One Simple Word that Will Reignite your Content Marketing

Are your posts failing to get the the traction you hoped for?

Do you think your business has become a victim of the ‘content shock’, where too much content competes for too few eyeballs?

Here’s how one small word can give your content added relevance, engagement and ROI.

Welcome to the power of ‘to’.

Hopefully you already understand why ‘you’ is more powerful than ‘we’. ‘You’ means you are talking about your customers and not about yourself. But what about ‘to’?

One symptom of the ‘content shock’ is an abundance of articles with titles starting ‘What is…X?’ or ‘How to use Y?’ without offering much in the way of context.  Unimaginative, lazy headlines and content with no specific appeal.

When I read these I think one or all of the following (if I bother thinking about them at all):

• Somebody had a deadline in their plan and had to get something out.
• Somebody is confusing ‘publish and hope’ with a content strategy.
• Somebody saw an article from a competitor and decided to do a ‘me too’.

And it’s exactly the ‘me too’ publishing that makes it seem like we have a content shock. All we really have is a load of content that nobody is interested in reading, or can be found in a thousand other places.

So where does ‘to’ come in?

Your current content plan will contain working titles and topics. These are probably mostly along the lines of ‘How to use social media in your business’. This is just an example and will obviously be different if you’re not a digital marketing business.

Now think what happens if you expand this to: ‘How to use social media to…’

Something has to follow. And must relate to a specific objective that a defined segment of your customers has.

Your customers are on a journey

They all have ambitions, challenges and worries. When the words that follow ‘to’ relate to those ambitions and troubles you are offering specific, practical help – something they can actually use!

It’s not just yet another article about using social media (or whatever else you offer), it’s how to use it to achieve something meaningful and practical.

They won’t have to contemplate whether your content is likely to be relevant, your headline will have smack them right between the eyes relevance, because your article has a clear purpose and benefit.

‘To’ is harder work

When you embrace ‘the power of to’, it means you have to work harder. No more easy and convenient options or copycat content.

You have to get to grips with the ambitions and challenges of your customers. And you have to work out what they need to understand and how they need to be educated. And you have to have a clear vision for how you can solve their problems and add value.

That’s what we used to call marketing.

 

Richard Hussey, Copywriter and Content Strategist.

Does your content marketing need direction?

Get in touch and I’ll see if I can help.