Transcription
Many marketers seem to think that simply having well constructed content that is of interest to their audience is enough for their content. Well it might be if you’re operating in a niche with little competition, but in most markets you’re going to have to be more ambitious or you’ll never cut through the noise.
In fact, in my opinion, content marketing is one of those endeavours where the higher you set your sights, the better. That way, even if you only ever get half way there, you’re going to guarantee you’re doing something a hell of a lot more interesting than 95% of other brands in your market.
So what do I mean when I say be ambitious – well it could be that you want to build a community around a certain topic. It might be that you intend to engage with key influencers, although in most consumer markets now that’s not even really a competitive advantage any more. It might be that you intend for the brand to become famous for a particular form of insight or data. It may be that you’re going to hold an annual event each year for your industry, or publish a book.
Whatever it is, this ambitious goal will give direction to all your activity to ensure it’s all aligned, and it will also help you to get the buy in of other stakeholders, whether they’re internal or external, as they will be genuinely excited and intrigued by what you’re trying to achieve.
Finally, this big idea will ensure you are actually developing an asset over time. Something that accumulates value with each month. Rather than a disjointed series of very nice but completely diffuse array of activities that add up to anything.
So whatever your goal is, make sure it’s big. Being 3% better than the competition is not a strategy. You’ve got to aim to be 300% better or do something else that they’ve never even thought of.
