- The most powerful content creation strategy
you're not using.
In 1996, bill Gates wrote a essay called Content is King,
and he said, content is where I expect much
of the real money will be made on the internet.
Nearly three decades later
and he could not have been more spot on.
According to HubSpot, 40% of marketers say content marketing
is a central part of their marketing strategy.
81% say their company views content as a business strategy.
Simply put, if you're not writing, posting, promoting,
or sharing valuable content,
you're actively putting your business at a disadvantage
compared to your competition.
But here's the thing.
While businesses and a ton of businesses acknowledge
that content creation is important,
it is also one of the areas they struggle with the most.
A massive 45% of marketing professionals say
that they struggle to create content that actually resonates
with their audience.
What should you do to take your content
to the next level and resonate with your audience?
What you need to do is you need to embrace the hedgehog.
Let me explain.
The hedgehog marketing concept is based on old parable
about a hedgehog and a fox.
The fox knows a ton and is always trying to find new ways
to help with the hedgehog.
But the hedgehog stays focused on one thing.
Putting it in marketing terms, focus on what you know.
Does your website get a million visitors every month?
Probably not.
So don't focus on trying to make that happen.
You are much better off focusing on trying to
meaningfully reach a hundred people
than you are trying to barely get through to a thousand.
So what does this look like?
Here's how you can implant the hedgehog strategy.
Step one, create a detailed buyer persona.
You're probably wondering why.
Well, using marketing personas makes websites
two to five times more effective
and easier to target the right users
that they're looking for.
And when you think about marketing personas,
if you just Google marketing personas templates
you'll find a lot of templates out there
that you can use to just create this and they're free
and you'll see 'em all within Google Images.
Step two, segment your audience.
A survey from Milton found that segmented campaigns
had open rates 14% higher than non-segmented ones.
So for example, I send out different emails to people
who are already buyers.
If someone purchased from you once,
there's a good chance you can get 'em as a repeat customer.
So the emails you would send to them are different
than the people that come to your website the first time,
opt into the email list,
have never heard from you before
and have never bought anything.
The same goes with people who have partly completed
their checkout but they haven't fully completed it.
You would actually send them different email campaigns
than people who have completed a checkout
or not even started.
For example if someone partly completed a checkout,
I may send them coupon codes or testimonials
or thought leaderships or even case studies
on how people using that product
or service has really helped 'em in their life.
Step three, focus on becoming a thought leader.
When done correctly thought leadership is a powerful tool
in your arsenal.
According to a LinkedIn study, 71% of professionals say
that less than half of thought leadership content
provided valuable insights.
65% of respondents said that a piece of thought leadership
content changed their perception
of a company for the better.
While 64% said that they thought
that thought leadership is more of a trustworthy source
than marketing materials.
Focus on what you know and make it great.
In essence, follow EAT.
Google talks about EAT,
it stands for expertise, authority, and trust.
They want to rank websites higher that are from people
who are authorities within that subject.
They don't want you to create a website that discusses
all of everything, kind of like Wikipedia or New York Times
because they already have enough websites like that.
Step four, make your content more valuable and shareable.
Delivering exceptional content to a hungry audience
only helps them with their needs,
encourages them to share it with others.
95.9% of bloggers promote their blogs on social
and 69% of bloggers say that they use social share buttons.
I use social share buttons, promote my blog posts
on social media, literally majority of the channels,
and I send out email blasts every time I do a blog post
and push notifications.
Step five, find your engine.
What part of your product offering is most attractive
to your audience?
Stop focusing on supplementary products.
This doesn't mean to put all your eggs in one basket,
but it does mean that you need to pay more attention
to what's actually driving the revenue for your brand,
otherwise known as your revenue engine.
Look, you can sort of be okay at a lot of things,
or you can put your energy into one thing
that truly makes a difference.
Find your most profitable, well-developed,
and researched product or service or idea and build on that.
Sure, you can have upsells
and down sells with other products
and service that are ancillary,
but you need a focus on what you're the best at.
That's how you stand out.
There's already too many people out there that are me too
and do everything now.
If you need help with your marketing
check out my ad agency, NP Digital.
If you have questions, leave a comment below.
I'm here to help.
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tell people about it.
Thank you for your time.