Content marketing topics abound online, but is content marketing really essential for online marketers? The answer to that is no. Content, for the sake of content, is a waste of time and money. Your content should be designed to support one objective; turning prospects into customers.
A client of mine was sold a CMS solution that required them to supply content on a regular basis. The problem is that they could only supply so many topics on their product which was a high end chocolate bar. Additional content is not going to turn prospects into customers unless it solves their problem or presents your product as an opportunity to indulge.
One of the reasons that facebook is taking up so much time of online users is because it acts like an animated RSS feed that learns from their use of the site. Why go to four or five different sites when you can scan headlines and get the information you want via your facebook page?
I recently had a chance to read some research on how new moms are using the Internet. The findings indicated that new moms are reading and sharing content from other new moms, but that a lot of branded content is going unnoticed. The findings also indicated that although they use the web as a source of information they just don’t have the time to spend as much time online. Millennial’s women, who aren’t new moms, also said that they are often overwhelmed with content on sites they follow and have to make decisions about what content will draw them into the brand.
Your content should be..
1ne: Straight to the point – Limit your word count as there is a direct correlation between readership drop off and length.
2wo: Should have a headline that grabs attention – test your headlines via online tools that are available.
3hree: Support your brand objective – stop content for content’s sake.
4our: Be mobile friendly – use callouts and images that support your main idea.
I agree, to a certain extent, that brands are media now, but what we also have to remember is that there are a lot of brand/products that consumers just have to deliver on the product not online content or even social media to drive sales and that’s what it’s all about.
