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Content marketing suicide all over the Warrior Forum!

by Steve B
11 replies
I am constantly flabbergasted at the way many Warriors approach content marketing. For whatever reason, it seems to me they are intent on doing just the opposite of what common sense and reason would dictate. Here is what I mean:
  1. Choose to write about a subject that is universally interesting and go for wide appeal and as many eyeballs as possible. I believe you should do just the opposite: tightly niche your subject so that those most interested will find value and great benefit in your content - don't worry about all the others that you'll lose in doing this - concentrate on those who will be your eventual buyers.
  2. Don't offend or be too critical because you don't want to lose potential prospects. I say, most often it is best to take a stance, tell it like it is, and stick to your guns. Wishy-washy and milk-toast opinions are not usually bankable - they suggest you don't really know what you're doing.
  3. Keep it professional, business-like, and forget about "me." No, no. In many ways, you are the business! You can be professional and still show your personality, your sense of humor, and other character traits at the same time. "Business-like" often leads to "boring," "life-less," and "uninspiring" content. If you want to develop a relationship with your readers, let them know who and what you are. It is often said that prospects buy from those they know, like, and trust. How are you going to get to "know, like, and trust" if you hide behind anonymity?
  4. Content quantity, i.e., "the more the better," is an end in itself. Which is better to have available at your web site: 500 niche articles or 50 niche articles? I think most would choose the former. But I say, it's better to author, or outsource, or otherwise produce 50 high quality articles for the same time or money. Yes, I realize article price is not always a reliable indicator of quality - so I don't want to argue that point - but my belief is, generally quality is proportional to cost. So for the same budget you can choose to spend your money on quantity or quality.
  5. Just the facts, please. Readers want the facts and there is no place in your content for stories, humor, asides, references, examples, etc. Many content producers go for "short and sweet," cut-to-the-bone nothing-but-meat content. Keep the articles to 400 words, often less. I don't believe that is what most readers want. Don't be afraid to give "reasons why" and personal examples of the things you say in your content. Spice it up, add some entertainment value, make it interesting and personable. I often produce content that is like a short report of 1,500 words or more. Granted, keep the "fluff" out - no one wants it - but by all means, don't make your content seem like an afterthought with high marks for brevity. Too often, "summaries" just don't exude the value that "in depth" offers.
  6. All content should lead to a sale. I say, if you do that you will never get the reach or interest in your content that you could get if you genuinely try to help your readers and don't expect a purchase in return. Folks don't like to be sold. They'd rather be given answers to their questions and concerns and then make their own judgements about which products are best suited to their needs. I believe the art of "soft selling", in fact, very soft selling, is an incredible tool that content providers can learn to use to make sales without appearing to be selling anything. When the line between "selling" and "helping" is difficult to distinguish, you know you're becoming a skilled content writer.
  7. Content sells itself. No it doesn't. Content, just like any web site, or service, or product, needs to be actively promoted and marketed if it is to be effective and worth the effort to create. The Internet is a vast sea of content. If you want yours to be noticed, you always need to specifically target your audience and drive them to your content. Of course, Internet marketing is all about the details of how to execute that critical step.
I certainly welcome contrasting views and dissimilar conclusions - isn't that what forums are all about?

The best to each of you in your content marketing!

Steve
#content #forum #marketing #suicide #warrior
  • Profile picture of the author serryjw
    Beautiful!...Thanks,
    Serry
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    Steve every once in a while you create a content packed thread that totally owns.

    Lots of gems here.

    PS: I Concur with what you say on every bullet. (Well I could actually argue on a few of the points, but I think you're largely "on point").

    Anyway, here's my smaller list. And it contains to all avenues of content creation.

    My hypothesis on content dissemination best practice:

    1 - Create content that people will give a damn about. The days of "gaming" for "seo juice" are done.

    2 - Inject your own personality. Do people realize how many training manuals there are in the planet? Infinite quantities. What's the ratio of people who actually read them? Probably really poor.

    3 - Entertain your audience. Go back to my "Training manual" analogy; there's a reason they don't get read.

    4 - Forget SEO. I'm going to get lots of hatemail here, but create content for humans first. If the SEO gods deem you worthy of notice, it's a great bonus. But people before algorithm intelligence.

    5 - Create content as frequently as possible. A lot of people will argue with me here, but it's important for you not to be forgotten. I don't care if you're a blogger, writer, or email marketer, create lots of content, and create it fast. (Otherwise, people will forget you).

    Just my $.02.
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    Well written, Steve. I agree with what you have said also.
    I totally agree about personality. Every writer is different and it's their personality that makes them that way.
    I wrote an article recently for a new client and she praised me for injecting some humour into the article while still making it informative and "on point." This wasn't something she had experienced with writers before using me and now I am going to be her only writer.
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  • Profile picture of the author zahanega
    This is a great post I agree with 6...many people get discouraged when their initial sales letters and articles don't generate the sales/traffic they expected. The key is to be persistent and stick with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author datingworld
    What brilliant points. Fantastic.
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    • Profile picture of the author altitudemarketer
      I agree Steve B... I guess you weren't controversial enough

      That was good content though... It was a fairly long post... but breaking it down into a list and the like/dislike format kept me interested.

      I think quality over quantity wins the audience and has longevity, but sometime short and sweet in quantity can boost marketing efforts, and add subscribers... so that's why people do it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tijs
        Excellent post! What you state about facts, I believe that is true in part. People like a story but it should be placed halfway through the article to clarify the facts written in the beginning of the post. Didn't think about it, but it's good to remember people are looking for facts.

        Also, that every piece of content should be leading to a sale is something I didn't realize too, will give that one a thought ;-)
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve B
        Originally Posted by Mark Hopkins View Post

        I agree Steve B... I guess you weren't controversial enough

        That was good content though... It was a fairly long post... but breaking it down into a list and the like/dislike format kept me interested.

        I think quality over quantity wins the audience and has longevity, but sometime short and sweet in quantity can boost marketing efforts, and add subscribers... so that's why people do it.
        Mark,

        You are right about this being a long post. When you think about it, forums are probably not the best place for full blown attacks on topics that need further discussion.

        In addition, it's difficult to do a series of posts on the same subject because forum visitation is often sporadic and folks may not get much value out of seeing one post in a seven part series!

        On your second point, "short and sweet," I totally agree. Often folks don't have the time or interest to read a long article. In many instances, for example if you have a blog, it is often best to break you content into separate posts that reference each other. It's a little harder to do that on a forum since their is little continuity from thread to thread.

        Thanks for your great observations.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author KenJ
    Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

    I am constantly flabbergasted at the way many Warriors approach content marketing. For whatever reason, it seems to me they are intent on doing just the opposite of what common sense and reason would dictate. Here is what I mean:

    [*]Keep it professional, business-like, and forget about "me." No, no. In many ways, you are the business! You can be professional and still show your personality, your sense of humor, and other character traits at the same time. "Business-like" often leads to "boring," "life-less," and "uninspiring" content. If you want to develop a relationship with your readers, let them know who and what you are. It is often said that prospects buy from those they know, like, and trust. How are you going to get to "know, like, and trust" if you hide behind anonymity?
    Nice post SteveB

    I often think that writers have taken a personality bypass. There is so little humour(UK spelling) and free thinking in their writing. The other addition I like is personal anecdotes and stories from life. These will humanise any writing content.

    KenJ
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  • Profile picture of the author emelef
    I agree with the mass marketing approach criticism. When you market to everyone you market to no-one!

    Be prepared to polarise your audience. The ones that love you love you, the rest will hate you. That's Okay.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Spot on...

      Too many people confuse professional and/or busineeslike with "corporate".

      I'm trying to recall where I read it, but I came across something related to using your own voice and injecting personality into what you do.
      There are about 7 billion people on the planet. So if we're all "one in a million", there are around 7,000 people just like each of us, potentially interested in what we have to offer.
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