Rant+Oppo: CONTENT IS KING & THE KING IS DEAD.

LONG LIVE THE KING.

[ A note to the non-marketers: Please bear with me while I vent. ]

[ And see if anyone cares. ]

Don’t believe me?

Go ask your CMO what kind of ROI you’re getting from your content. Ask anyone in your company to name ONE piece of content you published last month by name. Ask that new customer which blog post or whitepaper prompted them to sign up.

Hell, do YOU even remember half the blog posts you published last month?

I don’t—and I’m pouring my heart and soul out on this blog.

Having been in the industry for a few years, I can tell you one thing—if you aren’t writing specifically to ONE PERSON, you are pretty much wasting your time. Which means you’re wasting money, too.

It used to be, you’d entertain, enlighten, or educate prospective customers with content. Blog posts, articles, white papers and ebooks that delivered value TO THE READER. The best stuff would get traction, be shared around, and drive some results.

Truly remarkable, mass market content would stand out and go viral. It still does, but we’ve reached a saturation point. Everyone is swimming in content. And nobody gives a rat’s ass about any of it.

It’s just something we do. It’s a checkbox on a todo list.

I am SO done with fluffy, thoughtless, lowest common denominator pandering content.

If your only concern about content is how many words and what it costs, you’re doing it wrong.

If you’re not helping a specific person with a specific problem, you’re wasting your time.

If you’re not creating something for someone, you’re making nothing for anyone.

Simply put, if your content plan has more in common with a print magazine than it does a handwritten letter to someone you genuinely care about, don’t even bother. You’re just putting more cruft on the internet for the rest of us to sift through.

And if you agree—but don’t understand where to go next—ping me. I’d love to talk about it.

Who knows. Maybe I can help you find the spark that lights a fire under someone’s ass.

If you want results that funking matter, you have to funking matter to someone.

And there is tremendous opportunity if you’re willing to unpack that idea.

Go and do likewise.

The audience is out there. If you reach them, they’re yours.

Mitch and Murray would never tolerate this shit.

/rant