Marketing: More than Just Good Content

After incessantly scouring B2B marketing industry Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and blogs as MCG’s social media manager, I’ve noticed an interesting trend: practically no one is getting comments on their material, including us. Tons of industry experts are giving away the secrets to marketing, yet no one seems to care. Why is that? You’d think people would be thankful for such valuable information, but they sure aren’t showing it.

Today’s Internet landscape is inundated with so many industry experts, gurus, and thought leaders all trying to reach the same audience, that people are no longer able to distinguish one from the competition sitting an inch above them on their Twitter feeds. I don’t deny that the information out there is powerful stuff, but every avid blog reader or Twitter-er is asking the same thing, why should I follow you? With a seemingly endless supply of writers blasting their content across the Internet, it no longer matters how good your content is. You have to do something more to separate yourself from the crowd.

As Liana Evans writes in her book Social Media Marketing, “Participating in Social Media isn’t just about creating a page, making a blog post, posing a question, or tweeting. You can’t just leave your mark and expect success.” I know from experience. I am constantly bombarded with 140 character tidbits of marketing advice from the over 400 people I follow on twitter, yet the amount that I click on is so small compared to the amount of messages I receive on a daily basis. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I already have the people who I am engaged with, while the remainder will get an instant of my attention span then scroll off the bottom of my screen into Twitter purgatory as silently and quickly as they first appeared.

My solution: take the proactive approach and engage your audience. Go to them. They wont come to you anymore. Email marketing, trade shows, and direct mail have been a part of marketing for years now, but with the creation of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, your audience’s pain points, questions, and concerns are beamed right to your computer screen. People are posting multiple times a day about what’s pissing them off. Do something about it. Marketing these days, especially with the explosion of social media, means talking to your audience, establishing trust and credibility, and building relationships, so when they are ready to buy, they think of you first. People no longer want to be told what to think, they want to make decisions on their own, and it’s up to you to empower them to be do so. Make your audience want to choose you.

Good content needs to be supported with a strategy to engage your audience and keep them engaged. Whether it’s through social media, networking events, or direct mail, you have to give people what they need to hear. People don’t want fluff; they want stuff that can help them right now, whatever it may be. Everyone at CMOthink can learn a thing or two from our own lesson.

Or you can just give people stuff. People like that too…