From the course: Strategic Content Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Retain

Content is more than copy

From the course: Strategic Content Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Retain

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Content is more than copy

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- What if anytime someone said, "Let's go out to eat," you pictured a burger joint. Not that there's anything wrong with burgers, but what about all of the other possibilities, like fine dining, Italian, Mexican, Indian, Vietnamese, ice cream places? You get the point. I love trying new restaurant experiences, but if I assumed that all restaurants were just synonymous with one option, such as burgers, I'd be missing out on a whole lot of opportunities. After this lesson, you'll no longer fall for the common myth that content is only copy, and have a better definition for content creation. I've worked with many companies over the years and have seen this common misconception cause miscommunication among teams and even delays in the work being completed. More significantly, it can cause companies to miss opportunities. So whether you're implementing content for your own company and need to align internal teams, or you're providing content to clients, there are some important steps to ensure everyone is on the same page. First, align everyone on what content is for your company. In most cases, it's the substance of a customer experience, and includes assets, such as text, video, articles, white papers, podcasts, photos, infographics, charts, polls, and more. Then, ask your team or clients what they mean by content. It's always helpful to get definitions on the table. Maybe you both think about it the same way, or maybe they think content only means blogs. This can help to clear up all kinds of future miscommunication. A person's experience with content will provide the foundation for their knowledge. Next, ask them about their goals. Are they looking to build their brand awareness and credibility? Are they looking to attract more client leads? Or are they looking to showcase more of their internal culture to better attract great talent? Depending on their goals, you may have different recommendations for the type of content they should include in their content strategy. Finally, share with them a variety of different content options. Just like you can choose from all kinds of restaurants when going out to eat, they can choose from all kinds of content types that go beyond copy. By honing in on their content marketing goals, you can create a personalized strategy that involves interactive content elements, like videos, and quizzes, or informational content, like fact sheets and social posts. There's not one perfect content strategy that fits every need, so exploring a variety of possibilities customized to their goals, will drive the biggest impact. Here's the bottom line, content isn't just copy, it's so much more. So stop limiting your content marketing potential. When you demystify what content is, you set your content marketing up for success. You'll avoid delays caused by confusion about content, and you'll open everyone's minds to the full range of exciting possibilities. This week, I encourage you to write down all of the forms of content you can think of, from videos, to infographics, to blogs and beyond. Keep this on hand so you can reference it when you're thinking about ways to help your company, or clients accomplish their business goals.

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