Tom Schek Tom Schek

Is Your Content in the Goldilocks Zone?

The Goldilocks zone… that interstellar sweet spot where a planet is neither too close to nor too far from the star that it orbits, and can therefore support liquid water and possibly life. Astrophysicists are hard at work as I type scouring the skies for heavenly bodies that are not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

If you are a marketer, you should be looking to position your marketing content in that same kind of place. Too often, content is cold and lifeless. It may be safe —  meaning that it resembles all the other content that is flooding the internet, so it won’t get you fired —  but it’s also unlikely to get you remarkable results.

On the flipside, some companies decide to break free of the content crowd and in doing so, produce something that is — to continue the space metaphor — really out there. Their content is so “hot” that the target audience can’t grasp it. Nor can anyone else, for that matter. The marketers take great pride in their groundbreaking piece, but it doesn’t deliver great results.

What you want (and need) is to have your content in the “habitable zone” that is somewhere in between the two (and too) extremes. Clever without being too cute. Eye-catching without being obnoxious. Unique without being obscure. It’s not an easy place to find, but it exists for every type of content on every topic in every market.  

To locate it, you just need to loosen your grip a bit without taking your hands off the wheel entirely, and start exploring. You’ll know you’ve arrived when instead of getting bored, blank stares or confused, furrowed brows from your prospects you start seeing grins and subtle nods. Welcome home, Goldilocks.

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Tom Schek Tom Schek

Want To Earn Their Trust? Show 'Em Your Stuff!

One of the most powerful pieces of marketing content I ever helped produce was a simple spreadsheet. Truth be told, it mostly contained empty cells. But people requested it… a lot. The reason this fairly barren document was so coveted by the company's website visitors was as much about what it represented as what it provided.

First, it displayed the company’s confidence in its products. And second, it showed their desire to collaborate with prospects and help them with their research. So, what was in it? The spreadsheet contained a list of product features on the vertical axis, and the names of the company's products on the horizontal. Xs denoted which systems had which features.

But information on product functionality was readily available in other forms in many places on their website, whereas this document had to be requested. Why did people go to the trouble? They took the extra step because this fully-editable spreadsheet had additional columns they could use to check the boxes for any other products they were investigating. Many people even assigned numeric values to software features and used the sheet’s summing capability to add a “metrics” element to their evaluation. While not all of them ended up going with the company's solutions, many of them did.

The point is, people appreciate - and trust - a company that’s eager to give them the unvarnished truth about its products and encourages comparison to the competition. So, don’t hold back. Show ‘em your stuff! If you have a strong product or service, you’ll be rewarded. And if you don’t, you’ll be better informed and better able to make the changes needed to win more business.

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