Have you ever tried to write content in a vacuum?
How’d that go?
Have you ever tried to write a marketing piece for multiple audiences?
It can be a big challenge, no matter who those audiences are.
There are examples of success in creating two levels of information from the field of entertainment.
Who is the primary audience for any of the animated feature films of recent times, like Toy Story 3 or Up? The adults who buy the tickets and accompany the children. The children are effectively the secondary audience.
Think about the pop culture references or moving and rather complicated stories being told in both of these films. Stories clearly written to keep the adults interested–the little ones in the audience for the most part don’t understand or care about that stuff. To oversimplify…the children care about the pretty colors and the action and the talking animals and toys. The adults are crying and sighing while the kids are laughing, because we are watching different movies. And we both like what we see.
How can we translate lessons from movies like that like into creating marketing materials for more than one audience? Is it even possible? Or desirable?
Content Marketing Institute has released predictions for the 2012 world of content marketing. You’ll find some great reading here–from more than 75 marketers. See if you can find a few juicy ideas for where to take marketing efforts in the new year.
Full disclosure: my prediction is on slide 50!
As you create or perfect your 2012 marketing plan, here are a few tips from Content Marketing Institute contributors.
Some good ones:
Failure hurts, it’s embarrassing, and in these days of real-time sharing via social media, it can be very public. It’s easy to be afraid of it.
The result of that fear is that it’s easy to play it safe. In content marketing, that means that the closer what you say is to the middle (of your niche) the better your content will be received.
However, sometimes you need to walk to the edge of the cliff, jump into the deep end, or slip and fall flat on your ass in the middle of a room full of people. Maybe you learn a lesson and grow. Maybe you simply fail and learn what not to do the next time.
Do you want to make an impact? Do you want to have some value? Maybe you’ve got to take a few risks. To wit:
These are just a very few ideas on the tamer end of the scale.
Could you fail? Yup. But you could also succeed wildly.
What derring-do do you dare do?
Herewith my vote for the top 10 content marketing resources, events, and trends of 2011
10. The fact that the term “content marketing” is now mainstream.
9. Measurement. More companies are relying on web traffic and the quality of sales leads to measure effectiveness.
8. Rise of the infographic. One of which might make this post much easier to read, wouldn’t it?
7. The report of the death of print was an exaggeration. Online is important. But content that people can hold in their hands or use when they are offline (or if they don’t have a computer–there are still many of those folks out there) won’t go away anytime soon.
6. Focus on community. Online and off, making connections and being part of a community is part of the human condition. As content marketing and social media have evolved, we are getting closer to finding the sweet spot.
5. Curation. At last, content marketers understand they don’t have to go it alone.
4. Get Content. Get Customers. by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett. If you don’t know how to start or how to maintain a content marketing program, you need this book.
3. Content Rules, by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman. Ditto.
2. LinkedIn IPO and it’s continued growth. It is the place to be for B2B businesses to build communities and reach customers and prospects.
1. Content Marketing World. The inaugural event this past September was amazing! Mark your calendars for September 4-6, 2012 and get yourself to Columbus, Ohio!