One of the ways quality content can work in Internet marketing is to position your company as a knowledge center. Your knowledge space supports your brand and your customers’ need for information. Planning, creating, and publishing relevant content serves as a pathway for successful Internet marketing.
How is Content Like a Campfire?
A campfire fills a need whether for outdoor cooking, light, or warmth. A campfire is isolated and controlled, drawing people towards it even when they are lost. A mood and expectation surround it. This small, functional and aesthetic space attracts people. A call to action is also present. To keep it going, a campfire needs to be tended.
So does content.
When I prepare content for a website I answer questions posed by the four Ps: Purpose, Process, Problem, and Practice. People are making decisions everyday on what to engage with. Remember the campfire. It shows immediate relevance. Its value is recognizable. So should your content be.
Purpose
Quality content resolves a need, want, or force. Website visitors start the conversation, usually with a question. Know them well enough to answer their questions. Help them counteract any opposing forces.
Process
Understand where in the product purchase cycle your prospects are and provide them with obvious pathways to finding what they need. Show them you are different. Demonstrate your expertise.
Problem
Address problems. Offer solutions. Help visitors complete their task. Discover trails that lead to success. Product descriptions, instructions, and training are problem busters throughout the buying cycle.
Practice
Explain your product or service well enough for the buyer to make a decision. What is getting in the way? Be clear and concise. Speak directly to your target market. Simplify.
You are not fighting forest fires. You are adding kindling to your campfire. Site visitors will become a part of your circle. Let competitors put their fires out; you feed yours. Keep your site well tended with content that is fresh, relevant, and recognizable.
Quality content is like a campfire because it serves a purpose, solves a problem, attracts attention, and creates a space for conversations.
Notes From CONFAB, The Content Strategy Conference
CONFAB was a first of its kind conference held in Minneapolis this week. Planners brought together leaders in the field of content strategy to discuss best practices, dispel myths, and bring thoughtful solutions to business needs for quality content. Here are my highlight notes from the first morning of the two day conference.
What is Content Strategy and Why is it Important?
Definitions, Needs, & Roles
Content is defined as everything that can be uploaded to an online site.
Content needs to be planned prior to launch dates, during, and beyond. Inconsistent content through channels is a problem. Multi-platform content development is critical. Get rid of the silos. Content needs to be nimble. Content is a business asset.
Establish a visual rhythm that is recognizable across channels.
A content strategist articulates, investigates, integrates, appreciates, and ideates. They set procedures for content creation, delivery, and governance. They ask: “How can we make content grow by applying urgency and purpose?”
SEO cannot solve the content problem. Even Google has abandoned the word “search” in favor of “knowledge”.
Content Curation
Content curators are finders who filter information. Information created up to the year 2003 totaled 5 exabytes. That amount is now being created every two days. “I can’t keep up” was expressed by 46% of survey respondents. Sleeping less was a solution for 34% of information consumers.
Humans are replacing algorithms. Ideas are replacing data. “What are people thinking?” is the question to ask; not “How do I manipulate search engines?”
Choose your endorsements, “Likes,” retweets, links, and posts carefully. That is curating the web.
Listening is more powerful than speaking. Gather, organize, and filter good stuff. Monitor for positive re-enforcement and use it as social proof.
In a noisy world, customers embrace clarity.
Questions That Support Quality Content
Where does our data live and why?
What can people do with our content?
What can they do with what they create from our content?
What is our framework for building content?
What’s working? What is not working?
What kind of place does the content create?
How is the content connected?
What forces does content resolve?
How do you keep control of your own content?
Interactions
Reactive and fragmented response is poor content delivery.
Deliver the right information at the right time to the right audience.
Recommend. Share. Be social.
Serve up content.
Business Needs
Move content from a cost center to a profit center by meeting business objectives.
Marketing focuses on new leads, not base. What does your base need and want? How satisfied are they? Existing customers may be more valuable than new customers.
Teach everyone what good content looks like.
* Thank you Kristina Halvorson, Steve Rosenbaum, Erin Kissane and Valeria Maltoni for sharing your thoughts at CONFAB.