What’s the first step to becoming a content marketer? You need to think like one. Sounds basic, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Content marketing can’t thrive in some environments
While having a content marketing mindset may sound simple in theory, I regularly meet sophisticated business professionals who don’t appreciate how content can open doors, create connections and build more value than traditional marketing approaches can. Here are some examples why people aren’t thinking about content:
The command-and-control approach to information is so deeply ingrained within an organization that freely offering content is tantamount to acknowledging vulnerability.
Organizations are so internally-focused that all that matters are products, efficiencies, and pushing as much of that product out the door as possible without thinking too intensely on long-term repercussions.
Marketers simply haven’t stopped to think how conversation and exchanging content and information represent a means to an end and the beginning of rich relationships.
3 things you can do to start thinking like a content marketer
Truthfully, really embracing content marketing can be akin to changing a company’s culture. But, there are some things that all marketers can do to get in the right mindset.
Think about your customers first
At the heart of a content marketer is an intense commitment to customers and a deep desire to eliminate complexity and simplify buying decisions. It requires that you banish an inward focus on products, services and your business silos and organize instead with your customers in mind. My True North is Zappos.
Try new communication tools
Next comes a realization that traditional communication tools aren’t working as well as they used to. The Breakup is a fantastic short video that comes to mind that illustrates this point perfectly where the consumer rejects the tiresome one-way interruptive insincere declarations of love that advertiser offers. Let’s face it: not only are customers successfully avoiding many traditional marketing communications, but they also seem to consider them mostly irrelevant.
Respect your customers’ time
Here are some customer truths we need to acknowledge:
Our customers’ time is preciously limited
They are bombarded with irrelevant messages
They don’t trust slick marketing messages
They won’t tolerate needless obfuscation or waste.
The only way to connect is by making meaning, developing trust and engaging in two-way interaction. Think about ways to do this.
The content marketing ah-ha moment
I love when I notice savvy marketers and business people experiencing a moment-of-truth that propels them in the direction of content marketing. It may go hand-in-hand with a sudden upheaval in the marketplace, a cut in budgets or a realization that differentiation is non-existent. Or perhaps it’s the result of conversation with someone impassioned about content marketing!
Regardless, the result is that they stop and intensely realize that the most natural and intuitive way of creating meaning and value for potential customers comes from focusing on them, rather than on their own stuff. They realize that they can gain considerably from listening to customers to uncover what matters to them and creating content that helps them make sense of all the chaos out there and make better buying decisions.
Although I had been living content marketing for a while, the most intense moment came when I mentally flipped around a brand tagline from “You’ll wear out before Wear-Dated” to “Wear-Dated won’t wear you out.” Talk about an Ah-Ha moment! My appreciation for what the brand could mean changed forever. The door opened for powerful, meaningful, relevant content that focused outward on customers and intended sincerely to simplify the category and not exhaust them.
What content marketing ah-ha moments have you had and what other suggestions to you have to help people change their mindset?
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