Content Is About The Task, Not The Tool
Posted on 09. Oct, 2010 by Tony Wanless in Uncategorized
Too often lately, discussions about content marketing seem to always get down to the tools used.
Which platform, which social media, which delivery channel, which web site.
When you do get people to think about content from a marketing point of view, they invariably think you mean writing web copy. That’s part of it, but it’s still adapting to a tool, not the other way round.
I suppose this is because content distribution is powered by technology, which is often easier to understand by many people, especially if they have a technology bent.
Also, the rise of social media and the torrent of user-generated content it has produced has made many believe that content is just an afterthought to what the technology can do.
But, to paraphrase an old marketing saying, you sell the hole, not the drill. People want tools that allow them to accomplish a task: They don’t spend hours talking about whether this drill is better than that drill. If they do talk about the drill at all, it’s usually brief: How it accomplished something that enabled them to complete an entire building project. .
And so it is with content. Good content — some of which might repurposed from social media, but much of which is planned and custom-made — should always have a . Usually this is to indicate expertise and create trust, which leads to referrals or sales leads.
When you’re starting a content campaign to market your B2B product or service, you should concentrate on what you’re trying to accomplish, not what tool you’ll use to accomplish it.
Once you have established that, and determined how you’re going to achieve that goal, you can go off and play with the toys.
Have an opinion on this? By all means, voice it here.
