The Idea Mill
Insights + Observations About the Power of Content
“Show me, don’t tell me.”
Those were the words a younger, deflated Tom Nixon read written in red atop his recently submitted creative writing assignment. The admonishment, coming from my sixth-grade teacher, would be a recurring theme in my life.
The lesson that first I learned in grade school, and kept relearning throughout life, would become a valuable asset in career as a content creator for businesses and professional services firms.
The goal of content marketing in the business-to-business world is not to convince someone who is not in the market for your product or service to buy from you when they’re not in need. B2B decision-making doesn’t happen that way.
Yet too many B2B marketers put too much pressure on themselves to identify success metrics in a way that consumer marketers and advertisers might. The mistake they’re making is applying consumer marketing methodology to an ecosystem with a much longer buying cycle, a much more sophisticated buyer, and likely, a much higher price point than a typical consumer product.
Content is becoming an ever-more-critical component to the marketing ecosystem. But as more and more content is being generated, good content is becoming harder and harder to find. Meaning, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to create content that stands out and sinks in. Quantity can actually beget quality, if you know where to find it…
If you’ve read “Do Less. Sell More.,” you know that I remain a strong advocate for email being a non-negotiable component to your digital marketing mix.
But if you still need convincing, consider this article just released by Tilt, a thought-leadership platform for content creators: “8 Stats Show Email Subscribers Worth A Lot More Than Social Media Followers.”
"You need to build your content strategy on rented land. In fact, you have no choice."
This somewhat unconventional wisdom sparked some interesting thought and conversation between Jay Harrington and me on a recent episode of The Thought Leadership Project podcast.
At issue: Should you be putting your content on your website and placing it behind “gates,” or sharing it freely on social media and elsewhere?
What if you could do fewer things, that look less time, and actually have more success building your business and selling your services?
That’s the premise behind my new book, Do Less. Sell More.: How Entrepreneurs are Building Seven-Figure Businesses without Breaking the Bank, Working Like Dogs, or Losing their $#@%!
Joe objected, "But I'm NOT a thought leader. Why would anyone listen to what I have to offer?"
Just because you don't regard yourself as the preeminent voice in your space doesn't mean you can't offer insights. You don't need to be a certified "Thought Leader" to have observations, experiences, theories, command of basic principles, inquiries and perspectives.
Content is working its way down the sales funnel farther than ever before. While we have historically thought of content in terms of “content marketing”—which generally lives near the top of the sales funnel—we should now be thinking in terms of “content business development.”
But if you’re serving your network and people you’d like to include in your network, by providing them with either things of intellectual value or by raising their profiles somehow, that’s not selling...it’s serving.
