In early 2015 I was invited to a mastermind meeting in Chicago. Within minutes of arriving I realized I was the odd man out. I was the only pure direct response marketer sitting around the long, rectangular conference table amongst a group of primarily bloggers and free traffic aficionados.
“This should be interesting”, I thought to myself, knowing a lot of my marketing methods and ideas would be viewed as heretical to the group.
As the day progressed we discussed the merits of paid traffic versus free traffic, the idea of SEO as a customer acquisition channel, and, of course, content marketing, among other topics.
“Our goal is to create a piece of content that we can then market across as many different channels as possible,” is how one attendee in the group described their purpose and objective with content marketing.
That’s when I began to realize just how different successful direct response marketers view and use content compared to most average bloggers.
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For the direct response marketer, content marketing is not simply about marketing a piece of content. It’s more about creating a piece of content that does the marketing.
This may seem like simple semantics, but it’s not.
Most marketers approach traditional content marketing by emphasizing just the creation and distribution of a valuable piece of content, with the goal of attracting new prospects.
But that begs an important question: What does “valuable” mean in this context?
For the average content marketer, the value of a content piece is determined primarily by the level of utility for the prospect and the opportunities for distribution.
For the direct response marketer, there’s an additional criterion to be met for any content piece to be considered valuable.
It needs to function as a marketing piece that not only provides utility for prospects, but that also furthers the sale by framing the prospect’s problem and ideal solution, and establishing the necessary “buying beliefs”.
Content does marketing
In other words, for the direct response marketer, content does marketing. Even more accurately: for the direct response marketer content is marketing. And marketing is content. There is no difference. There is no separation.
Simply put, as I see it, traditional content marketing is about creating and providing valuable education for the prospect.
And while that’s good, it’s not the ultimate aim of a direct response marketer. This is why, for the direct response marketer, content marketing is about creating valuable marketing that just so happens to be education-based.
The pay-off for you as a direct response marketer is:
- All of your marketing is perceived as valuable by prospects.
- Your marketing has a higher engagement rate because it’s not viewed as advertising or sales material.
- You’re able to market more often to your tribe because you’re not simply hammering them over the head with pure promotional information.
- You’re leveraging your content as it’s doing some of the heavy lifting for you in terms of furthering the sale.
To take this from the conceptual to the practical with your own content marketing, begin with one of your offers in mind, then follow these three tips:
- Think about, and write down, all the different things your prospect needs to believe in order to view your product and offer as the best solution for their needs.
This list of beliefs should include everything they need to believe about: their problem; the other solutions available to them; as well as the key reasons why your solution (i.e. approach, method, process, system, etc.) is the best fit for their exact situation.
- Taking one of the beliefs from step one, think about, and write down, all the things you can present, show, demonstrate, illustrate, or say to establish that one belief in the mind of the prospect. And what proof point or points can you present to back up everything you say?
- Armed with the list from step two, begin to put together your content piece. Think of it like constructing an argument to prove a point so you can change the perspective of your reader or viewer.
Your goal is to present a compelling argument that establishes a new belief in the mind of your prospect, and that also leads the prospect one step closer to responding to your offer.
That’s how I approach the creation of all content. And that’s how you should do it as well. Because that’s how the method most successful direct response marketers use when it comes to content marketing.
