**TLDR:** content should be a sales tool that demonstrates expertise, not a metrics-chasing exercise. Value-first thinking scales. # Why Are You Writing Content Anyway? Everyone creates content and no one knows why. Over time, many marketing departments are so concerned with maintaining the status quo that they forget the reasons they started writing blogs to begin with. Odds are you're wasting your time, or worse. Why are you creating and publishing digital content? If you cannot answer this question beyond the vague "to get attention," you are at risk of losing the forest for the trees. Digital content is not an end in itself. Let me say that again: content is not the end goal—selling is. Why do we forget this? Digital content is a sales tool, whether you're selling products, services, or shares. And, by the way, people by from people who understand their problem better than they do. In other words, educational content will perform the best. %%[[Close Buyer's Knowledge Gap]]%% ### Seek First the Provision of Value, and All Sales Shall Be Added unto You. Everyone has heard of SEO. When someone says they're optimizing content for search engines, that typically means they're checking off a few boxes that Google told them are important. Or worse, they write an article merely for page rank purposes. The truth is, only companies that don't provide value are overly concerned with metrics like SEO. Don't take out word for it! Here's what the founder of MOZ, Rand Rushkin, wrote in his article, "[Inferred Links Will Replace the Link Graph](https://sparktoro.com/blog/inferred-links-will-replace-the-link-graph/)," that "inferred links are superior endorsements" for four reasons: 1. More scale 2. More context 3. More attribution 4. More authentic ![[Pasted image 20240912134250.png]] What should marketers do? Rand says: > I worry about how modern marketers prioritize earning links over earning mentions, endorsements, and brand coverage. If you pay an SEO agency to get you 50 “high quality links” a month for $5,000, and refuse to pay a digital PR agency to get you 10 mentions in relevant publications for the same price, I’d argue you’re making a very unwise tradeoff. > > Brand mentions, especially relevant ones in publications that actually reach your audience don’t just impact keyword rankings. They drive branded search traffic. They improve brand awareness. They almost always increase conversion rate among the audiences they attract. And much of the time, ironically enough, **they indirectly lead to more links than link building**! > > That podcast you appeared on? They probably linked to you. That industry publication that covered your launch? They probably did, too. That social media campaign that got all the buzz? It undoubtedly led to links. That mention in the New York Times that failed to link to you? It’s highly likely that niche publications will be more likely to write about AND link to you because of it. > > So here’s my proposal: stop treating brand coverage, mentions, and inferred links like garbage. **Start assuming it counts**. Measure it. Track it. See if brand-focused, digital PR campaigns bring as much or more than keyword-ranking-focused SEO link building campaigns. Until you have some data, you’ll never know, and you’ll never be able to effectively allocate marketing spend & effort. Here's the rub: page rank algorithms are closed source (you don't actually know what criteria are important) and what's more, they are constantly changing. Google Search Code Leaked.—sniffle, sneeze. The optimization criteria change because search engines are constantly trying to better approximate what *most users* want (or are getting paid or coerced to). By definition, SEO is downstream of value. Again, if you write content to succeed on these metrics, your page may be ranked higher (for now), but you may not provide real value. Think keyword stuffing. Chasing metrics are lower than your actual goal and will not get you to where you want to be. It's better to go about content strategy directly by providing value to *particular customers*. Similarly, reach is not the true measure of value; instead, content that resonates with the right audience, delivered at the right time, drives engagement and action, making a deeper understanding of your audience far more important than simply maximizing views. Don't get me wrong: SEO is important. But optimizations should be applied *after* the content works and is providing value. If we're focused on providing real value, we're presented with a new problem: Customers' may be ignorant about how your solution directly maps to their problems. They might even think they're dealing with a rare issue, when you know it isn't, and you're well-equipped to help. You need to [[Close Buyer's Knowledge Gap]]. ## How to Provide Value with Content If digital content does not lead to a sale, it's not serving you; you're serving it. It's become just another distraction to your more important work, but you know you should produce *something*. The thing is, only top-notch and informative content that goes above and beyond the competition is productive. The reality is that mediocre content is worse than no content. If you post average content, the reader will assume your business is average. If you post nothing, he or she simply does not come to any conclusions. Often times this is a comparative process for the prospect, too. As long as you're better than everyone else in that category, the reader will see you as above the rest. - understand the prospect's needs and lead them toward wise choices. - You help prospects discover the who prospects aspire to be and aid them in transforming, not molding them into buyers. - You discuss the product or service logically with the prospect, and if it makes sense, they proceed with the sale. ➡️ ethical Timeliness is integral to creating valuable content. %%[[a-strategic-guide-to-earned-media-for-authors]]%% ## B2C Example Imagine you visit your good friend's house and his Berkey water filter comes up. He swears by it, and suggests looking into it. Soon after, you read on X.com that most municipal water treatment facilities have questionable health standards. Now you're willing to try the whole "water filter" thing out, so you do a quick Amazon Prime search—how hard could it be? Turns out, there are hundreds of results, varying widely in effectiveness, price, and time investment. There are gravity and electric counter-top filters, there are several reverse osmosis filters with more or fewer stages, there are carbon filters, and whole-house water filtration systems costing $2-10K. It's overwhelming. You might be able to rule some options out right away, but which solution right for you? You take to Google Search to learn about water and your water filtering options. You'd expect company blogs would have more helpful resources than Amazon listings, but after visiting product page after product page, you still can't find anything useful. %%"Santé" is the brand I'm thinking of, but we could call them "équilibre" instead %%Finally, you stumble across a company blog with a simple "Water Facts" page. You find an article explaining how cleaning your water could help treat asthma and dry skin, caused by evaporating chlorine, fluoride, and other water-soluble heavy metals that soak into your skin and inhale from shower steam. In fact, you have asthma and dry skin, and you've never thought of that before! You read that each contaminant requires a specific filter, and the article explains exactly what you do and do not need, educating you on all the filter types without jargon. It starts to feel like the likelihood of success with any of the Chinese Amazon options starts to diminish, while the likelihood of success with the company starts to increase. This was me last week, by the way, and in the end, I decided to purchase a water filtration system from the company. The moral of the story is that we're more likely to buy products from companies that we feel have educated us, because it feels like they actually care about our success. We buy from people we like. ## B2B Example Imagine a practitioner—in any industry—at a large or successful company. He notices there's a particular market need that he's capable of addressing that his employer is not because it's not a primary revenue source. He leaves his employer and builds his own company to address the under-served market. He is competent but has lacks the strong reputation of the larger brand. It is therefore in his best interest to understand the following: - Big brands have reputation points; brand; power; savings; bank; currency. - When you don't have that, you have to provide an alternative that demonstrates your value. - Educational digital content is the best way to do that. - Larger companies tend to speak to larger audiences and are therefore less apt at addressing the unique problems of customer subgroups. - Compete on competency not reputation. Compete by demonstrating your competency, not relying on reputation. - conclusion, how to gain market share when you're not the biggest player: Produce more useful information. ## Conclusion Whether in B2C or B2B, the key to gaining market share when you're not the biggest player is to provide more useful information than your competitors. By educating your audience and addressing their specific needs, you build trust and establish yourself as an expert, even in the face of larger, more established brands. DISCLAIMER: we cannot help people who don't have a reputation because they suck (provide sub-par products or services). If that's you, [insert something to help prevent despair]. We are talking to people who don't have a reputation yet because the entire business is new, or perhaps they're well established but moving into a new market with new products or services. How do you know which one is you? You have to be really honest with yourself, and most people can't do that. ![[Thought Leadership Drawing 2024-09-24.excalidraw]] [[Notes on the PR industry as it relates to newsHack]] --- What else is Rand Fishkin up to? [[Zero-Click Content Marketing]] [[Audience Understanding aka Customer Insights]]