In Content Marketing, Aim for Signal, Not Noise

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With 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day, the true test of leadership isn’t managing it all – it’s mining what matters, Jess Carter writes in the Indianapolis Business Journal.  The “noise” tends to derive, she explains, from three sources:

  • Internal (bottlenecks within your company or practice)
  • External (industry hype, competitor activities)
  • Data noise (metrics and un-validated insights)

True leaders do not chase each new trend, instead filtering the noise in search of signals, which tell those leaders either to remain on track to realize their own goals or that a “course correction” might be needed.

This IBJ article reminds me of the importance of including, in content marketing, owners’ opinions along with news and information. Whether it’s business-to-business or business-to-consumer content creation, the content needs to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers. When online readers find have found their way to a post, article, or blog, one question they need answered is “Who lives here?” Providing information about products and services is important, but in terms of conveying meaning and offering perspective – that takes sharing opinion. 

At Say It For you, we know that, when we’re telling the story of a business or a practice to consumers, we choose, in each case, to “frame” that story a certain way. Chris Anderson, head of TED Talks, reminds speakers to do a jargon check based on audience research, eliminating technical terms and acronyms that will be unfamiliar to listeners. Beyond that, though, it is the “worldview” of the entrepreneurs themselves that must be “framed” in the content.

Carter refers to the “noise” that is created in any field, with a constant barrage of data and un-validated insights in the form of “news”. When it comes to content marketing, we’ve found at Say It For you, the word “news” can mean several different things:

  1. Your own news: You’re introducing a new employee or partner, a new product line or service. That news needs to be presented in such a way that readers will consider it relevant to their needs.
  2. Community news: You’re giving an update on “what’s-going-on-and-how-do-we-fit-in”.
  3. Industry or professional news that can affect your audience.

While content marketing provides the framework for sharing news, it’s the business owner’s or the professional practitioner’s opinion and perspective that helps readers “hear” the signals and ignore the “noise”.

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Getting-to-Know-Me Marketing

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In One Great Speech, veteran speakers’ agent James Marshall Reilly tells compelling stories about dozens of successful speakers, teaching how to hone a message so that other people will pay to hear it… As I noted in this blog earlier this week, as content marketers, that’s precisely what we’re aiming to do – position our clients so that “other people”, namely their target audience, will want what it is they have to offer…

Personal branding is incredibly important, Reilly asserts. Take any of these rising companies (he cites TOMS Shoes and Zappos as examples). and “there are strong leaders in front of the brand”, he says. We feel like we know the CEO personally. “When we like the company or brand’s leader, their businesses do well.”

At Say It For You, we know that getting personal is a huge element in the success of any content marketing effort.  As Practical eCommerce’s Paul Chaney says about blogging, “Blogging consists of one person – or one company – communicating directly with consumers in an unfettered, unfiltered manner.” In practical terms, what that means is that content writers must focus on personal anecdotes and on the personal values of the business owners and practitioners offering products and professional services.

Marketing content may be about business, but it had better be about people as well, and that includes both online searchers and online blog content writers, both buyers and sellers. In fact, “Getting down and human” in business blogs is so important that it becomes a good idea for a business owner and professional to actually write about past mistakes and struggles.

At the same time, as cantata.com/mavinlink cautions, it’s important not to fall into the “TMI” trap, boring or shocking readers with overly personal, trite information. Using first and second person pronouns helps keep the blog conversational rather than either academic-sounding or sales-ey, we teach content writers. In fact, as I often emphasize, whether, as a business or practice owner you propose to do the content writing yourself or collaborate with a professional content writer, the very process of deciding what to include and how is one of self-discovery.

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Turnarounds are Content Marketing Treasure

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Rather than rethinking, one of the most annoying things people do is saying ‘That’s not what our experience has shown”, Adam Grant points out in his book Think Again. There’s joy in being wrong, Grant asserts. so he encourages business owners to “tout their doubt”. And, precisely because you’re pointing the finger at yourself, not at your clients and customers, Grant says, they are more likely to accept your business changes of direction as signs of strength and progress, not as indications of weakness. In fact, in hiring and promoting employees, he posits, agility will be more valuable than ability – we should bet on people with the flexibility to change.

It isn’t easy. “Communicating a successful turnaround requires a blend of honesty, strategic clarity and ongoing engagement with stakeholders,” Dave Platter writes in Forbes. “Any company in need of a turnaround will be under extreme scrutiny”. It will be important to “articulate a clear and compelling vision for the future.” However, “a well-communicated turnaround story can transform market perceptions and lead to a new lease on life…”.

Sharon Tanton asks, What if you want to shift the focus of what you do?. Maybe your priorities have changed, you’ve spotted a gap in the market, or just realized that you need a change of direction. Your move could make sense in a client’s mind, she says, especially if you find a way of continuing the service they’ve grown to rely on from you. Are there big linking themes that will help you make your new story feel like a natural extension of what people already know and love about you? Start telling people, Tanton advises:

  • Explain why the change is happening.
  • If there’s a back story (maybe a personal one), share it.
  • Tell how your clients stand to benefit.

Andy Mowat advises business owners to think about their work in two “buckets”: Run-the-business (TTB) and Change-the-business (CTB). Most business and practice owners spend most of their time on RTB tasks, Mowat admits, but ideally should be spending time and effort on both.

In a way, this discussion relates to a dilemma that faces us creators of marketing content. Sometimes we learn that information we’d posted months -or even years ago isn’t true, or at least isn’t true any longer:

  • Someone posted a comment that contradicted what you said, and, upon looking into the matter, you discover you’d been mistaken.
  • You’ve learned there’s some better way to solve a problem, a solution you didn’t know about then, or perhaps one that didn’t even exist at the time you wrote that content.
  • The “regs” have changed in the industry, and the old information is simply outdated.

What’s the best way to handle that situation? Some content writers make corrections by using strikethrough text on the original entry, followed with the correct version, while others use italics, bolding, or notes at the top or bottom of the original post. The method I prefer is to use new content to share what the business/owner now understands is the better solution to a problem or new knowledge that’s been acquired.

Readers will appreciate the honesty of the update. In fact, “turnarounds” can turn out to be content marketing treasure!

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Solve for the Monkey in Your Content

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“We waste our time chasing the wrong projects,” writes Jason Feifer in Entrepreneur Magazine. “There’s no point in building pedestals if you can’t solve for the monkey,” he explains, referring to a problem-solving framework created by Alphabet (Google’s parent company) – Can you teach a monkey to recite Shakespeare while standing on a pedestal? Unless the essential, pivotal problem is solvable — Can monkeys actually learn to recite Shakespeare? — there’s no use focusing on other aspects of the challenge.

To find your “monkey”, Feifer advises, ask yourself – “If I solved this problem and it was a great success, what major change would have gotten me there?” Stop spending time on fruitless steps, he says. Go get that monkey!

“When we talk with companies about the biggest challenges they face in growing revenues, we hear a consistent complaint,” Thomas Sittenburgh and Michael Ahearne write in Harvard Business Review.  “Companies that have invested millions to dream up new-to-the-world innovations need to become more adept at selling them to customers.”

Should you focus on the problem or the solution?  Focusing on the client means you sell the problem, not the solution, Emma Rose explains in Idea Rocket. Others insist that customers know their own pain points, and what they need is to understand is why your product is special in terms of solving that problem. In a “mature” market, it’s important to focus on the specifics of your solution (what you do better than anyone else and why you are unique).

Applying those viewpoints to our clients’ content marketing challenges, at Say It For You we’ve found that defining a problem, even when offering statistics about that problem, isn’t enough to galvanize prospects into action. But showing you not only understand the root causes of a problem, but have experience providing solutions to that very problem can help drive the marketing process forward. Searchers are unlikely to follow you into a “deep subject dive” unless they perceive that you’ve “solved for their monkey” and know how to ‘tame-and-teach” the creature!

 

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How Do We Know What We Know and Let Them Know It?

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How do we learn to string words together into statements? How do we know to say “I don’t have much money”, but that the opposite is not “I have much money”? How do we know that “a picture of Paul” and “a picture of Paul’s” mean totally different things? In his piece in the March issue of the Mensa Bulletin, Richard Lederer ponders these language mysteries. Think about it, he urges. Why do we say “the bicycle is next to the building”, but never “the building is next to the bicycle”?

“In marketing, language is a key tool for influencing, persuading, and manipulating an audience,” writes Sambuno. Through language, marketers create messages that are tailored to the specific target audience in order to elicit a desired response.

  • a car company might use language that appeals to the emotion of safety and security when targeting parents who are car shopping for their families.
  • a fashion company might use language that appeals to the desire for self-expression when targeting young adults.

Marketers can craft a powerful emotional bond with the audience through carefully selected language. We may not know precisely why “I have much money” sounds funny, but grammar matters in content marketing. “When you publish content with grammar mistakes, you risk affecting your reputation, search engine rankings, and even conversion rates,” SEO.com explains. “While some grammar errors won’t affect communication, others will force people to re-read your content or guess what you’re trying to say.”

On the other hand…. (I enjoyed reading this dissenting commentary on the subject of perfect grammar): “Nobody cares how well-written it is, unless it solves a real problem, or who wrote the article, as long as it makes sense.”

While, at Say It For You, I reassure content writers that, if their marketing blog posts are filled with valuable, relevant, and engaging material, the fact they wrote  “a lot” when they should have said “many” or substituted “your” for “you’re” isn’t going to be a content marketing deal breaker.

We’re out to focus readers’ attention on the bicycle or the building, not on which is next to which!

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