7 Ways to Stop Flailing with Your Content Marketing in 2017

7 Ways to Stop Flailing with Your Content Marketing in 2017

7 Ways to Stop Flailing with Your Content Marketing in 2017. You are answering questions instead of offering insights Often, we talk about answering your audience’s questions instead of talking about your products and services. Not to get too meta, but my goal with this post is to give you my point of view instead of providing a generic simple answer to “How can we get better with content marketing in 2017?” Think about what only you can offer. While there is nothing wrong with fun reading and other entertainment, I have been challenging myself more by shutting off everything and getting comfortable with quiet. If it’s not a lot, what can you shut off to get comfortable with quiet? A second issue when you get stuck when you are working on something is that it can feel easier to move on to something new because there is plenty to choose from. You are focused on leads instead of subscribers Many marketers conflate content marketing with getting leads. Instead of thinking about leads, I urge you to think about subscribers. For last year’s content marketing predictions, I talked about resonance, which was a theme I heard repeatedly at Content Marketing World. She is one of those people who truly loves what she does and who she works with.

Video Marketing Strategy: What Marketers Need to Know
Connecting Content to Measurable Business Outcomes
Has increasing distrust killed content marketing?
stop-flailing-content-marketing

Be better.

This simple mantra always plays in the back of my head when it comes to what we publish, but it’s becoming louder and louder these days – as the noise around content marketing becomes louder as well.

I love content marketing, and I truly believe that – when it’s done well – it’s great for your customers and a fantastic way to build and grow a business.

But, I’m also tired. Tired of similar advice. Tired of marketers dialing it in to check a box. Tired of too much me-too or meh content.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not coming from a place of having all of the answers – and I’m fighting with several of these issues, too. But to grow as marketers – and to really move the business forward with content (which is why we are doing this anyway, right?) – we all can benefit from thinking beyond the usual platitudes and ideas.

What’s going wrong – and what can we do?

Note: I am not going to restate many of the issues we talk about often (but, I still believe these are issues – and you need to deal with each of these):

My intent is to give you things you may not be thinking about.

1. You are answering questions instead of offering insights

Often, we talk about answering your audience’s questions instead of talking about your products and services. Do I believe this? Absolutely. But, I like how Mark Schaeffer takes this further when he talks about content creation in his book Known:

Answering customer questions is a solid strategy for beginners, but it’s not ideal in every situation, especially in a more crowded content niche. In that situation, you need to focus on insights instead of just answers.

Insights instead of answers. I adore this sentiment because not only is it a dig-deeper approach in which you can create the 10X content that Rand Fishkin talks about, but it’s also something that only you can offer. It comes from your point of view instead of a regurgitation of what has been published.

Not to get too meta, but my goal with this post is to give you my point of view instead of providing a generic simple answer to “How can we get better with content marketing in 2017?”

Think about what only you can offer.

2. You are drowning in noise, not giving yourself time to create something meaningful

I’ll bet you personally have too much noise in your life.

There is so much talk about the need to unplug from work, and I am a huge proponent of that. But, you need to do more than replace one type of media for something else. When you are browsing Facebook, checking personal email, or watching Netflix, your mind shuts off from work, but it’s not really shut off.

While there is nothing wrong with fun reading and other entertainment, I have been challenging myself more by shutting off everything and getting comfortable with quiet. (Yes, getting comfortable – it can be unsettling to be tethered to nothing.) When I find that space for quiet, I find my thinking truly does improve, and I’m more at peace.

I shared this quote several weeks ago, but I’ll share it again as I love it that much:

“When we’re constantly fixated on the verbal agenda – what to say next, what to write next, what to tweet next – it’s tough to make room for truly different perspectives or radically new ideas. It’s hard to drop into deeper modes of listening and attention. And it’s in those deeper modes of attention that truly novel ideas are found” – Justin Talbot-Zorn and Leigh Marz

While it’s slightly embarrassing to admit, I often shut my eyes and turn off my thoughts for 15 to 20 minutes each afternoon. My thinking is clearer, and I’m happier. (The downside is that when I don’t get that 15 to 20 minutes, I struggle with fuzzy thinking and grumpiness.)

How much truly quiet time do you have? If it’s not a lot, what can you shut off to get comfortable with quiet?

3. You have too many ideas but have trouble taking something from start to finish

I was recently asked about my biggest challenges as a marketer. While I have several, the one I chose to reflect on is that our team is drowning in ideas. While I’m glad we have so much to cover, I have found this glut of ideas to be a negative for a few reasons.

First, if you are working on something, you need to give up – or push back – working on something else. And this can be tough if you love a lot of your ideas (as many of us do).

Suggestion: Choose something and commit to it. Don’t get stuck in the trap of thinking about what you aren’t getting to and instead focus on the movement you are making.

A second issue when you get stuck when you are working on something is that it can feel easier to move on to something new because there is plenty to choose from….

COMMENTS

WORDPRESS: 0
DISQUS: 0