How do you position yourself as a thought leader and authority?
Content Marketing
One approach is to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise by creating “content”. I’m sure you’ve heard about content marketing. I love the idea, but I’m not so crazy about the name “content marketing”. It feels very generic, and doesn’t speak to what we’re trying to do, but it is the popular term for this approach to marketing.
Education Marketing
I think a better way to think of “content marketing” is as “education marketing”, where your goal is to educate your prospective clients about your area of expertise.
You can do this through many different channels: writing articles, appearing on podcasts, publishing research, appearing in mainstream media, social media and more.
Authority Marketing
Another way to think of content marketing is as marketing that positions you as an authority. This is a step above “mere expert” in the spectrum of competency:
Novice – Proficient – Expert – Authority – Thought Leader
I like the terms “authority marketing” because that’s the goal, and “education marketing” because that’s how you do it.
Developing Your Content Strategy
You need to have a content strategy that is a good fit for you and your audience, and makes things easy for you.
The starting point is the positioning statement that you created previously:
We help THESE PEOPLE solve THIS PROBLEM
The next step is a Content Mission Statement, which is three parts:
- Core target audience (“these people”)
- What will be delivered
- The outcome for the audience (“solve this problem”)
Here’s an example from Joe Puluzzi of the Content Marketing Institute:
Joe has a fantastic video (60 mins) of his keynote at C3 conference that goes into this in more depth.
For me, my content mission statement is:
“Detailed articles to help independent consultants and specialized consulting firms to create systems to generate more leads so that they can eliminate their dependence on referrals”
The great Justin Brooke says
“We help marketers become master marketers using psychology, math, and history.” Every piece of content I create is ruled by this sentence. This is what makes my content attract my target customer and also what makes it valuable to them.
What is your content mission statement? Hit reply and tell me (really, I want to know!)
One Type of Content, One Platform
A crucial part of content marketing is that you do it consistently and for a sufficiently long period of time. Most people give up too early.
