On Words and Business

If you’re in or near the marketing world, you hear every day how important it is to keep content brief. No one pays attention. And in the time it took me to write that, people were shutting their browsers in frustration at my verbosity.

But what if you have a lot to say? Is it okay to write something longer than 140 characters? Longer than one screen page? Longer than one printed page? Sure.

A lack of attention to longer form writing may be the direction we are heading. But I believe there will always be a market for lots of words strung together to form compelling content. White papers aren’t going away any time soon. Neither are articles in The Atlantic nor the great American novel.

The key with marketing content is to draw people in with the shorter content, which could be a blog post or just the title or subject line. Then keep drawing them in at every decision point.

If you write it, the people who want and need it will come. They’ll read. And they’ll appreciate that you took the time to tell them what they needed to know.

The people who can’t spend more than 140 characters or 10 seconds with your content probably aren’t your target audience anyway.

Do you know what your core content is?

The type of content that keeps your readers engaged. The best information. The most useful format.

That’s what you should spend your time thinking about and creating.

One of my goals for 2012 is answering that question for myself, so I spend my time on what my customers and prospects wish I was spending my time on.

Please share your thoughts on that!

You’ve probably read about how much I like editorial calendars and how I wouldn’t be able to write posts with out.
If not, check out these links:

• Content Marketing Quick Tips 
• Editorial Calendar
• Integrating Plans: Implementing your content marketing program (part 2)

The great thing about writing an editorial calendar is that it enables me to tie content to specific milestones–reminding myself it’s time for an end-of-the-year roundup or to address a topic covered at a particular conference. And that enables me to plan ahead and prepare content in advance when possible.

In fact, known milestones and events are a great place to start creating the calendar.  I take specific events or important dates and fill in content I know I’ll need for that, then work backwards to fill out the rest of the calendar.

Maybe it’s because I’m a planner, but this stuff is fun for me. I hope you can find a way to make it fun, too.

Six great posts about business from this past year, in no particular order:

5 Things to Do Every Day for Success

Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success

I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore

Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012

Marketing to Nobody

Content Marketing Tips from 5 People Who Know

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:

• Don’ t wait: write down your ideas when you think of them, with pen and paper or the notepad feature on your smartphone
• Conduct a content audit–by printing it out and reviewing it
• Dragon Dictation for transcribing interviews
• Create an editorial calendar (my contribution–I can’t live without mine!)
• Ask yourself why the audience should care about what you produce