{"id":3572,"date":"2018-03-25T23:55:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T06:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2018-03-26T00:02:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T07:02:09","slug":"contrarian-content-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/contrarian-content-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrarian Take: Don&#8217;t Start Your Content Marketing with &#8220;What Do My Customers Want?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re in the business of content marketing, I know you&#8217;ve seen advice like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Start with your customer personas.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Create content that will resonate with your customers.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Great content is content that your customers actually want to consume.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It sounds compelling. But in my experience, it&#8217;s wrong. Or at least, incomplete. Why?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3573\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/content-targets2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1143\" height=\"642\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/content-targets2.png 1143w, https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/content-targets2-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/content-targets2-768x431.png 768w, https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/content-targets2-1024x575.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1143px) 100vw, 1143px\" \/><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>#1) Because, most content marketing goals are around:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Amplifying your content so it reaches a broader audience<\/li>\n<li>Driving more brand awareness so a greater number of people recall your brand with positive association<\/li>\n<li>Earning links and other ranking signals that can help your content\/site rank higher in search<\/li>\n<li>Converting more potential customers into buyers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And unfortunately, for most companies, your customers are not the best targets for (nor, often, even capable of) these things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>#2) Because content that&#8217;s focused on existing customer targets is (at least much of the time) boring, dry, unimaginative drivel.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re thinking &#8220;But I&#8217;m the exception!&#8221; OK. Great. But the best content marketing efforts I see are consistently those that leverage a customer affinity that a broader group also shares. Or content that&#8217;s crafted specifically to appeal to a wider group. Or, best of all, content that is intentionally targeted to those publications and people most likely to help it spread.<\/p>\n<p><strong>#3) Because customer-targeted content preaches to the choir.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And content marketing, while it *can* reach be used to exchange more value with existing customers, is most often about reaching non-customers. By targeting to existing customer &#8220;personas&#8221; or &#8220;people like our current customers&#8221; you leave out potential audiences who are not like them.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Don&#8217;t start with &#8220;create this for our customers.&#8221; You&#8217;re hamstringing yourself, and the results will usually suck.<\/p>\n<p>Start with &#8220;create this for the journalists, podcasters, authors, amplifiers, influencers, and media that reaches our audience.&#8221; I promise you&#8217;ll be far more likely to achieve your marketing goals.<\/p>\n<p>P.S. Some content marketing can be targeted exclusively at goals like &#8220;help our customers better use our products,&#8221; or &#8220;help our customers do their jobs better,&#8221; or &#8220;give our customers these tools\/datasets\/stories so they&#8217;ll think more positively about us.&#8221; But these current-customer-centric uses of content are probably better for email newsletters and in-product content vs. external content marketing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re in the business of content marketing, I know you&#8217;ve seen advice like this: &#8220;Start with your customer personas.&#8221; &#8220;Create content that will resonate with your customers.&#8221; &#8220;Great content is content that your customers actually want to consume.&#8221; It sounds compelling. But in my experience, it&#8217;s wrong. Or at least, incomplete. Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Contrarian Take: Don&#039;t Start Your Content Marketing with &quot;What Do My Customers Want?&quot; - SparkToro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you&#039;re in the business of content marketing, I know you&#039;ve seen advice like this: &quot;Start with your customer personas.&quot; &quot;Create content that will\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/contrarian-content-marketing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contrarian Take: Don&#039;t Start Your Content Marketing with &quot;What Do My Customers Want?&quot; - SparkToro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you&#039;re in the business of content marketing, I know you&#039;ve seen advice like this: &quot;Start with your customer personas.&quot; &quot;Create content that will\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/contrarian-content-marketing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SparkToro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/sparktoro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-26T06:55:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-26T07:02:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/content-targets2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1143\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"642\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rand Fishkin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sparktoro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sparktoro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rand Fishkin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/contrarian-content-marketing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/contrarian-content-marketing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rand Fishkin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2acd0781db4d1905cecfec9bea406570\"},\"headline\":\"Contrarian Take: Don&#8217;t Start Your Content Marketing with &#8220;What Do My Customers Want?&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-26T06:55:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-26T07:02:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/contrarian-content-marketing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":391,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/contrarian-content-marketing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/images.sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/03\\\/content-targets2.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Marketing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/contrarian-content-marketing\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/contrarian-content-marketing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sparktoro.com\\\/blog\\\/contrarian-content-marketing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Contrarian Take: Don't Start Your Content Marketing with \\\"What Do My Customers Want?\\\" - 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