Businesses across all industries have gradually accepted the fact that in order to be successful, they really don’t have much of a choice other than to begin forging their content marketing strategies. But there’s a catch: A vast majority of them admit they’re not really good at it.
Marketers exist to promote their products and ultimately generate new revenue streams. To do this, they’ll place ads in newspapers and on websites, pay for radio and television commercials and write pertinent blog posts, among many other things.
The mistake, it appears, is that many marketers approach digital mediums the same way they approach traditional ones. As a result, their blogs—the cornerstones of their content marketing efforts—often end up more like really long ads than engaging, beneficial content.
At the end of the day, your content should serve three purposes:
- To educate. Your audience should be a little smarter after consuming your content.
- To entertain. When they’re done, your audience should feel like they’ve spent their time wisely.
- To empower. Your audience should feel motivated and confident to go out and act.
Notice what’s missing from that list? You should: It doesn’t mention anything along the lines of “to encourage customers to buy something.”
Need some inspiration as to what that kind of content looks like? Take a look at Chef Jamie Oliver’s YouTube page. How’d he get over 1.1 million subscribers? It’s simple, really: He shows us how to cook, something that accomplishes the aforementioned three purposes at the same time.
In other words, he’s not trying to sell his product. He’s trying to make us better cooks. As a result, we’re probably more likely to be interested in the next thing Oliver is actually selling, because he’s already given us so much—for free.
At the end of the day, you should try to view content marketing more as creating valuable resources that will help fortify the relationships you have with your customers.
There are enough people trying to peddle products every day. You don’t have to be one of them. Be a resource—not a salesperson. Believe it or not, that’s the way you’re most likely to see revenues skyrocket.