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A – Z of CONTENT MARKETING

D is for Depth

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Most people when they start a content marketing approach splurge out a load of content. They just start doing it, so that they actually are doing stuff. There is usually not a lot of thought behind it.

And there’s really nothing wrong with that. You really do need to start to make things work at all. Basically one single piece of content that does not necessarily fit into a full detailed plan is still better (usually) than no content.

But there comes a time when you have to review what you are doing, or ideally you can review it before you start, and one dimension that you need to review is your content depth.

The depth of your content is absolutely crucial to its success.

So, what do we mean by depth? Well one way to think about it is to think about the ocean.

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Epipelagic

Mesopelagic

Bathypelagic

Abyssopelagic

Hadalpelagic

The ocean is made up of at least five layers, each one with different characteristics.

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Epipelagic

Mesopelagic

Bathypelagic

Abyssopelagic

Hadalpelagic

We have the surface level, the epipelagic level, which is generally teeming with life, it’s a dog eat dog (or a fish eat fish) a highly competitive environment. There is floating trash, pollution and other life – birds, humans – dipping in and out. So there is one hell of a lot going on, and its congested and distracting

Then we have the Mesopelagic - now here its getting darker, life is not as common (but there is still lots and lots of it), in many cases what there is rises to the surface level at night to feed before sinking back down.

While competition is fierce and the life is well adapted – there are less “distractions” – birds, boats, humans – less things to interfere with what is going on.

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Epipelagic

Mesopelagic

Bathypelagic

Abyssopelagic

Hadalpelagic

Next its getting darker, and harder to survive – the pressure is higher, the light less strong (almost pretty much pitch black).

We start to have bioluminescence (glowing) life forms, as fish have to lure in other creatures to find food. Sperm whales, interesting, are one of the few creatures which can dive to this depth and return to the surface.

Next into the Abyss and the Hadalpelagic - we are getting really dark and deep, high pressure, a very intense environment.

And yet there is still life. Living at the depths in a constant rain of organic matter, the remains of the dead from higher levels.

Interestingly there are hot spots, geothermal vents which are teeming with life.

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So, what does that have to do with content marketing?

Well we think it’s a useful metaphor, a good way of assessing your strategy. A great way to think about what you are doing.

Your content must work on a number of levels, or layers, we have;

Surface layer – A highly competitive environment, lots of people, lots of distractions.

Through the increasing darkness where we have to lure our customers in to us.

Abysmal Depths – here the environment is alien and different, highly specialised organisms, clustering around hot spots, its much more specialised, much more intense.

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Surface Level

Depths

Increasing depth

So we need to make sure that our content strategy reflects this.Surface content casts its net wide. Its lacking in depth, its easy to absorb, but it is highly valuable – remember we want people to want to get more, to get deeper.

But we have to accept that a lot of surface content will end up scattered to the winds. Surface content is easy to digest, and hopefully easy to produce. You don’t want to spend too much budget on surface content, you don’t want to give it all away from free!

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Surface Level

Depths

Increasing depth

As we move down the layers we give out more and more detail, more depth to our content.

We want to entice people who are interested to delve into our content, to really immerse themselves on our offers

But we need to know that once we get below the surface we have to be able to drag people to our content, we have to lure people to us, or at least provide routes for people to access our information.

Deep content should not be stumbled on – people need to be a bit more committed to get to it.

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Surface Level

Depths

Increasing depth

Surface level content is things like this presentation. Podcasts, articles general questions and probably the way most people use linked in. To be honest this is where most of the content sits in the digital space. Its where we need to cast wide nets, we know that only a few people will ever actually contact us as a result of our activity, but those that do we can jump on and ideally drag or encourage them to the lower levels.

The depths is the really intense content, in many cases it’s the sort of detail people only get to after face to face meetings, in my business this is certainly true.

But also it could be the way you work with those really deep forums, which are filled with people who are really into, and only are into your business or sector. White papers on the real detail of your industry would fit in here.

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Surface Level

Depths

Talks and presentations – where people have to pay, or make a special effort to attend

Those free talks that happen at shows and events, where they are easy to attend and people tend to wander in and out

People who subscribe to newsletters, or podcasts

Blogs News Surface web copy

Webinars

Forums

Specialist “answers”

Linked in

Twitter

Facebook PinterestYahoo answers

Conference calls

Real books

Most e’books

Case Studies

Market Analysis

Technical Journals

In depth Case Studies

One to one tutorials

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We need to build systems in place that will encourage people to delve lower and lower into our content. Some people are free divers who will work their own way to deeper content. Some need a submersible, they need to be taken down and looked after, and some are bottom feeders, they may never see your surface content, they are too busy really getting into the detail of your business.

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So, if you want to, have a look at our website, we have lots on information

on how to make the best of your content marketing, have a look at our

website – www.mcm2.co.uk

Illustrations courtesy of Tom Joyce - http://tomjoyceillustration.blogspot.co.uk/