Page 20 - The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business - PDFDrive.com

unbearable?
The Content Code is one of the answers to that question.
This book starts where great content ends. There are enough books out there

touting the need for amazing content. That’s a given. But epic content simply
earns a seat at the table today. The real power only comes to those who can
create content that connects, engages, and moves through the network through
social sharing.

Research firm eMarketer reports that 83 percent of brand marketers view
social sharing as the primary benefit of social media5 because 70 percent of
consumers say they are more likely to make a purchase based on a friend’s social
media updates.

That’s a powerful number, which is why it’s somewhat mystifying that nearly
all the marketing industry dialogue has focused on creating more content,
creating content more efficiently, automating content, and finding ways to
measure content. But as the eMarketer study shows, brand power isn’t coming
through content. It’s coming from content transmitted by our trusted friends.

Content marketing may start with writing, but the money is made by
IGNITING.

And that’s where the conversation needs to be now. The most breathtaking
content that remains undiscovered on a website has no more value to a business
than a manuscript for a sensational novel that is locked away from sight in a
dark, cold vault.

Why content isn’t king

Here’s something that is obvious to any person trying to carve a successful path
in marketing today: Content marketing has little to do with content anymore.

Allow me to tell a funny story about how this revelation dawned on me.
My early days as a blogger were fraught with frustration. I believed my
content was as good as anybody else’s, but it wasn’t attracting any reader
engagement, let alone business opportunities. Mine was a quiet, lonely little
corner of the web.
I was following the Big Blogger Best Practices by publishing consistently,
connecting with others to form a community, and writing posts that were
thought-provoking and original. Yet, my content languished.
In my blog’s second year, I was beginning to find my voice. I confidently
wrote original posts on influence marketing, electrifying digital trends, and new
marketing insights. And still, my ideas were met with stone-cold silence.