Content Marketing Made Simple

Content Marketing's Dirty Little Secret

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Easy goes it. That's the rule when it comes to weaving sales pitches into marketing content posted to the Web. 

Overdo it, common wisdom has it, and you’ll put the reader off. Don’t come on too strong, don’t pull a fast one, no bait and switch. And whatever you do, don’t hit the reader over the head with hype - with the kind of overt selling that has long been the staple of traditional advertising and other forms of marketing.

Yes, all that is true, but let’s not forget that when all is said and done, content marketing is, in truth, a matter of selling. It’s just selling in a different guise. But when your content doesn’t pay attention to this side of the equation - when content just gains readers’ attention but fails to leave any lasting mark on them - it is not doing its job.  

Content marketing is, we can all agree, a matter of the soft sell - giving the reader information, advice, comfort, insight, help, perhaps only a moment of entertainment, all in hopes that he or she will remember us and our product when the time finally comes to do business. We offer them something of value and they, in return, give us something - perhaps only their name, email, and some indication of who they are and what they’re shopping for, which we can use later as a sales lead. Quid quo pro, as the Romans used to say.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact, though, that ultimately, all this gets done for the sake of selling - for improving the top line of the income statement by generating new revenues, now or in the future. Content marketing may be indirect, it may be subtle, it may be a roundabout way of accomplishing things that used to be done more directly, but nobody would invest their time, effort, or money in it if it didn’t translate into measurable sales.

It's a dirty little secret, yes.  But true nonetheless.

We got to thinking about all this after stumbling onto a piece over at The Customer Collective, written by our friend Achinta Mitra, a specialist in industrial and manufacturing marketing. In a piece called “Don’t Take ‘Selling’ Out of Content Marketing,” Mr. Mitra writes: “If you want the client or your boss to support a content marketing strategy, show them numbers that they care about the most. Talk about:

• The number of sales qualified leads generated

• The percentage of quotes that converted to sales

• The ratio of opportunities to wins

• The cost of acquiring each new customer and their potential lifetime value

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. It’s all well and good to write content that’s warm and fuzzy, that “engages” with the audience, that builds community, and that’s helpful, informative, and assuring. But at the end of the day, what really matters is hard evidence that the marketing message is reaching its intended target and triggering meaningful, measurable results. 

This may be especially true in the industrial markets where Mr. Mitra spends his time, but we believe it has relevance in most B2B and even consumer markets, too. Granted, results there may be more difficult to measure, but nonetheless, all of us working in the burgeoning field of content marketing must strive to strike a good balance between merely engaging eyeballs and convincing the brains behind those orbs to make a hand reach for a wallet and put money down.

And if not that, then the reader might at least be moved to share our whitepaper, for instance, with others of the same ilk or to invest a moment of their time in adding a comment to our blog or to simply return in a day or two to see what further content we have to offer. 

In short, good content acts in a way that moves readers to take actions that benefit the content’s provider in a concrete, measurable way. Strong SEO selection may help the content win a higher ranking with search engines, but it's living, breathing humans who are content's real target. People who've found your content want to be sold on your voice and authority, if nothing else.

Convincing them that you've got something to say that's worth listening to will go along way to persuading them that you also have something for sale that's worth spending money for. 

The point is, good content sells not only itself but also the marketing message it contains and the products or services or brand that it represents.