Man eats own content audit report

I was reading a blog post on creation a content audit on Content Marketing Institute and about half way through I lost my will to live. It was just so boring.

Useful and relevant, yes. But why does detailing how to do content have to be the arse end of dullsville? I admit my eyes start to glaze over when people gob out terms like kpi and ideation and that horrible, squelchy word, outreach.

We of course need a technical based language in which to communicate and discuss these new techniques. But are they so new. The human brain is the same old wet, bag of chemicals and hormones its ever been. Replete with ancient coding and a highly irrational sub conscious.

The new bit about content marketing is simply the production process and the delivery. The essence and intent of the message is the same as it’s ever been since a cave woman drew a visual description of the hunt the men were exaggerating about just being on.

As ever it’s about communication and persuasion.

And yes I suppose you do need to drop all your content into spreadsheet and analyse. It helps if you gamify the process as it has the danger of turning into a real grindfest.

Let us not forget that “content” is mostly about images and words – and video and audio and animation and…..

Content has never changed the world, never inspired men to the Moon or caused people to rise up and revolt against injustice.

Labels are important, they provide context, they set the scene. The label of “content” tends not to inspire or galvanise, but squat there on the screens, filling a space that was vacant, filling a line on a spreadsheet. When the real context it should be framing is that of something that will change the world, however small. Move the story of human endeavour along just a little bit more. Even if it is to describe the Top Ten best chocolate cakes.

Content audits are important, but let us not forget the power that words and ideas can carry.

It will be words which will send us to Mars, not content.

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An infographic to help your content strategy

Content marketing is not simply about building content. It’s about employing a specific strategy to employ content and social media marketing to improve the emotional response when people come into contact with your brand.

By using a mix of effective, proven content marketing techniques you can increase the way people feel about your brand, enabling positive reactions as they come into contact. Increasing the chances of building links and creating social media shares and mentions.

Source

Citations

Emily Jarvis Christoph Sisson Jay Bear Douglas Holt Peter Noel Murray Joe Pulizzi

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Best Web Designer in Cornwall

I come across a lot of web designers in my time, or rather the work of web designers which I have to fix.  It’s a mistake to think the SEO hates web designers, as their mistakes tend to send a lot of work the SEOs way.

Cornwall web designers are no different of course and some are highly suspicious of SEO, deeming it some kind of evil voodoo and that Google will allow the best websites to rise to the top.

Which is fine if that is your ideology, not so if your job is to claw your way to the top of the Google results for specific keywords.

The mindset of the SEO is to analyse and optimise. You do what needs to be done, which benefits the brand.

I have come across a Cornish web designer which I think gets it.

I’ve never met the guy or been in contact with him, but he has one of the best website development minds I have seen in the South West of England.

The designer is  alittlebitofsomething.co.uk

What I like about the copy on the website, is that it’s different, if stands out and in this current landscape of too much content shovelled into out eyeballs it really matters.

The attitude of the webs designer will annoy a good amount of people, but the people who respond positively will love it. They will become fans, they will share on social media and write blog posts. I wouldn’t expect a digital marketing company in Cornwall to craft such a page, because you have to mean it. You can’t just knock up stuff like this unless you are authentic.

If you want your content marketing to get noticed, then being authentic is a great start.

I have a feeling that this guy will say that what he has done is not about marketing, maybe not.

But lets not get over jargonified. Content marketing is simply two things, communication and persuasion.

And that also the essence of good web design.

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What is the future of Content Marketing

 

Content marketing is street fighting, no holds barred, open warfare.

Content used to be cool.

But that time is gone

it’s no longer art, it’s no longer elegant. Yes the good stuff still exists but it gets drowned out. No one seems prepared to sift through the bytes of shite that are vomited daily.

It’s a myth that good, “quality content” rises to the top. You don’t do content marketing if you love content. You do it if you love the sound of the screams of your competitor make as you rip their eyeballs out.

One of the problems that people have when talking about this subject is they use the past to try and determine what we should do now. Myself included.

What is going to happen in the next 10 years is going to be completely different to what has happened in the past 10 years.

I don’t know what will happen, but I know it will be different.

Therefore, focus on fundamentals.

1. Help people.


2. Care about people, and make bloody sure they know you care.


3. Know your stuff, stay sharp and frosty.

Do those three things and everything else will fall into place.

Update:

Someone pointed out that they were confused about this post and that is mentions war and then “caring about people”. The war is of course metaphorical and directed at the other content your content is fighting against. I realise that using such aggressive terms whilst advising to use empathy may seem contradictory. I do not.

Indeed, when people go to war they care very much for the people they are fighting for. When you create a piece of content it helps to care about the people you are writing for and not such for the content you are compete against.

I think the idea that you are going to war against the competition is a valid one, perhaps I should have made this more clear. It is important to be able to use criticism as fuel to move forward.

I hope this makes things clearer.

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What are the foundations of content marketing?

Content marketing and what it is and what it isn’t.

• Blogging is not content marketing.


• Tweeting is not content marketing.


• Facebook advertising is not content marketing.

Of course the tools above could be what you use to implement content marketing, they are still only tools.

Content marketing has a problem, if everyone follows the same strategy, using the same tools, creating the same content, connecting with the same followers then you will most likely fail.

It’s not that you simply “do” content marketing. But that you must do it better than your competitor.

Not only that, but you must persuade the audience you are communicating with that your content is worthy of their time and therefore their tweet, link, facebook like, brand connection…etc.

Which highlights the two foundations of content marketing.

Communication and persuasion.

1. You must communicate the message, clearly and effectively. You need to transport your message into the brain of the person you are communicating with. If this does not happen, you have failed.


2. You must persuade the person you are communicating with to perform a specific form of action which will meet the objectives of the project. If you do not manage to persuade the minimum amount of people. You have failed.

Everything else, blogging, tweeting, networking…etc is an enabler to allow communication and persuasion to work.

This is what the foundational elements of content marketing are, communication and persuasion.

So when you try to improve your content marketing, don’t just focus on the using the tools, focus on the actual things that make up content marketing.

It is by improving your communication and persuasion skills, and then picking the tool for the job, that you get good at content marketing.

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Make Last Month’s Questions This Month’s Content Strategy

So many clients tell us that they don't know what to write on their company blog or that their topics are boring and will not attract links. Matt Cutts put it nicely at a talk I attended at Google in Dublin last year that "Everybody in this room knows something or knows how to do something that nobody else does. Everybody in this room knows something that someone else WANTS to know". The problem is, how do you find out what that "something" is and how can you tell in advance what the pay off for answering that question will be?