Having written on the merits of inbound and content marketing many times, and the importance of truly committing to it, there is one clear risk that we are seeing evidence of that needs to be pointed out. With success, which can be clear and significant—especially if you're in a market niche in which your competitors are not competing for content attention—comes a temptation to say "This has been great! Our search engine placement is high. Our leads are coming in. Sales are making steady progress. We've got a lot of great content out there now, so... I think we can back off on the production and promotion of content now."
Don't get me wrong. I get it. We feel the same temptation ourselves. But here's the deal; content shock (an expression coined by author and marketing guru Mark Schaefer) is real, and the blog content that is choking some markets may well be headed your way soon. If you've been seeing positive results from your inbound marketing and content marketing efforts, it's extremely likely that your competition has noticed. If they are smart (and it's always unwise to assume they aren't) they will likely realize what is propelling your success. And that means that they are extremely likely to crank up the content engine themselves. When they do, that may mean doom for the success you've been enjoying.
How Do You Avoid Death By Content?
Content shock is here to stay, and it may well be more lethal to your status than you can currently imagine (if you're doing well with your content marketing efforts). The amount of content being produced today is far more than we, as consumers, can absorb. While your content marketing efforts may well be having the desired effects today, the only way to up the odds of your continued success (or even more importantly, the only way to not get creamed) is to stick with it. In fact, you not only need to continue to produce high quality content—because the bar for "quality" is getting increasingly higher—you actually need to up your game!
Frequency, Quality, Quantity, and Format
There's not a single answer to how to keep content marketing working for you, even in the face of content shock and potentially direct competition. But one misconception is that if your direct competitors aren't getting into it, you're safe. Because your audience has limited time to consume content, and there's an increasing amount of content being created every hour of every day, even if your direct competition isn't creating great content, you are still going to have to fight for attention. The only solution is to USE content shock as a strategy.
Frequency. Increasing from publishing one blog post a week to two may not make much difference. Some of the most successful bloggers believe that they lose traction and share of attention if they are not publishing fresh new content every day. Your situation may well be different (you should test it, and know your limits), but you should be looking at how you can increase penetration by being more pervasive. With social platforms like Twitter, the content stream is moving so fast, daily posting is sometimes not enough.
Quality. We've talked extensively about the importance of producing quality content. What makes it quality is, first and foremost, that it knows who your audience is and is speaking directly to their needs. But because there is so much good content being produced every day, you have to constantly learn and grow in your understanding and capacity to produce exceptional content. Just more of the same isn't going to cut it.
Quantity. Having a lot of quality content is important, in part because search engines are driven by your websites content (and it's easier for them to determine quantity than quality... today.) But it isn't enough to have a nice reservoir of content, you have to constantly monitor what is working and what's not, and produce more of what's working. And you should be constantly aware of what platforms your content marketing efforts should be most focused on, i.e. where your audience is, and what kind of content they prefer.
Format. If you are totally reliant on textual content, it's time to accept the data that shows that more visual content is proving to be more effective, i.e. it is getting and holding your audience's attention better. Infographics, presentations, images, and video are formats that are rapidly increasing in consumer favor, and you need to be taking a serious look at how you are going to produce that kind of content. Your weekly blog post will soon be ignored, but your video blog may draw them in, and keep their interest longer.
Avoid the Temptation – Be Relentless
As amateur sports enthusiasts, we often succumb to the temptation to gain a certain level of proficiency (at golf, or tennis, or foosball... sorry, I'm a reformed foosball junkie, so I had to throw that in there). But the pros realize that they can never slack off, because the edge that got them to where they are was a result of being relentless in practicing, refining their skill, and competing. If you don't want to find your content (and your company) becoming immaterial, you need to constantly reaffirm your commitment to improving your content marketing skills and putting controls in place to ensure that you are making steady progress toward world domination. As my friend Mark Schaefer says, "Content marketing is not just about creating a great blog post or video. It is a war for attention. Keep fighting."
If you'd like to join the fight, or need some help maintaining or upping your game, please don't hesitate to contact us. We're a top-ranked content marketing agency, serving Colorado Springs, CO, Springfield, MO, Olympia, WA or anywhere across the country. Time is wasting and the content wave is only going to get bigger.
