⚡️Cracking the code of GTM Bloat 🐡 @ Copy.ai | On a mission to find the best Moscow Mule | Em dash enthusiast
We're really overcomplicating content marketing by competing for knowledge share rather that creating it 🤐 In 2023 (and, arguably, far beyond it) creating vs competing for knowledge share will be key. What do I mean by that?? 👀👇 Between AI, SEO, ChatGPT, and every other 'threat' to content marketing people are raving about right now, there's one common dominator being ignored: originality 🙃 You can use tools and SEO as a crutch to beat out your competition, but none of these tools and trends replace: 🔸 Originality 🔸 Unique POV 🔸 Brand narrative 🔸 Relationship building When you compete against other companies for knowledge share—think of it like market share—you end up copying, tweaking, and redistributing other people's ideas. This tanks your brand's credibility. What is the end goal? For a lot of teams, it’s showing up in the first search result of Google, taking vanity metrics back to their boss, or showing a spike in organic traffic. Table stakes stuff 🙃 And web metrics can’t be your content team’s core proof of success. Because none of that means you've created knowledge share, you've simply competed for it. I think of knowledge share as the portion of influence a brand has over its competitors thanks to content, community, and relationships. Not because they're playing an SEO game, but because they've created + curated value by being original, contributing a unique POV to the conversation, and are consistent in the narrative they share with their audiences 👏 So, when brands compete for knowledge share, it signals insecurity in their content marketing, their ability to capture demand, and their ability to retain it. Which is why content teams may struggle to prove their work has had impact on the business or has contributed to driving demand. But here’s the thing: content marketing IS demand gen. So you can't make competing for knowledge share the core of your content strategy and still hope to consistently drive demand—let alone effectively 📉 In 2023, competing for knowledge share won't matter as much as creating it—and the content teams focused on competing will fail. I'm sticking by this. It's why more of us content marketing folks are taking about: ⚡ Creating content IP rather than 'stealing' it ⚡ Approaching content like a journalist and honing your abilities ⚡ Kicking away the SEO crutch and creating original content, not more content Good content can compete with other good content, sure... But great content carves out space for brands who want to drive real value for their audiences through originality, unique perspectives, and the ability to speak not AT their audience, but with them. In 2023, you can either compete for knowledge share, or create it 💪 And it's not hard to guess which side you'll want to fall on 😉 #contentmarketing / #contentmarketingtips / #b2bmarketing / #contentstrategy
This is exactly it Jacalyn Beales. I feel like much of the content produced is to simply rank on a keyword. So, it just captures demand. Much of what's needed to carve out a space in a market requires creativity and a little risk. ChatGPT and other tools aren't going to solve this, they'll make execution a little faster but at the same time they'll also make traditional SEO/content marketing easier and more attractive leading more people down that path. Search is also getting disrupted by curated feeds. It's no longer difficult to rank, but it is difficult to standout. The winners of the next generation of content have creative ideas and guts, not keywords and ghost writers.
What a time to be in content marketing. Less demand. Obsession over metrics. Tools that accelerate quantity over quality. All of these paves the way for real content marketing to shine. Those who truly know it's value would double down. Those who can execute and earn *knowledge* share will continue to charge even more, despite the seemingly reducing demand. What a time.
This 1000% It's become impossible to find good content on Google nowadays. Every article written on a particular topic says the same thing (often in that terrible, over optimized, SEO-sounding way). I've noticed I've started to drift away from Google for answers and instead have started to follow different content creators based on their specialties.
Competing for knowledge share just lowers content quality and creates more noise. Most often, people end up turning to influencers and thought leaders to solve their problems instead of channels like Google search.
YES! One of the things I talk about my clients with is identifying and developing your own way of explaining, your own "isms" - for me it's things like "narrow the arrow" "be a goat in a tree" "you can't kill a man with your face" "find the right prorridge" and "it's ok to be a marketing heffalump" - all of these are me explaining things my way. The first step is to start tuning into your own words - we don't need everyone to jsut share the same old quotes and ideas - it's just NOISE.
You have a strong point here. The competition with content is massive. originality distinguishes brand A from other noisy brands. But I've always had issues with pursuing a common topic from a new angle. What makes a new angle an actual angle (that resonate with the topic) is the logic. But it's often difficult to discern the logic that fits a topic. What would you suggest as ideas (or questions to ask) to tackle a topic from a new angle?
I’d also add and closely tied to originality, owned data/research that gives your organization an unfair, potentially unique POV for content (e.g., Gong Labs back in the day with Chris Orlob).
200% agree with you on this trend and what to do about it, starting with each of us committing ourselves to your 4 lightning bolts.
Would buttress your wonderful angle by saying: maybe the first AI developer who will create a human will succeed, because I don't see any science that'll defeat human's ingenuity. 🤣 Nice try by scientists. SAAS has gone so far making life easier. I only don't see how they'll hit the level of human uniqueness. Is it possible? Maybe the first human robot will match 😁
⚡️Cracking the code of GTM Bloat 🐡 @ Copy.ai | On a mission to find the best Moscow Mule | Em dash enthusiast
1yP.s. some folks I follow who provide great advice on this topic 👇 🔥 Brendan Hufford (more on content IP) 🔥 Ryan Law (great insights into trends and the AI, SEO arguments) 🔥 Tracey Wallace (on thinking like a journalist when you're a CM) 🔥 Jess Cook (just overall great content marketing tips!)