Let’s jump back in time for a second. Pretend it’s 1998 and you just started blogging. Every blog you publish gets a ton of attention just because there’s no competition. It was easy to get traffic in those days.
Fast forward to 2017. That ain’t so easy anymore. Just about everyone is publishing some sort of content and that means a whole lotta competition. Fortunately, there are still a few ways your content can stand out.
To do that, you have to ask a few questions about your content.
Start with: are you niche (quick poll: do you pronounce it “neesh” or “nitch”?) enough? But what does that mean? It’s hard to answer without figuring out these two questions first:
- If you use all the resources available to you, can you become a leading voice in your niche? Be honest about this one.
- In your niche, do you have fewer than 10 competitors? If the answer is “no,” go back to the drawing board and niche down again.
Alright so once you’ve got your niche nailed down. It’s time to answer a few more questions:
- Who is your target audience? Notice that’s singular, not plural. You can’t have multiple target audiences if you want your content to rise above your competition.
- How will your content marketing strategy help your audience members with their job or life in some way?
- What do you bring to the table that is different?
- What resources (staffing and otherwise) will you need that you do not have?
- How will the stories mainly be told (audio, video, textual)? Focus on one thing to start (a podcast, a video series, a blog, etc.).
Take your answers to these questions and create your Content Marketing Mission Statement.
Why is that so important? It gives you both focus and the power to say no. That way when your boss (or boss’s boss) comes up with some “great” idea, you can run it by your mission statement. If it doesn’t fit, kill it off.
There are a ton of other questions we didn’t cover in today’s Read →
