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Content Marketing Blog

Listen Up Content Marketers! It's OK to Go Off on a Tangent

Your Audience will Enjoy the Break and Share Your Content Readily

Unless you’re blessed with insanely linear organizational skills, you understand how boring anything formal or stiffly written can be. Reading through educational materials isn’t exactly fun for many. That is, until you come across someone who knows how to write for their audience instead of just their topic.

Content marketing isn’t about plugging your product shamelessly line after line. It’s about bridging the gap between interest and a solution. Each piece written for a website should expand on knowledge about a product’s potential as it relates to the real world. This isn’t done with a “used car-salesman” ad. It’s done with a narrative. A story that takes the reader on a relatable journey that teaches, entertains, and builds a relationship. So yes, of course, go ahead and sell your high-tech lawnmower, but do so by showing your audience how to care for their lawns, how often to water their grass, why weed and bug control is required, how does aeration work, why your dog peeing on the lawn may burn it, smart ways to protect your grass during summer barbecues, and so on.

Think of content marketing like going on a blind date with your audience. They’re already there because something interests them. Now, it’s up to you to keep them there with witty and captivating stories that eventually nudge them in the right direction. Going for the hard sell right out of the gate is always going to be a mistake in content development. Those lawnmowers will only sell fast and sell more if your customers have beautiful lawns that they believe deserve a high-tech mower!

Omnipresent Branding of Content – It’s NOT Required!

Some old school marketing gurus are still focused on making every piece about the brand. This falls more in line with advertising copywriting and has been proven less than effective with the new digital generation. Consumers respond to “tangents” that interest them and provide valuable information instead of treating them like cattle with wallets. Knowing when to create a tangential content sales funnel is as simple as identifying your content’s purpose and using these tips:

  • Is your content intended to increase traffic, improve SEO visibility and create repeat customers? Content marketing is an excellent way to diversify your topics which casts a wider net for consumers and creates new sales funnels from different directions.
  • Content that’s written to entertain also has a more emotional impact on readers. Emotion is one of the most powerful marketing tools in existence. It connects to people and resonates with them on a deeper level. This means more meaning and more memorable content.
  • Content marketing may be intended to increase sales, but the long game is best played using diverse topic choices that offer a wider range of value for different types of potential clients. Again, the wider you can cast your marketing net, the more traffic you’ll eventually drive to your niche.

Your niche doesn’t have to be so narrowed by content that no one can get in to enjoy your products. Content marketing widens this and diversifies your audience in new and interesting ways. Sometimes, branding can miss the mark—so why not make your target bigger?

For more information on how to change your approach to content marketing, contact the SEO copywriting experts at MintCopy. We know how to get the readers’ attention, and how to keep it!

Use our online form to get in touch today. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter to stay updated on the latest content marketing trends.

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