How to Win in a Saturated Content Market
By Andrew Patricio
September 04, 2017
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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For years, marketing teams have taken up the call for content, saturating the market on practically every topic. This has made it nearly impossible for a single piece of content to be discovered without a significant investment in advertising. But that doesn’t have to be the case for you. So let’s look at a few ways for your small business to win in a saturated content market.
Go Narrow
In his book, The Content Code, Mark Schaefer describes a rather clever way to get your content found with organic search; exploit a niche. Your content will never win centered around well-covered topics like content marketing, for example. Instead, Schaefer recommends narrowing your content to a niche that has not been saturated, like multilingual content marketing. Not only will your content be found easier, but it will be found by an underserved market.
Be Good
Getting your audience to engage and share your content will be impossible if it isn’t good. So how do you make it good? Studies have shown that blog posts that are long, more than 1,000 words, actually generate more shares, presumably because there is more for people to find useful. Which brings up the simple test for quality content. When starting to create your videos, slides, blogs, infographics, etc., ask yourself:
It bears stating the obvious here about “good” content, it should be easy to read and grammatically correct. You’ll lose all your hard work if no one can understand your point.
Use Smart Promotion
If you have invested in a really useful piece of content, then it may be worth investing in promoting it so that it gets into the hands of your audience. If you have a good email database, then this investment can be minimal, and you can push out your content in an email drip campaign. If you’re looking to grow your database, or attract a new market, content discovery sites like Taboola will help put a big spotlight on your content to those already engaging with the topic on other sites. While you may want to gate any content you pay to promote, you’ll find more leads if you let your audience sample the content before they “buy” it with their contact information.
To win in a saturated content market and draw value from your efforts, focus on creating quality, niche content, with smart promotions.
Go Narrow
In his book, The Content Code, Mark Schaefer describes a rather clever way to get your content found with organic search; exploit a niche. Your content will never win centered around well-covered topics like content marketing, for example. Instead, Schaefer recommends narrowing your content to a niche that has not been saturated, like multilingual content marketing. Not only will your content be found easier, but it will be found by an underserved market.
Be Good
Getting your audience to engage and share your content will be impossible if it isn’t good. So how do you make it good? Studies have shown that blog posts that are long, more than 1,000 words, actually generate more shares, presumably because there is more for people to find useful. Which brings up the simple test for quality content. When starting to create your videos, slides, blogs, infographics, etc., ask yourself:
- Is it useful?
- Is it interesting?
- Does it tell a good story?
It bears stating the obvious here about “good” content, it should be easy to read and grammatically correct. You’ll lose all your hard work if no one can understand your point.
Use Smart Promotion
If you have invested in a really useful piece of content, then it may be worth investing in promoting it so that it gets into the hands of your audience. If you have a good email database, then this investment can be minimal, and you can push out your content in an email drip campaign. If you’re looking to grow your database, or attract a new market, content discovery sites like Taboola will help put a big spotlight on your content to those already engaging with the topic on other sites. While you may want to gate any content you pay to promote, you’ll find more leads if you let your audience sample the content before they “buy” it with their contact information.
To win in a saturated content market and draw value from your efforts, focus on creating quality, niche content, with smart promotions.