Crank Up Your Content

By: Sorab Ghaswalla

In last week`s newsletter, I had talked of the difference between people`s attention spans and their interest. For some unfathomable reason, marketers and content providers have started substituting one for the other. There`s a difference, people.

Today, because of content explosion, a reader/prospect/lead/customer`s attention is a commodity everyone`s vying for. After all, we live in a customer-centric world.

It`s like fishing in this gigantic pond with fellow anglers (read, competing marketers). Your bait (content) must tempt the fish (prospect) to get hooked (attention).

There`s an old advertising maxim - sell the sizzle, not the steak. I have a slightly different take on that.

Sell the sizzle AND the steak.

The steak (your product or service) has to be of a certain standard to ensure repeat buys. Think of it, how many times has a great piece of content grabbed your attention only for the product to turn out to be a damp squib? Preview was better than the movie?

The market today punishes those who use content to prop up an otherwise poor product.

But I am getting away….this newsletter is not about product but about content.

So, let`s start off by assuming you have your piece of content, whatever that may be - a blog post, a direct mailer, newsletter. But content does not speak for itself. That`s why it needs some razzle-dazzle. Your content itself needs packaging…..and marketing. That`s right. To peddle a product, you need to market your content.

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