syndicate your content.
That means, that instead of writing guest posts for these sites, these sites have been given permission (by me) to republish any posts on my site that they like and want to share with their audiences.
This can especially be helpful if you don’t have time to write content for guest posts and it still allows you to be featured on other people’s platforms.
Are you wondering:
“Why would anyone want to let me guest post?”
“Why would anyone want to interview me?”
“Why would anyone want to syndicate my content?”
It’s simple.
Everyone needs content these days, so it’s really not as difficult as you think.
You just have to begin creating great content and then have the courage to approach other people who have platforms you want exposure on.
And when people begin to see you on other people’s platforms, that’s when the “magic” starts to happen.
You’ll begin to experience just a little bit of what Jesse James experienced when John Newman Edwards decided to feature him in the Kansas City Times and make him a star.
You might not become famous like Jesse James (and if you do, I hope it’s not for the same reasons), but it will begin to change how your market perceives you.
Your “Who” will begin changing. And when your “Who” changes, your results will change!
My Full Interview with Ed Gandia About “Taking the First Steps to Becoming an Authority in Your Field”
If you want more information about how you can implement these content marketing lessons borrowed from Jesse James and John Newman Edwards, then you can take a listen to my full interview with Ed below…
“Follow Me Home” is something that was started by Intuit’s founder, Scott Cook, in the early days of the company.
And it is, literally, what it sounds like.
Scott Cook would wait at the local Staples store until a customer would buy an Intuit product. Then he would ask the customer if he could follow the customer home to watch them use the product.
Over the years, Intuit has continued the tradition of “Follow Me Home.” Intuit now asks each of its employees to go on a “Follow Me Home” so the company can continue to know and understand our customers.
The group I was in visited a local small business owner who owns a coffee shop. (And who happens to be a good friend of mine!)
It was a great experience because it was a good reminder to me of who our company is trying to help.
It made me proud to be a part of a company that focuses on a simple, but powerful, practice.
And that leads me to my other takeaway from Content Marketing World.
My Other Takeaway from Content Marketing World
Content Marketing World 2019
One of the things I kept hearing over and over in different ways, and repeated in the different sessions that I went to, was something that “Follow Me Homes” are based on.
The thing I kept hearing repeated at Content Marketing World was the importance of knowing our prospects and customers.
You see, if we don’t know and understand who our customers and prospects really are, then our marketing will never have any impact.
Why? Because if you don’t know your prospects and customers, then how can you:
Know what they really need and want?
Know how to get their attention?
Know to influence them?
Know how to help them?
We can’t.
After my training last week and after going to Content Marketing World two weeks ago, it was an important reminder that the most powerful marketing and the most successful companies are successful for a reason.
They know their customers better than their competitors do. That’s where all effective marketing starts.
I’d encourage you to do the same.
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If you really understand these things, you’ll be ahead of most businesses, companies, and business owners.
But if you just stop there, you’ll still be MISSING OUT on all the ways that content marketing and direct response marketing can take you and your business or company to the next level.
What Is Direct Response Content Marketing?
THE ORIGIN STORY: The idea of “direct response content marketing” came to me after teaching a marketing class for two years for UC Berkeley Extension in Belmont, CA.
In that class, I taught my students that direct response is the foundation of all effective digital marketing.
And I also taught them that content is key in building an audience that knows, likes, and trusts you.
That’s when something happened.
As I kept teaching my students these things, I kept thinking about these two ideas over again.
As I did, I continued to show them how direct response was really behind all effective digital marketing.
And as I continued to explain that content was needed throughout all of the nine steps to effective marketing, I suddenly realized something.
THE REALIZATION: I realized that these two types of marketing should not be practiced as separate disciplines in two separate camps but should instead be combined so that they can produce a greater synergy.
When I realized this, it suddenly hit me.
The greatest marketing that I’ve ever seen has been marketing that combined direct response with content marketing.
THE DISCOVERY: After thinking about it for a while, I came up with the term “direct response content marketing.”
But I want to be clear.
Direct response content marketing wasn’t necessarily an invention of mine. It was more like a discovery of mine.
AUTO-PILOT: In the book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman says this…
“At the age of four, a child effortlessly conforms to the rules of grammar as she speaks, although she has no idea that such rules exist.”
In the same way, the principles and rules of “direct response content marketing” have been put into use, unknowingly, by others for many years.
[*INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: When I’ve explained the concept of “direct response content marketing” to other content marketers and direct marketers, they instantly get it and recognize it.
In fact, when I shared it with one expert he said this, “I think the idea is a really great one and it is one I have been implementing with my own clients (although I wouldn’t say I put the two ideas together as well as you are articulating here!)”]
CODIFICATION: Even though I didn’t invent “direct response content marketing,” I have come along to identify it, systematize it, and to codify it.
And if you stick with me, I promise to do my best to show you the amazing, incomparable results that can happen when we harness the incredible power of content marketing and direct response marketing.
Are You In? Here Are Three Things You Should Do
If you can see the potential in direct response content marketing and you want to learn how to harness its power, or even be a part of fleshing out its identity in the marketing industry, then here are THREE THINGS you should do.
Join DirectResponseContentMarketing.com as a free member and you will get access to our Member’s Resource Area which will give you access to additional content and resources that I won’t share in the public areas of this website. Click here to join now!
Begin following me on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, so you will be one of first to access any/all of the concepts, strategies, and insights that I will reveal. (I haven’t created any separate accounts for this site.)
Share this article and/or any of our other articles. When you do that, you’ll be helping spread the word about this powerful paradigm shift and your friends, followers, and colleagues will be thankful to you for helping them be one of the first to know about this.
Well, today I want to answer another question that many people are asking.
Why is Content Marketing Important?
Many people are wondering if or why they should even care about content marketing.
There’s one important reason why content marketing is important these days.
The reason content marketing is such an important form of marketing in this online-based world that we live inis because it’s what everyone is looking for online!
Content Is What Everyone is Searching For
What are we all searching for and consuming every day? Content! All different types of it!
Every single minute of every single day, people are searching for content in the form of:
Answers to their questions
To know their options
To know what to look for and what to be aware of when purchasing what you offer
To hear about other’s experience with your product or service
To know more about you and your business
One of the Main Way to Reach Your Prospects and Customers
And in their report, they showed that more and more advertising is being blocked or ignored.
That means that one of the main ways around this problem is to not just focus on creating ads to get your prospective patron’s attention. (Although that’s important!)
It means that if you want to get your prospect’s and customer’s attention — and gain their hearts, then you need to create content that they are looking for!
That’s why content marketing is so important, no matter what business you’re in!
Content marketing is talked about a lot these days. But there are many people who don’t know what content marketing is.
So today, I thought I would help to answer this important question for you.
Why? Because if you don’t really understand what something is then there’s no way you’ll ever be able to effectively use it.
What is “Content Marketing”?
In order to explain to you what content marketing is, let me share three definitions of content marketing that I share in my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks.
Why three different definitions? Because they will give you three different ways to think about content marketing, which will give you a more complete understanding of it.
1. Formal Definition – Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
Content Marketing Definition #2
Less Formal Definition – Content Marketing is owning, as opposed to renting media. It’s a marketing process to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating content in order to change or enhance a consumer behavior.
Content Marketing Definition #3
The third definition I share in my book is my own personal definition of content marketing…
My Personal Definition – Content marketing is the creation (or curation) of engaging content for the express purpose of gaining the attention and favor of a certain group, so that they will be persuaded to do business with an individual, business, or organization.
What’s Your Favorite Definition of Content Marketing?
I hope these are helpful to you.
If you have come across any other definition of content marketing that you really love or if you have your own definition that you’d like to share, then leave it in the comments!
I am sharing it with you today because the lessons in it are as important now as they ever were.
And I am also sharing it because I am going finally write the follow-up post that I promised. 🙂
Potatoes Used to Be Scandalous and Scary?
“Would you like fries with that?”
“I am a meat and potatoes type of guy!”
“Every single diet I ever fell off of was because of potatoes and gravy of some sort.” – Dolly Parton
It might be hard for you to believe, but these sayings about potatoes would have been scandalous and even frightening to the people of France back in 1785.
Yes, I did use the word “frightening” in regards to potatoes. No, I am not exaggerating.
Believe it or not, the potato was once not just an unpopular item but was thought by some people in France to have evil origins.
Now before you think, “Who cares!” and click away you need to realize something.
This story isn’t just about potatoes.
The story I am about to tell you could be one of the oldest examples of influencer marketing that you’ve ever heard of.
Not only that, it reveals an important lesson about the combined power of influencer marketing and content marketing.
Let me tell you the story and then I’ll show you what I mean.
The Amazing Story of How Influencer Marketing and Content Marketing Made the Potato Popular in France
It was the late 1700s in France, and after a series of harsh winters, the people of France were facing starvation.
At this point in time, the potato was seen in France as an unwanted and even evil vegetable:
Scientists said it caused leprosy.
The priests said it promoted lust.
The people thought it was cursed because it looked like a poisonous plant used by witches. And they thought that people who ate it could be controlled by them.
Besides all of these facts, the “gourmet people” of the day thought it was tasteless, indelicate, and gave people gas.
But there was a pharmacist named Antoine-Augustin Parmentier who had a whole different view of the potato.
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier
His different view came from his experience as a soldier in the French army. You see, during his time as a soldier, he ended up as a prisoner of war in Germany for several years.
And guess what they fed him in prison?
Yep, potatoes! It was his main source of food while in prison and it kept him and his fellow prisoners alive.
This caused him to realize that the potato could be helpful to his people because it was able to resist harsh weather conditions.
But he knew that the people of France would never eat potatoes if he couldn’t change their extremely negative opinion about them.
So he began a self-study of the chemical makeup of potatoes to try to prove that they weren’t the evil, poisonous vegetable that people thought they were.
And that is when a unique opportunity presented itself.
PHASE I: Enter the Contest
He would have the chance to use content to attempt to change people’s minds about the potato.
You see, a competition sponsored by the Academy of Besançon was being put on for people to write about, and identify, foods that could help fend off the mass hunger that had come after the famine of 1770.
Parmentier realized this was his chance to begin to change the attitudes of his people about the potato. I say “begin to change” because he knew that it would take more than just content alone to influence the people.
I’ll explain the rest of the ingenious plan he used to change their minds in just a minute. But first, let’s look at how he used content to begin the process of influencing them.
In the paper he submitted, Parmentier began by explaining that he was going to attempt to present the potato as a viable means to fight off famine.
He said that he would do that by “…showing them the potato, the subsistence of a great people, the food of the poor as well as of the rich.”
In his paper he went on to demonstrate:
That the potato, which he had analyzed carefully, was not poisonous but formed of a pure starch.
It could actually be made to taste really good, depending on how it was cooked and what other ingredients and spices were used.
It was easy to cultivate
And that it multiplied quickly and was easily grown even in poor soil conditions.
He submitted the paper and included his own personal story of his experience with potatoes in prison…
“Our soldiers ate a lot of potatoes in the last war; They have even made excesses of it, without having been inconvenienced; They were my only resource for more than a fortnight, and I was neither fatigued nor indisposed. “
And what was the result of all of his work and effort to write this paper?
The Academy of Besançondeclared him the winner – even despite the fact that the Parliament had put a ban on cultivating the potato back in 1748!
That’s how powerful his arguments in that paper were.
In fact, because of his paper, later in 1772, the members of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris published a paper stating that- without a doubt – potatoes were harmless, safe, and non-toxic.
So his paper obviously impressed the academics of his day, but did it work to influence the COMMON PEOPLE?
I am sorry to tell you this, but the answer is no.
But don’t misunderstand. It would be wrong for you to think that his paper was a complete failure in attempting to influence the people. Why?
Because it was that content, which opened the door for him to be able to implement the other phases of his plan.
And, as you’re about to see, his ultimate plan was an amazing and ingenious one, one that will teach you many lessons about how to amplify the impact of your own content.
I’ll tell you the rest of his incredible story and show you how you can implement these powerful lessons in a minute.
I need you to first understand what great content can and can’t accomplish
What Great Content Can (and Can’t) Accomplish
If we were to analyze Parmentier’s content we would see that he really did a great job of creating powerful content.
He told them that the potato was “the food of the poor as well as of the rich.” (Social Proof)
He told them that based on his studies of the makeup of the potato, he found that it actually wasn’t poisonous. (Biological/Scientific Proof)
He told them that it could actually be used to make tasty dishes.(Reframed Perceptions)
He told them that it was easy to grow potatoes. (Proof of Ease)
He even got his paper featured in a prominent scientific publication. (Power of Association)
If that all wasn’t enough, he shared about his own personal experience eating the potato. (Personal Testimony)
You might be wondering, “If Parmentier created such great content, then why didn’t his content have more of an effect on the common people?”
That’s because you have a misunderstanding of what great content alone can actually do.
Great content can accomplish many things. It can educate people. It can entertain people. It can inspire people. And it can even influence people to some extent.
But great content cannot, on its own, break deeply ingrained fears and beliefs. That’s what Parmentier was up against with the people of France’s beliefs about potatoes.
That’s why creating content was only PART of his plan – a very needed part of his plan.
You see, creating that content in that paper enabled him to take the next step. Because that content established his authority and expertise in the knowledge of potatoes.
It was his content that changed “who” he was in the eyes of the academic leaders and the rulers of France. It powerfully positioned him in their eyes. (SeeJesse James: The Legend That Content Marketing Createdfor more on using content to change your “who.”)
And that positioning enabled him to take the next step in his plan to change the minds of the people about potatoes.
PHASE II: Plant the Crop
King Louis XVI
Creating that paper allowed him access to King Louis XVI.
In 1785, Kind Louis XVI offered Parmentier two acres of land in the plain of the Sablons near Neuilly. The land the king gave him didn’t have the best soil, but that was exactly what Parmentier wanted, so he could prove how easy potatoes were to grow – even in horrible soil.
The following year, on these two acres, Parmentier planted potatoes. The next year, he brought a bouquet of potato flowers to the king.
King Louis XVI was so pleased with them that he slipped one in his buttonhole and put another one on the wig of Marie Antoinette.
But the common people were still wary of potatoes and they don’t want anything to do with them.
So Parmentier hatched an ingenious plan.
Watch what happens next…
Parmentier placed soldiers around the fields during the day but left no soldiers there to guard the field at night.
This made the nearby villagers very curious.
There were so curious that they couldn’t help themselves. So they decided to “help themselves” to his potatoes… and stole them!
They thought they had put one over on Parmentier, but the fact was that they had done exactly what he had HOPED they would do! (He also instructed the guards to accept all bribes from people who wanted some of the potatoes.)
Phase II of his plan was a success!
And if you like this part of his plan, wait until you see what he does in the next phase. It’s awesome.
But I don’t want you to miss these two important lessons that we can learn from what Parmentier did here in Phase II, so let me tell you them first.
Two Important Lessons from Phase II
1. If you want to increase the impact and influence of your marketing, then don’t forget the power of SHOWING, not just telling, your prospects what your product can do.
“Never forget the power of demonstration. Find ways you can create content that demonstrates your product or service in action.”
Parmentier told them that potatoes were easy to grow and could grow in poor soil, but by actually planting them in poor soil, he helped them see that this was true.
That was a subtle, but important and powerful lesson for those people to see.
Why do I say that?
Because it is said that some of those people who stole his potatoes went home and planted them in their own, nearby fields. (Fields that probably also had inferior soil.)
They saw that if he could grow them in that local soil, then they could too! That is the power of demonstration.
If you want to begin to counteract the ingrained fears and beliefs in your market, then you need to demonstrate the things that your content talks about.
2. The power of putting a “wall” or “guards” around the things you want to be seen as valuable.
The amazing thing about the internet is that it contains so much valuable, free, and easy-to-access content.
The negative thing about the internet is that it also contains so much HORRIBLE, free, easy-to-access content!
Because of this reality, we need to realize an important fact. Since so much content is free and right there at our finger tips, this begins to lessen the value of even the valuable content out there.
In other words, there’s so much great content out there, that is all free and easy to find, that it begins to make your content – no matter how great it is – seem like a commodity, instead of like something people should treasure.
What’s the solution? Do what Parmentier did.
Put guards or a wall around some of your content. That is a subtle way of increasing the value of the content in your prospect’s eyes.
Copyblogger.com did this with some of their content. They took some of the previously written content that they had (and also created some new content) and put it behind a free, membership “wall.”
By doing this, they automatically made the older content they placed behind this wall (that was previously “out in the open”) seem more valuable.
And it made all of the new content they created for that membership area (which would have previously just been posted on their blog) more valuable too.
Why is this important? Because when people value your content more, they will pay more attention to it.
And it’s only when people value and pay attention to your content that you will ever have a chance of even BEGINNING to influence and change your market’s deeply ingrained fears and beliefs.
(Hint, Hint. Wink, Wink: In case you haven’t noticed by now, Copyblogger.com isn’t the only one to have a “wall” around some of their content.
I’ve created a guide that will show you how to use a technique that Dickens used to create magnetic content that drew people in. It’s a technique that I use all the time. In fact, I am using it in this post.
Have you signed up for it yet? You can have access to it for free, but it’s in a downloadable area that you can only access with a password.
Sign-up by email and you’ll automatically be sent a link and password, so you can download it right now.)
PHASE II: Plan the Event
So far you’ve seen that Parmentier created powerful content that gave him authority and positioned him in the eyes of the academics and rulers in France.
He then demonstrated that his content was true by planting potatoes in poor soil.
And he made them seem more valuable to the local villagers by putting guards around them.
These first two phases of his plan began to get a small, local group of Parisians to begin planting and eating potatoes.
But Parmentier wasn’t satisfied with those results.
He wanted to change the minds of even more of his people because it was his only way to save them from future famines.
Luckily, he still had one more powerful trick up his sleeve.
He realized that if he was going to have a larger, widespread acceptance of the potato, then he was going to need to harness the influence of the people that the common people looked up to.
So it’s said that he convinced King Louis XVI that the best way to encourage people to begin planting and eating potatoes was to throw a huge banquet for the king and his friends in which all of the dishes were made from potatoes.
Fries And Ben Franklin
Legend has it that Parmentier threw a huge banquet for King Louis XVI,Marie Antoinette, and other important guests from around France and even from other countries. (Supposedly Ben Franklin was even there!)
At the banquet, they served potato soups, boiled potatoes, potato casseroles, and many other potato dishes.
But guess what the most popular dish that night was? Thinly sliced potatoes that were deep-fried and seasoned.
They later became known to the world as “French Fries.” The king and the guests LOVED the “French Fries.” But the truth is that they also really enjoyed all of the dishes.
When the word spread to the people of France that the king, queen, and all of these other distinguished guests not only ate potatoes but loved them, then it finally shattered the common people’s fears and false beliefs about potatoes.
That is how the common people of France began to gladly plant, eat, and even enjoy, potatoes. And what was the result?
Because of Parmentier’s unprecedented efforts to get the people of France to plant and eat potatoes, many were saved from some future famines.
Parmentier knew that the first two phases of his plan alone could not dislodge the ingrained fears and beliefs of the majority of people in France.
He knew that they were an important part of the puzzle, but he knew that the missing piece was to tap into the influencers of his day.
He knew that when THEY began to eat potatoes and rave about them, then:
That would make the truth he wrote in his paper even more powerful.
It would confirm his previous demonstrations.
It would prove the value of his “guarded” treasures.
Parmentier somehow realized deep down inside a truth that many content marketers today have forgotten…
Effective marketing is hardly ever built on a single event, channel, or tool. Effective marketing is a process that harnesses the power of multiple events, tools, and channels.
I say that because I want you to realize that even though “Influencer Marketing” seems all the rage right now, on its own, it is still not enough.
You can and should figure out ways to harness the power of “Influencer Marketing.” But don’t give up on content marketing (or other types of marketing) in the process.
They are all needed and must be used TOGETHER if you want to see the greatest influence and results come from your marketing efforts.
Whenever you doubt this fact and are ready to abandon content marketing for influencer marketing (or vice versa), then remember the humble potato and an amazing man named Antoine-Augustin Parmentier.
Part II of My “Influencer + Content Marketing” Series
In this post, I showed you how influencer marketing and content marketing (and a couple of other ingenious marketing techniques) were used separately, but in conjunction with each other, and that amplified the overall results.
But sometimes the two can be combined in a hybrid sort of way to produce the results you want to see.
In my next post, I am going to show you how Thomas Jefferson used influencer and content marketing in a combined way and changed the course of history for the United States.
Well today, I want to talk to you about my follow-up post and infographic that contained even more types of content we crave.
More Content We All Crave
Because of the popularity of my “21 Types of Content We Crave” post, ContentMarketingInstitute.com asked me if I wanted to do a follow-up post. I said, “Sure!”
From the very beginning, I’ve never claimed that my “21 Types of Content We Crave” are the only types of content we crave.
The twenty-one that I mentioned in my original list are just the main types that I came up with back in 2012, as I pondered the types of content that I had observed have a huge impact on people.
But as I was putting together my follow-up post for CMI, I thought a lot about other types of content we all crave.
I began to really think again about the types of content that I’ve seen have a huge impact people. And I began to think about the types of content I might have left out.
After much thought, I’ve come up with ten more, powerful types of content we all crave. So here’s my new list of 10 more types of content we all love to consume.
The Kind of Content We Must Create to Influence, Inspire, and Move People to Action
You need to understand this about my original 21 types of content and these additional 10 types:
This is the kind of content we never get tired of.
This is the kind of content we always have time for.
This is the kind of content we don’t forget.
And this is the kind of content we want to share with others.
This is the kind of content we must create if our goal is to influence, inspire, and move to action the unique group of people we have chosen to reach.
You don’t have to have each of these types in every piece of content you produce. Sometimes one type is enough. For longer forms of content, you might want to use multiple types of content and move from one to the other.
MY CHALLENGE TO YOU
Print out this list and put it somewhere you can see it regularly to help you develop irresistible content as part of your content strategy.
Regularly pick one or more items from this list and ask yourself one of these questions:
Does the content I am writing meet this criteria?
What can I do to make the content I’m creating fall under this category?
*Do you have any more types of content that you’d add to this list? Post them in the comments.
Share This Post and My Previous One with Others
Can you do me, yourself, and others a favor?
Please pass this post and my last one on to your friends, colleagues, and followers if you found it helpful.
**You are also welcome to post it on your blog or site. (A link back would be appreciated.)
What Another Person Said About the Training I Later Created
Like I said yesterday, I later created a paid webinar that revealed the little-known way that people could tap into the types of content we crave in order to create more engaging content.
I then talk that same information to a group of B2B content marketers.
The people who attended the webinar (and later my live teaching of it) really loved it.
Here’s what another person said after attending this same training:
“The title of Scott’s presentation, ‘21 Types of Content We Crave,’ was completely misleading, and that’s a good thing. For most audiences, the phrase ‘types of content’ denotes the different content assets: data sheets, white papers, infographics, news releases, etc. Currently, there are many content experts who talk about content strategy and content assets – talks that have become content cliché. Scott’s presentation, on the other hand, was about the different emotional triggersthat content should elicit and evoke – a truly brilliant and novel approach.”
– Alok Vasudeva, The Marketer’s Continuum
Watch the First 12 minutes of “31 Types of Content We Crave for FREE
Image of My Training Video (Not Clickable)
Want to Take a Peek at My Training Before You Pay?
I want to let you watch to the first 12 minutes of my 52:39-minute video training.
You can watch it for free. All you need to do is sign-up below.
That way you can see if you would like to purchase it or not.
I came up with the idea for the infographic below one day when I began thinking about the common themes of content that appeal to people across a wide range of audiences.
I had the infographic created and wrote it for ContentMarketingInstitute.com.
It originally appeared on their siteback on June 5, 2012.
Before their site redesign, the number of times it had been tweeted was over 800 times.
It has since been shared thousands of times by people from all walks of life.
21 Types of Content We Crave (INFOGRAPHIC)
What One Person Said About the Training I Later Created
Later, I created a paid webinar that revealed the little-known way that people could tap into the types of content we crave in order to create more engaging content.
I then talk that same information to a group of B2B content marketers.
The people who attended the webinar (and later my live teaching of it) really loved it.
This what one person who experienced the live training live said afterward:
“Scott is a fantastic speaker. His presentations grab your attention from the very start, then keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire duration. Scott had an audience of B2B content marketers hanging on his every word. Scott’s presentation sparked so many ideas that the subsequent Q&A with audience members ran long. Being a good sport, Scott stayed until every last question was answered.”
– Dennis Shiao Former Director of Content Marketing, DNN
If you would like to listen to a sneak peek of the webinar, then you can below…
Watch the First 12 minutes of “31 Types of Content We Crave for FREE
Image of My Training Video (Not Clickable)
Want to Take a Peek at My Training Before You Pay?
I want to let you watch to the first 12 minutes of my 52:39-minute video training.
You can watch it for free. All you need to do is sign-up below.
That way you can see if you would like to purchase it or not.
Sign-up Below to Watch the First 12 Minutes Now
See 10 More Types of Content We All Crave Tomorrow
Four years later, ContentMarketingInstitute.com asked me if I wanted to do a follow-up post, since the original post was so popular.
I said yes and decided to include ten more types of content we all crave.
Even though I’ve been involved with writing on and off for Content Marketing Institute (CMI) since 2011, this was the first year I’ve made it to Content Marketing World (CMW).
The Two Most Important Things You Can Gain from Any Conference You Go To
After attending a few conferences over the years, I’ve realized that there are two important things you can gain from attending any conference:
The content you are exposed to
The connections you make
Content Marketing World is no exception. I feel like I gained both of these things from this year’s Content Marketing World.
Let me explain…
Moderating the Content Creation and Development Track at Content Marketing World
Besides getting the honor to emcee/moderate the Content Creation and Development track on Thursday, I had a great time just being there.
I really enjoyed getting to:
Finally meet some people I’ve interacted with online for years
Hang out, laugh, and get to know my co-workers better
Learn great tips, strategies, and ideas in the sessions I attended
My Biggest Takeaway from Content Marketing World 2019
There are many things I learned this year from Content Marketing World and I will share some of my other takeaways in upcoming posts.
But my main takeaway came from something that Joe Pulizzi, the founder of CMI and CMW, said.
The End of Social Media as We Know It?
One of Joe Pulizzi’s slides in his keynote speech for Content Marketing World 2019
In Joe’s keynote this year, one of the things that he talked about was the huge change in how content is published on social media.
He said that social media sites like Facebook and YouTube see the content we create on their platforms as their biggest liability.
Why? Because our content usually pulls people away from their platforms to our sites.
Because of this, Joe said that we’re just now just beginning to see what he calls “the end of social media as we know it.”
The Solution to the Loss of Social Engagement
What was the solution that Joe gave to the impending doom that he’s predicted?
He solution was a simple but powerful one. It was to focus on email and print subscribers. As Joe said, “It’s 1999 again.”
Why was this my biggest takeaway?
First of all, because it confirms the things that I’ve been noticing over the past few years.
In my marketing class that I taught for UC Berkeley Extension, I taught my students that most top copywriters agree that the three most important things in direct response are:
3. The Copy: These are the actual words you use. The words you use and how you use them are extremely important, but they’re not as important as two other things.
2. The Offer: Your offer is what exactly it is that you are offering to your patrons. When it comes to direct response marketing, what your offer is and how you frame it will make an even greater impact on your sales than just your copy alone.
But guess what the most important thing is?
1. The List: In the traditional sense, this is the mailing list that you send your sales letter to. In the digital world of today, this now also includes the email list that you send your sales letters and offers to.
The list is the most important thing because choosing the right list is what ultimately determines the success of your offer and your copy.
If you choose the wrong list, then a powerful offer, presented with engaging copy, will still fall flat.
But if you choose the right list, with a so-so offer, presented with average copy, it can still bring you decent results.
That’s how important the list is. (And that’s not just true for direct response marketers. It’s true for content marketers!)
But that’s not all…
When It Comes to Lists, You Have Two Options
Since the list is so important, having access to the right list will be a major determining factor in your and/or your company’s success.
And you have two options when it comes to mailing lists or email lists:
Rent one – Renting mailing lists is expensive. And renting email lists is ineffective and foolish.
Own one – Owning a good size mailing list or email list is one of the most powerful assets a business can have.
So, you can obviously see what your best choice is! 🙂
That leads us back to Joe’s statement that was my biggest takeaway…
The Money Is (and Will Always Be) In the List
The reason Joe’s statement resonated with me so much is because it was an important reminder that no matter how much technology changes, the fundamentals never change.
Even if Joe’s prediction doesn’t end up playing out exactly like he thinks it will, his advice will STILL BE the determining factor for you and/or your business’ success.
Because what was true in 1999 is still true in 2019 and will still be true in 2049…. “the money is (and will always be) in the list.”
(For those of you who don’t know, this is a statement which most of the early internet marketers continually emphasized back in the ’90’s. And do you know where they got the idea from? The early direct marketers!)
What I Am Going to Do (and What You Should Do Too)
There were many other awesome things I learned at Content Marketing World this year., but Joe’s statement inspired me to again focus the majority of my energy on:
Growing my email lists of prospects and customers
Consistently communicating with, caring for, and helping the prospects and customers on my lists
Continually coming up with more solutions and services to help my prospects and customers to become more and more successful
By doing these things, I’ll not only be insulating myself and my business from the possible social media apocalypse, but I’ll also be building a foundation that will give me, my prospects, and my customers stability no matter what happens.
RFM: A Way to Pick the Most Responsive Lists
In a video on our YouTube channel called, The Attention-Getting Secrets Marketers Can Learn from HGTV, I talk about something that direct response marketers call R.F..M.
Check out this video below to discover the way RFM can help you to pick the most responsive lists.
And if you use RFM creatively, you will figure out how to make your lists more responsive!
Check out the video now and please SUBSCRIBE to my channel now! (I’m practicing what I preach and focusing on subscribers!!)
Listen to Joe and Robert’s Podcast Episode and Learn More About Joe’s Prediction
If you want to learn more about Joe Pulizzi’s prediction about the end of social media, then check out this episode of the podcast This Old Marketing…
If you’re not a subscriber to Joe and Robert’s podcast, This Old Marketing, then you should subscribe now. You can go to iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Before You Leave, Why Not Become a Free Member? When You Do, You’ll Get a List Building Cheat Sheet
Before you leave, can you do me and yourself a favor? Become a member of DirectResponseContentMarketing.com. (Click here to join.)
Why become a member?
When you become a member, you will have unlimited access to Member’s Resource Area which will contain special resources and rewards such as:
Special limited member discounts on designated products
Early access to certain products or services
Content upgrades
Checklists
Cheatsheets
Free reports
A special members-only newsletter called “Synergy”
Exclusive content
A private Facebook group (coming in May)
And other goodies
For Member’s Only: Cheat Sheet with 10 Ideas for Lead Magnets to Help You Grow Your List
When you join today, you’ll have access to a brand new resource that I just uploaded to the Member’s Resource Area.
It’s a cheat sheet that will give you 10 things that you can offer to people as an incentive to sign-up for your email list.
Become a member right now and you can get access to…
“10 Irresistible Lead Magnets to Help You to Grow Your List Today.”
WHY? Because whether you’re a content marketer or a direct response marketer, you need to understand why social media is failing so many of us these days — and what you can do about it.
This post reveals the connection between content marketing and Food Network…
Content Marketing’s Secret Role in the Creation of Food Network
You are about to hear a little-known story that reveals how content marketing was secretly involved in the creation of Food Network.
It’s a really intriguing story that involves a powerful Hollywood agent and one of the co-creators of cable TV’s 24-hour news industry.
It’s a story that will reveal to you how people in these top positions think about content and audiences, but it will also reveal something much more important than that.
If you’re a content marketer or company that is finding social media to be less and less effective, then pay very close attention.
Because I’m about to reveal to you a strategy to reach and expand your audience without relying solely on social media.
If you’re open to thinking about social media in a different way than the rest of the crowd, then keep reading.
You’re about to discover how to not be held captive by the social media treadmill but to instead break free from it and make it serve you.
Would you like to WATCH and LISTEN to the story I am about to tell instead of reading it?
If you’d rather read this post, then scroll down and you can continue reading it…
The Podcast Episode That Revealed a Big Secret
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, I Love Marketing, awhile back when I heard something I wasn’t expecting.
I heard a content marketing secret about the origins of Food Network. No, they didn’t call it a content marketing secret, but when I heard the story I instantly knew that’s what it was.
Let me explain…
The episode I was listening to that day was episode #301 and the guest that they had on was a guy named Shep Gordon.He’s an American talent manager, Hollywood film agent, and producer.
He began as an agent for Alice Cooper and went on to represent many different famous people. Here are just a some of the people he’s represented:
Luther Vandross, Ben Vereen, George Clinton, Groucho Marx, Kenny Loggins, Pink Floyd, Pointer Sisters, Raquel Welch, Rick James, and many others.
His personal story and his view of fame were really interesting.
But what caught my attention was the fact that he is the person who built what is now known as the “Celebrity Chef Genre”. What that means is that, except for a few people like Julia Child, celebrity chefs didn’t really exist.
That is until Food Network and Shep Gordon got together and changed all of that.
No Wealthy Chefs Before Food Network?
Now before you learn about how content marketing played an integral role in the creation of Food Network, you need to realize something important.
Before Food Network, there were no chefs making a $100,000 a year, not even the top chefs. And no chef had more than one restaurant.
There were top chefs. There were famous chefs. But none of them had what anyone would have considered a “celebrity” status or lifestyle.
Well, after seeing the discrepancy between his high profile clients and top chefs, Shep decided to change all of that.
And the strategy that he decided to use was an ingenious one. It’s one that he learned after observing and being a part of the making of so many top stars.
Pay close attention, because in just a little bit you’ll learn how this strategy could save you from being an on-call servant to social media.
Shep Gordon’s Strategy: Build “Delivery Systems” to Reach and Expand Your Audience
Shep Gordon
Shep realized that top artists like Michael Jackson had what Shep calls “delivery systems” which enabled them to become huge stars.
Shep said that without things such as radio, TV, and later MTV, Michael Jackson would have never become as big of a star as he did. Those delivery systems delivered him to larger and larger audiences, which made him the superstar he became.
But when Shep looked at the top chefs, he realized that the only delivery systems they had were their restaurants.
And those delivery systems were very limited. People were either in their restaurant or they weren’t. Shep described the problem like this, “With 80 seats, if that’s the only way you touch your audience, then you’re going nowhere.”
After thinking about this for a while, he approached many of the top chefs he knew and explained the problem to them.
But he not only explained the problem, he proposed a solution to them.
He said, “So let’s build some highways. Let’s get a TV network to broadcast you. Let’s get pots and pans in stores, books on the shelves, and videos that people can buy. Let’s give them a chance to like you.”
With that strategy in his mind, Shep decided to take action. And to do that, he decided to do what he always did: he tapped into his connections.
How Content Marketing Was Secretly Involved in the Creation of Food Network
And he heard that Reese had announced he was leaving CNN to start another network. He also heard that Reese wasn’t sure what kind of network it would be yet.
Shep realized this was his opportunity. He went to meet with Reese and he asked him if he had considered food as the theme of the channel.
Reese’s response wasn’t too hopeful. He said he didn’t really care for the food world. Not being a person to take “no” for an answer, Shep made Reese an “offer he couldn’t refuse.”
Shep said, “Well, if you do a food network, I can get you all of your talent for free. I’ve already talked to my guys and they’ve agreed to three years free if I can get someone to broadcast. So you’ll have no talent fees.”
Pretty amazing offer, huh?
I was impressed when I heard it. But it was what I heard next that opened my eyes to see Food Network’s content marketing secret…
After Shep told Reese about his chance to have free talent for three years, he then made his move to make sure that this “delivery system” would be a profitable one for his chefs.
He told Reese that in exchange for the free talent, all he wanted was just a spot in each show where the chefs could sell a product (ex. Emeril’s first product was spices).
Did you catch that?
Each Food Network chef, on each food network show, was given permission to not just create content for the network but to also use that content to sell something.
That means that each show wasn’t just content for the network, it was also content that sold a product of some kind!
When I heard this, it suddenly hit me. The foundation of the Food Network empire was built on (and because of) content marketing!
Who knew??
Content Marketers Are In a Very Similar Situation
I’ve thought a lot about this story since I first heard this episode.
And I’ve realized that there are some really critical lessons that companies who use content and content marketers who create content can learn from this story.
In fact, when you see the current state of content marketing and social media marketing you’ll understand the reason why these lessons are so important…
Here are three of the trends that apply especially to what I am talking about here: (NOTE: My comments are in the parenthesis.)
Based on a sample of 100 million posts published in 2017, social sharing of content has been cut in half since 2015. (There’s less sharing going on.)
The volume of content published continues to increase, and new topic areas get rapidly saturated with content.(There’s more content than ever.)
In this new world of content saturation and falling social shares, the big winners are sites that have built a strong reputation for original, authoritative content. (Without these things, you’re in trouble.)
That means that most companies using content and most content marketers are in a very similar situation as chefs were before Food Network and Shep got involved.
Why do I say that? Simple.
Social media’s diminishing power now provides most companies and content marketers with less of a delivery system than a restaurant that seats 80 people. (*Don’t believe me? Then read what I reveal in the next section and I guarantee you’ll change your mind.)
So what’s the solution?
Build “delivery systems” to reach and expand your audience!
The Strategy Every Company and Content Marketer Needs to Learn from Shep Gordon
I want to encourage you to download and read BuzzSumo’s and Steve Rayson’s full report (it’s free and no email is required).
But just from what I’ve revealed to you, you can see that the majority of content marketers and companies have the same problem that many chefs had before Food Network.
They have no effective delivery systems!
Social media, the delivery system that companies and content marketers could rely on in the early days of the content marketing revolution, has become more and more ineffective!
I’ve been involved in content marketing since the early days (2011) and I’ve had the opportunity to write for some top sites (examples are here and here). I remember when you could expect to reach a good size audience through social media.
But lately, I’ve noticed that social media isn’t working as well as it used to.
I’m not just talking about personal experience. I’ve been noticing that even the larger sites aren’t getting as much traction with social media as they used to.
Well, Steve Rayson confirmed my assumption in his report. He says that a number of major publishers have seen a fall in total shares. But this is the craziest thing that he shares…
You see? I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that most companies and content marketers have a smaller delivery system than a restaurant that seats 80 people!
With social media, the main delivery channel that most companies and content marketers rely on losing its effectiveness, most companies and content marketers really aren’t better off than chefs used to be before Food Network.
That’s why the same solution that Shep came up with for them is the same one that we must learn and implement: build “delivery systems” to reach and expand your audience.
“The average (mean) shares of Bitcoin articles in the last 12 months (6 Feb 17 to 6 feb 18) was 64. Average shares of articles about Bitcoin in the same period published by the New York Times was 2,300 and by Coindesk was 874. The median number of shares was just 4. Over half of the 40,000 articles a week being published on Bitcoin got less than 4 shares. Whilst it is tempting to jump on a trending topic, you need to have built some authority and reputation in the space. This emphasizes the importance of spotting new topics very early and building a reputation and authority.“
Isn’t that what Shep did for chefs and for Reese Schonfeld?
He realized that food-related content could be something that could become popular – before anyone else did.
Three Ways to Find or Build Delivery Systems to Reach and Expand Your Audience
Now, I know that finding or building new delivery systems isn’t a strategy that most companies or content marketers have ever considered (or ever even heard of).
But in this day and age, when social media is failing as a sufficient way to reach a larger audience, it’s a critical strategy to consider.
I also know that even if companies and content marketers want to implement this strategy, most don’t have a clue where or how to start.
Why? Because it’s not easy to discover opportunities where you can build new delivery systems before everyone does.
3 Ways to Build New Delivery Systems
Let me give you three things to be on the lookout for, which will help you to see the delivery system opportunities that are all around you, but which most people are blind to:
1. Look for a new channel
That’s what Shep did. He found a new channel for his chefs to be featured on. And in his case, it was a literal channel. But when I tell you to look for a new channel I am not talking about a TV channel (although that might work).
These days a “channel” simply means a way for you to access and communicate with an audience or a way for an audience to access your content.
So finding a new channel could mean:
Moving from blogging to podcasting
Moving from podcasting to Youtube
Moving from Youtube to Webinars
Moving from Youtube to TV
Moving from any other online channels to any offline channels
And the list goes on!
If you want to build a new delivery system, then instead of focusing all of your attention on one channel, like social media, consider getting your presence and content exposure on a new or different channel.
Here’s a story of someone who moved to a new channel and the incredible results that happened when he did…
Case Study: Russel Brunson – A New Channel
Russell Brunson
In 2013, online marketer, Russell Brunson, was fighting off bankruptcy.
He is a really smart marketer, but despite this fact, one of his companies had still failed. So what did he do? Something that no one would expect.
After years of his friend and podcasting expert, Paul Colligan, encouraging him to start podcasting, Russell decided to finally go for it.
Since Russell was busy, Paul suggested that Russell record the podcast while driving to work in his car. And that is how the “Marketing In Your Car” podcast was born (now known as “Marketing Secrets.“)
So there in the middle of one of his businesses imploding, Russell decided to use a new/different channel. He didn’t know if or how this channel was going to work. But he just went for it.
And so he started to therapeutically just tell his podcast audience of his loses and wins as he strove to rebuild his business and his life. The result? You won’t believe them, but here you go:
His podcast has become a top-ranking, popular podcast.
He built an “Inner Circle” group where 100 clients pay $25,000 a year to be a part of his private group. (And guess what? The majority of people who have become his best clients were first podcast listeners!)
He built a company called ClickFunnels, which has become the fastest growing non-venture capitalist backed SaaS company.
Does Russell use social media? Of course! But his success didn’t come from social media.
It came from finding and using a new/different channel and that enabled him to build a new delivery system.
So if you want to build a new delivery system, I’d encourage you to do the same thing. Find a new channel! Now, let’s look at the second way you can look for opportunities to build a delivery system.
2. Look for a new niche
If the audience you are currently trying to reach is in a crowded market, where it’s difficult to get attention or stand out, then try a different niche/market.
It doesn’t just give you the chance to access a new delivery channel. It also gives you the chance to create instant authority in that new arena.
Jay Abraham has significantly increased the bottom lines of over 10,000 clients in more than 400 industries, and over 7,200 sub-industries, worldwide.
Jay has dealt with virtually every type of business. He has studied, and solved, almost every type of business question, challenge, and opportunity.
Jay is paid a very significant amount by many top companies. And WHY is he paid so much? Because he comes up with ideas that are worth millions of dollars.
And what’s his “secret?” He borrows ideas from one industry (where it is common) and applies it in a new industry (where it is unknown). And the result? Insanely high levels of success for every company he works with!
If you want to build a new delivery system, then instead of focusing all of your attention on social media, consider taking your presence, content, and expertise out of your current niche and implementing it in a different niche.
Look for under-served markets/niches
Look for unused “market space”
Here’s a story of someone who moved from one niche/market to a new niche/market and the amazing things that happened when he did…
Case Study: Ryan Deiss – A New Niche
Ryan Deiss
Ryan Deiss entered into the digital marketing world way back in 1999, when he was a college freshman at University of Texas.
He ended up getting a job with an internet startup that quickly went out of business, but through that experience, he learned how to do basic web design.
So after that company went under, Ryan struck out on his own and began making websites for people and eventually for himself. Believe it or not, the first product he sold online was an ebook on how to make your own baby food.
It was from selling that product that Ryan learned how to drive traffic to a site and how to convert visitors into customers.
From those humble beginnings, Ryan eventually became a go-to expert in the area of traffic and conversion. In fact, he became such an in-demand expert that he put on a conference focused on that subject known as the Traffic & Conversion Summitwhich still exists today.
After having people ask him over and over if he had a book or a course, he realized there was a market that wanted to know what he knew.
He started out focusing on small business owners but didn’t get the traction he was hoping for. So what did he do? He moved out of that niche into a closely associated niche. He began focusing on the agencies that serve small business owners.
With this new niche in focus, DigitalMarketer.com began offering what that niche needed and wanted: digital marketing training and certifications. That change in niche completely changed the success of his company.
Using his niche focusing method, he founded NativeCommerce.com along with over 40 different businesses in various markets such as survival and preparedness, manufacturing, investing and finance, health and beauty, DIY crafts and home improvement, online skills training, and more.
“Everything that we’ve done has come out of recognizing that there’s a market and saying, ‘I think we can serve this market. Let’s do it.’” – Ryan Deiss in an interview on the Hack the Entrepreneur podcast
Now, let’s ask the same question I asked before: Does Ryan use social media? Again, of course, he does! But his success didn’t come from social media.
It came from finding and using a new/different niche and that enabled him to build a new delivery system into a new niche/market.
So if you want to come up with ideas on how to build a new delivery system, then don’t just look for new channels, look for new niches.
Now let’s look at the third way to look for opportunities to build a delivery system.
3. Look locally
Most companies and content marketers are focusing on reaching people who are far away. But you should also focus on those who are near: your local market.
There are local people, companies, and organizations who need and are hungry for the type of content you create.
And if you’re strategic about it, these local individuals and entities can become a new delivery system for you to reach and grow your audience. All you need to do is approach them.
Here’s the story of what happened when I made a move into my local area and the results I’ve already seen happen so far…
Case Study: Myself – Look Locally
A picture of me after teaching one of my classes at UC Berkeley Extension
I sort of “accidentally” got into marketing.
It all began when I was trying to figure out how to drive traffic to a website I had created in a small, music niche back in 1999.
So I began my own self-study of marketing and discovered that I not only found marketing interesting, it made sense to me, and I was good at it.
In 2002, when the recession hit, I put out an ebook called How Your Business Can Survive And Prosper In A Recession (that’s why my website has that URL). In it, I interviewed 20 top business, marketing, and sales experts who revealed their methods to help business owners survive and prosper in a recession.
That book led to some interviews with a couple radio stations and online interviews (before podcasting). In 2003, I was hired to help with the online and offline marketing for a non-profit on the East Coast.
In 2008, after returning to California, I put out a second volume of my ebook, when the most recent recession hit. And in it, I interviewed 18 more experts.
After receiving positive feedback from free business/marketing consulting that I had done, I moved into paid consulting.
In 2010, I noticed that content marketing was becoming popular and realized I had been unintentionally doing it from the very beginning of my marketing career. So I submitted a blog post to ContentMarketingInstitute.com (CMI) and began regularly writing regularly for CMI and other websites.
Now you need to realize something important. Up to this point, I had mainly worked with and helped companies and businesses that were in other states.
At the end of 2016, I saw that a friend was teaching a course for UC Berkeley Extension and I asked him how he got that opportunity. He explained the process and later introduced me to his contact there.
I submitted my name and some ideas and was asked to teach an “Intro to Marketing” course for them. I have since taught that course two times (fall 2017 and spring 2018) and I will be teaching it again this upcoming spring 2019.
But this is what I want you to see. After only teaching this class twice, I have already seen these results:
This course has given me the opportunity to teach people from key, local companies such as Oracle, PayPal, and NetGear.
I’ve received testimonials and endorsements from former students (people in important roles at key, local companies).
It has opened up new opportunities to work with local business owners.
Do I use social media? Just like the others, the answer is yes!But the momentum and new opportunities I’ve had in the last year or so didn’t come from social media.
They came from me looking locally and that enabled me to build a new delivery system to our local market.
So if you want to come up with ideas on how to build a new delivery system, keep looking for new channels, new niches, and keep looking locally.
Why Does Building a Delivery System Work Better Than Social Media? Simple. Supply and Demand!
If you’re in a market that’s crowded with content on your subject, then your content will automatically be seen as a commodity. It’s a simple case of supply and demand.
That makes it hard for you to differentiate your company or your content. And if your content and social media shares are seen as common, then they will never be seen as valuable.
That means that your content and social media shares will never be worthy of the attention of that market. All the content marketing and social media marketing in the world will never fix that problem.
But, if you move onto a different channel, or into a different niche, or move into your local area, then you tilt the law of “supply and demand” in your favor.
Because the content you’re offering in these three new areas, where your type of content is limited, makes you and your content stand out as unique.
And that automatically makes you and your content more valuable.
This is what I would Value-Positioned Content because you’ve positioned your content in a way that increases its value.
Sidebar: Value-Positioned Content or Value-Created Content
I don’t have time to talk about how providing your content to another market can have a ripple effect and make your content more valuable in your original market.
And I don’t have time to share with you other value-creating ideas here in this post.
The premise of my handbook is that in most arenas, content has become a commodity.
This handbook reveals a solution to this problem which involves tapping into the universal laws of what makes something valuable and using them to create or position your content. That way your content’s value is elevated out of the category of commodity and transformed it into a rarity.
Anyway, let’s get back to this post and finish it up with one last idea on how you can effectively build your content on these new delivery systems.
When You Find Your New Delivery System, Think Long-form and Long Haul
By just moving to a new delivery system in one of these three arenas, you’ll instantly sense more momentum than you would have if you just focused on social media.
But you will only see substantial and lasting results when you focus on two important things:
“Bottom line: We seek meaning and crave connection. That means marketing needs to slow down and think about substance and context. We also need to focus on the meaning baked into the experience we are giving our audiences.” – Ann Handley
That’s what the chefs on Food Network did. They weren’t just trying to create a quick piece of content like a short 5-minute recipe video you can find on Youtube. They produced content for 30-minute and 60-minute shows.
And they used that long format to tell stories: their own stories, stories about their food, stories about their guests, etc.
It was this long-form story format which gave their audience a chance to know, like, and trust them in the way that short-form, fact-based content never would have.
If you want your company or your content to really succeed in one of the three arenas I’ve suggested, then you must be wise enough to do the same thing.
“The biggest secret to becoming an influencer in any industry is to create content for years and years. Create content, and then multiply that by years. I’ve been creating content regularly for four years straight now. I’m talking publishing weekly or biweekly – usually multiple pieces of content. I’m emailing my list every single week. Because of that, things fall into my lap that I used to have to chase down. I get speaking gigs because of the content that I created years ago. It’s not the content I’ve created recently. It’s the track record I’ve built over years and years that’s getting me attention.” – Sujan Patel
That’s what the chefs on Food Network did. Shep’s plan wasn’t to just have his chefs do an appearance or two on Food Network.
The plan was to produce seasons of content for each chef.
And so they were in it for the long haul. They were building a content asset, a show that benefited their viewers, build a deep relationship with them, and one that would build fame and authority for whoever’s show it was.
If you want your company or your content to really succeed in one of the three arenas I’ve suggested, then you must do the same.
Before we end, I need to answer one question that’s probably on your mind…
Does That Mean You Should Abandon Social Media and Your Current Channels or Markets?
I am NOT telling you to stop using social media completely. Keep using it!
I am NOT telling you to abandon the current channels and markets that you’ve already invested time and money in.
I AM telling you that if you want to see new results, then doing more of the same thing isn’t the answer. If you want to see new results, then you need to begin to do some different things.
That’s why I AM suggesting that you begin to invest some of your time and money into building a new delivery channel.
And I hope if you’ve read this far, I’ve proven to you from the examples of Food Network and the three business examples, that it’s your only real hope to see the significant results you hope for.
But this is the thing that might surprise you.
When you build a new delivery system through a new channel, you can still reach the same market. You will just do it through a different means or media.
When you build a new delivery system through a new niche, you can still reach the same market. You just might end up doing it through a backdoor.
When you build a new delivery system through local arenas, you can still reach the same market. You just do it first on a more up-close basis.
The Unexpected, Social Media Side-Benefit of Building a New Delivery System
This is what you really need to understand.
The side-benefit of building a new delivery system is that you will begin to see more momentum on social media and within your own market! Why?
Remember what Steve Rayson said?
“In this new world of content saturation and falling social shares, the big winners are sites that have built a strong reputation for original, authoritative content.” – Steve Rayson
As you build original and authoritative content in new channels, new niches, and even locally, your authority in those arenas will grow.
And the people who discover you through these new delivery systems will begin to follow you on social media and see your social media shares not as a commodity, but as a source of quality information.
That will give you a new momentum in your social media marketing that will have a ripple effect back into your original market and niche.
The new prestige gained through these new delivery systems will give you a new unique status in your original market and to your original audience. That will make your company and your content stand out from your competitors.
And guess what happens then?
You will have positioned your content in a way that increases its value (there’s Value-Positioned Content again).
That’s why, while everyone else continues to blindly focus primarily on social media, I want to encourage you to put Shep Gordon’s strategy into action: begin building new delivery systems today!
Bonus Content
One of my and my family’s favorite parts of watching movies on Blu-ray or on Amazon Prime is the “Bonus Features.”
For that reason, I thought I would include below some additional “bonus content” that you might be interested in checking out now that this mammoth post is finished.
Listen to Paul Colligan interview Russell Brunson on The Podcast Report. Hear how Russell started his podcast and the ingenious ways he has leveraged it. Go here to listen now.
Listen to Ryan Deiss’ interview with Jonny Nastor on the Hack the EntrepreneurPodcast. Hear why Ryan says that you should aim to become a channel business. Go here to listen now.
Listen to Jay Abraham’s podcast called The Ultimate Entrepreneur Podcast.Hear Jay share some of his legendary wisdom in a way that only he can do. Go here to listen now.
Listen to Sujan Patel’s Growth Mapping Podcast. Hear his marketing and business growth ideas for 2018. Go here to listen now.
Listen to the latest episode of the I Love Marketing Podcast. Hear the amazing marketing insights that Joe Polish, Dean Jackson, and their guests share on this podcast. Go here to listen now.
Read Ann Handley’s book Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content. Discover why writing matters more—not less—if you want to attract and retain customers. Go here to grab a copy.
Read my free handbook on value-created content (VCC) and value-positioned content (VPC). Grab a free copy and learn how to tap into the universal laws of what makes something valuable and use them to create or position your content so it becomes more valuable to the market. Click here to grab a copy of The 19 Indisputable Laws For Creating Highly Valuable Content: How To Create, Elevate, Or Unintentionally Destroy The Perceived Value Of Your Content. (NOTE: In the handbook, you’ll also learn how to subscribe to my premium podcast on the same subject.)
Watch the video from Nola.com below and learn how Emeril became famous…
“It was one of those moments that remains one of the greatest in Pawn Stars history because they were looking at a 1961 Gibson SG Les Paul Guitar that was played by the wife of the man who created it. It is like having Babe Ruth’s grandson bring in a signed rookie card of him. It does not get much better than that. After an expert confirmed the value of it to be close to $150,000, a deal was made for $90,000.”
It’s the story of Mary and her connection to Les Paul that made the guitar so valuable, not the guitar itself.
My Secret to Creating Valuable Content is Very Similar
The reason I couldn’t believe what I was hearing is because one of my secrets to creating valuable content is this…
“All of your content’s value comes from the story you wrap it in.”
– Scott Aughtmon, DirectResponseContentMarketing.com
How do I take a common idea or truth and make it feel new and valuable? I wrap it in a story.
Simply by using the right story, I can exponentially increase the value of the idea.
My Secret in Action: It’s Right Before Your Eyes
Want an example of how I use this content creation secret? OK, you just read one.
I wanted you to realize that it’s the story you use to create the context for your ideas that will determine whether your content seems valuable or not.
But instead of just telling you this idea, I told you the story of the secret that Rick Harrison revealed on the TV show Pawn Stars.
I used that story to give you a unique context for understanding my content creation secret.
And it’s that story that made my idea much more interesting and valuable than it would ever be without the story.
So, if you want to exponentially increase the value of your content, remember my and Rick’s secret: all the value comes from the story.
P.S. You can watch the episode that I was talking about right now on HistoryChannel.com. Click here.
(NOTE: You will have to enter your cable provider.)
I heard a story about a farmer who had some puppies he needed to sell.
He painted a sign that said “Puppies For Sale.”
He took the sign and nailed it to a post on the edge of his yard.
As he was pounding the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls.
He looked down and there was a little boy looking up at him from the other side of the fence.
The little boy said to the man, “Excuse me, mister. I want to buy a puppy.”
The farmer wiped his neck with his handkerchief and said to the boy, “Well, these puppies come from mighty fine parents and they aren’t cheap.”
The boy dropped his head for a moment.
Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change and showed it to the farmer.
“I got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?”
“Well, alright. Sure, boy” said the farmer.
The farmer then whistled and yelled the dog’s name.
Suddenly, the mother dog came running out from the doghouse followed by four little puppies.
The little boy pressed his face against the fence and he smiled at the sight of those puppies.
And then, out of the corner of his eye, the boy noticed a movement coming from the doghouse. Slowly another little puppy appeared, but this one was much smaller than the others.
It sort of slid down the ramp and then hobbled awkwardly toward the other puppies.
The little boy pointed to the runt as it joined the others and said, “I want that one!”
The farmer couldn’t believe it.
He said, “Now, son, you don’t want that puppy. He’s never gonna be able to run and play with ya like these other ones here.”
When the boy heard that, he stepped back and rolled up one of his pant legs to reveal a steel brace running down both sides of his leg. It was attached to a specially made shoe.
Looking back up at the farmer the little boy said, “You see sir, I don’t run so well myself. That little puppy needs someone who understands him and I do.”
—————————- Isn’t that what we’re all looking for? Someone who understands?
An author named Jess Lair had a great definition of empathy. He said, “Empathy: Your pain in my heart.”
And do you know what? There is power in empathy.
One type of content that you MUST create as a content marketer is content that describes your prospects’ or customers’ problems, dreams, etc.
Why? It shows your prospects and customers that you can relate to them.
When someone knows you understand them, then you have their attention like no one else.
And you won’t just have their attention. You’ll have their alliance.
But your empathy must be real. If it’s not it will backfire.
So stop trying to “sell” with your content marketing and start trying to empathize.
Watch what happens.
P.S. In the past, I’ve been asked to share examples of how to use my “21 Types Of Content We Crave.” (Click title to see the infographic.)
Well, this post uses content types #4, #7, #19, and #21. If you have examples of the 21 types, then tweet them using the #contentwecrave hashtag.
Without knowing you personally there are not a lot of things that I can predict will grab your attention every time except for one thing: the thing you crave.
Because I know that if it’s something you crave, then you’re going to have your reticular activating system on “high alert” and on the lookout for that thing.
That means that if you want your marketing to capture your prospect’s attention, then all you have to do is figure out what they crave.
Now I CAN’T tell you what your prospect specifically craves, but I CAN tell you what they crave a universal level.
And it has everything to do with what I call “content we crave.”
Watch my latest video to learn about the “31 Types of Content We Crave” and how you can use them in your marketing to grab attention…
How Marketers Can Capture Attention Using My 31 Types of Content We Crave (VIDEO)
After you watch my video, you can download or print out my two “content we crave” infographics so you can use them as your cheat sheet whenever you want to create copy or content that has a higher chance of capturing your prospect’s attention.
I think this shows the extreme of what I talked about in that article. This is an example of false hope or misplaced hope.)
A Different Type of Content Marketing Article
You can guarantee that 98.% of the time if you read about content marketing on this site, it will usually be an article showing the positives of content marketing.
In other words, I’ll normally show you the power of content marketing to promote great products or services.
Well, today is going to be different, very different.
I am going to show you that the power of content marketing is so effective that it can successfully promote horrible, even deadly, products.
Let me explain.
I really like watching a show called Monumental Mysteries that’s on the Travel Channel.
(There’s another variation of that show that also stars Don Wildman. It’s also called Mysteries at the Museum.)
Well, I was watching episode 18 of the second season on demand and I came across a shocking, true-life story that I realized revealed the power of content marketing.
The Dr. Who Harnessed the Power of Content Marketing
In 1908, a woman set up a medical practice in Olalla, Washington, which is just across Puget Sound from Seattle.
The woman’s name was Dr. Linda Hazzard. (As your about to see, she had a very fitting name.)
A woman opening up a medical practice in the early 1900s isn’t something that’s worth mentioning on its own.
But it was the type of practice she opened that makes it worth mentioning.
You see, Dr. Hazzard didn’t rely on the regular procedures and medicine to help her patients.
She believed that fasting could help any/all of their medical problems. She thought it could cure anything from colds to cancer.
The problem was that she was new to the area and she needed to attract patients.
Instead of advertising her practice, she decided to try something that was bolder. She wrote a book. (This is content marketing!)
Her book was called Fasting for the Cure of Disease.
She then took to the streets and began telling people the ideas found in her book. (This is also a form of content marketing.)
And her methods worked!
In fact, they worked so well that she began attracting many patients, people who believed her unique message and wanted her help.
This was great news for her practice, but bad news for her patients.
You see, her usual practice of having her patients ingest nothing but vegetable broth and a tomato juice for up to two months was having a deadly effect.
Three years after opening her practice, over 20 of her patients had died.
And this was especially shocking because most of those people who came for treatment only had minor illnesses when they came to Dr. Hazzard.
When family members of these victims went to the police, the police said there was nothing they could do, since people had voluntarily chosen (and paid!) for Dr. Hazzard’s help.
For this reason, no one could get the authorities to stop Dr. Hazzard.
That is until the day in 1911 when two wealthy sisters went to Dr. Hazzard for help.
The Only Way She Was Finally Stopped
Their names were Dora and Claire Williamson and they were wealthy British heiresses.
The women had stumbled upon Dr. Hazzard’s book and, because they were interested in alternative forms of medicine, decided to go visit her and receive treatment.
What seemed like a good idea turned into a nightmare.
The two sisters became so malnourished under Dr. Hazzard’s care that Claire ended up dying.
If Dora hadn’t been rescued from Dr. Hazzard’s sanitarium by family members, then she would’ve died also.
This is how she looked when she was rescued…
When her family found out that before Claire died she had signed over a portion of her inheritance to Dr. Hazzard’s practice, they contacted authorities and finally were able to get Dr. Hazzard investigated.
It was eventually discovered that Dr. Hazzard had had several wealthy patients die under her care.
And many of those individuals had signed over large portions of their estates just like Claire had done.
They finally had enough evidence to prosecute her.
On August 15, 1911, the authorities arrested Dr. Hazzard on charges of first-degree murder for starving Claire Williamson to death.
She was convicted and ended up spending 2 years in prison for the crime. (Doesn’t seem fair, does it?)
She (Tragically) Practiced What She Preached
Some might call Dr. Linda Hazzard a quack and evil and I’d have to agree. But she believed in the virtues of fasting to her dying day.
In fact, she followed her own advice and experienced the same tragic results.
In 1938, at the age of 71, and in an attempt to cure an illness she had, Dr. Hazzard began a fast.
It was just a very short time later that she died of starvation.
The Moral of the Story
Content marketing is powerful, whether used for good or evil.
It’s so powerful that the one idea of creating content in the form of a book and/or through speeches has worked for many people throughout history and still works to this day.
It’s a time-tested method for spreading your ideas and establishing your credibility.
And, sadly, it worked for Dr. Linda Hazzard too.
It enabled her to ruin the lives of over twenty families, including Claire’s family.
But if content marketing can work powerfully for bad products, think of how powerfully it could work for great products.
The challenge for all of us is to harness this power and use it for great products and services and worthy endeavors.
I am not here to debunk those stats. I believe them and I am personally using images in my content more than ever.
But what I want to do today is show you the importance of using images for a completely different reason than engagement.
Today I want to show the importance of using images for an important, but often overlooked reason: for proof.
I’ll explain more in just a minute.
But first, let me tell you the story of the person who some believe was the real first person to fly.
And if you pay close attention to this person’s story, you’ll see why using images in your content is so critical.
The Real First Person to Fly?
Gustave Whitehead
The Wright brothers first recorded flight was in 1903.
But the reason we know that they actually flew isn’t just because they said they did and had witnesses to confirm the story.
We know that they actually flew because a photographer was there and took a picture of the event. (That’s the image at the beginning of this post.)
What you might not know is that a man named Gustave Whitehead claimed that he successfully flew his own powered machine that he named “Number 21” in 1901 – two years before the Wright brothers.
In fact, Whitehead claimed to not have just flown his machine once, but several times in 1901 and 1902.
You might be thinking: Why should we believe him? What other proof is there for his claims?
Well, here are two good reasons we should believe him:
A newspaper reporter witnessed the event and wrote about it The event reportedly took place in Fairfield, Connecticut on August 14, 1901. It was described later in an article that appeared in the Bridgeport Herald newspaper on August 18, 1901. The reporter said that he saw Whitehead fly his aircraft and said that Whitehead flew for about half a mile, reached a height of 50 feet, and then landed safely.
There were three other witnesses The Bridgeport Herald reporter said that Whitehead and another man drove to the testing area in the machine. (Number 21 supposedly could be driven like a car when the wings were folded along its sides.) The reporter also said that he and two other people followed them on bicycles to the place in Fairfield.
So you’re probably wondering…
“Wait a minute. If there was all of this proof, then why have I never read about this in the history books? Why was I told that the Wright brothers were the first to fly?”
Well, that’s where our lesson about the importance of using images for visual proof comes in.
Keep reading and you’ll see what I mean…
The Proof is in the Photo
Some say the reason that you never heard of Whitehead and the reason that you were told that the Wright brothers were the first to fly is because they had better proof.
What do I mean?
You see, on that day in August 1901, when Whitehead flew “Number 21” fifty feet high for half a mile, the only proof that the Bridgeport Herald gave was this illustration…
This illustration was supposedly based off of a photo, but the photo went missing and couldn’t be used to prove the flight.
So there wasn’t some conspiracy to keep you from knowing about Whitehead.
The photo of the Wright brothers’ first flight was all the proof that people needed to believe that they really did it, so they were declared the first to fly.
(Many people today still debate whether it was the Wright brothers or Whitehead who were the first to fly.)
Gustave Whitehead’s Hard-Earned Lesson on the Importance of Visual Proof
Can you imagine how bad Whitehead must have felt to be the first to fly, but not have any proof besides his words (and the words of a few others)?
That would be beyond frustrating!
You don’t want to experience the same frustration when you are creating content with the purpose of proving something.
The Main Lesson: Images Reinforce Facts
What is the main lesson we can learn from Whitehead? It’s this…
If you are creating content that is intended to prove something to a prospect, then never rely solely on your words or even the testimony of others.
Whenever possible, use images to reinforce your words. Powerful words, stories, and social proof are important, but images help “seal the deal”.
Images plant your words firmly in the concrete world of reality.
They help convince (and silence) the doubters who rebelliously declare, “I’ll believe it when I see it!”
Proof That Images Really Are Influential
If you think this is just a nice idea that I came up with, then you’ll want to keep reading. I have some powerful proof for you.
“…photographic images traditionally have been taken as proof that the scenes contained within them really did occur as shown. In much the same way that a fingerprint or footprint testifies to the existence of the person who left it, a photograph can be seen as testifying to the reality of the situation it records.”
Basecamp began to test using large photos of their customers on their landing pages. And do you see the results? Jamie Dihiansan explained their tests in this way…
“The Person Page was far shorter. There was less information about Highrise. However, it had a 47% percent increase in paid signups than the Long Form design.”
Jamie Dihiansan, Basecamp
After their tests, they came to this conclusion: Big photos of smiling customers work.
Did you see? It was the photo/image that made the content more convincing and persuasive.
Advice From a Legend in Advertising
Does this mean that you should always assume that adding an image as proof will be the end-all, be-all solution for improving the impact of your proof-based content marketing?
In many cases, adding an image will be your best bet for improving the strength of any content marketing used to establish proof. The evidence I gave you above should make that clear.
But you should always test your results.
What advertising legend David Ogilvy said about advertising is true about content marketing….
David Ogilvy
“Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”
– David Ogilvy
Whitehead’s Redemption
In the mid-1980’s a guy named Andy Kosch formed the group “Hangar 21” with the purpose of proving that Whitehead’s “Number 21” really did fly.
He led a team in the construction of a reproduction of the craft. To create the plans, original Whitehead photos were found and studied.
Replica of Gustave Whitehead’s plane
On December 29, 1986, Kosch and his team brought their replica, dubbed “21B”, to an airstrip to see if it would fly.
And what was the result? To their joy and amazement, they made 20 flights and reached a maximum distance of 330 ft.
Gustave Whitehead would’ve been so proud!
Did you notice how the above picture gave the words of this final story more validity and impact?
Well, as you and your team work to create visual content marketing and use more images within your overall content, never forget that it’s not just a way to increase your engagement
If you use the right visuals in your content, then it will also increase its influence.
Affiliate Link Disclaimer
NOTE: This site uses affiliate links to Amazon. If you click on a link and are taken to their website, we might make a small commission. But we only link to or recommend products or services that we like and think are actually good and helpful! The commission is not worth it to recommend books or products we don’t believe in.
One of my goals with this site, besides defining and systematizing what direct response content marketing is and how to harness its power, is to give you examples of how content marketing and direct response marketing have been used in subtle and creative ways in the past.
My purpose for this is to show content marketers how much they need direct response principles, methods, and techniques and also to show direct response marketers how much they need content marketing principles, methods, and techniques.
This post I have for you today has the purpose to do just that…
What is an Infographic?
Midori Nediger, over at Venngage, defines an infographic like this…
“An infographic is a collection of imagery, charts, and minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic.”
– Midori Nediger, information Designer at Venngage
What is the Purpose (or Benefit) of Infographics?
In my experience, creating an infographic can have a powerful impact on you and your business. How? Let me give you three reasons:
It allows you to present information in a way that it can be quickly consumed by busy people. (Even though I personally think it’s crazy, most people don’t/won’t read these days!)
It allows you to present information in a memorable, attractive, and visual way. (People remember things they can see and picture in their minds.)
Infographics are very shareable and can spread your ideas and get you exposure you would never get without them. (Everyone is looking for helpful information to share on their websites and with their social media followers. Infographics give information that can easily and quickly be shared by anyone!)
My Own Shocking Experience with Infographics
In 2012, I was thinking about how all the content that people love seems to have common themes, regardless of whether it is on TV, in movies, in books, or is even in a blog post.
After thinking about all these content themes, I decided to try to come up with a list of all of the types of content that people crave.
I looked at my final list and thought it was a really interesting list.
I believed it could really be helpful to people, so I decided to get an infographic of the list made. I contacted ContentMarketingInstitute.com (CMI), to see if they would be interested in using it as a guest blog post. They said they would.
I really thought that what I had come up with was an important list, but I still wasn’t sure how the CMI audience would respond.
The infographic, and the short blog post that I wrote to go with it, originally appeared on CMI back on June 5, 2012. It was called “21 Types of Content We All Crave.” Here is my infographic…
Note: In 2016, CMI asked me to do a follow-up post. In that post, I provided 10 other types of content we crave.
The Response
As soon as it appeared, people began commenting and sharing the post. And they KEPT commenting and sharing it and commenting and sharing it.
It ended up being tweeted well over 800 times and it received 102 comments before the comments were finally closed.
Not only that, but the founder of CMI, Joe Pulizzi, later gave me a testimonial that said that my post was one CMI’s most popular posts of the year. I couldn’t believe the response!
Quick Tangent: Here’s How to Hear More of My Crazy Story and Discover the Lessons You Can Learn From It
You can listen to more of my story and learn how I stumbled into marketing 20 years ago, by listening to an audio recording from the marketing class I teach for UC Berkeley Extension.
In that story, I reveal the crazy zig-zaggy path I took on my marketing journey.
You’ll discover:
How I ended up putting together a book with interviews with 38 top business, sales, and marketing experts
How I ended up being interviewed on the radio for the “resolution solution” knowledge that I had gained
How I unintentionally began using content marketing (before the term existed)
How I ended up doing marketing consulting and helping small business owners, business founders, and others
How I began speaking in front of authors, small business people, and B2B content marketers
And… how I ended up writing for top marketing websites, wrote a book that was nominated for an award, have been interviewed on podcasts for my content marketing knowledge and ideas, and how I became a marketing professor for UC Berkeley Extension
**Do you want to know the craziest part of my story? I have done all of this without a degree in marketing. (I am 100% self-taught.)
And in this audio, I reveal four, hard-earned marketing lessons that you can apply to your own career and/or to your business.
Click here to sign-up and listen to it for free, right now.
Ok, Now Back to Our “Regularly Scheduled Post”… 🙂
So, you can see why I believe in the importance of and the power of infographics.
But there was one completely incorrect thing that I believed about infographics (and I didn’t even realize my mistake).
I thought infographics were a new, modern idea. (I started noticing them around 2011.)
Turns out that I was wrong. But at least I was only 61 years off! Haha!
Did Advertising Legend David Ogilvy Create the First Infographic in 1950?
In the video, Ogilvy told stories about his early years.
In one story, he said that when his agency was starting out, he was the research director and had never really done any creative work when it came to advertising.
It was during this time that his agency received a job where they had to an ad for Guinness (beer) and oysters.
He kept trying to think of what kind of ad they could possibly do and that’s when it suddenly came to him.
On the train ride home from work he was struck with inspiration. He decided that his ad would be a guide to oysters.
He was so excited about the idea that when he got off the train, he immediately called the office right away and told them his idea.
When I saw the image of the ad appear on the screen during this interview, I was caught off guard.
I had to stop the video and “google” the ad to see it up-close for myself. And when I did, I realized how wrong I had been about infographics being a modern idea.
Take a look at this ad and see for yourself if it doesn’t have a really familiar look and format to it…
Isn’t it crazy how it looks exactly like an infographic!?! That’s because it is one. It’s an infographic in print.
I haven’t researched to see if there are any older examples, but this appears to be the first infographic (or at least one of the first).
The Most Surprising Part of the Story
The most surprising part of the story was what David Ogilvy said as he finished off this part of his story.
He said that this was his first advertisement.
If I understood him correctly, that means that David Ogilvy’s first ad was a print-based infographic. (And he said it appeared only in The New Yorker!)
He used content marketing (in the form of an infographic) as a way to provide helpful information for beer drinkers and build an affinity between beer drinkers and Guinness Beer.
That means that David Ogilvy, a man who strongly believed in direct response marketing, saw the importance of, and the benefit of, content marketing.
A Freak Accident or an Effective Strategy?
In case you’re thinking, “Yeah, so what? So he used what we would now call an “infographic”… once! That doesn’t mean he found value in infographics or content marketing!”
Oh really?
Ogilvy told the interviewer that after they did that first guide they went on to do a SERIES OF ADS of different Guinness Guides!
If the first guide didn’t produce results, then there’s no way that David Ogilvy would have produced other guides.
That means his use of infographics and content wasn’t just an accident. It was a strategy that he used repeatedly.
To Readers Who Are Direct Response Marketers or a Part of Companies Who Mainly Use Direct Response…
So, to my readers who are direct response marketers or to companies who mainly use direct response, I hope this helps you to realize that content marketing is something that can add to the marketing and advertising that you do.
I hope you stick around, come back for more insights that can enhance your marketing, and even consider becoming a free member.
To Readers Who Are Content Marketers or a Part of Companies Who Mainly Use Content Marketing…
And to my readers who are content marketers or to companies who mainly use content marketing, I hope that you see that the content marketing principles, methods, and techniques that we use today have deeper roots that go much farther backthan we’ve probably ever realized.
I hope you stick around, come back for more of these “forgotten insights” that can enhance your marketing, and open yourself up to the idea of learning how to add direct response to make your content marketing even more powerful. And I hope you also consider becoming a free member.
Some Helpful Links for You
Here is a list of links to many of the things that I mentioned in this post and also to some links to additional resources:
You can listen to my personal, crazy story of how I got into marketing and discover some important lessons that can help you to market yourself or your company, then you can sign-up to listen to it here.
My Discovery That Collected “Digital Dust” in My Inbox for Almost 4 Years
It happened on October 6, 2015, and I don’t even remember how I came across it.
I was probably searching and bouncing around the internet looking up some marketing related information.
And that’s when I made this surprising discovery. (Even though, at that time, I’d have to admit that I didn’t realize how important my discovery was.)
What was it? It was a digital copy of an old book about advertising from 1912.
I skimmed it and thought it looked interesting, but I didn’t have time to really read it right then.
So what did I do? I Gmailed it to myself so I could look at it later and figure out what I wanted to do with it.
I think over these years I might have glanced at it once or twice really quickly but, again, didn’t get to really consume it and figure out what to do with it.
That is until Friday, February 1st of this year.
117-Year-Old Secrets About What Makes People Buy (That Still Apply Today)
That’s the day that I remembered again that old book that I had emailed myself.
For some reason I can’t really explain, this time I decided to finally take the time to sit down and really read the book.
And when I did, I began to smile with excitement.
Why? Because I suddenly realized just what an amazing find I had been sitting on for almost four years!
The more I read, the more excited I got. I quickly began to realize that this book was unique. Why?
It a world where the same ideas are repackaged and regurgitated over and over, this book contained some rare ideas, concepts, methods, and tools on how to discover the real reason people buy.
Not only that, but it contained a unique tool (in the form of a chart) to help you uncover the thing that’s really keeping someone from buying from you (It’s a different tool than ones I’ve come across before.)
This might sound strange, but some of the ideas and methods that it contains have been forgotten for so long they are new again!
And finally, when I looked at the publisher and realized the origin/source of the ideas — and when I realized that the methods had been thoroughly tested and produced proven results back then — that’s when I understood why these truths have stood the test of time.
This all led me to realize that the high quality and quantity of information gathered and presented in this book was something I needed to share with others.
It was too valuable to keep to myself or let remain forgotten.
Because in this day and age, just as it was 117 years ago, knowing how to create content or copy that makes people buy is a key skill that is crucial and is always in demand.
(*CLARIFICATION: Please don’t misunderstand me. When I say “make people buy,” I do NOT mean that in a manipulative or sleazy way. I mean causing people to want to buy in a completely honest, upfront, powerful, and persuasive way. A way that helps the seller present their valuable solutions and helps the buyer solve their pressing problems.)
And because I knew that I was about to reveal DirectResponseContentMarketing.com to the world, I realized that this book would be the perfect fit and this site would be the perfect platform to reveal the powerful lessons this book contains.
So today, I am going to begin peeling back the layers and reveal some of the valuable and profitable ideas that this book contains.
(IMPORTANT: This book is 117 years old. I am not claiming that all of the things in it are amazing or still applicable. They’re not! But when you see the quality and quantity of ideas, concepts, methods, and tools that it does contain —which are amazing and still applicable today, I think you’ll agree that I am not exaggerating.)
Why You’re Going to Have to Wait to Find Out the Name of This Book.
But before I share the first lessons from this book, I want to be really clear about what I am going to do for you and what I am not going to do.
What I Am Going to Do
What I am going to do in this series that I am beginning today is repackage and share the information that this book contains.
I am going to pull out lessons from this information and show you how it applies to the content and the copy that you create today.
What I Am Not Going to Do (and Why)
But, what I am NOT going to do is reveal the name of the book…. at least not just yet. And when I do reveal it, I am not going to reveal it all of you.
Why? I want to wait to reveal the name of the book at the end of this series for several important reasons that benefit not only me but also you:
I want to be able to share my exclusive insights from the book with you here,before the information can be diluted and commoditized.
This rewards me for finding the book and for taking the time to read it, condense its wisdom, and present it to you in an easy to consume, understandable, and applicable format.
It also rewards you for finding this website, spending time reading what I have written, and gives you a head start in applying this information before it becomes common knowledge and loses its effectiveness.
Plus, mysteries are fun. They’re attractive. They create suspense. I want to leave the source of this information a mystery in order tomake it more enjoyable for you as you discover the powerful lessons along the way. And I am doing this so that the anticipation will make the “final reveal” more exciting for us both.
*When I reveal the title of the book at the end of this series, I will only be revealing it to members of DirectResponseContentMarketing.com.
Why? There are many important reasons but here are a few of them:
It will give you an incentive to sign-up to become a member of DirectResponseContentMarketing.com. (This book will only be one of the treasures that you will eventually have access to in our Member’s Resource Area.)
It will reward people who sign-up as free members of this community so they get “first dibs” at it and can go read the book for themselves.
It will hopefully delay the dissemination of this valuable information to slow the pace of it being diluted and cheapened.
Plus, I am doing this in order to apply my “6th Indisputable Law for Creating Highly Valuable Content,” which states: “Things that are popular and hard to get our hands on are seen as more valuable.” (In other words, I am applying this law because I don’t want to fail you by cheapening the information you’re about to discover. If you think it’s easily accessible then you might make the same mistake I did and wait four years to consume and apply this important information.)
Now that we’ve gotten that all out of the way, it’s time to pull this book from my digital shelf, open the cover, and thumb through its pages to unveil its first insights and lessons…
How to Create Content and Copy That Sells – Pt. 1 (Wisdom from Inside the Book)
Content and Copy That Motivates People to Buy Requires More Than These Things
Contrary to popular opinion, marketing that makes people want to buy is more than:
The appearance of the content and copy
The words you choose to use
The layout of the copy
The choice of the medium
Don’t get me wrong. All of these things matter! But you can do all of these things perfectly and still not produce something that makes people want to buy.
Why? Because even if your marketing had all of the above things going for it, it could still be missing the secret ingredient that influences people to buy.
The thread that must weave its way through your whole marketing campaign must be grounded in a strong appeal.
And not just a strong appeal, but an appeal that makes people want to buy.
If you don’t find the right way to appeal that will make your chosen prospect want to buy, then everything else will fall flat.
But, if your content or copy is grounded in a strong appeal that makes people want to buy, then the appearance, words, layout, and medium you choose will amplify it.
An Example We Can All Relate to From Childhood
Let me give you an example of the importance of choosing the right appeal in order to get someone to take up your offer.
Think of any type of food you used to hate as a child but you now love as an adult.
I used to hate curry when I was a kid. Back then, my step-dad was a cook in the hospital cafe and he made some curry there that people loved.
My mom would bring some home and try to get me to eat it by saying things like “it’s really good” (appeal to quality) or “everyone loves it” (social proof).
But those appeals had no effect on me, so I didn’t take the offer. WHY? Because I didn’t like curry, her appeals were pointless!
But now, as an adult, I LOVE curry. If my Mom made those same appeals now, I would instantly respond and take her up on her offer!
Appeal: the power of arousing a sympathetic response: ATTRACTION
Do you understand? When I was younger, all of my Mom’s efforts were useless, because her appeal wasn’t attractive to me since I didn’t like curry at the time.
But now, since my tastes have changed, she could convince me to eat curry with hardly any effort – using the same appeal – because that appeal is attractive to me now.
That means that BEFORE you put any effort into your content or copy, you must make sure that the underlying appeal that you have chosen will make your prospect want to buy.
The skillful content marketer or copywriter must make sure that the message that runs through their content marketing or copywriting is filled with buying reasons and buying attractions that are appealing to their target prospect.
The skillful content marketer or copywriter must focus on the product’s essence in a way that’s appealing to his target prospect and in a way that appeals to the prospect’s desires.
Otherwise, the marketing will have no pull, no attraction. And with no pull, all the effort, strategies, and methods in the world can’t help you!
Without the Right Appeal, You Can’t Create Effective Content or Copy
In the book, it says that if you want your content or copy to get people to buy, it must:
Grip your prospects
Reveal the innermost benefits that your product or service offers
Focus on their wants not just your needs
Foresee every hesitation the prospect might have and counteract these with logical reasons to buy
But how can you possibly do any of these things, if you don’t know the right appeal that will make your prospect want to buy?
When your content or copy is based on a weak appeal, or the wrong appeal, then your prospect will quickly begin to put up one of four roadblocks that will keep you from getting them to move forward.
These roadblocks come in the form of four choices that the book describes a prospect making if your appeal isn’t correct or strong enough:
1. Without the right appeal, the prospect (B2C) or company (B2B) you’re trying to target might decide to save their moneyfor now. They might decide to not spend it all, spend it on something else, or save it for a larger purchase.
(*How much “money off” do you think you can offer them as an incentive to buy if they’ve already decided to save themselves 100% by not buying and just saving their money?)
2. Without the right appeal, the prospect (B2C) or company (B2B) you’re trying to target mightjust decide to delay the decision. Maybe he/she is too busy today. Maybe they have more pressing concerns right now.
(That means that instead of just needing to convince them that your product/service is good and can help them, you’re going to need to convince them that they’re not too busy and that your offer is more important than their other concerns.)
3. Without the right appeal, the prospect (B2C) or company (B2B) you’re trying to target might want to take some time to reexamine or reappraise their situation. This might come from self-doubt about the uncertainty of the exact problem that needs to be solved.
(*How easy do you think it’s going to be to convince them that your product/service will solve their problem if they aren’t sure that that’s their exact problem?)
4. Without the right appeal, the prospect (B2C) or company (B2B) you’re trying to target might simply procrastinate and put off the decision (like we all like to do).
(*Think about how good you are at procrastinating and then think about what you’re up against in trying to get your prospect not to do it.)
So you see, by not using the right appeal it’s going to make things very difficult.
But if you figure out the right appeal, then some of your prospects will proceed forward before even stopping to consider putting out these roadblocks.
Without the right appeal, you’re just wasting your time trying to convince your prospect that your product or service is great and can help them, when that’s not the reason they aren’t buying. (Remember my mom and the curry story?)
If you’re going to have any hope of discovering the right appeal, then you must start by clearly understanding the answers to four questions from the book:
What does the prospect want?
How does your product fit that desire?
What overall tone should permeate your content marketing and/or copy?
And what should be your primary appeal that will get your prospect to see that buying now is their best (if not only) option?
Just knowing your product or service isn’t enough. You must know your product or service in relation to your prospect.
It’s the only way to begin to figure out what is keeping a prospect from buying from you right now.
In just a second, I will show you give you a preview of what’s coming next.
But I want to offer something to those of you who want to begin applying what you’ve already read…
Want a Checklist to Help You Begin to Analyze, Evaluate, and Apply What You’ve Learned Here?
If you’d like a checklist based off of the concepts, ideas, and questions that I’ve presented here, then sign-up to become a free member of DirectResponseContentMarketing.com.
I have put together a 5-page checklist that will help to do two things:
Analyze and important a current piece of content or copy
Create a new piece of content or copy
Become a free member right now and you can download this and other resources in our Member’s Resource Area.
Sneak Peek: A Tool to Help You Analyze Your Marketing Problems, So You Can Uncover the Right Appeal
As we continue delving deeper into this book, I am going to begin revealing the questions from a unique chart that this book provides.
It’sa chart that is meant to be a tool to help you analyze your marketing problems and uncover the correct appeal you must use to get your customers to buy.
This chart will help you figure out things like:
The key factors in determining the most effective sales appeal for you to use
The buying motives that you should make sure that your copy or content appeals to.
And more
I think you’re going to have plenty of “aha! moments” and experience some breakthroughs, so make sure you to come back for Part 2. (And there are many more parts to come!)
We’re Just Getting Started
Most of you who have read this far are excited to read this information and thinking of friends, followers, and colleagues you can share it with.
But I know there is a small group of you who, even though you thought the information was good, you aren’t convinced that it is that unique, rare, or different.
My only response to you is, “We’re just getting started!” Come back next week for part two and see the next batch of powerful ideas, concepts, methods I am going to reveal next.
Do You Have a Guess?
You’re always more than welcome to take a guess at what you think the title of the book is at any point throughout this series.
If you have a guess, please email me and let me know what you think it is. (I just won’t confirm or deny it.)
*Just please don’t ruin the surprise for everyone else by posting your guess in the comment section.
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.
One of the most famous and successful sales letters of all time
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.
P.S. Make sure to check out my infographic “7 Ways to Create Boring Content” before you leave. It will give you ways to guarantee that your content will be boring!
P.P.S. Make sure you check out the steps at the end of this post to learn how to create interesting content.
In a Reader’s Digest issue from April 1981, a man named Louis De V. Day, Jr., told an interesting story in an article called Pennomena.
The story was about the surprising and funny solution that a group of college students came up with in order to help them get through a boring professor’s lectures.
And I believe that this story presents an important reminder for all us content marketers.
Here’s the story in Day’s own words…
The Funny Way a Group of College Students Handled a Boring Professor
“Several years ago a professor at the University of Pennsylvania was know for giving boring, cliché-ridden lectures.
“At the beginning of one semester, an innovative class breathed new life into his course by assigning baseball plays to each hackneyed phrase.
“For example, ‘on the other hand’ was a base hit;‘by the same token’ was a strikeout; ‘and so on’ was a stolen base.
“Divided into two teams by the center aisle of the lecture hall, the students throughout the term played inning after inning of silent but vigorous baseball.
“On the last day of class, the impossible happened — the score was tied, the bases were loaded and the batter hit a home run!
“The winning team stood and cheered wildly.
“Though deeply appreciative, the professor was quoted later as having wondered why only one-half of the students had been enthusiastic about his lectures.”
The One Lesson a Boring Professor Can Teach You
It’s hard to learn from a boring professor, but there’s an important lesson they can teach us. And that lesson is this…
The power of your words is not just in WHAT you say, but it’s also in HOW you say them.
They’re the equivalent of a boring college professor who can’t get through to their students. That’s never going to work!
Your prospects and customers won’t make an effort to make your boring content exciting, like those students did. Instead they’ll just tune you out completely. Or unsubscribe!
So that leads us to these questions:
What can you do about this?
How can you make sure that you’re content is not boring?
In order to help you with this, I thought it’d be fun thing to tell you what NOT to do.
So below I am presenting to you what I am calling “Seven Ways to Create Boring Content.”
You’ll find it below in two helpful formats for you: 1) An infographic and 2) A text version of the list
7 Ways to Create Boring Content (Infographic)
7 Ways to Create Boring Content (Text Version)
If you follow these tips, you’re guaranteed to bore people every time!
1. Create content that has no personality
2. Create content that is exactly the same as any or all other content I can find on the subject
3. Don’t use any stories
4. Don’t give any examples
5. Don’t surprise me in any way with your content
6. Don’t take an interesting perspective on a subject
7. Don’t share a bold opinion
Time Drags When You’re Boring
I heard that the famous film director Billy Wilder, who was known for classic movies such as “Some Like It Hot,” was once asked how he liked a new film.
His answer was both funny and enlightening.
He said, “To give you an idea, the film started at eight o’clock. I looked at my watch at midnight –and it was only 8:15.”
Isn’t that true? When you’re bored, time drags… on… f-o-r-e-v-e-r!
When you follow my tips above, you’re sure to slow down time for people in the same way.
So how do you create exciting and engaging content?
How to Create Interesting Content
If you want to know how to create interesting and engaging content, it all comes to doing the opposite of everything in my list above.
That means you need to create content that:
Has personality
Is different than other content that can be found on the same subject
Tells stories
Gives powerful examples of what you’re talking about
Surprises people in some way
Gives an interesting perspective
And finally shares a bold point of view
This is the kind of content that will never bore people.
If you’d like more examples of how to create exciting and engaging content, then make sure to check out my “21 Types of Content People Crave”.
I am about to show you some content marketing stats that reveal some really important things you need to consider if you’re going to use content marketing in 2019.
But first, there’s an 8-sentence story you need to hear…
STORY: The Sculptor’s Plans vs. the Writer’s Plans
You’re about to read a story that reveals why content marketing produces results for some companies and why it doesn’t produce results for other companies.
Here’s the story…
British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein was once visited in his studio by the eminent author, George Bernard Shaw.
The visitor noticed a huge block of stone standing in one corner and asked what it was for.
“I don’t know yet,” Epstein replied. “I’m still making plans.”
Shaw was astounded. “You mean you plan your work?” he asked. “Why, I change my mind several times a day!”
“That’s all very well with a four-ounce manuscript,” replied the sculptor, “but not with a four-ton block.”
Some people complain about content marketing these days and try to insinuate that it’s no longer effective (or has never been effective).
But that’s not true. What is true is that content marketing done ineffectively is ineffective and content marketing done effectively is effective.
You see, in order to build a solid, monumental content marketing plan you have to think more like a sculptor than a writer.
As you are about to see from the content marketing statistics below, there are individuals and companies who are still seeing results from their content marketing.
That means that the difference between those who complain about content marketing and those who praise content marketing comes down towhether they wing it or whether they take time to plan out their content marketing strategy.
Ineffective vs. Effective Content Marketing
But that’s not all. If you want to create effective content marketing in 2019, then here are three of the things you’re going to need:
You need a documented content marketing strategy (a plan).
You must create content that consumers find interesting and helpful.
You must not just create content filled only with dry information and facts. You must create content that uses stories and/or harnesses the elements or power of stories.
BONUS POINT: You’re going to also need how to tie in direct response principles with your content marketing to maximize its impact and results. (Stay tuned to this website to learn how to do that.)
3 Powerful Content Marketing Stats (Infographic)
The stats below will help you to see why the three things that I mentioned above are so important, if you want to succeed with content marketing in 2019…
Sources of Content Marketing Stats
If you would like to learn about the above statistics, then check out these sources below:
In 2018, only 39% of content marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. That number, however, jumps to 65% among top performing organizations. SOURCE: CMI & MarketingProfs
70% of consumers want to learn about products through content as opposed to traditional ad methods. SOURCE: Mdgadvertising.com
55% of business professionals say a great story captures their focus and keeps them engaged with content. SOURCE: Prezi.com
Affiliate Link Disclaimer
NOTE: This site uses affiliate links to Amazon. If you click on a link and are taken to their website, we might make a small commission. But we only link to or recommend products or services that we like and think are actually good and helpful! The commission is not worth it to recommend books or products we don’t believe in.
NOTE: The post you’re about to read is one that I originally wrote for ContentMarketingInstitute.com. (The original post is here.)
I am posting it here because it’s a great example of direct response marketing and content marketing principles working perfectly together.
P.S. Make sure to learn about my free checklist to help you apply this strategy. ———-
The Founder’s Unexpected Death
J.I. Rodale, the founder of Rodale Inc., publisher of Prevention and several other magazines, was dead at the age of 72. What was even more shocking was where he died.
As a guest on The Dick Cavett Show, Rodale suffered a heart attack onstage as the host interviewed another guest. (Cavett and the guest were unaware until they commented to Rodale and he didn’t respond. The show never aired.)
The promoter of health in media was gone, but his legacy carried on. What does this have to do with content marketing?
Everything.
Not because of the interview, but because of the publishing company Rodale left behind.
He left behind an understanding of the magazine industry that would propel Prevention to become one of the world’s largest magazines (10 million monthly readers).
What I want to do today is reveal how Rodale Inc. did that, and help you apply it to your owncontent marketing strategy.
2 Reasons Why a Magazine Exists
In my e-book, 51 Content Marketing Hacks, I share the real reason that magazines exist with a quote included in The 1910s by David Blanke and attributed to ad executive James Collins in 1907:
There is still an illusion to the effect that a magazine is a periodical in which advertising is incidental. But we don’t look at it that way. A magazine is simply a device to induce people to read advertising. It is a large booklet with two departments – entertainment and business. The entertainment department finds stories, pictures, verse, etc. to interest the public. The business department makes the money.
These purposes are the same ones on which every effective content marketer must focus:
Providing interesting content
Making a profit
This simple concept is like most foundational concepts. The power isn’t in knowing, it’s inimplementing the concepts.
Rodale (and those at Rodale Inc. after him) implemented these concepts so well that it became a science. In 2014, Rodale publications reached an all-time high gross readership of 37.7 million readers.
But how did they do it?
Rodale Inc.’s 5-Step Content Marketing Strategy
I accidentally discovered Rodale Inc.’s strategy.
It all began when my wife started receiving Prevention magazine and Rodale began to send her promotional magazines (magalogs). The next thing I knew she ordered some of those books and products promoted in those magalogs.
You need to understand something.
Unlike me, my wife doesn’t like (or even care about) marketing. For her to read these marketing materials, like them, and respond to them meant Rodale was doing something right.
That led me to pay attention to its efforts and research its current and past practices.
The 5-Step Strategy That I Uncovered
The results are revealed in the five-step strategy.
1. The only purpose of content creation is to gather a specific audience
Rodale Inc. never creates content for the sake of creating content. It always has a specific audience in mind. All of the content is designed to appeal, attract, and help that audience.
Rodale has created different content verticals for many markets, including:
Bicycling
Children’s Health
Men’s Health
Rodale’s Organic Life
Prevention
Runner’s World
Women’s Health
Each of these verticals attracts and benefits a unique group of people. Let me use one of its most recent verticals to show how Rodale does it. In March, Rodale created a website called Eat Clean. You can see the detailed vertical audience it plans to attract as described in the site’s press release:
With an often irreverent, always authoritative tone, EatClean.com will be the gathering place for clean-food insiders and experimenters, uncovering the latest trends, innovations, opinions, products, and recipes.
Rodale’s mindset on creating content is different from that of many marketers. Others usually focus on a generic audience. They create content for “urgent” reasons such as a blog post is scheduled; it’s a topic we’ve wanted to discuss; it’s something everybody else is talking about right now.
But they first should answer the questions important to their content marketing strategies:
Who is the specific audience we are trying to attract?
What do they want to know?
What do they want to share?
Rodale always creates content with purpose and on purpose.
2. Focus on subscribers, not readers
I once heard author and podcaster Paul Colligan say, “I am not focused on listeners. I am focused on subscribers.” This should be true for content creators of all kinds. Why? Readers are great, but subscribers are what really matters.
Why is focusing on subscribers so important? It allows you to use what Seth Godin calls “permission marketing” and what old-school marketers thought of as “two-step marketing.”
It enables you to do five powerful things:
Uncover a specific audience that wants to hear from you by letting them raise their hands and identify themselves.
Gain permission to contact them.
Create content that is expected and anticipated by your audience.
Build a deep relationship with your audience.
Contact your audience for free (or be paid as the magazine subscription model provides).
Email marketing has shown to be much more powerful than any social media tool. And physical mailing lists always have been an asset that every business should grow.
Of course, Rodale appreciates it when people walk into a bookstore and buy one of its magazines. But Rodale isn’t focused on single-copy sales; it knows subscribers offer the most value.
Never forget that is true for you, no matter what type of content you are creating.
3. You effectively sell to audience members by channeling and directing their existing desires
Rodale Press once paid famed copywriter Eugene Schwartz $54,000 for four hours of work. His book, Breakthrough Advertising, is considered a mail-order classic. In it, Schwartz reveals something important that Rodale Inc. learned and implemented with precision:
This is the copy writer’s task: not to create this mass desire – but to channel and direct it. Actually, it would be impossible for any one advertiser to spend enough money to actually create this mass desire. He can only exploit it. And he dies when he tries to run against it. Let me repeat. This mass desire must already be there. It must already exist. You cannot create it and you cannot fight it. But you can – and must – direct it, channel it. Focus it onto your particular product.
Did you catch that?
You cannot create a desire for your product or service. It doesn’t matter if you love your product. All that matters is that your prospects desire it. That’s not only true for copywriters. It’s true of all successful content marketers.
You must know what your audiences’ desires are and how to appeal to them.
How can you do that? Think of your content marketing as a way to discover the desires of your audience.
Write for a specific audience and pay attention to how that content resonates with them. See what gets the most comments and shares. But that’s just the beginning. Talk to those subscribers on whom you’ve been focusing and ask what they want.
Rodale constantly studies the desires of its audiences. It looks at trends. It even conducts an annual survey to get consumers’ reactions to specific areas and types of information.
You can see how Rodale used its research to describe the desires of the Eat Clean audience by looking at this comment from Editor Sarah Toland in the press release:
People are more in tune than ever with the relationship between what they eat, how they look and feel, and how our food affects the planet. Everywhere you shop or eat now, you can find some food label – whether something is sustainably sourced, real, natural, pure, non-GMO, local, gluten-free – that raises more questions than it answers.
Eat Clean helps people negotiate this crazy landscape and figure out how to ‘eat clean’ in a way that makes the most sense for their own health, goals, and ethics.
Rodale understands that unless it knows what a specific audience wants, it can never create solutions that they will buy.
You must never forget this. It’s the key to success in sales conversions.
4. Create multiple ways to fulfill those desires
Once you know the audience’s desires, you can create the things that they want to buy or position what you already offer in ways that appeal to them.
(Rodale doesn’t reveal this anywhere that I’ve been able to find, but I bet that it uses the surveys to help identify the solutions that it sells to its specific audiences.)
The key to doing this effectively is to remember two important things:
People have different content-consumption preferences.
Some types of content have more perceived value than others.
With this in mind, Rodale created all kinds of different info-products, products, and services to appeal not only to the different desires of its audiences but to the different ways the audiences want to consume information.
In addition to magazines, Rodale offers books, products, an online university, and host-branded events. Now obviously, you don’t want to create all of these solutions at once. Start with one idea and build from there. How can you get ideas on where to start?
Look to the content you’ve created for format ideas.
All of the content you create must be designed to attract and help that hungry crowd with money. Your products and services must meet the needs and/or desires that a crowd of people with money has.
As I explained then, “… You probably have some content that you could repurpose and sell …” such as:
Blog posts into audio recordings
Audio files into videos
Videos into webinars
You are only limited by your creativity.
Rodale knows that to help your audience the most, and at the same time maximize your profits, you must create many types of solutions for your prospects to buy.
If you want to maximize your sales, then you must do the same.
5. You must use ‘content selling’ to see real results
The other thing Rodale does that many content marketers do not do is they rely on more than content marketing — they also rely on content selling.
Content marketing can take you far but without an offer or ask, it’s difficult to get a sale. At some point, you must focus on content that intentionally sells.
What’s the difference?
I recently heard Todd Brown of MarketingFunnelAutomation.com give this powerful explanation on the difference between marketing and selling.
I’ll paraphrase it: Marketing is when you talk about the prospects – the prospect’s situation, needs, wants, and what’s in the best interest of your prospect. In other words, what they should be doing to alleviate their problem … Selling is when you talk about you, your product, your product’s benefits, features, advantages, risk-reversal, bonuses – that’s selling.
In other words, content marketing is content focused on attracting members of an audience, educating them, and helping them.
Content selling is content focused on why the audience members should buy what you are offering.
Rodale doesn’t just focus on content to attract its audiences (magazines = content marketing). It also is focused on content that offers a solution (magalogs and sales letters = content selling).
That is why Rodale is so successful.
That’s why my wife has purchased things from the company. Its magazines alone would never have been able to accomplish this success.
Too many content marketers never ask for the sale. They waste much of their content marketing efforts.
Rodale never loses sight of the two purposes of a magazine – to gather an audience and to make a profit. This balanced focus and the powerful way it is implemented are the keys to Rodale’s amazing success.
If you want to see better results, then you must do the same.
Download My FREE Checklist in Our Member’s Resource Area: 5 Questions to Get You Started – Plus Checklist
IMPROVE YOUR CURRENT CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
Using Rodale’s model that I discovered, you can ask the questions in this guide to develop the best answers which will help you to improve your content marketing strategy.
CREATE A NEW HIGHLY EFFECTIVE CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
Not only that, I have also created a checklist in this guide that is based on these five steps that will enable to create a highly effective new content marketing strategy.
“The 5-Step Content Marketing Strategy Checklist” (Based on a Strategy Used By the World’s Largest Health and Wellness Media Company)
You can grab your copy for free in our Member’s Resource Arena.
I am going follow my own advice in this post and ending with this short paragraph of content selling.
If you liked this post, then you will want to grab a copy of my book 51 Content Marketing Hacks, which was nominated for Smallbiztrends.com’s 2016 “Small Business Book Award
In it, I reveal the powerful, unexpected ways content marketing has been used throughout history (by Benjamin Franklin, from Star Wars, Disney, etc.)
It will inspire you and give you a lot of great ideas for your content marketing. You can learn more about it here. (By the way, it has been highly rated by top experts on Amazon.com.)
