Seth Godin once said: We don’t have an information shortage, we have an attention shortage. Seth certainly gets it … probably had it down before anyone else. What may you be asking? The concept of what it takes for Godin content success stories, of course. Secrets? Probably not. But certainly essential for success.

Content marketing tactics such as blog posts, feature articles, optimized website copy, white papers, social media content, and press releases move consumers along a specific path.

Content marketing generates awareness of your brand, product, or service; inspires consumers to engage and consider you; converts them into leads and sales, and creates advocates. Lots to gain, yes?

Study more: How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement

Generating a high number of content shares on social media is key to overcoming engagement obstacles for a number of reasons:

Godin content success stories … social shares amplify your content

No kidding, right? Although the organic effectiveness of most social channels for amplification has declined over the years (thanks to filtered news feeds), social media can still be a substantial source of referral traffic.

Godin content success stories … social shares show social proof

Social proof is key to proving the credibility of your content, which causes a bit of a “chicken or the egg” situation: you need social shares to generate social proof, yet people won’t share your post unless they know it’s from a credible source.

The best way to get around this is to provide valuable content in a well-optimized content experience (more on that below).

Social shares impact SEO

The connection between social signals and search engine ranking is indirect but important. The key thing to know is that if your content is good, people will share it increases the likelihood that you’ll generate links, which can drive some serious SEO juice.

So, social shares have a ton of great benefits in addition to being a key way to measure content engagement. But why aren’t people sharing your content on social? Let’s take a closer look.

Seth Godin showed how content marketing exposes consumers to your brand, engages potential customers, and converts them into leads and sales.

The following are his recommendations for ensuring the success of an online content marketing strategy that even small businesses can successfully implement today:

How to become a content creator … start with the customer

Self-serving and promotional content turns off readers. You’ll usually get only get one chance. Focus on offering educational, entertaining, and inspiring content.

Godin content success stories … do your homework

Seth recommends starting with a plan and process for researching the market. This will provide many ideas for developing compelling, relevant content of interest to the market’s customers.

Brian Carter and the Carter group are one of my favorite experts. Check them out often to do good homework.

Godin content success stories … engage the customer

Seth Godin’s best content marketing strategy uses the staff to stay in touch with your best customers.

You definitely must understand who needs what – and when. Takes considerable effort but it is absolutely essential.

Content personalization

Content must be personalized to increase its consumption and influence. It must inspire the actions you desire.

Your goal? Get the right information detail to the right decision maker on a just-in-time basis.

Timeliness

Nothing beats timeliness in terms of the value of information. Timely insights score big with your content consumers. Stay on top of your market and continually refine your ability to report on what is going on now.

Content marketing pillars … original thinking

Content readers are searching for new ideas not rehash. They value original thinking highly. Offer it. Create well-conceived original themes and content.

Brian Carter and the Carter group are one of my favorite sources of expertise. Here is his recommendation to get the best from your original ideas:

Successful digital marketers test a lot of ideas. Which means they come up with a lot of ideas. Then have the discipline to go through multiple tests. It requires both creativity and organization.

Successful content marketing examples … simplicity and clarity

Does your content meaning jump out to the reader? Can they get the meaning easily without deep thought? Simplicity in understandability and readability are essential factors that will drive your content’s success.

https://digitalsparkmarketing.com/visual-marketing-inspiration/

Production capabilities

Examine your current in-house capabilities against your needs. Invest in leading-edge production tools and capabilities that will help your productivity and creative thinking. Form partnerships to further build out abilities. And don’t forget about your delivery networks.

Gain trust

Content marketing faces the same reader scrutiny and skepticism as traditional advertising. Being genuinely helpful is the only way to engage prospects to gain their trust and build strong relationships.

Successful content marketing campaigns … measure results

Don’t think you can execute ‘drive-by’ content that will succeed. Plan and refine continuously. Use analytics and reliable tracking tools to know what is working best and follow these paths.

This is your time to create successful content marketing. With good continuity and persistence helpful, relevant content will be able to develop lasting relationships with your customers. Lead with initiative and own the moment. Dive in today and notice how much your business improvements grow.

The bottom line

One of Seth’s core tenets is that marketing is no longer merely the work of giant organizations with giant budgets. That in fact, it is possible to spread an idea with care, guts, and effort, not just with money.

We want small businesses to see that they could be marketers too.

Well, that’s no longer a problem. In fact, it’s swung so far the other way that we have a new problem.

When marketing was expensive, it was done with care. Not only by committees that worked hard to keep things consistent but by creators who thought deeply about their long-term reputation.

Today, because noise is everywhere, we’re all surrounded by a screaming horde, an open-outcry marketplace of ideas where the race to be heard appears to be the only race that matters.

And so subtlety flies out the window, along with a desire to engage for the long haul. Just a troop of gorillas, all arguing over the last remaining banana.

It turns out that there’s a useful response… to ignore them. To stick to the work, to the smallest possible audience, to build something worth talking about.

What actually works in a noisy environment isn’t more noise—it’s the challenging work of earning the benefit of people telling people.

We don’t need more hustle. We need more care and generosity.

So, remember this simple fact. Stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.

Let your content marketing success be your difference maker as Seth Godin recommends.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts

Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study

Jaw-Dropping Guerrilla Marketing Lessons and Examples

Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, and stories per week.

Content marketing tactics such as blog posts, feature articles, optimized website copy, white papers, social media content, and press releases move consumers along a specific path.

Content marketing generates awareness of your brand, product, or service; inspires consumers to engage and consider you; converts them into leads and sales, and creates advocates. Lots to gain, yes?

Study more: How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement

Generating a high number of content shares on social media is key to overcoming engagement obstacles for a number of reasons:

Godin content success stories … social shares amplify your content

No kidding, right? Although the organic effectiveness of most social channels for amplification has declined over the years (thanks to filtered news feeds), social media can still be a substantial source of referral traffic.

Godin content success stories … social shares show social proof

Social proof is key to proving the credibility of your content, which causes a bit of a “chicken or the egg” situation: you need social shares to generate social proof, yet people won’t share your post unless they know it’s from a credible source.

The best way to get around this is to provide valuable content in a well-optimized content experience (more on that below).

Social shares impact SEO

The connection between social signals and search engine ranking is indirect but important. The key thing to know is that if your content is good, people will share it increases the likelihood that you’ll generate links, which can drive some serious SEO juice.

So, social shares have a ton of great benefits in addition to being a key way to measure content engagement. But why aren’t people sharing your content on social? Let’s take a closer look.

Seth Godin showed how content marketing exposes consumers to your brand, engages potential customers, and converts them into leads and sales.

The following are his recommendations for ensuring the success of an online content marketing strategy that even small businesses can successfully implement today:

How to become a content creator … start with the customer

Self-serving and promotional content turns off readers. You’ll usually get only get one chance. Focus on offering educational, entertaining, and inspiring content.

Godin content success stories … do your homework

Seth recommends starting with a plan and process for researching the market. This will provide many ideas for developing compelling, relevant content of interest to the market’s customers.

Brian Carter and the Carter group are one of my favorite experts. Check them out often to do good homework.

Godin content success stories … engage the customer

Seth Godin’s best content marketing strategy uses the staff to stay in touch with your best customers.

You definitely must understand who needs what – and when. Takes considerable effort but it is absolutely essential.

Content personalization

Content must be personalized to increase its consumption and influence. It must inspire the actions you desire.

Your goal? Get the right information detail to the right decision maker on a just-in-time basis.

Timeliness

Nothing beats timeliness in terms of the value of information. Timely insights score big with your content consumers. Stay on top of your market and continually refine your ability to report on what is going on now.

Content marketing pillars … original thinking

Content readers are searching for new ideas not rehash. They value original thinking highly. Offer it. Create well-conceived original themes and content.

Brian Carter and the Carter group are one of my favorite sources of expertise. Here is his recommendation to get the best from your original ideas:

Successful digital marketers test a lot of ideas. Which means they come up with a lot of ideas. Then have the discipline to go through multiple tests. It requires both creativity and organization.

Successful content marketing examples … simplicity and clarity

Does your content meaning jump out to the reader? Can they get the meaning easily without deep thought? Simplicity in understandability and readability are essential factors that will drive your content’s success.

Production capabilities

Examine your current in-house capabilities against your needs. Invest in leading-edge production tools and capabilities that will help your productivity and creative thinking. Form partnerships to further build out abilities. And don’t forget about your delivery networks.

Gain trust

Content marketing faces the same reader scrutiny and skepticism as traditional advertising. Being genuinely helpful is the only way to engage prospects to gain their trust and build strong relationships.

Related content: Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts

Successful content marketing campaigns … measure results

Don’t think you can execute ‘drive-by’ content that will succeed. Plan and refine continuously. Use analytics and reliable tracking tools to know what is working best and follow these paths.

This is your time to create successful content marketing. With good continuity and persistence helpful, relevant content will be able to develop lasting relationships with your customers. Lead with initiative and own the moment. Dive in today and notice how much your business improvements grow.

The bottom line

One of Seth’s core tenets is that marketing is no longer merely the work of giant organizations with giant budgets. That in fact, it is possible to spread an idea with care, guts, and effort, not just with money.

We want small businesses to see that they could be marketers too.

Well, that’s no longer a problem. In fact, it’s swung so far the other way that we have a new problem.

When marketing was expensive, it was done with care. Not only by committees that worked hard to keep things consistent but by creators who thought deeply about their long-term reputation.

Today, because noise is everywhere, we’re all surrounded by a screaming horde, an open-outcry marketplace of ideas where the race to be heard appears to be the only race that matters.

And so subtlety flies out the window, along with a desire to engage for the long haul. Just a troop of gorillas, all arguing over the last remaining banana.

It turns out that there’s a useful response… to ignore them. To stick to the work, to the smallest possible audience, to build something worth talking about.

What actually works in a noisy environment isn’t more noise—it’s the challenging work of earning the benefit of people telling people.

We don’t need more hustle. We need more care and generosity.

So, remember this simple fact. Stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.

Let your content marketing success be your difference maker as Seth Godin recommends.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts

Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study

Jaw-Dropping Guerrilla Marketing Lessons and Examples

Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, and stories per week.