the content mint newsletter

Yesterday I found myself on the Merriam-Webster website, and in the sidebar I saw that a very interesting word was trending.

The word was:
Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg

So, curiosity piqued, I clicked to see the definition, which is:

Okay, great . . . That tells me what it is, but I clicked on the word because it’s unique; I wanted to know why it’s called that. How did it get that name, and what does it mean?

But for that info I realized I needed an encyclopedia, so on the Encyclopedia Britannica page for Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg I learned that:

Voila, all my questions answered.

Here’s the thing . . .

If you have a unique offering, people don’t just want to know what you do, they want to know why you do it in your unique way, how it got to be that way, and what it means to you (which they can then translate into what it means for them).

And the best way to answer those questions is to develop your content to function like an encyclopedia, and not simply as a dictionary.

Over the past decade or so, the marketing vogue has been what is sometimes called a social-first marketing strategy. This involves directing the majority of marketing efforts toward creating content specifically designed to perform well on social media platforms.

But as more people start to reconsider their relationship with social media—and social media’s relationship to culture at large—let’s remember that social media is only one tool in the marketing toolbox, not the whole arsenal.

Depending on how you want to be perceived as a business and content creator, you could even decide to adopt what we might call the social-last marketing strategy.

The social-last strategy involves first and foremost publishing content in the medium and context in which it can provide the most value to your audience (as opposed to forcing content to fit the mold of current trends), and then using social media primarily as a top-of-funnel awareness generator which points people to where your really valuable content can be found.

What this does is twofold:

First, it respects people’s time. If you are among the growing number of those who are personally trying to spend less time on social media, why would you ask your customers to spend more time there on your content?

Second, it allows you to build a focused content environment which is free from the noise that comes from social media feeds. If you can direct customers to a channel or webpage that is filled exclusively with you, then they’re no longer comparing you to another similar business that they’re likely going to see the next time they swipe the screen.

I’m not saying this strategy is necessarily superior to the social-first method, I just want to make sure we’re allowing ourselves to think outside the box and make strategic decisions because they make sense for our business and not just because it’s what everyone else is doing.

One of the most effective qualities of content, especially the visual mediums, is that it is able to convey the feeling of experiencing your product or service before the customer actually experiences it. This is what I call “vicarious experience.”

This is super useful in a lot of situations. For example, if you had to get a root canal and were very nervous about it, it would probably be helpful for you to see a video of the endodontist’s office to get a feeling of who the doctor is and what it will be like to go in for the procedure before you get there.¹

In this case, the vicarious experience is able to alleviate fear associated with a necessary but undesirable service.

On the other hand, if you are planning a day at an amusement park, the vicarious experience of seeing people having fun on the rides might heighten your excitement and anticipation for being on the ride yourself.

In this case, the vicarious experience increases desire for the real experience.

While the subject of your vicarious experience content will obviously be you and your product or service, remember that ultimately this content is about making the customer feel like you understand their hopes and fears before they get to actually experience your offering.

1. To see this specific example in action, take a look at my case study from Root Canal Specialists of Baton Rouge. They did a great job of expressing an understanding of the patient’s perspective and fears while alleviating those fears with their warm personalities and patient testimonials. ↩︎

When we start creating content, we are de facto engaging in the modern “attention economy,” but as small businesses, first and foremost we operate in the actual economy.

The distinction may seem minor, but it’s worth pointing out because many of the trendy modern content creation techniques are designed specifically and exclusively to benefit the attention economy.

(The idea of trends itself is a distinct feature of the attention economy which is not of universal benefit in the actual economy.)

The good news is that you own a business, which means that (ideally) you are not fully dependent on your content to keep the lights on. So, unlike professional content creators who are compelled to play the game and chase the algorithm, you can create content that is dedicated to providing value to your customers, without resorting to tactics designed to capture and mine as much attention from the general population as possible.

In film studies, there’s a concept known as auteur theory, which is the idea that the best film directors function in a similar way for their films as an author does for a book.

The auteur has the vision for the final product of the film and control over every aspect of the production to shape the final product to fit that vision.

Not every film is helmed by an auteur, but those that are bear the unique fingerprint and perspective of that person in every detail.

You are the auteur of your business.

Does your content bear the marks of the distinct vision and perspective that motivated you to go into business in the first place?

At the beginning of this year, Patreon released a document they called the State of Create which breaks down the current trends and feelings of online content creators and their fans. The whole document is pretty interesting, but I want to highlight one specific set of statistics here.

According to the 2K+ fans that were surveyed:

Here’s the thing . . .

As the rest of the document goes on to explain, short-form content creates value for the social media platforms because the platform uses it—divorced from the feed of the actual creators—to keep audience attention focused on suggested and “For You” feeds instead.

But where audiences find value is in well-thought-out long-form content from creators they intentionally follow.

So . . .

When you’re creating content, ask yourself: For whom am I providing value?

The media that you choose to create and display should represent the most ideal version of what you want your business to be.

It should represent the kinds of customers you want.

The kinds of work you want to be known for.

And the way you want to be perceived.

Your media is more than just a resumé.

It’s also a prophecy.

If the extent of your marketing strategy is to create content “because everyone else is creating content . . .”

. . . then when it comes to what kind of content you want to create . . .

. . . the only thing you’ll be able to think of is what “everyone else” is doing.

Which means your content will look just like everyone else’s.

In response to my message last week in which I said that you can have fun with your media for price buyers, a fellow list member named Randall shared this anecdote:

(shared with permission)

That’s a great example of targeting a specific buyer type and quickly identifying the key information they’re looking for.

Not to mention putting a billboard in Frisco at that time is also a great example of intentionally crafting the proper context for your media as well.

So, how can you form and position your content so that your ideal buyers feel like you know exactly who they are and what they want to know about you?

Matching your content to your customers is about two things:

1. quickly and clearly communicating the specific critical information that each customer is looking for to make their purchase decision (price, value, action, personality)
2. making the customer feel seen in their specific state of mind during the buying process

But since people are never one buyer type exclusively, and your customers will be a mix of buyers to begin with, it’s important to have a mix of content that speaks to more than one of the buyer types.

If you rely too heavily on tactics for one buyer type, you risk alienating others. People who just want to see your smiling face will be turned off if all you’re posting about is promos and deals.

The key to communicating to various buyer types is to tailor your content to the customers who will be seeing it in any given context. So, for example, maybe the content which details your offering on your website is developed with value buyers in mind, while your social media content is developed with a view toward relationship buyers.

Finally, don’t forget to balance the scales.

If we were to plot the buyer types on a scale from emotional decision makers to intellectual decision makers, relationship and convenience buyers would be toward the emotional end of the spectrum, while price and value buyers would be at the intellect end. So be sure to add a little emotional weight into your content for the latter and some intellectual weight to the former.