Why Some Content Hurts Your Marketing Instead of Helping It
Marketing begins and ends with content. We’ve talked about this exhaustively, as you know. But… could you create content that ISN’T good content for marketing? Are there types of content that simply aren’t going to nurture people, provide value to them, and help them along their journey to becoming a customer or client?
Yes. Yes there are. And we see it all the time.
The answer starts with having an effective content strategy before you create a single word.
Why Getting Your Content Right Matters More Than Creating More of It
As we state in our prior post, Increasing the ROI of Your Content, you can reduce your potential business by as much as 40% – and damage your reputation in your market – by missing the mark with your content. Which begs the question, of course, “what misses the mark?”.
Why These Content Mistakes Cost You Audience Trust and Revenue
#1: Blog Posts That Read Like Sales Pitches
Blog posts aren’t meant for that. Leverage your blog posts to provide value to the readers. Illuminate a pain point by telling a story. Provide guidance in a particular area. Share your insights on a specific position. Overall, you want to open the thinking of your reader, not hit them on the head with a product or pitch.
#2: Blog Posts With Bottom-of-Funnel Calls to Action
Yes, you can have a call to action to set an appointment, but not within the text of the post itself. If you want to have a call to action WITHIN the blog post, create a document of some sort that your reader can download.
Your blog readers are likely at the top or middle of the funnel. They’re not likely ready to set an appointment – a definite bottom-of-the-funnel action. Give them something they want in the form of a checklist, eBook, or other document they can download WITHOUT any obligation to meet with you.
#3: Webinars That Promise Value but Deliver Only Product Demos
This is a hard one, especially for software companies, and we get that. But realize that, unless you wrote and own the software, a product demo can be had anywhere – and without having to register and join your email list. If you promote a webinar in a way that promises value to the attendee, but simply do a product demo, you’ll lose the respect of your audience.
Instead of a product demo, share THINKING with your audience. A new way to think about an old problem, a new problem that has arisen with the changes in technology, a position on a problem that you can illuminate further – these will all have more value than the latest feature-fest demo.
#4: Gating Sales Literature Behind Opt-In Forms
Just don’t. Your sales literature – descriptions of your products or services – should be freely available without any opt-in form. Gating your sales literature (putting an opt-in form in front of it before someone can access it) will increase your abandonment rate – the rate at which people leave your site. This is especially true if you are selling a product made by someone else – your readers can get that content “for free” (without opting in) in many other places.
#5: Self-Promotional Content That Offers No Reader Value
You are not adding value to your readers’ lives with “We have a new website!” or “Announcing our new VP of Sales.” If you really want to, you could have an Announcements section on your website, but don’t use that content as marketing content. It will fall flat with your readers – right into the “so what, who cares” camp of content.
#6: Overly Broad Content That Resonates With No One
When you are trying to address a very broad audience with a single piece of content, you’ll lose that entire audience. When you try to go broad, you can only go about an inch deep, whereas dialing in your content to a specific audience allows you to go a mile deep (and an inch wide)—this focused marketing approach is fundamental to effective content strategy. Being “generic” isn’t good marketing.
How Broad Content Fails Every Reader – and What Specific Content Achieves
No one can relate to generic content. No one is generic. Dial it in – get specific for a particular segment of your market – with each piece of content. Get specific with a different segment with the next piece of content. Before you know it, you’ll have built a content library that will allow you to more fully understand your perfect potential customers. And that is when your marketing can hit a whole ‘nother level.
#7: Content That Tries to Take Readers From Problem to Solution in One Step
Trying to use one piece of content to take people from problem all the way to solution is a marketing mis-step. As we said in the prior post, “don’t boil the ocean.” Take people one inch of the way along their journey. Link them to a post or content piece that can move them another inch. If you want them to move forward a foot, give them twelve inches.
When a post or content piece tries to do too much, you end up befuddling your reader – and they won’t make ANY decision because they’re lost. Don’t let them get lost. One inch at a time – remember that. This same principle applies directly to email – the value-to-pitch email formula gives you a practical structure for moving readers forward one step at a time without overwhelming them.
How to Test Whether Your Content Is Actually Working
Overall, your content needs to pass a very important test.
The “So What? Who Cares?” Test for Every Piece of Content
If your answer to that question is very broad – “anyone who does marketing,” for example, then your content isn’t dialed in enough. Like this post – I expect the people who will care about this post are people who want to get MORE out of their content – or who are not getting ENOUGH out of their content and can’t figure out why.
Very specific. I wrote this post for THOSE people, so I can get very deep on the topic without being concerned about also talking to the people who want better results from email, are struggling with their website performance, or are just learning how to do marketing. (We have other posts for people in those camps.) For example, if you’re wrestling with how to apply this thinking to your inbox, our post on email content strategy walks through exactly how to channel your ideas into messages that actually serve your readers.
Dial In Your Content to the Right Audience Segment
Think about your SEGMENTS and how you can address them with a piece of content. The answer to your “So what? Who cares?” question should be specific – so you are talking to the right people with the right content – and at the right depth.
Remember, trying to go too broad means you’ll hit nothing. And falling into any of the 7 traps we outlined above also means you’ll hit nothing. If you want your content to perform for you, you’ve got to provide what your readers want to hear – not what you want to say.
Can I get a HALLELUJAH from the choir please?
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of content hurt your marketing instead of helping it?
Blog posts that read like sales pitches, blog posts with bottom-of-funnel calls to action, webinars that promise value but deliver only product demos, gating sales literature behind opt-in forms, self-promotional content that offers no reader value, overly broad content that resonates with no one, and content that tries to take readers from problem to solution in one step.
Should you gate your sales literature behind an opt-in form?
Just don't. Your sales literature — descriptions of your products or services — should be freely available without any opt-in form. Gating your sales literature will increase your abandonment rate — the rate at which people leave your site.
How do you know if your content is targeted to the right audience?
When you are crafting content, whether blog post or a document your audience can download, ask yourself this very important question: So what? Who cares? If your answer to that question is very broad — 'anyone who does marketing,' for example, then your content isn't dialed in enough.
Why is broad content ineffective for marketing?
When you are trying to address a very broad audience with a single piece of content, you'll lose that entire audience. When you try to go broad, you can only go about an inch deep, whereas dialing in your content to a specific audience allows you to go a mile deep (and an inch wide). Being 'generic' isn't good marketing.
How much ground should a single piece of content try to cover?
Take people one inch of the way along their journey. Link them to a post or content piece that can move them another inch. If you want them to move forward a foot, give them twelve inches. When a post or content piece tries to do too much, you end up befuddling your reader — and they won't make ANY decision because they're lost.
