MARKETING TOOLBOX
When you create content, your goals should be ... FOR CONTENT CREATION THE WINNING FORMULA
When I was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, information was a valued possession. It was rare and hard to get. You had to go to the library if you wanted to find information in any vast quantities. In the late ’90s, I got my first computer that had a modem, and with a few chirps, beeps, and other strange noises, I was blazing through the internet at 14.4k speed. At the time, domain names were still $75 per year, and online video was not even on the average person’s radar. Now that the internet has been changing our lives for over 20 years, information has gone from a rare resource to a commodity. It is freely and cheaply available nearly 100 percent of the time. So, that begs the question ... in a world of cheap and free information, how do you stand out? How do you get people to take notice of you? You could Google the answer, and when I did just now, I didn’t get the answers I was looking for, which is all too common a problem with such a vast amount of information. Another problem with free information is that you often get garbage answers. How many times have you clicked on a business article only to find that the “Top 5 Ways to Do XYZ” is a list of the most basic ways to accomplish XYZ? Solving this problem is a big deal, and I guess that’s one reason Google makes the big bucks — they are the best of the worst at this. But all of that still leaves us with the original question. The simple answer to this complicated question is content. You must create content that is unique and adds value to the conversation. This is much easier said than done, though. Content creation is like any skill. It takes time and effort to learn how to write well or sound good on a podcast. There’s not much most of us can do to look good on video, but at least we can make sure we don’t hurt ourselves by looking worse. How do small businesses stand out and get others to take notice of them?
1. ENTERTAINMENT: People want to be entertained, and injecting your
personality into any content you create can be one way to entertain people as well as make your content unique to you.
2. INFORMATION: I’m constantly asking content creators to make sure when they write they have strong points and don’t waste my time. I don’t want to read fluff. I want answers to my questions in a definitive way. 3. CONSISTENCY: So many people start creating content and can’t keep up with a regular schedule. No one wants to read the same information over and over again. Everyone wants something new, so give it to them. 4. TO ACCOMPLISH ONE THING: You should create very focused content with the goal of narrowing in on one subject. So many people record a video or write an article and want to go over 20 different topics, but that’s insane! Make those topics into 20 different articles and videos. 5. TO TELL THEM WHAT’S NEXT: The final goal of content creation should point the consumer of the content to what’s next. This could be more articles, a call to action, etc. One question I often get is, how long should my content be? There is no magic number. The content needs to be as long as necessary to cover the information needed. Of course, there are people who will tell you the best length of time for a video is 3–5 minutes. Inc. magazine wants 700–800- word articles. Entrepreneur wants 600–900-word articles. Everyone has a different opinion of what
the best length or time is. Many will quote stats about drop-off points in videos after five minutes, but the truth of the matter is, the person likely dropped off because they found out they were in the wrong place, you answered their question, or you were boring. People will watch and consume content, but not if you are boring. With the world literally at our fingertips, boring doesn’t work — unless, of course, your target market is members of the Dull Man’s Club (DullMensClub.com). If that is the case, people may consume all of your content, regardless of the boredom factor.
One final note: I often get asked, ”What type of content should a business create?”
That is a much more complicated topic, because it depends on the type of business you’re in, and answering that question here would violate goal No. 4 on our list. But to keep in compliance with goal 5, I will point you to the following article from my blog: NewsletterPro.com/the-content-code.
– Shaun
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