Your market (which is actually us – REAL people) only has so many waking hours each day. We work, go to school, eat, sleep, spend time with family and friends and consume massive amounts of media.
So how does your business get its message in front of our eyes when we’re spending time doing so many other things? Content marketing seems to be the solution.
But there’s so much great content out there. You’re competing with “House of Cards,” or League of Legends, or videos on YouTube, or Facebook, or … well, you get it.
Obviously, most businesses can’t compete directly with high-quality entertainment content. But your business can break through the noise in two ways:
1. Create truly awesome content that grabs the attention of your target market. Great headlines, great images, great content. (See our post for a definition of “awesome content.”) And hope it goes viral.
2. Be persistent and highly targeted.
You probably already know that creating awesome, highly engaging content is not easy. Technically, it’s not hard to create professional-looking content, but to get truly great content to go viral is a combination of hard work, creativity, timing and plain, dumb luck. Don’t get us wrong – it’s great when you create awesome, popular content, but you can’t count on it.
On the other hand, it’s easier for your business to be persistent, and you have the in-house knowledge to naturally be on-target. Create a content publishing calendar, follow it and promote your content via your social channels and smart email marketing. Eventually, your content will get noticed.
In other words, build your own “House of Content.”
OK – all cheerleading aside, we all know most businesses won’t register even a blip against a mega-hit like “House of Cards,” or high-quality entertainment media in general, and that content marketing can be a challenge. So you have to ask yourself: why pursue content marketing at all?
Here’s why: Your business is competing for time and attention whether you like it or not. You can buy eyeballs, but pay-per-action is expensive, and pay-per-impression is really expensive. Content marketing, on the other hand, although it isn’t fast, is cost-effective and provides long-term value.
At this point, building your own “House of Content” is the best game in town.
Thank you for reading and let us know if we can help your business,
Eric Weidner
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