Everyone is aware of the importance of content marketing. All the businesses I advise are firmly convinced of the need to attract customers (inbound marketing). Yet, a large majority of them do not produce content. So, what’s the problem?
With more than 4000 blog posts to my credit in the last 15 years, I’m looking into the problem. In this article, I put some figures on what a content strategy means in terms of workload.
credits: Shutterstock
Introduction
To increase your visibility on the Internet, there are only 2 possibilities: either you pay, or you produce content that attracts organic traffic. Everyone knows this, and yet few people make content. This is the 99/1 rule or the 1% rule. It differentiates, in my opinion, the businesses that are successful in the long run and those that will become nothing. Because this rule, beyond being a statistic in terms of content creation, also reflects a state of mind.
What is the 99/1 rule or 1% rule?
The 1% rule defines the proportion of people who consume content compared to those who produce it.
Have you ever contributed to Wikipedia by adding content? No? Then you are part of the 99%.
Do you write blog posts? No? You are part of the 99%.
Do you produce video content on YouTube? No? Then you are part of the 99%.
We live in a world where many consume and few create.
credits: Shutterstock
Even in B2B you need a content strategy
Let’s talk about the main issue first: content creation. Nobody can exist today without an online presence. An excellent natural referencing goes hand in hand with a strong brand.
To be visible on Google (which gets 92% of online searches), you have to create content that appeals to Internet users and its algorithms. And you have to make a lot of it and often.
How much content do you need to create to remain visible in Google?
This is a question that almost all the start-ups I coach ask me. If there is no universal rule, I like to give some objective indications. You have to produce content:
- at least once a week
- in priority in the form of an article of at least 700 words
- optimized for the semantic field of your professional activity
- in at least 2 languages
And that’s when everything falls apart. When I tell a start-up or a scale-up what to do to exist on Google, I usually hear a big sigh, immediately followed by:
- we don’t have the time
- we don’t have the resources
- we don’t know how to do it
After a pause comes the sledgehammer argument: “we are in B2B anyway, so customers don’t come via Google”.
Anyway, we are in B2B so customers don’t come via Google.
credits: Shutterstock
Stop making excuses for your content strategy
I don’t understand these business creators looking for excuses not to do what they consider essential. How can we decently, in 2021, say that B2B customers do not come via Google? Everyone consults Google at one time or another. Google is part of the decision-making process at one time or another:
- to find a solution to a new problem
- to find an alternative to an existing supplier
- to be reassured about a potential supplier
I can still hear a client who requested our services say: “I checked the content you publish, and I saw that it was recent. That reassured me.”
I checked the content that you publish, and I saw that it was recent. That made me feel better.
100% of customers go through Google. In 2021, it’s suicidal not to create content.
So, stop making excuses.
- You don’t have the time? Hire a freelancer.
- You don’t know where to start? Take a course.
- You don’t have the money to outsource content creation? Get up an hour early and write it yourself.
Content production is still one of the few things that cost nothing (except your time) if you do it yourself. So, in a nutshell, get moving!
Posted in Marketing, Misc..
