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The Three Dimensions of Content Marketing

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“Researchers looking for strategies and solutions for increasing financial literacy have identified three dimensions,” Jalene Hahn explains in the Indianapolis Business Journal, consisting of knowledge, attitude, and awareness.

The goals of content marketing, it occurred to me, are the same as those named by Hahn:

Knowledge:

When it comes to content marketing, teaching is the new selling. With so much ready access to so many sources of information, visitors to your site want to know that you and your organization have something new to add. At the same time, people generally don’t like to have their assertions and assumptions challenged, even when they’ve arrived seeking information on a particular subject. As content writers, we want our vendor or practitioner clients to be perceived as subject matter experts offering usable information and insight in addition to readers’ own knowledge level.

Attitude:

In the book Stop Hiring Losers , when authors Minesh and Kim Baxi  talk about hiring and retaining good employees,  they name six defining attitudes, or things that motivate different people. These include learning, money, beauty/harmony, altruism, power, and principle. When it comes to content marketing, the secret is knowing your particular audience and thinking about how they (not the average person, but specifically “they”) would probably react or feel about your approach to the subject at hand.

Awareness:

Social media can be used to raise awareness about social issues and encourage users to make changes in their own lives, a University of Plymouth professor explains. Online search can’t create awareness of something people don’t know exists. Once awareness is raised, readers are ready to learn more from reading content and become more engaged.

As is true of helping consumers gain financial literacy, content marketing is a way of helping business owners and professional practitioners use the three dimensions of  knowledge, attitude and awareness to appeal to their online audiences.

 

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Content Marketing Using How-Tos and How-To-Avoids

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How do people avoid killing themselves when swallowing swords? According to The Big Book of Big Secrets, one of the secrets is not swallowing. When you stand and face upward, the upper gastrointestinal tract is straight and flexible enough for a sword to pass through it – if you can resist the urge to swallow, keeping the two sphincters (one between your pharynx and esophagus, the second between the esophagus and stomach) from closing. In other words, sword “swallowers’ have to suppress their gag reflex. (“Practice” includes cramming progressively larger objects into the back of the throat while trying not to gag.) in addition to avoiding damage through mind control, some swallowers, the authors reveal, coat their swords with a lubricant such as olive oil.

“Content marketing works by capturing the attention of your desired audience members and helping them address their informational and task-oriented needs,” Jodi Harris of the Content Marketing Institute explains. The aim is for the audience to rely on your guidance, so providing advice about a tool or technique that can make their lives easier is key. “Tips and tricks” – meaning information on how to do things – add value.

Using your content to teach readers how to avoid negative outcomes is another way to provide value. To the extent in which you provide research, data, and logic to back up your advice, it will be perceived as even more valuable, Dana Herra explains.

Some business and practice owners new to the concept of content marketing worry about providing how-to or even how-to-avoid tips, fearful that they will be “giving away” their expertise. But there’s every reason to do just that, and to do it without fear, we explain to new Say It For You clients.

  • Caterers can showcase their skills by “giving away” how-tos in the form of recipes and table decorating tips.
  • A hospital operating room supply company might “gives away” how-to-avoid tips on pressure ulcer prevention.
  • An insurance professional might “give away” how-to-avoid household accidents tips.
  • Jewelers might “give away” tips on safety cleaning and storing necklaces.
  • A search firm might “give away” valuable how-to-prepare-for-an-interview advice.

Think of those “how-tos” and “how-to-avoids” as the “olive oil” helping the online visitor reading your content “swallow” your advice and ask you for more!

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Ask Using the Power of One

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When Steve Rupp, creator of the Premier Connect Coaching for realtors, shared a gem of prospecting wisdom at a recent meeting of our networking group, InfoConnect2, I was reminded of one of our long-held Say It For You content-creation mantras – the Power of One.

A good referral “ask”, Rupp emphasized, is very, very specific – in terms of both category and time frame:

“Within the next 13 days (choosing an odd, specific timeframe adds
focus and makes the task more memorable – and more actionable), can you introduce me to someone you know who is talking about building a new home?” (As a realtor, you also want to meet buyers and sellers of existing homes – but today you’re focused on planting a “trigger phrase” in your fellow networkers’ minds: building a home).

When it comes to creating marketing content for our clients, we at Say It For You firmly believe in Power- of- One specificity:

  • One message (per article or post)
  • One outcome (describe one desired outcome)
  • One audience (base the content on the target audience for that one “ask”)
  • One writer (One Say It For You writer, as opposed to the team, is better positioned to forge a relationship with each client)
  • One client per market (thereby avoiding conflicts of interests)

A business blog post, for example, should impart one new idea or call for a single action. Focused on one thing, your post has greater impact, since people are bombarded with many messages each day. Respecting readers’ time will produce better content marketing results.

In asking friends, clients, or colleagues to introduce you to potential customers, Steve Rupp emphasized, be specific. At Say It For You, we agree.

Using the Power of One, we’ve found, is the best way to create content!

 

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Curiosity May Kill the Cat, But It’s Great for Content Marketing

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Blogs can be a valuable tool for business growth, Teri Ambrose observes in score.org. “By writing blog posts on topics that are relevant to their industry, businesses can show that they are knowledgeable and invested in the discussion”. But showing how knowledgeable the business owner or practitioner publishing the blog is  – that’s hardly enough. It’s the audience’s curiosity gap that creates a marketing win.

According to the academic George Lowenstein, humans become curious when there is a gap in their knowledge, stimulating them to “fix” this state by acquiring the missing knowledge. One way content marketers can captivate reader interest, therefore, is by including intriguing, little-known facts within their articles and posts.

“The curiosity gap captivates readers by emphasizing the gap between known and withheld information.” Copyhackers.com explains, which can be done by:

  • introducing something new that our existing knowledge can’t explain
  • starting a story, pausing at a climactic moment, and delaying the conclusion of it
  • withholding key information for a manageable period of time
  • introducing an idea, action or concept… and connecting it with an unexpected outcome or subject

    Unlike those who seek to use information tidbits as “clickbait”, at Say It For You we recommend using them as a “bonus”. Sure, visitors arrive at your post seeking information on specific topics.  But, once your opening lines have reassured those visitors that they’ve come to the right place, it’s a great idea to use some unlikely connections, even unrelated but fascinating tidbits of information to give readers a sense of being ahead of the crowd. They now have some unusual piece of “inside information” or amusing tidbit to jog their memory, expand their knowledge, and share with friends.Curiosity may kill the cat, but it’s great for content marketing!

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Don’t Let the Marketing Dose Make the Poison

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Earlier this week our Say It For You blog highlighted nuggets of marketing wisdom contained in well-known proverbs. A classic maxim in the field of toxicology is “The dose makes the poison.”, meaning that often, a substance is toxic to the body only if it is administered  in too high a dosage…

“If urgency becomes the sole focus of marketing efforts, it can overshadow the brand’s core values and identity,” shopcreatify.com points out. “While scarcity can be a motivator, the primary focus should be on the benefits and features that truly resonate with your target audience.”

What’s more, Timothy Hodges of HonorAging, says, “Marketing too much can send mixed messages to existing and potential clients. For potential clients, you can be perceived as desperate, struggling, and/or not sending a clear enough message regarding your product or services”.

Interesting…At Say It For You, I use the word “marketing” in a very specialized sense.  That’s because, in today’s world, whatever your business or profession, there’s almost no end to the information available to consumers on the Internet.  Our job then, as content writers, isn’t really to “sell” anything, but rather to help readers absorb, and put to use, all that information.

Marketing, I believe, is about differentiating what you think about what you do and why you think the way you do. Taking a stance on issues relevant to your business or profession puts you in the role of subject matter expert and opinion leader.

I remember reading a piece by Sophia Bernazzani Barron of Hubspot in which she discussed “after-the-fact” selling, accomplished by describing an “extra” benefit added to things online prospects have already demonstrated is important to them. Blog marketing is, in fact, a tool for that “extra benefit” type of selling; because blogs are relational and conversational, they can be persuasive in a low-key manner.

Content marketing, remember, is a positive – it’s only when offered in too high a dose, that the marketing has the potential to “poison” the selling process.

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