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One important lesson in content marketing

Content marketing – some

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definitions

Here’s some nice tidbits from the art of watching two friends seduce each other + what it taught me about badass blogging Tribal Writer on Seduction

“This is what I don’t think many writers (or other creatives) understand about blogging: that it’s a form of content marketing, which itself is a form of seduction.”

The article defines it thus:

“Content marketing is content that has value in and of itself, but is also driving the reader toward a future action (ie: buying something, whether it’s a service or a painting or a book or a product). “

Here’s how on Wiki at Wiki on Content Marketing at Wiki on Content Marketing defines the term:

“Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases.”

In What is Content Marketing at What is Content Marketing, it defines it as

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

“Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing.”

Did Michael A. Stelzner start this?

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The first time I really found this concept was in 2006. It was from a book entitled Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged by Michael A. Stelzner. He has a white paper you can also download free. Perhaps you can get the book via your local public library or from Amazon.

In the book, he describes how to present information in a white paper without implicit selling any products or services. I have even come across cases where white papers have gone viral. Instead of asking for email addresses, the white paper creators gave them away free – no strings attached.

Michael has gone on to apply the same principles to social media and has been very successful. You can get more info in his book at Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition.

Some lessons from Ben Hart

Ben Hart is a well-known copywriter and marketer, who lives in Illinois. His claim to fame is (in his own words):

“Ben Hart’s sales letters, ads, websites and marketing programs have generated more than $500,000,000 in sales over the last 20 years.”

Now he spends his time teaching marketing via his membership site. But he has captured the essence of content marketing headlines, in a lesson he shared on copywriting.

Here’s a lesson I remember when I used to be a member. It involved copywriting but applies to content marketing as well. He was talking about this headline, which appeared in the National Enquirer ads for years:

“7 Ways to Cure Corns”

Right away, we see a pattern. You have a number followed by what you are trying to give information on. Let’s check this a bit closer.

Hubspot is a master of this

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Hubspot is a company on the eastern US coast, that present a great deal of free daily content. Let’s look how they used the same pattern this week, via some content marketing titles (I’ll also throw in one from Michael Stelzner):

See the pattern here?

Pick a number – any number. Then say something about social media- Linkedin, Facebook, Google +, etc.

Or substitute another group – like technology.

There are other frameworks. But the one involving a number and some topic works well.

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