Christian

Actually, Content Marketing is Dead

By Christian

blogging is dead content marketing is dead — Blogging, content marketing. My God...they're all dead!

Recently, Brian Clark declared that Actually, Blogging is Dead. He’s totally right. But dammit, he offers up content marketing in it’s place, and I have a problem with that. The fact is that actually…content marketing is dead also.

What is content marketing after all? It is the act of sharing valuable, targeted information with your audience, no? The problem is that we continue to mistake information as being valuable these days. Be honest. You think information is valuable, don’t you? Well, it’s not. Information isn’t valuable at all. Why?

Because information is free, yo

Look around. Information is free. Is this fair? No, actually it’s not. It’s just the way it is. Look at the facts. Almost no one pays for news anymore. It costs millions of dollars to produce, and people literally risk their lives bringing it to us, and no one is willing to pay a dime for it. Why? Because it’s information; we’ve had enough already. We’re freaking inundated with it. Screw information. In fact, we want less.

If content marketing is the act of sharing valuable information, then it’s fundamentally flawed, because information isn’t valuable.

As marketers, we need to stop offering our customers and clients information, thinking that we’re giving them value. It’s one of the biggest reasons blogs fail actually. We publish awesome information, and no one cares. Why? Because information is blue on black. It’s frickin invisible. It’s meaningless.

The next big thing is…

If not information, what then? Context…it’s the next big thing. Context is the new information. Ironically, Brian Clark’s blog was the first to say this in my recollection. Larry Brooks wrote a while back that Content is No Longer King. He’s right. Do we not remember this?

I work with a lot of real estate professionals in my business, and these people have it tough. They’re busy as all get out, running all over town showing homes, negotiating deals and trying to get things to the closing table, and now they have to worry about internet marketing on top of all this. Literally 99% of home buyers use the internet as an integral part of their home search, so REALTORS have to get good at internet marketing if they want to survive.

They start with content marketing, and they fall on their face. Why? Because content marketing is dead! Clients just aren’t impressed that their agent knows about a home on the market. The client knows about the home too! They have an internet connection, after all. Who doesn’t? Clients need more. Way more. They need….CONTEXT.

For God’s sake, they don’t need any more content. They don’t need anyone to tell them what square footage a home has. They already know. They don’t need anyone to tell them the listing price either. Again…they already know. They already have gobs of information; what they need is context.

Examples of CONTEXT

They already know the price, but they NEED a professional to tell them what’s going to happen to the value of that home over the next few years…and why. That’s context.
They already know the square footage of the home that interests them, but they NEED a professional to point out how they can make a small change to the layout of the home and unlock a lot of hidden potential that they wouldn’t have otherwise seen. That’s context.
They already know that the home they really wanted is off the market, but they NEED a professional to let them in on the fact that the buyer is having credit issues (uh, oh!) and the deal is likely to fall through, so instead of writing an offer on another home they don’t like as much, maybe they should sit tight for a second. That’s context.

Context is what separates the men from the boys, so to speak. Thing is, you have to ACTUALLY know what the heck you’re talking about…you might even have to take some risks on occasion, if you want to offer genuine CONTEXT to your audience. You man enough?

Would you like 100,000 fake subscribers to your blog?

By Christian

You send an email to your list. Nothing happens. You work hard and publish an awesome new article. Nothing happens. What the heck?

There’s a crucial difference between subscribership and engagement. I submit that what you’re seeking with your marketing is engagement, not subscribership. I know, this is deep stuff. Yet our focus is usually placed in the exact opposite direction. So I’ll say it again…

We keep wanting to reach MORE people. Why?

It’s time-consuming.
It’s expensive.
It begins a new relationship…which is good, but a NEW relationship is also the most difficult to monetize.

The days of building huge websites that get tons of traffic and then simply monetizing with ads and affiliate links are over. This is old news, but most of us who market ourselves online haven’t changed our approach.

Small is awesome

Focus on who you have NOW. Do only 20 people subscribe to your blog? Don’t discredit yourself, and most importantly, don’t discredit THEM! TALK TO THEM! Get a response. Be awesome to them. Give them cool stuff like a free report that is actually WORTH something. Maybe give them a video or some chocolate. I don’t know. Be cool to them. You know how to be cool. You don’t need me to tell you how to be cool. You’re a reader of Dangerous Tactics, which means you’re already way smarter than most people! Your brand of cool is going to be different than mine, and that’s cool. What matters is that you connect, engage and convert. That’s what businesses are made of.

Getting more people is not the answer. Increasing engagement is the answer.

What happens when you’re awesome to 20 people? Lean in close, because I’m going to reveal a massively powerful SECRET to marketing right now…

When you’re awesome to 20 people, they tell other people how awesome you are! All of a sudden you have 40 subscribers. Not impressed? Maybe you should be awesome to those 40 people too. I know…40 people to be awesome to…that’s a lot of pressure. What are your alternatives?

You COULD just go spend an insane amount of money on ads that don’t convert.
You COULD triple the number of times you link out to your own stuff on Twitter and Facebook, alienating your friends and followers.
You COULD buy a coop email list with 300,000 ill-gotten email addresses on it, and become a spammer.
You COULD spend a thousand dollars per month (or more…probably more) for a SEO firm to help you get more traffic.

You could do any of these things if you want. Or, you could just be awesome to the people whose attention you already have. The cool thing is that when you do this, people talk and spread the word for you. It’s free, and it’s WAY more powerful and effective with regards to building your blog’s readership, your email list or whatever it is you’re building.

Do you want a BIG list and a LOT of readers? Or do you want a RESPONSIVE list and LOYAL readers, who “get” what you do?

Bigger isn’t necessarily better, but it IS more expensive and wasteful

More and more people on your list who don’t respond…that’s what happens when you focus solely on “getting more subscribers” or “increasing traffic” instead of actually TALKING with the people you already have on the line.

I’ve seen sites with tens of thousands of subscribers close up shop. They called it quits after achieving what most bloggers can only dream of. Lack of engagement is why. Are you trying to become a rock star? OK then, if so…you’re reading the wrong blog right now. Are you trying to build a very profitable business using web marketing? If so, you’re on the RIGHT blog, and you DON’T need tons of traffic or a huge email list to make it happen!

There’s an important need for things like traffic generation, SEO and such. I’m not completely disregarding these things. They’re important. But most of us place way too much importance on it. Focus on the attention you already have. It’s worth a LOT more than you realize. Attention is not the goal; it’s merely the first step.

In new articles coming soon, we’ll discuss the 5 stages of marketing you need to use in order to have maximum impact with your small audience. Until then, don’t sweat the small stuff…be small, stay small. Lean and mean. Lose the need for an ego stroke…you don’t need thousands of people to come out to your site every day, and you don’t need a huge email list to make a great living do this.

Do you want 100,000 subscribers who don’t respond to your content? It may feel good to have the numbers, but it doesn’t mean ANYTHING if the engagement is not there. Here’s a litmus test you can use:

Is your small readership hyper-engaged and responding really well to what you’re doing? Do you only have 20 subscribers? If so, you should still be making sales. Not a lot of course, but something. If you’re making no sales with your small amount of traffic, why do you think getting MORE traffic will help? Zero times a bazillion…is still ZERO!

Place your focus on increasing engagement and really doing something that connects…something that is really MEANINGFUL to a small number of people. Who can you truly reach in a meaningful way? That is your true audience. That is your true list. Everyone else…all those people who don’t respond…are just fake subscribers. Maybe they’ll come around one day, but don’t hold your breath. You have better things to focus on in the meantime.

Should I cut back my marketing to save money?

By Christian

There’s been a lot of talk lately in the small business community about “cutting costs”. This always happens toward the end of the year. It’s especially understandable these days, when a lot of business owners are struggling with changes in their market.

Cut waste. Cut unnecessary expenses. Cut systems you’re not using.

DON’T cut investment in your business.

Not all expenses are the same! But many of you think they are. To you, an expense is an expense is an expense. And when it comes to expenses, fewer is better. It’s not overly complicated, but there’s more to it than that.

Unfortunately a lot of biz owners look at money poorly. As in…they look at money like poor pe0ple do. That’s a shame, because you’re creative, motivated, gutsy and talented. You have everything it takes to be successful, so take the next step and learn a bit about the differences between investing and spending.

Spending = expenses that do not yield a return on investment

Investing = expenses that DO yield a return on investment.

I’ve seen you guys (real world stuff…this ain’t made up, hypothetical stuff) flippantly shut down websites you’ve owned for years, that have tons of exposure and incoming links, so you can save $100 a month.

I’ve seen you guys cut marketing campaigns that bring in leads, so you can save some money. Think about that for a second. I talked with a guy last week in a LinkedIn forum about this. He was BRAGGING about how much money he was saving. Unbelievable. How are you going to grow if you don’t invest in your business? Find new ways and creative ways to invest in your business, but don’t stop investing. I know this is a tough market for a lot of you. Sales were down in 2010, maybe they were down in 2009 also.

SOOOO, it’s the time to invest MORE. Not less. If you need to cut expenses, move that in-house server into the cloud. My real estate team just did this, and it gives us the EXACT same performance for several hundred less per month. Cut your mocha lattes if you need to. I wouldn’t recommend it unless it’s truly necessary, but sometimes we need to take extreme measures.

If given the choice between cutting the cleaning service or cutting marketing, a LOT of you choose marketing. For God’s sake, please don’t do that. Take out your own trash. Look at your payroll; are you paying an employee $30k a year to do stuff that doesn’t bring in a return on investment? I’m not going to tell you to drop the empl0yee. I’m going to tell you that it’s YOUR job to get them doing stuff that DOES bring in a return.

Don’t cut marketing when business is slow. Do MORE marketing. If it’s slow for you, it’s slow for others. It’s not time to run in fear. It’s time to grow.

What if I don’t make it?

By Christian

Oh my. I’m not sure what’s caused it to be honest, but many of you have found this site lately through using keywords like “what to do if my business fails” and “how do I know if my business will succeed?”, etc. True to form, I’m writing a post that targets NONE of these long tail keywords 🙂 Why? It’s 20% laziness and 80% driven by the fact that I’m evidently already pretty well-optimized for those terms, so why optimize for them yet again?

Yet the fact remains that I haven’t directly addressed these questions, so that gave me the idea for this post…

Ask the RIGHT questions!

I’m a huge advocate about being careful when it comes to researching ideas to grow your business. If you want good, helpful answers, make sure to ask good questions. I also talked about this in my last post about How to Make Money Fast. If you ask negative or fearful questions, you get answers which cater to that mentality. I don’t cater to negativity, and neither should you. So basically…I’m not going to answer your quetions 🙂

I have something even better for you though. I’ll answer your REAL question, which is “what steps can I take to make sure my business does well and meets my goals?” See how that question is positive and focused on success instead of failure? This isn’t just some dumb mind game or a word trick. It matters. It’s crucial actually.

So to answer your concerns, let’s start with dumping fear and focusing on how to get the results you’re looking for. Cool? How do you make sure your business is successful in 2011 and moving forward? Some of you are ready for what I have to share with you. Candidly, some of you aren’t ready for the answer yet, and that’s cool. All I can do is give it to you straight.

There are several fantastic ways you can grow your business faster than ever, get on track, stay on track and make sure you’re reaching your goals. I have a new article published on Blog for Profit today. What? Two articles in one day? I know, I’m a machine 😉

I have a few of the most high impact principles outlined there. I recommend you swing out and read the article. Leave a comment, and let’s talk about it! One of the principles I talk about is Once, Twice, Thrice, which is my witty name for an old school principle that WILL double or even triple the growth of your online presence. I also discuss how education, speed and bonuses will get you what you want. Fun things that cost nothing and work…every single time. Let me know what you think!

How I make money fast ($522.60 in less than one second)

By Christian

I’m about to trick you. Pull the wool over your eyes, if you will. It will be fun. The fact is I DO make $522.60 in less than one second. I do it all the time. You can too. It’s just not some stupid “get rich quick”, “make money online” garbage. It’s the actual truth. Sorry about that.

How to make $522.60 in less than one second

My average client pays me $522.60. You know…it’s the average. Some pay less. Some pay more. Almost no one actually pays me exactly $522.60. It’s just the average. When someone clicks the “submit payment” button, over the course of that one second I make on average $522.60.

It still amazes me that this works. It still blows my mind that I can literally sit here at my kitchen table (or wherever I’m working at the time), click “publish” and then money shows up in my Paypal account. It’s addictive, really.

How to make money fast

Just for those of you who feel ripped off by this post so far, I want you to know…there IS a point, and there IS a reason I’m sharing this with you today! It’s deep stuff, actually.

The reason I’m writing this post is that “make money fast” is a keyword that gets almost 250,000 searches PER MONTH. Can you believe that? There are a LOT of you trying to figure out how to “make money fast”. It’s simple really…EVERYONE makes money fast.

You didn’t know that, did you?

The fact is that making money fast is kind of automatic. It doesn’t take long. Money changes hands. It only takes a second, really. So what’s the problem? What are you struggling with?

You’re asking the wrong question! Making money is a piece of cake. All the work leading up to it…that’s what you need to focus on!

For all of you searching “how to make money fast” this month, I humbly submit that you’re asking the wrong question! Don’t ask how to make money fast. It’s a waste of time. Instead, ask stuff that’s actually going to connect you with better customers and clients. Why aren’t more people searching for this stuff? Ask these things instead:

How to create value (5400 searches last month).
Ask how to connect with your customers (210 searches last month).
How to survey your website visitors (ZERO searches this past month…really?).
How to do market research (2,100 searches last month).

Why are so many of us struggling to make money with our websites? We’re asking the wrong dang questions!

One final point

Check it out…not only do the RIGHT questions yield you MUCH more helpful answers (you know…stuff that’s actually going to HELP you grow your business), there is also another extremely high value benefit you might be overlooking. Look at how much COMPETITION there is for these much more powerful questions. There are way less competitive.

Do you know who IS making money fast? People searching the keywords above, not the ones searching “how to make money fast”. It’s ironic, isn’t it?

As soon as you make the decision that you’re going to use the keywords above (and many others like them), instead of useless searches like “how to make money fast”, everything gets so much simpler…and so much more effective.

Are you looking for answers? Make sure you ask the right questions!