How to Get Content Right

My favorite blog right now is Junta42 by Joe Pulizzi. He really provides the strategy behind the vast jungle of social media tools. It is all about content--but the right kind of content.

A client recently called in a panic saying one of their competitor's web sites was using the same tools we were using with our client. "It's the same!" our client told us. Perhaps. Visually it appeared to be following the Hubspot model, but when you examined the content the difference was clear.

They'd missed it!

Their content was still product-centric and promotional.

The biggest challenge facing marketers trying to win in the social media space is the dramatic shift in messaging strategy. It's no longer "your message", it's the "buyers' message". Marketers are really struggling with this. They are using the new tools and new media, but they are still using the same old messaging strategy and it isn't working.

Here's a simple way to determine if your content is right. Great content satifies these five criteria:

1. Is the content about a customer problem, challenge, or pain that may or may not be directly connected to your product or service?

2. Does the content provide answers to the questions your customers are asking?

3. Is your content honest; absent of spin, persuasion, and adjectives?

4. Is it easy to find and access?

5. Is it complete, providing the full details (good and bad)?

Next time you are developing content for your web site, blog or social media world, ask yourself these five questions and see where you are.

Surrender Control to Your Customer

We were in a meeting with Envano an innovative social media marketing firm and the owner shared Joe Pulizzi's book Get Content. Get Customers. with us. Turns out one of their clients is featured in the book.

I am a big fan of Joe Pulizzi. Other than the fact that he is enormously articulate, he's right. Here's a summary of his take on content:

Content marketing is not easy because you actually have to listen to your customers and know what their challenges are. You cannot solve your marketing woes through buying advertising space. You must make a connection to your customers, and get new customers, by focusing on their true pain points and healing them with information.

There are millions of "social media experts" out there. Unfortunately, the majority are experts on tools, devices, and technology. Very few are experts on understanding the customer. Why? Because it's hard.

The recent Johnson & Johnson Motrin debacle is a great example.

Why Understanding the Customer is Hard.

Getting insights about the customer is not the challenge. A wealth of data is readily available. The real barrier is "surrendering control". I would argue that marketers know what their customers' want, but the marketers are unwilling to surrender control. Johnson & Johnson's ad agency tried to tell the customer who they are (or control brand perception) and it blew up in their face. Recently, we did a market study for an ad agency and gave them the unvarnished truth about the customer and the tools needed to engage them (lots of social media). They responded that they didn't want that. They either didn't know how to do what we recommended or didn't know how to make money doing it. They asked us to change the report to include tools they knew how to produce and could make money doing. WARNING! This is the norm not the exception.

Technology Isn't the Answer

Now the opposite of the example above is also true. Don't look to the new world of social media to solve the problem. It is not a solution. It is a wonderful tool to help marketers solve the problem. The problem is engaging the customer. The other problem is all the resources (vendors) available to help marketers don't care about engaging the customer, they only care about selling the services they offer.

Don't Try to Be the Smartest Person in the Room

The day's of Darren Stevens are over. Marketers don't need to be geniuses trying to create the next "big idea". They simply need to listen to their customers and give them what they want--not what marketers want to sell.

It's About Content.

As Joe Pulizzi points out, it is all about content; content that is meaningful and valuable to the customer. To do that, you must be willing to surrender control to the customer.

Keep up the good work Joe!