Can we promote products again?

Hey doug.. are you somehow suggesting a route path here that might drive us away from the freeway of “CRAP”?

I think content marketing was always about finding a “nice” way to sell products. Some people, myself included, took it the wrong way and started just making content and leaving out the marketing.

That doesn’t really change the issue, but it shows that those who are actually successful with content marketing understand what it really is. Those who are not are probably falling into the trap you’re describing.

Either way, love you guys’ content!

What if we stopped thinking of content marketing as a Trojan horse for product marketing?

What if content marketing centered around business expertise and brand values and had the objective of contributing to conversations rather than coming across shallow and shouty ?

What if great product and brand promotion planning was a mix of both straight marketing and content marketing?

Finally a sensible challenge to the mask that is “content marketing”. I particularly like “What if we admitted that this ‘altruism’ was always a bit… disingenuous—that our hidden sales agenda wasn’t very well hidden after all?” I have what I believe, and what my customers say, is a great product that solves some very pressing problems. Why am I considered less of a marketer by not telling you about this directly- but trying to bury its many benefits in some related content? Let’s bring back honesty in marketing. My content should be about the problems I solve.

I love this article and thread and my response is “Yes!”.
Current product marketing – truly extolling the benefits of the product and making it clear who it’s for and why – is generally abysmal.
Try buying a laptop or Chromebook: a blizzard of model numbers that hide poor and / or contradictory product configurations will not help the buyer in the least. I don’t want to know that it will make me a social media maven, triple my “friends”, make me look cool in Starbucks and generally make me a popular hipster.
The public are mostly inured to the lifestyle bullshit that sails way out beyond their reasoning and desire for the product on offer. Just lay out the features, describe the benefits, make it clear what differentiates different models in the product range and tell them why they should buy and buy now. It’s not difficult.

I love a good Velocity blog, always challenging, revealing and just so damn cool.

There’s a whole dollop of irony in this one too. A pure, unadulterated content piece. Altruistic [tick] prospect-helping [tick] issue-exploring [tick]. No mention of a product… although, (as always) I mourn the lack of budget that would allow me to pick up the phone and yell BUY, BUY, BUY!

Maybe it doesn’t have to be one or the other – imagine a world where all (marketing) things were equal…I know, right?!

Angela’s got a point there Doug. Isn’t your own Blog a magnificent example of the behaviour you’re questioning?

To return to the issue: I love this Blog. Although the issue is nothing new: the creative bit of our industry has always had a streak of embarrassment about up-front selling, hasn’t it ?

Advertising awards juries traditionally loved the work that tried to change the world first and the sales graph second, mostly because it glamourised what they did just enough for them to go home and tell their kids about it.

No one wants to self-identify as a shyster, and I suspect the content hipsters of Clerkenwell (or Richmond) are no different in this to the art college grads who flooded the business in the 70s.

Besides, turning the client’s product benefit stories into content that’s persuasive and relevant and watchable and readable and drives sales is, frankly, really, really hard. Which is why it’s so satisfying when it’s done well. After all, if our content doesn’t sell, then what are WE selling?

Doug, if we follow your premise, we’re ignoring the fact that not every piece of content has to do the same thing.

If we make every piece of content as if it was bottom of funnel content, we’re ignoring the context of where the prospects is in the buying cycle and depriving them of useful content at the top of the funnel.

Match your content to the buying cycle I say – – notice I did not say “match it to the sales funnel”.

You guys and your ability to sweep me off my feet. Oh man.

As someone who lives in a country where content marketing could be called “shy” at best, I now find myself in doubt of the innovation I am trying to bring to my clients and the agency I work in.

I know I won’t give up on content marketing for now. But I am certainly going to keep the pendulum concept in mind.

Good stuff!

I think that content should be valuable, relevant and helpful. Sometimes to meet those criteria you’re talking about your product. No harm done.