Three Rules for Content Marketing

Do you generate content for SEO? If so, your content might suck.

Growing up, my parents were not the type to resort to pithy maxims in order to induce good behavior.  And when they did, they usually went on to explain the nuances  and theological implications of said maxims to the point that we may have been better off not starting out with the proverbial proverb.

However, they did resort to single phrases in three cases:

1. As we walked out the door they would say, "Make Wise Choices"
2. When opposite gendered guests visited they would say, "No sitting on waffles" 
3. And frequently, "Please, don't tell boring stories"

Interestingly, these three rules apply to content marketing as well.

Content marketing is the marketing strategy du jour, but many companies and brands are hopping on the content marketing bandwagon without really understanding what they are trying to do. The half-assed, misguided efforts results in a lot crappy content.

While big returns on your content marketing strategy require an in depth understanding of the brand strategy, multi-channel marketing strategy, audience analysis and other contextual clues, three rules are enough to get you started.

These rules won't make you into a marketing maven, but they will keep you from generating horrible content that might actually adversely affect your Page Rankings and turn off potential clients or customers.

1. Make Wise Choices

Making wise choices means focusing on adding value to your target audience. It's okay to take risks or even be risque (depending on your brand of course), but never display content that you are ashamed of. This could mean eliminating boring content or offensive content before it ever hits the interwebs.

Choose to generate great content, and choose to strategically share content that you did not create.

Not every blog post will generate dozens of comments, not every tweet will get re-tweeted, but the judicious application of a sound content strategy will yield long term benefits to your brand.  This is your goal, and you must choose to not get sidetracked by vanity metrics.

2. No sitting on Waffles (aka Don't take yourself too seriously)

My parent's would say, "No sitting on waffles" as a way to introduce our opposite gendered friends to the family, but it also served as a reminder to be myself and to not take myself too seriously.  Teenagers can be embarrassed about everything their parents do, but when I cam to expect their random sayings, I learned to love it.

I am not advocating that you go out and embarrass yourself on the world wide web, but for goodness sake, don't take yourself too seriously.  I mean, are you really such a big deal that you cannot afford to laugh? One of the worst mistakes that companies make is taking themselves too seriously in their content presentation, and by serious I mean they are dry and boring.

Your business is interesting otherwise you would not have gone into it in the first place.  It's up to you to highlight what makes you interesting and fun.  The ability to convert a dry subject into an interesting story proves that you are the type of person who adds value which in turn will increase revenue for your business.

Even if your subject matter is serious (perhaps you run a funeral home), you can still have a little fun. Actually, the only mortician I know has a great sense of humor. While a Funeral Home's website might be primarily about respect, celebration of life, and grief, it is completely appropriate to add a little levity to a blog post about planning your own funeral.  After all, your best man already ruined your wedding, you don't want his eulogy to ruin your funeral too.

Your content exists to get people to buy a product or a service from you, but interesting and valuable writing keeps potential customers coming back for more even when they are not particularly in the market to buy.

3. Please, Don't tell boring stories

Any parent or teacher can sympathize with me when I say that kids are pathetic story tellers.  They hyper-focus on the minutia and frequently fail to get to the point.

My parents had five kids, so they had bad stories times five.  While they were certainly patient and loving, my mom would frequently interrupt my poetic ramblings to discern whether or not we were engaging in a conversation or if I was just going to continue with soliloquies.

Generating content for social media should not be a soliloquy. Social media is meant to be social.  Start a conversation, start an argument, do something, or don't publish it.  And if your content is boring and dry, take it down and re-write it.

What about you, do you have any rules for content marketing? I'd love to get links to your thoughts.

Knock, Knock. Who's There? It doesn't matter now. Opportunity Only Knocks Once.

I consider myself to be a pretty funny person, but I only know three jokes.  I actually used to know zero jokes, but then I read a self help blog that promoted the idea that knowing three great jokes would get you ahead in your career.  Since then my salary has increased more than 50%. 

I've never told the jokes to anyone.

Humor, for most brands, has equally ambiguous results. It probably hasn't hurt them, but its mostly ineffective. Think back to the recent Christmas season when KMart not only generated hilarious advertisements; the content actually went viral.  

Did KMart sell any incremental Christmas presents as a result? Their poor year over year comps suggest not. The same could be said for all the "funny" brands.

This is a link to 20 different types of humor ranging from satirical to highbrow to anecdotal. Do you want to know what they all have in common? They all require a sense of timing, surprise and novelty. A great brand example of this is the Oreo Moment from the 2013 Superbowl. 

Nabisco did a lot to raise their brand profile the night of the Superbowl black out, but I wouldn't go so far as to say they had a slam dunk (pun intended). After all, what did Oreo tweet during this year's Superbowl? I don't know, do you? 

The reason it is so tempting for Brands to rely on humor is that Brands want to be relational, and funny people are relational.  However, except for a niche of comedy and entertainment brands, humor is not part of the brand's value statement and in today's hyper connected world meaningful content must build on and emphasize  and enhance the Brand's value, not just raise the Brand's profile.

When you saw KMart's shipped my pants ad, did you order something for KMart?

Why do brands rely so heavily on humor when its not part of their value statement?.