One tweak to improve your content strategy
Many companies send emails as a piece of their content strategy. But many of these same companies don’t seem to consider their content strategy before marketing. Marketing, unfortunately, tends to come first – and then sales quickly thereafter. Of course, these two strategies aren’t mutually exclusive. They go hand-in-hand. But tell me, is your content strategy playing third-string to your marketing and sales efforts? I’m wiling to bet that without a clear content strategy, your engagement rate is lower than you’d like. And if your numbers are low, here’s a quick way to improve them.
Take Amazon Prime Video’s content, for example…
When it comes to content strategy, Amazon Prime Video is a great case-study. Generally speaking, Amazon doesn’t create movies or TV shows about books or gadgets (or whatever they’re trying to sell at a given moment). Instead, Amazon Prime Video drives people to the Amazon marketplace through their videos. Their content, in other words, is not the sales tool, but rather their content is the carrot to attract people to the point of sale. (Forbes has a great piece on the difference between Prime Video & Netflix for further reading on the topic). Simply, Prime Video creates loyalty, convenience, ease, trust, and — yes — primes (see what I did there?) consumers to buy.
From Forbes, "Prime members passively receive Amazon Prime Video, whether they know it or not, as just another “goodie” to keep them shopping. The video service is not the end itself; it functions more like a loss-leading end cap in a retail store. That is Amazon’s special sauce and prime differentiator from Netflix, which boasts no such luxury. Netflix itself must be profitable and self-sustaining. Amazon Prime Video does not."
Tim Ferriss and Online Marketing
Another great content strategy case-study comes from entrepreneur, Tim Ferriss. While there’s a lot going on within Tim’s strategy (see the above post from his blog), he primarily sells books, ads, and high-ticket seminars. And yet his content (whether on the podcast or in his emails) is not explicitly about his products. Rather, and as Tim puts it, “The product — here writing — needs to stand on its own two feet.” So, too, should your emails or content. In other words, by treating your content like a product, you generate trust that “compounds quickly.”
Your content strategy should stand on it’s own two feet
In sum, consider adding one piece (or paragraph) to create more value for your readers. A simple suggestion (if I may be so bold) would be to move all sales material down your newsletter and move all content up front. And speaking of content, the topic could be on something personal. Your content could, also, be about you. Your content could even be a lesson you’re trying to teach. Most of all, your content strategy should provide value to your audience. And if you can entice your audience to open each newsletter with a new piece of content that they want, then they will be more inclined to buy what you offer when they need it. Start your content by adding value. Then continually productize your content and let it keep standing on “its own two feet.”
