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When you centre your message to an addressable audience, you spend less, you get more back. Bringing everything back from Content Marketing World 2017 is effectively a chance to reflect, press the reset button and focus on the opportunity that is presented. The content that you distribute has far more resonance when you send to those who already trust you. The messages from Content Marketing World 2017, centre on having the ability to say something that not everyone else is saying within...

Self gratification from strangers will always be an empty pursuit. Building an audience you care about is where the reward sits. There is a fascination with size in every corner of society. The visibility of social media means that we are continually looking to prove that we are worthy and proof that other people take us seriously. The lure is on every corner, where chasing followers is seen as valid measurement tool. Success has to be when you move away from status and align your message...

The word audience and community are often used together, but are both completely different. Within the social media world, we are encouraged to build our audience to have a conversation with those who share our beliefs and interests. To then say we have a community, who hang onto our every tweet, is totally wrong. You build, by creating rituals. When you start to discover a routine, you have a better chance of building an audience who will stick by you. Lets put the ‘create great content’...

If you patronise your audience, there is going to be one winner, everybody else. Businesses can no longer presume their message is going to resonate with everyone else, no matter how well crafted they think it is. If you get it wrong, you get torn down. It doesn’t matter what size your business is. So, what’s the solution? Whilst we all acknowledge that relentless interruption with no heart (or alignment) does not work, what does work is to respect someone else’s time and deliver content...

Whenever you start creating something new, it has to be for someone else. The target audience is never you. If you don’t create your own genre where you give something to others that they haven’t seen/listen/read before, why bother? Do we really want another podcast, blog or video series that says nothing and entertains no one? A lot of people go into things without really thinking there is an audience in the first place. The question that starts everything is always, ‘who is this for?’...

When you become the source within your marketplace, it all comes from finding a content tunnel that is yours to fill. If someone cannot talk with real purpose and have an original slant, then it’s just the same as everyone else. Nothing is different, it gets lost. We are on a constant journey to skill-up and recognise what looks good in the eyes of someone else. If you can become relevant to someone, before they need you, you are in a far greater place to be held in higher regard than the...

You have to align what you sell with the principals you have. When you misalign what you do, it undermines the association others have with you. The last thing you want is conflict where messages become messy and there is no connection. When it comes to alignment, the ventures that you pursue have to match your mission. When your product and your message do not match up, it causes conflict. It doesn’t become believable. Alignment is critical, as it is something that is with you for a very...

Whilst it is important for your message to reach out, the seal of approval is when people want to stick around. The only way for people to stay with you is for them to see a quality of work that you can keep the momentum with. The only way for people to read/watch/listen is when you say/do something that others don’t. This is something that Kevin Kelly shaped in 2008 and is still true today with his 1,000 True Fans principal. Kelly explains that where we can create (with a defined voice),...

Just because you have a good idea, doesn’t make it a good idea. Everything has to tie back to your objectives and strategy. When you dilute something you lose the essence of what it is in the first place. Adding too much water to something that originally had a lot of flavour, eventually becomes water. There has to be a framework from that initial spark of an idea. The side project promises nervous anticipation of the unknown, which is why they can be such a powerful part of your overall...

In order to deliver value so others come on board with you for the journey, you have to be disciplined. To some this is never going to work. Once upon a time everyone watched the same TV shows (24.35 million people watched an Only Fools and Horses episode in 1996), we all watched the same ads and we received our news from a handful of sources. We now live in a time where anyone can create content, for free and distribute globally. The companies who are seeing results are those with a...

To stay relevant people must embrace change. Changing direction has to be a path taken in order to stay true to what you believe in. According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of evolve is, ‘developing gradually.’ Developing gradually comes down to having a purpose to what you do and a focus on whom you do it for. Darwin stated that organisms alter over time as a direct result of changes in physical and behavioural circumstances. This allows organisms to adapt far better within its...

It’s better to be the one who says ‘GO’! This week, it’s analogy time, why it’s better to be a roadsign than the billboard. Lets keep it simple and bring it into context of your business. One is consistent - the other is always chopping and changing So….is there a particular theme your business can deliver on? One is random - the other is all about timing So….you need to deliver the right the right content at the right time to a targeted audience. One is to trust - one is to draw attention...

Many are trying a lot of things and throwing a lot of stuff at the wall. It’s time to slow down. Things don’t need to be complicated, lets strip things back to recognise that we exist to connect products and services to people who want and benefit from them. There are too many outlets available to spend time marketing on all of them. Marketing effectively makes and creates a market for your products and services. In order to do this, you build an audience who are interested. Once they are...

When you create ongoing processes, it is far better than just turning up once in a while. When you create routines, they can be very powerful. It is what has helped us to get stuck into 134 shows. Over time, the right routines can be key contributors to your business success. You can’t just ask people to subscribe, if you don’t have any proof for people to delve in deeper and read articles, watch videos or listen to audio, that cements your role within the marketplace. Look at it this way,...

If it’s working brilliant, but sometimes it is too easy when you just throw money at something. Facebook recently reached a milestone, a quarter of the plant are on this channel. The earth contains 7 billion people, 1.94 are on Facebook each month. It is getting a bit scary. Many social places encouraged us to build and reach people for nothing, that fun ride has now well and truly stopped. However, many people and businesses still back the same horse, expecting to see a return. However,...

Before you think that you need to spend more on the brand or the website, an overall objective is to get people to spend more time with you. Let's strip everything back and recognise that you need to understand how you fit into someone else’s time and day and more importantly, in a language they understand. When people spend more time with you (both offline as well as online), what matters most is how relevant you are. This is not just using media to tempt someone in and then go to town on...

Let's look at what you need to do to convince others that you are the trusted choice. How can you be chosen ahead of someone else? In the business of being picked at school time football, how do you stand more of a chance than someone else? Creating value plays a huge role here. Your audience is where everything positive comes from. It’s not from Google or Facebook. These are just ways for an audience to find you. Instead of trying to serve Google or an algorithm, serve those who can...

You need a consistent mindset to grow your business; email provides a solid foundation. To have the ability to communicate a message through a space you have 100% control of should be seen as a privilege and not something to take advantage of. Everything you do has to be centred on creating something that people really want to open, not form a queue with the rest of the noise that someone else gets. When you get it bang on, email creates a more personal relationship with someone else that...

Companies need to work on an audience-building framework that is centred of subscriber growth. Whether it is a one off download, a sales promotion tool, or to click that elusive ‘subscribe’ button, you need a strategy in place for why you want people to interact in the first place. It doesn’t just stop there, to delve deeper you have tools such as www.hotjar.com to record sessions and testing platforms such as www.google.com/analytics/optimize/ You have to create ways for people to come on...

Lets look at how you can keep a rhythm that doesn’t tail off and start becoming a chore. As this is our 128th show, we guess we come from a place of knowledge and share with you why we haven’t sat here twiddling our thumbs, or relentlessly going over old ground. The ways to keep on creating, centres on understanding the problems for your marketplace and be seen as a place authority. If you accept that learning is a continuous process and you realise that not everything you distribute has...