My Anaconda Don’t Want None, Unless You Got Content

Oh. My. God. Becky… look at her website. It is so…bland. Gross.

We live in a day and age where information is everywhere. More specifically, it’s practically at our fingertips. All you have to do is connect to the internet, and you’re clicks away from your answer. It’s mind blowing how fast and convenient it is for me to go online and find everything I could possibly want to know about…oh, anything?

But the downside to this source of information is that it’s smothered with advertising. It’s like pouring yourself a bowl of Lucky Charms, and getting ungodly amounts of the hieroglyphic cheerios things, and just a few marshmallows. Which let’s be honest, is the whole reason you bought the damn cereal to begin with.

So what do you do with your business in this online brawl of data and information competing for your customers’ attention? You publish good content.

I’m going to make this very simple.

• People want information, not advertising, when they are making a purchasing decision
• Information is lectured, but content is shared. Hint: no one wants a lecture on Facebook.
• Content = creatively translating information into a format that doesn’t feel like a sale

Strategy: Build an audience

Tactic: Transform your company into the media

Result of good content marketing: more traffic and leads

Well, why would someone want to consider content marketing if they already have a market presence? Same reason you take your shirt off at beach volleyball; people already know you’re there but probably have begun a preconceived frame of mind about you. That’s when you decide it’s Sun’s Out, Guns Out, and everybody’s world gets turned upside down when they see you’ve got content. Hell, it doesn’t have to be the prettiest. nothing wrong with a little fluff, but it’s breaking away from the cookie-cutter of customer engagement that will make you ideal and your brand more appealing.

The Business Case for Agile Content Marketing by Scribe defines content marketing as

• putting your brand out front by embracing how the information-driven sales experience today works
• positions you as the indispensable advisor on the buyer’s purchasing journey
• something that creates a natural affinity for your solution

In other words, it’s how the modern buyer comes to know, like, and trust you. The new generation of branding.

So what’s the bulls-eye to this form of selling?

Key Points to this little Venn diagram

1. Content is the foundation, but must also answer the customer’s questions. It must inspire them to experience your offering.
2. Sharing content is a crucial aspect of social media. Give the people something worthy to talk about.
3. Make desirable content and something people want to search.

So now comes the question I’m sure most of you are wondering: What makes good content marketing?

According to Steven MacDonald in his article The 5 Pillars of Successful Content Marketing, over 2 million blogs are being published every day.

I would like to take this moment to thank you for choosing to read my blog among the ocean of content you could have otherwise settled on.

The 5 pillars to a successful content marketing campaign will include the following;

1. Understanding your audience
   1. Who is my current/potential customer?
   2. Who would find my content useful?
      1. Help customers help themselves
2. Mapping the content to the sales cycle
   1. Awareness
      1. Blogs, white papers, webinars, infographics
   2. Evaluation
      1. Case studies, videos, tech guides
   3. Purchase
      1. Implementation guides, trials, demos
3. Creating the actual content
   1. LONGER CONTENT GETS SHARED MORE
   2. Ranks better in Google
   3. More inbound links
4. Promoting the content
   1. Google AdWords campaigns
   2. Social Media
   3. Email
5. Measuring and Analyzing data from feedback
   1. How many views did it received?
   2. What is being shared the most?
   3. What keywords were most effective?
   4. Were leads generated?

Who would of thought the people over at Buzzfeed were actually brilliant, and not just shoveling shiny garbage onto the web?

I  know that my blog covered a more statistical analysis for creating good content. But I didn’t give very many examples. Well, that’s because the other half of good content marketing (in my opinion) isn’t something that can be found in a textbook, per say. It’s a right-brain set of skills. Shit, the best content you’re going to find is art; something that strikes you more than just logic will.

The best ad campaign (better at the start IMO) I’ve ever come across is the Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. The campaign launched in February of 2010, just before the Super Bowl. The brand image of Old Spice at the time was “your dad’s soap”, and actively trying to engage a younger target market. Well, someone decided to crunch numbers one day and came to the startling fact that the greatest number of buyers of hygiene products (for both men and women) were women. In other words, women were buying their men’s soap.

Holy Santa Claus shit. This was a revelation. So what happened next is pure brilliance by the Ad Agency, Wieden + Kennedy. They wrote a whole campaign NOT to the users, but to the buyers; women. And what’s the best way to sell to younger audiences? Risque advertising. Let’s take a strong, sexy fellow in a towel, put him on a boat and woo your girl into buying this bodywash while he sits majestically on top of a white horse. “So my guy could smell like this hunk on the tv, if I buy Old Spice?” SOLD. Hell, it was hysterical, so men didn’t have a problem with it either, that’s just icing on the cake.

I spoke with an Art Director at W+K, Brandon Viney. He was kind enough to tell me this magnificent story, and the three most important concepts you will EVER need to know to writing good copy;

1. Find your Point of View
   1. if you don’t have an opinion, you don’t care enough, let alone know enough
2. Be a filter
   1. Take out what isn’t necessary when re-telling your point of view to someone
   2. When you tell your fish story, you aren’t going to give a minute by minute, play by play
3. Be a mother bird
   1. Take the product you just filtered, and jam it down people’s throats
   2. People don’t know what they want until they can hold it

Thank you, Brandon.

You will need to have data, analysis, logic, and art to create good content. Don’t dispaire if you can’t do it all. You think Tom Brady would be where he is today if he didn’t have his O-line and Gronk? It’s a team effort. Remember this, your customers are just like Sir-Mix-A-Lot, they want content that’s real thick and juicy.

Speaking of which, it’s the weekend of the Conference Championships. Everyone thinks the (potential) MVP, Rodgers, is going to take the cheeseheads to a Super Bowl victory. Do I agree with this notion?

Go Hawks.