A recent report published by the marketing analytics software company Track Maven suggests that quality content is still rather rare. What are the basic facts?
- There is more blog content online than ever.
- Manufacturing content is generally not very popular with the general public.
- A considerable portion of corporate content is just crap. Or spam.
After all, no one would enjoy reading content that's merely an ad. And as for sharing that content? That simply cannot be expected – according to the business2community.com website.
How can you engage people? How can you give them what they want?
First, don’t be a marketer, you need to become a journalist. Your sales objectives should be put aside for a moment. Examine your content as objectively as you can. The three important questions are:
- Does your content provide balanced information?
- Do you present conflicts, or do you just evade them?
- Is it human, is it about people?
Don’t be biased
One-sided stories are often dismissed as being biased, so try to admit some weaknesses in your product, even when you are creating content to promote it. Vulnerability builds trust and furthermore it makes your content much more interesting to consume. Honesty brings trust.
Don’t be afraid of introducing conflict
When there is a conflict and then a resolution, the reader is engaged and interested. So if you want attention, create conflict.
Make it about people
When you need to communicate your message, use an interesting person to do so. The best stories are the ones about people.
-jk-