Weekly Alert: 3 Reasons Your Content Play Will Fail

Craft your content with care, concern, and collaboration, not commoditization. [View Message](2e5a5/ct0_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) in Browser / [Add Us](2e5a5/ct1_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) to Safe Sender List [] 2e5a5/ct2_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx [] [Forward to a Friend](2e5a5/ct3_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) This Week in Content Marketing 4.28.17 Connect with CMI 2e5a5/ct4_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx 2e5a5/ct5_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx 2e5a5/ct6_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx 2e5a5/ct7_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx 2e5a5/ct8_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx [] The Content Assembly Line Is Broken [] 2e5a5/ct9_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx Our own little content marketing industrial revolution is happening. We’ve moved the content creation process from the craft workshop to the high-volume assembly line. But we shouldn’t be treating content like a Ford Focus. [Read more](2e5a5/ct9_1/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx)by Doug Kessler Some more of this week's best stuff: - [Are Your Buyer Personas Ready to Take on the World?](2e5a5/ct10_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) by Marcia Riefer Johnston - [23 Quotes to Inspire Your Content Marketing and the Difference You Can Make](2e5a5/ct11_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) by Michele Linn - [5 Modern Content Marketing Best Practices for Getting Found](2e5a5/ct12_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) by Sean Van Guilder - [Account-Based Marketing: What Content Marketers Need to Know](2e5a5/ct13_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) by Ann Gynn - [A Proven Process to Curate and Publish a Roundup of Industry Influencers](2e5a5/ct14_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) by Daniel Knowlton [] [] A Note From Joe Pulizzi Why Your Content Play Never Worked Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken at enterprise events like Adobe Summit and Marketo Summit. Generally, after I deliver my presentation, a few people will approach me to ask specific questions about their content programs. This time, all the questions revolved around ways to fix podcast and video programs that weren't achieving any traction with their audience. It's not often that I can say this, but in EVERY case, their issues boiled down to the same three problems. The first is that their podcast or video programs were launched before they had established an audience for them. I've learned from experience that the majority of podcast and video programs succeed as great secondary launches, not primary ones. That means that first the company had built a successful blog or article content platform (like CMO.com from Adobe, or Alpha Universe from Sony), and then it diversified into podcasts or videos. In general, this works best when the primary text/image-based content platform includes a call to action to subscribe to an e-newsletter. Over time, your email database will grow, enabling you to build up a loyal audience that trusts and likes you. Then, when your audience base is robust enough, you can expand into new ventures – like a podcast or video series – and promote it through your e-newsletter. Once your prospects and customers are dialed in to several of your content programs, they become more likely to buy (or buy more) from you. At Content Marketing Institute, this model worked extremely well when we used it to launch our weekly podcast, This Old Marketing. Since our content platform had already amassed over 100,000 email subscribers, we had a receptive audience at-the-ready when our podcast debuted. So my advice is to build a digital platform where you can acquire opt-in email addresses first. Then, you can launch secondary initiatives. (Well, either that, or make sure you have a huge advertising budget on hand to promote your video or podcast series, which should include a CTA to an email product.) The second problem I encountered was a lack of differentiation. In every case, the marketer's podcast or video series ideas weren’t original; for example, I think every podcast involved Q&A interviews with industry experts. It's fine to use this format... but give me a break. Let’s get some originality here. Not to mention that the program isn't going to work if those interviews don't result in a unique and differentiated story. If you want to use a simple construct like this, all I ask is that you spend more time up front, focus on one audience, and deliver something original that’s both valuable to them and highlights your unique expertise and influence as a company. The third problem also shouldn't come as a surprise: consistency. Most programs presented to me were released on odd schedules; for example, some "weekly" shows delivered two episodes in one week, and then nothing at all for the next two weeks. Other shows delivered every week, but sometimes it was on Monday and sometimes it was on a Wednesday or Thursday. If we’ve learned anything about successful content marketing approaches it’s that the delivery must be precise. Content is a promise of value to your customers. Don’t break the promise by making it difficult for them to find the value. So there it is... the problems were the same: failing to build an opt-in email audience first, failing to tell a truly differentiated and valuable story, and failing to deliver it consistently. I’m hopeful that knowing about these pitfalls will help you in your content marketing efforts. Good luck! Yours in content, Joe Pulizzi Founder Content Marketing Institute This article from Joe is available only in this newsletter for you, the newsletter subscriber. If you have friends that would see value in Joe's weekly updates, please have them [subscribe](2e5a5/ct15_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx). [] [] More from CMI 2e5a5/ct16_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx Register for Content Marketing World 2017 before June 2 to take advantage of Early Bird pricing! What do we want for you? We want to inspire you to do your own epic content marketing and network with some of the brightest in the business! Register now for early bird rates, plus code CMI100 saves an additional $100! [Register today!](2e5a5/ct16_1/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) [] A Word from One of Our Benefactors Best Content Marketing Services, According to Clients G2 Crowd has expanded to include customer reviews about content marketing services. Add your content marketing service to our site for 3rd party validation from the Crowd. [Add your service to collect customer reviews.](2e5a5/ct17_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) [] [] Sponsored Content PDF and Beyond: The Content “Quality” vs. “Quantity” Balance Content Marketers often struggle with having the pressure to produce large volumes of content while ensuring that each piece of content is both relevant and valuable to its end users. Whether you are trying to leverage IP that’s valuable to your organization, improve decision making, increase sales opportunities or simply manage a vast amount of digital documents, the Portable Document Format (PDF) is often the standard of choice. PDF delivers portable and consistent content and provides easy information access for users. However, there are challenges due to the wide variety and inconsistencies in both PDF authoring and consumption tools available. This white paper takes a deeper dive into these content challenges. [View here.](2e5a5/ct18_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx) [] CMI Video of the Week 2e5a5/ct19_0/1?sid=TV2%3ArQDqqFhfx The Laws of Creativity are about why most ideas fail, and how you can flip your odds so most of your ideas succeed. Our culture's so-called geniuses have an intentional process for consistent success. In this clip from CMWorld 2016, Trackmaven CEO Allen Gannett shares some surprising principles. 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