Selling with Content

Exploiting content marketing's dirty secret: most content is a commodity.

Content marketing is becoming a victim of its own success. As more organizations invest more in content development (Hey, everybody's got a web site!) the sheer volume of content being released goes way up. The more content that is created means that more of it will be similar and thus it becomes a commodity.

The number of websites alone has doubled in the past three years (chart below). More sites, more content.

Total Sites Across All Domains
August 1995 - November 2010

 

Today, smart content developers are shifting their efforts from content creation to UNIQUE content creation.

Research your market.

Before you can create content that is new, you need to know what kind of information is common. It is not enough to understand your reading habits, you need to know about everyone else's.

Hire journalists to tell your story.

There is big difference between a company announcement and a great story. Journalists are trained to find unique stories. It is a skill in its own right.

Hire bloggers to tell your story.

People who write in a market every day know what is commonly covered and what is not. Bloggers can often find different stories.

If you can become a provider of unique content you change the dynamic of the content flow around you. Why? Because you become a content originator, not just a content repackager.

In 1997 my book, Tough Calls, came out. As the first national release of an unknown business writer expectations were low. My publisher told me most business books sell less than 3,000 copies in their lifetime and if I could hit that number I should be happy.

But my book had a secret weapon build into it: an imaginative survey that offered new insight into problem customer behavior.

Within a year of the book's release I had been asked to share survey insights with appearances on CNN, CNBC, Wall Street Journal TV (twice), and The Fortune Business report. Book sales were bolstered by international translations. The Korean edition alone hit the 3,000 copy mark.

You can click on the picture to see a video clip from four of my 1997 television appearances. Unique content sells!

 

A history of content marketing in under 3 minutes

Digital media has made it easy for brands to embrace content marketing and tell their story. But companies have created user centric content for hundreds of years before. This short video timelines the history of company created content starting with "The Furrow," a customer magazine published by John Deere in 1895, right up to the present. Along with a rocking sound track from Robert Rose of the Content Marketing Institute this video offers great perspective.   

  

Message to marketers: "We are all publishers now."

Content creation for traditional media and public relations is very different from creating content for a content marketing program. In this short video, content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi explains the difference.