Discover what your market actually cares about Everything starts with understanding what forces are currently driving your market. Whenever possible, harnessing these types of emotional undercurrents is what will generate a chain-reaction everywhere your content gets distributed – where your initial promotion is merely the catalyst. With that in mind, let’s talk about exactly how to find these undercurrents, and measure their potency… Heated Discussions: Pay close attention to all the main communities in your market (forums, subreddits, FB groups, etc), and look for topics or questions that generate anomalous spikes in discussion. If you’re tapping into opportunity, provide an advantage. This is the best way to cut through the noise, harness the awesome power of the emotional forces that drive your market, and drive substantial publicity in the process. But this leaves one lingering question… and it’s one that many content marketing “experts” conveniently gloss over: “How do I actually get my message to my market?” Let’s break it down, step by step… The process for reaching a massive audience, fast Unless you already have a sizeable audience, the impact of sharing your trend-tapping, market-shaking message with a few hundred followers and subscribers – while still worthwhile – is going to be fairly limited. You’ll need to leverage existing platforms and other people’s audiences. In general, you’ll want to provide primary value in your reddit post itself, where your external content (blog post, etc) is provided as a “see also” resource, and encourage discussion about it. Sharing content with communities like these definitely requires some etiquette – and most groups have their own internal rules for sharing outside links. And on top of it all, this is to say nothing of the SEO impact that this kind of substantial promotion can have for your brand’s domain… but that’s a whole other discussion.
A branding agency ran a full-page ad in the Economist that caught my eye a few years ago. The headline read: “The World Belongs to Those With Something to Say”.
Underneath the headline was a photo of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, standing together on stage… the implication all too obvious. The ad went on to explain the world-shaking potency of having a clear and compelling message – regardless of one’s politics, and in some cases, regardless of the actual facts.
Your Market Belongs to Those With Something to Say.
By contrast, most marketers seem to view their content strategy as a form of “organic retargeting” – where each ho-hum article, video or social post is the equivalent of tapping their dozing prospects on the shoulder, merely reminding them that their brand still exists.
And not surprisingly, the results from a typical existence-reminder campaign are consistently underwhelming – expect perhaps a small trickle of activity each time you publish something.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, what if I told you that a single post on your blog could shake your industry? (Not to mention, elevate your company to celebrity status in your niche).
It’s true. And luckily, this is a knowable and repeatable process. So let’s dive in and unpack the method for discovering – and then harnessing – the real forces that drive your market so that you can turn your content into a waterfall growth channel… instead of just a drip campaign.
Discover what your market actually cares about
Everything starts with understanding what forces are currently driving your market.
What fears and anxieties are keeping people up at night? Are there any game-changing opportunities in play (or on the horizon)? Are there outside forces or new regulations that will fundamentally change how your market operates?
Whenever possible, harnessing these types of emotional undercurrents is what will generate a chain-reaction everywhere your content gets distributed – where your initial promotion is merely the catalyst.
And this chain-reaction isn’t just exposure – content that effectively taps into these undercurrents will also generate waves of new followers, subscribers, customers, and outright raving fans… which are huge marketing assets.
By contrast, “filler content” will only generate pageviews.
So obviously, striking the right nerve is critical. With that in mind, let’s talk about exactly how to find these undercurrents, and measure their potency…
- Heated Discussions: Pay close attention to all the main communities in your market (forums, subreddits, FB groups, etc), and look for topics or questions that generate anomalous spikes in discussion. Sometimes these are just internal gossip or random silliness – but on occasion, they also highlight a much wider undercurrent.
- Unusual Virality: Follow all of the main influencers and authority publishers in your market, and stay on top of the content that your market is sharing and talking about more than usual. Again, look for the anomalous spikes in mentions, that sticks out against the usual background.
- Wall Street: Yes, really. Getting daily updates on the publicly-traded companies in your industry from places like Seeking Alpha will expose you to an entirely different perspective on your market – in particular, emerging trends or changes on the horizon that will impact your industry’s biggest players (or your entire industry). With billions at stake, active money managers need to know how to price in every imaginable scenario in your industry… and this information can shine a light on incoming tides of change (that you can leverage), long before your tunnel-vision competition.
Shameless Plug: Zag (my startup) has an awesome content research tool that makes it easy to find all the most heated discussions and viral content across your market, in seconds. For example, here’s the most-shared (recent) content that it found relating to ‘content marketing’:
Anyway, those are my go-to sources for discovering the hidden drivers in your market. Keep in mind that another valuable resource is going to be your own customers. Pay attention to sudden spikes about key concerns that show up across your support and social channels.
Now that you know how to spot these undercurrents… let’s talk about how to harness them.
Create the perfect, market-shaking message
Successfully tapping into a hot topic is equal parts art, science, and luck. The challenge, of course, is doubling-down on a message that will command attention and break through the…
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