Having helped many brands steer their way through the often confusing world of content marketing, I've noticed some common themes, myths and misunderstandings about content. The word itself is confusing! Here are 9 things I've learned about content that might help you on your journey.

1. 9 Things I’ve Learned About
Content
While Running A
Content Agency

2. Content is
like Music
It’s one thing and
it’s a million
things
Music is music right? But music is made up
of so many elements: sound, melody,
rhythm, meter, style, composition,
instrumentation, musicians, memories.
‘Content’ is no different. It’s information
presented in a particular format. It’s a
tweet, a whitepaper, a jingle, a TV ad, a
weather update, a magazine article, a blog
post, a game, a poster. What matters isn’t
the content itself. It’s the value of the
content for your audience and for your
brand. Once you find the style of content
that creates value, meaning and relevance
for your audience, you’ll be top of the pops
in no time!
TIP: Use data, insights, sentiment
monitoring, focus groups, conversations and
surveys to understand what content
engages your audience – then make lots it!

3. Don’t be fooled
by all the stats.
The only
ones that
matter are
your own
There are some impressive stats on
content that keep being published and
promoted. Platforms and channels
boasting about the billions of hours spent
viewing content, downloading content,
streaming content. While these numbers
provide contextual relevance, they offer
little value to brands who are creating
their own original content, other than
glorifying the marketplace in which their
content exists.
TIP: Spend less time propagating industry
stats and more time understanding your
own content performance and audience
data. Those stats are the ones you really
need to understand!

4. Know the
end goal
and start from
there.
Brands have spent countless marketing
dollars and time developing content for the
sole purpose of driving engagement. While
this is a part of the content marketing mix,
it should not be the end goal. When a brand
understands the post engagement metrics
that really matter to the business – the
conversion goals related to acquisition,
retention and sales, then content can play a
much bigger role in achieving business
goals. A good content strategy will identify
the end goal for content. A good content
plan will map out the journey.
TIP: Engagement should be the minimum
expectation of content marketing. Think
beyond just likes, shares and comments and
work towards performance-driven metrics
to see your ROI on content really come to
life.

5. If it’s worth
producing
It’s worth
Promoting
Distribution is wedded to content creation.
If you don’t know how you’re going to
distribute, syndicate, evangelise or promote
the content you spend lots of money on
creating, then you run a real risk of wasting
money and time on developing content.
Organic reach is becoming much harder to
achieve with social platforms evolving from
Owned channels to Paid channels, so get
your content plan in place before creating
it!
TIP: Include content distribution as part of
your overall content development budget.
As a general rule, if the cost of content
production exceeds the cost of content
promotion, something might be wrong!

6. Eyes on
Screen
is the new
Bums on
Seats
Bums on seats has long been the goal of
many marketers. Ticket sales, attendance,
participation… these real world metrics
are now also highly relevant to the digital
world, it’s just that they have taken on a
new form. Eyes on screen is a tangible,
visible ROI metric that helps brands
understand the ‘attention’ that their piece
of content accrues, much like the bums on
seats in a cinema.
TIP: Monitor your content, in whatever
format it is delivered in, and get to know
the type of content your audience wants
to consume. The more Eyes On Screen
you achieve over time, the more relevant
your brand becomes.

7. Content
Partnerships are
performance
enhancing
Many brands struggle to afford the cost of
content creation on their own. A surefire
way of offsetting the cost of content
creation – and the cost of content
marketing, is to find strategic partners
who can develop the content with you
and use their networks to help promote
the content. It grows your audience base
and allows your brand to focus on owning
the culture rather than the category
TIP: Look at your existing brand partners
to see if there are any brands that fit
within your content objectives. If not,
look beyond existing partnerships and
create new ones.
Oh the places you will go!

8. Cultivate
content
across your
company
Most businesses look at content as a
department rather than a function of
their entire business. Don’t be caught in
the trap of appointing content teams who
are given autonomous control over
content development. Create a bottom-
up approach to content where all facets
of the business are involved in the
development of content ideas. Foster a
sense of open storytelling in your
business and you’ll never be short of
content ideas again.
TIP: Spend some time to find out the
people in your business who already
make content – bloggers, YouTubers,
writers, animators, musicians and invite
them to contribute ideas for the business.

9. One good piece of
content has
1000 uses.
One bad marketer
has none.
Hopefully most senior marketing people
in your business have embraced digital
marketing and understand the value of
content marketing in both digital and
traditional environments. If they don’t,
they need immediate help! Marketers
who understand the value of content, the
technology that drives content marketing,
and the platforms that enable it, are the
marketers with a solid grasp on the
future.
Encourage your marketing teams to
experiment, to expand their knowledge
and skillsets and to embrace content as
part of the marketing mix.
TIP: Hire marketers who can demonstrate
experience in content marketing… or at
least a passion for it!

10. Understand
your CVP.
Content
Value
Proposition
Audience profile
Location
Habits
Culture
Needs
Desires
Propensity to engage
Propensity to convert
Ability to deliver
Ability to sustain
Content for content sake is not going to
work for your brand. In fact, it’s doomed
to fail. If you don’t have a content strategy
written down, at least spend some quality
time developing your CVP. Know your
audience, know what engages them,
know their content consumption habits
and know your business’s capacity to
deliver a sustainable content offer.

11. THANK YOU
PAUL CHAPPELL
GENERAL MANAGER, HEAD OF CONTENT
THE STORY LAB | AUSTRALIA
@pablochappo