This is a milestone moment in the history of The Marketing Companion podcast as we welcome a new co-host to the show (we have six rotating co-hosts!).

Dana Malstaff is a true marketing visionary and I learn something from her every time I connect with her. In her first show, she certainly held up her track record!

We are both of the mind that the marketing world will need to infuse humanity into our work as we hurdle inexorably into our AI future, and Dana suggested some ideas I had not considered before, like:

• Blending personal emotional states with AI commands to provide more actionable tasks
• Creating emotional connections with your audience through product discussions
• Moving away from mass marketing or a huge community to a plan where human connection is still possible

… and much more. It’s such a great show! To hear more, just click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 307

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this fantastic episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

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Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

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Last week, a friend asked me to review a new research report he compiled as a lead magnet for his business. But I knew his strategy was flawed before I even saw the report. I had to provide an email address to access the research. I didn’t want to become part of his email “lead nurturing” program, so I never downloaded the report. “Gated content” killed his content marketing strategy.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive. Most marketers point to the high cost of making exceptional content … Asking for an email address seems like a small price to pay for this value. But by making it difficult for people to access your content, you’re leaving the true value of your marketing on the table. I’ll explain why.

The current state of gated content

Here are some points to provide a perspective of our marketing world today.

• People hate gated content. Even marketers who gate their content know this. Research shows more than 90 percent of the people interested in the content abandon the sign-up process because they don’t trust what happens next to the email address.
• Many marketers justify gated content as a fair value exchange but research shows this is not true. Consumers state they are “resigned” to annoying marketing practices and more than half immediately unsubscribe to a site even after they opt-in.
• Acquiring email addresses in exchange for gated content may not be compliant with privacy laws in Europe and many U.S. states.
• We are clearly in an era of Content Shock where the competition for content views is vicious. One of the visible manifestations of this trend is BuzzSumo research showing how social shares on a topic decline precipitously as a subject becomes saturated. In other words, unless you are among the first to create content on a topic, getting your content to be seen and shared is extremely difficult.

A new content marketing philosophy

In my book The Content Code, I provide an updated view of content marketing strategy.

The philosophy behind the book revolves around the practical idea that the economic value of content that is not seen and shared is zero. Therefore, we must develop competency in not just producing content but igniting it so that it is seen and shared by the most people possible. The most economic value of content marketing doesn’t come from the content, it come from the transmission of the content.

Creating great content is no longer the finish line; it is the starting line. The book outlines six possible strategies to remove barriers and give your content the best possible chance to flow and reach the most people possible.

Requiring people to provide an email address to access your content is about the worst thing you can do in this new view of “content success.” In essence, gated content places a stop sign in front of your content flow. It is an anachronistic way of thinking.

The value exchange

The decision to provide a barrier before your content must boil down to this: Are you going to receive more value from a trickle of people providing their email address, or the flood of people seeing and sharing the content freely? Let’s look at a case study to figure this out.

My friend James Carbary provided this example of how the gated content value exchange played out for his own business. He wrote:

“It took five months for us to get 295 people to sign up for the gated opt-in offer on our website. This progress seemed incredibly slow, so I tried something different.

“A couple weeks ago, I published a status update on LinkedIn explaining that I’d developed a list of 67 content topics that work well on that site. If people wanted the ideas, I asked them to leave a comment that said ‘I want it.’ Then I explained that I would turn the ideas into a free PDF if 100 people left a comment.

“In three hours I had over 150 comments. That post has now been viewed more 160,000 times, and 692 people left a comment saying they wanted the content ideas. We turned the ideas into a PDF, and replied to every comment with the link.

“In five days, my content spread to 692 people, compared to to 295 people in five months. We collected ZERO email addresses through the LinkedIn content but I’m beginning to see why un-gated content might be a smarter strategy.”

The case for amplification

James told me that the most tangible benefit of the ungated strategy was a connection with a high-potential customer and a podcast interview with this powerful new connection.

Some implied benefits in this un-gated content example would probably be easy to track down:

• Of the 692 people who asked for the content, how many were entirely new LinkedIn connections for James? He didn’t get an email address, but he did get a signal of interest and arguably these new LinkedIn connections might be more valuable in the long-term than an email address.
• How many of the 692 people responded to a call to action at the end of the report and visited a website, or organically subscribed to receive more content?
• How many shared the free content with more people inside and outside the company? How much additional flow did this receive because it was free?

Even if the percentage of people sharing content is the same whether it is gated or ungated, you will reach many more people with a base of fans numbering 692 versus 295. And that is happening in a matter of days versus months!

Finally, I shared James’s story, and linked to his website. I can’t recall ever linking to gated content that would require my readers to sign-in to something. So the benefit created by this post would have never happened if he hadn’t given his content away for free.

If you subscribe to my philosophy that the company that moves the most content will win, there is no question that un-gated content provides more potential value.

Branding and trust

I was discussing this issue with a colleague and she said “gated content annoys me. Why would a brand want to be annoying? The company is making me distrust them because I have no idea what will happen to that email address.”

A few years ago, I gave up my email address and (shudder) phone number to access a report from a company I loved and trusted. The next day, I was interrupted at a birthday party from a sales rep calling me from this company. My email was placed on lists for newsletters, webinars, and holiday sales.

Even after I “opted out,” of communications, I was still receiving phone calls and spam from this company.

By abusing me in this way, the company ruined its brand. It went from a company I loved to a brand I would never work with again.

A simple thought exercise: If you’re in a hotly-competitive field (like SEO or digital marketing) and one company has gated content and the other gives their best content away for free, which one will have a more positive brand view?

The research supports un-gated content

Roger Dooley is an expert in the field of neuroscience and marketing. In a post, he points out that from a psychological perspective, un-gated content is the undisputed content champ. Roger writes:

Requiring a user to give up his info before viewing good content is a reward strategy – give us your info, and we’ll reward you by letting you see our wonderful content. This is an appealing strategy at first glance – 100% of the people who use the content will have completed the form, and the information should be a powerful motivator for visitors to proceed.

In fact, most users confronted with a form won’t complete it. If they arrived at the site looking for some specific information, they will likely hit the back button and see if they can access it without the aggravation of form completion and without the risk of getting spammed later.

It turns out that a reciprocity strategy works better – give them the info they want, and then ask for their information. The research shows that twice as many visitors gave up their information if they were able to access the information first. It’s counterintuitive, perhaps, but even though these visitors were under no obligation to complete the form, they converted at double the rate of visitors seeing the “mandatory” form.

The neuromarketing takeaway here is that if you invoke reciprocity, you’ll be working with the way our brains are wired and will be more likely to get your visitors to do what you want them to. (And, as an added bonus, your SEO person will be happy that along with your visitors, Google will be able to see your content, too!)

Gated content and measurement

A compelling argument for gated content is measurement. Providing a tangible demonstration of the value of content marketing is difficult. It’s intoxicating to tell a client or your boss that an eBook (or whatever) resulted in a countable number of sign-ups that might be stretched into a claim of “leads.”

Measuring content marketing can be exceedingly hard. Most can’t do an adequate job. I acknowledge that gating your content may be the politically correct thing to do even if the strategy is flawed based on today’s market realities.

However, I think “social shares” is a more powerful measurement than “number of email addresses.” An email address may translate into … nothing. But a social share represents organic advocacy — better than any ad you could pay for.

An unpopular view

I’ve had many negative reactions to the idea of un-gating content. Here is one of them:

I think if you understand Funnels and the importance email still plays in the sales process then you wouldn’t have written this article. It’s not just about sharing good content — it’s also about turning your audience into customers. How do you do that when you never ask for an email address to move the relationship forward?  It’s all about moving folks through your customer journey. 

I would politely suggest this is an anachronistic view of a world that works in “funnels.” It’s not “your customer journey.” It’s THEIRS.

Most marketing today is not your marketing — it’s the sharing of information that’s going on without you. And if you have a gate, that clogs up the information you want to be shared. Let’s do the math and generously assume that 10% of the people who see your post will call for an appointment. We know that 90% of the people who come across your gate will go away. So for every 100 potential customers, you earn just 10 content views, and one call.

If I un-gate the content, I get 100 views and 10 calls. I am 10x more productive. Also, I have 100 people potentially SHARING my article instead of 10 for you.

By the way, what will you do after getting that email address? Spam your way to glory? That’s why people don’t trust gated content in the first place. You’re part of the problem.

I realize it’s a new way to think, but I can’t imagine a business today working hard to get customers to their site and then letting 90% of them walk away. If you ask people for an email AFTER they see the content, research shows it works better.

In any scenario, the numbers work in my favor, not yours.

A simple rule of thumb

One of the themes in my recent writing is that we have lost our way in marketing. Often, those setting the “standards” we follow aren’t marketers; they are SEO experts, statisticians, and IT professionals. I am not diminishing the worth of these resources, but maybe a statistical evaluation is not always the best guidepost for a marketing decision. Perhaps we need to get our heads out of dashboards and spreadsheets and look at what is happening with our customers in the real world.

Just because something seems favorable because of an A/B test or backlink strategy, it doesn’t mean we should do it … especially if people hate it.

So I’ll end this post with a simple piece of advice. People hate gated content. Don’t do things people hate.

Instead, dig deep to discover what your customers love. Now, go do that thing better than anybody else.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney.

The post Why Gated Content Kills Your Marketing Success appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

You’ll probably want to hurt me after you read this post. My thesis is that authenticity might not matter as much as we say, and it might be more effective to be the best fake possible.

Let’s begin, with the future of fakes.

I love fakes

Slowly but surely, my Instagram feed is filling with AI-generated content …

• Musical mash-ups of long-dead rock stars
• Surreal science fiction landscapes
• Twisted art and images that make you wonder, “How did they do that?”

These images are so fantastic, beautiful, and mesmerizing. And of course, they’re all fake.

A long time ago, Buzz Sumo did a study that showed the most common emotion associated with viral content was “awe.” Awe comes from seeing something that you’ve never seen before. And AI is pretty good at that. These addictive Instagram images and videos are proving it.

Fake stuff is amazing Fake stuff rules.

How to be the best fake possible

I could argue that fake is the future of content and marketing.

Most of us are trying to get a consumer to stop what they’re doing and spend a few moments with us to become aware of an idea, product, or service. The content that’s stopping me the most these days has no authentic human element whatsoever. So why wouldn’t we embrace the fake?

If you haven’t been dazzled by fake content yet, you soon will be. It’s showing up everywhere. Of course AI-generated content will be used to disrupt elections and perpetuate lies, but it can also provide great entertainment value, at almost no cost.

One of my favorite movies is Avengers End Game. The thrilling final battle scene is jaw-dropping … and almost entirely fake. Does it ever enter my mind that it’s fake? No. I just love the experience.

In the coming months, we’ll be able to make cinematic, movie-quality videos on our computers. If you could make Avengers-quality content for your business, why wouldn’t you? Is it fake? Yes. Do your customers care? Not if it’s great.

Embrace the fake. Be on the cutting edge of fake. Bring the awe!

But what about human authenticity?

There is probably no marketing consultant on the planet who has advocated human-centered marketing approaches more than me. Famously, the subtitle of my book Marketing Rebellion is “The Most Human Company Wins.”

Am I selling out?

I don’t have an agenda. I’m not the LinkedIn Guy or the Facebook Ads Guy trying to sell my services. I’m the Whatever Works Guy.

Authentic human connection has been at the heart of marketing since the beginning. In early history, it was the only thing we had, and there will always be a place for it.

In fact, I’m counting on it. I’ve included a badge on each of my posts that says “100% Human Content.” I want to assure you that what you see is what you get. It’s me, and only me. No AI. You can trust what you read.

My business is built on trust. I want to be the most trusted voice in marketing. And that means, NO FAKES.

My message today is, don’t go down the “authentic” rabbit hole so far that you can’t recognize great content — and great opportunity — when you see it. Use every storytelling technique you have available to you, even it derives from the imagination of artificial intelligence.

P.S. About that image

I used MidJourney to create the image at the top of the post. It had to be a dazzling fake, right? Here is the prompt I used: most dazzling image imaginable, insane detail, awe, surprise, beautiful, dazzling, gorgeous

Here is the image that came in second place:

Crazy stuff!

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Images courtesy MidJourney

The post How to be the best fake possible appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

This week marks the tenth anniversary of the most famous blog post I’ve written, and arguably one of the most well-known blog posts in marketing history. I am not one to reminisce or grow crazy over anniversaries, but publishing this post ten years ago was a unique, unexpected life experience and cultural moment worthy of explanation.

Today, we’ll look at the impact of Content Shock and lessons from one of the most widely shared business blog posts in history.

The idea behind the blog post

It was the summer of 2013. I was on a plane to give a speech in Montreal, but I couldn’t relax because I was uneasy about my talk. The topic was familiar enough — social media and content marketing. But something was wrong.

Back then, producing corporate content was still a novel idea. Content fueled this concept of inbound marketing. Instead of cold-calling customers (outbound marketing) we could produce relevant content that would auto-magically bring leads to our website.

But it wasn’t working, at least not as easily as it had in the early days. The leading purveyor behind the idea, Hubspot, had never turned a profit (ironically its OUTBOUND sales costs were too high!). Niches were filling up with blog posts and podcasts and infographics competing for attention. We had to spend more of our budget on quality and promotion just to get a few views. And it was just getting worse.

The world was flooded with content, and the easy days of content marketing were coming to an end. On the plane to Montreal, I scribbled a note — “The world is in content shock.”

The premise

When I have a new idea for a book or blog post, I never go with it right away. I let it sit for months to make sure I’m right.

I didn’t publish the Content Shock post until January 06, 2014. I had seen enough by then to know I was right. It was simple economics: Any time there’s a huge surplus of a good, or a scarcity of a good, there has to be a response in the economic system. And we had a surplus of content!

Here’s a simple example. In the earliest days of TV, anybody could walk down to a studio and create a cooking show or a craft show. The entry barriers for success were low because the channel was so hungry for content. Similarly, in those early days, it was easy to advertise and support a show.

As television became more popular, the channels filled with content. Competitors appeared, not just on the local level, but nationally. Networks were created that attracted the best writers and the biggest stars. Content became more expensive to produce and sponsor.

Television entered a never-ending content arms race. You can still see it happening today. An episode of The Mandalorian cost a staggering $15 million to produce. A few years later, Wanda Vision cost $28 million per episode. The Lord of the Rings TV series cost $60 million per episode.

And so it goes.

This is exactly what is happening on Facebook. On Instagram. On Tik Tok. On every place we publish, whether it is B2B or B2C.

And so, I decided to write about this pattern. Content marketing was moving into a new phase, and it wasn’t going to be easy.

The outfall

Today, this idea of Content Shock is taken for granted. Of course if there is more competition, it becomes more difficult and expensive to compete. In fact, it becomes impossible for some.

While I knew this idea was true, I nonetheless sensed it would not go over well with the people in the industry actually selling content marketing as a red-hot, can’t-fail idea.

The post attracted thousands of comments — more like long conversations! To my surprise, about 95% of the comments were positive and suggested that I had tapped into a market reality, like this one from marketing expert Doug Kessler:

And yet, my blog post was characterized as “controversial.” If 95% of the people agreed with me, why would it be controversial? As I explained to my wife, if 95% of the people in our country agreed with something but the president disagreed, it would be controversial.

In this case, almost every content marketing thought leader took aim at me.  I was fine with it. I have a thick skin and enjoyed the great debate. That’s how we grow. But there was one comment I’ll never forget …

The laugh

The commentary didn’t end at my blog. My post sent a ripple of conversation into seemingly every blog, podcast, and video in the marketing industry. It was great that a professional debate was happening … with one exception.

On a well-known podcast, one of the hosts was asked whether my article had any legitimacy. He paused … and then laughed. “NO!” he said emphatically. He went on to describe the practice of content marketing as having unlimited potential. There was no concern about content saturation or the economic viability of content marekting, he claimed.

In my 15 years of blogging, this is the only comment that ever truly, deeply pissed me off. It wasn’t because he disagreed with me. It was because this was a respected voice acting as a charlatan to protect his own business interests. He was lying to an audience I cared about.

This comment was the primary reason I wrote The Content Code book. I needed to insert some rational truth into the content marketing madness. The premise of the book: “The economic value of content that is not seen and shared is zero. Here is a plan to ignite your content in an era of Content Shock.”

The laugh launched a book. And I’m still a little pissed : )

The legacy of a blog post

The Content Shock post generated tens of thousands of comments all over the web. For three solid weeks, I spent almost every hour of the day responding to comments. An important point — this most viral of posts had no measurable impact on my business. It did not even result in a meaningful boost in new subscribers. Goes to show that “Viral” is an overrated goal.

Hundreds of blog posts have been written about the original post. Thousands more linked to the article. I continue to get links to that post every week. “Content Shock” is still among the top 10 posts on my site every week, 10 years later!

Over time, the industry adopted the term as a way to describe the overwhelming competition in a world saturated with content. It has been featured in books, conferences, and speeches around the world. I’ve had people describe Content Shock to me, not realizing I was the one who came up with the term.

Two years after I wrote the post, Buzz Sumo did an analysis of marketing content trends, showing that content saturation was eating into the success of some of the biggest sites in the industry like Copyblogger and Moz. Founder Steve Rayson stated that “content shock is here.”

Battling the difficult economics of content saturation is a fact of life today in the marketing world!

Spiky content

Why did this post go viral? It was timely, it was relevant. But it was also spiky.

In my Personal Branding Master Class, I teach about the importance of “spiky content,” a phrase coined by Wes Kao. Spiky content provides a bold point of view that cuts through the clutter. It goes like this:

1. A spiky point of view can be debated.

2. A spiky point of view isn’t controversial for the sake of it.

3. A spiky point of view teaches your audience something relevant they don’t already know.

4. A spiky point of view is rooted in evidence, but it doesn’t have to be a proven fact or universal truth.

5. A spiky point of view requires conviction. 

“Content Shock” is a great spiky case study!

When I wrote this post, did I know I was absolutely right? I thought so, but there was no way to know for sure. The argument was built on evidence, but of course, it could be debated. And I wasn’t taking a stand to start a fight. I thought about this idea for six months before publishing. I wrote this post because I’m passionate about marketing, and I care about its future.

If you care about something, try creating some spiky content of your own. It’s really the only way to stand out today.

The future, the solution

After the initial post, I had another insight about Content Shock. It’s not just a trend. It’s a pattern (I explained this here). Every channel eventually fills with content, driving up the cost to compete. It’s a repeating pattern.

I wrote several follow-up posts, including one framing Content Shock as the most important content marketing strategy, instead of being a problem.

If Content Shock was becoming an issue in 2014, you can only imagine what is happening today in a world overtaken by AI. Some project that in a year or two, 95% of the content on the web will be created by bots. Bots don’t sleep, they don’t get writer’s block. Their ability to churn out content is infinite.

One of the counterarguments to Content Shock was that the world wasn’t being saturated with content; it was being saturated with bad content, so true artists still had a chance. Perhaps that was valid for a time, but most niches are filled with great people doing great work, or AI bots that are not far behind. The world is filled with so much great content, all of it vying for our attention.

Content Shock is here to stay.

I think there are two solutions to Content Shock.

The most common path is the inevitable arms race. Just look at what is happening in the battle between Netflix, Apple, and other streaming services. The demand for quality content, and the cost to produce that content, goes up, up, up. That is the inevitable pattern in every content niche.

There is another solution. What if you cared for the content and even more for the person or brand producing it?

Why are you reading this today? If you’ve made it this far, it’s because you’re interested in the topic. But maybe you subscribed to this blog in the first place because you believe in me. Maybe you will share this post on LinkedIn because you consider me a thought leader, or even a friend. The content matters and cuts through because I matter to you as a person.

This is a solution available to any business of any size, and it’s why I shout from the rooftops every day that you MUST be working on your personal brand.

I don’t have the resources to compete with the biggest media sites and cut through the Content Shock. You probably don’t either. But you can be the most human company in your niche and nurture an audience who loves you as a person.

Thanks for obliging me this Content Shock retrospective. It was a weird time in my life, but overall, it produced positive results and I’m proud of the blog post.

Go forth and publish some spiky content! Thanks for being here and supporting me through these many years.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Midjourney

The post The Blog Post That Shocked the World appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Annual social media prediction posts deserve their own category of boring. They usually name the same obvious trends over and over! This is the year of video! (yawn) And yet, we are in the midst of unprecedented, cataclysmic change. Let’s consider some non-obvious social media trends that are insightful, bold, and important!

And you will be happy to know that I barely AI at all (too obvious!).

This post covers 10 non-obvious social media trends:

1. Marketing speed

2. Why social media will upend search

3. The big new platform on the horizon

4. Why influence is everything

5. Social listening platforms in trouble

6. The essential role of community

7. Social commerce

8. Designer commerce

9. Watermarked content

10. Local content hubs

1. Marketing speed

This is the year for video! Just kidding. Couldn’t help myself.

Response speed is among the most overlooked and important factors weighing in on social media success, and nobody is talking about it.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post tracing the history of speed in marketing and the implications of meme marketing. Today, achieving relevance on a channel like TikTok might require a response time of hours, or perhaps minutes, as memes emerge and fade.

Most companies are not built for this response time, especially if there are legal consideration. The speed of marketing today has vast implications for measurement, customer service, legal, and agency relationships.

One financial services firm I work with hired a lawyer for their marketing team just to speed content approval. How are you adjusting to the need for speed?

2. Social upends search

Everyone seems to be focused on how AI will change the game for search. But nobody seems to be noticing a much more significant and non-obvious trend. According to information from Statista, Gen Z is now conducting almost as many product searches on social media as Google:

This ties closely to the influencer marketing trend. The primary reason Gen Z visits social media is to catch up with their favorite influencers. And the main idea being shared by most influencers? New products they love.

But this isn’t just a GenZ trend. GWI reports in their 2024 trend report there’s been a 57% rise in baby boomers using TikTok since Q2 2021 … and they’re more likely to have bought a product or service online in the last week than Gen Z.

This suggests that SEO needs to be tied more closely to influencer marketing. Anybody out there planning for this? Is it even on the radar?

3. The big new platform

There seems to be just one significant new social media platform every five years or so. What’s going to be next? Nobody can say, but I have some clues.

Social media platforms have fragmented along generational lines. The only group growing on Facebook is 55 and older. The Snapchat crowd averages about 28. The average age of people on Reddit is 23. TikTok is the homebase for GenZ in their 20s. Everybody seems to like YouTube and Instagram

I think the next fracture will occur for Gen Alpha, the digital natives marching behind Gen Z. They’re looking up at their big brothers and sisters, thinking, “Naaaaah. We want our own place.”

And they will get it. What will it be like? Certainly video-oriented, but also expressing their value for authenticity and relationships. It might be something with only verified non-AI content. Maybe a cross between TikTok, Snapchat, and BeReal.

This might be beyond the next 12 months, but perhaps it’s time for a decentralized social network powered by blockchain. Just don’t call it blockchain. Transparency, control, and security will be mighty issues going forward and blockchain can help solve for that.

4. Influence is everything

The marketing world is in a state of massive transition. Advertising is less visible in a streaming media world and more expensive than ever. Where are these brand marketing dollars going to go?

I recently reported on new research from Ed Keller that points to one answer: Influencers. Ed found that the creator economy is massive — three times bigger than previously estimated. This trend has largely flown under the radar because it’s been so hard to measure.

Top YouTuber Mr. Beast just completed two months where he received more than 2 billion views per month. That’s staggering, unprecedented reach. He is perhaps the most influential media company in the world. A product placement with Mr. Beast might have bigger reach than an ad on the Super Bowl.

Not many people like being interrupted by ads. If they see them, they don’t believe them. But we believe each other, especially digital creators like Mr. Beast who feel like part of the family.

A new report found that 39% of consumers are watching more creator content than a year ago. Let that sink in. Can you imagine any other media property getting a 39% boost in one year? Advertising alongside creator content can jump-start the purchase funnel process, collapsing the awareness, interest, and consideration stages together.

The impact, reach, and influence of creators is exploding and yet an influence strategy is not even on the radar yet for most companies.

Creators are the media. Creators will dominate our marketing future. Are you onboard yet?

5. Social listening is in trouble

According to Edison Research, between 2022 and 2023, the percentage of people actively using the social community app Discord rose from 13 percent to 20 percent. You might think, “Wow. That’s a lot of growth. But here’s a chart that will really blow your mind:

First, notice the decline of young people using TikTok. Interesting. Now, look at the growth on Discord. In the age 12-34 category, daily usage rose from 26% to 42% IN ONE YEAR.

When have we ever seen growth like that on a social media platform? Never.

But here’s where it gets really interesting. Many of these vital community conversations on Discord are invisible to social listening platforms like Sprout Social and Sprinklr. Brands relying on social listening to monitor sentiment, mentions, and competitors are becoming more blind month by month as young people huddle behind the Discord /metaverse firewall.

6. Community is the future of marketing

The other day, I saw a provocative quote: “Creators are the new priests.”

It’s not about religion of course. It’s about assembling people. I can see this. In fact, I wrote a whole book about the idea. In Belonging to the Brand, I explained how the world is in a belonging crisis and those who can bring people together in community can create a deep and lasting emotional connection … which of course is the goal of your brand.

I’m not suggesting that brands take advantage of the emotionally vulnerable. I’m saying that brands are a part of our lives and there is room for brand-based communities that truly connect, and even heal.

I’m not alone in this view. The day I finished writing my book, McKinsey published a white paper claiming community is the next big thing in marketing.

Social media is not a strategy. It’s the beginning of a process that leads to community, as I wrote here.

7. Social Commerce, finally

In 2022, we witnessed the steady rise of social commerce, which allowed social media users to purchase products directly on social media. In 2024, social media platforms are expected to continue to become popular shopping outlets for consumers.

Furthermore, it’s projected that by 2026, global social commerce sales will reach a whopping $6 trillion, with the US having approximately 108 million social buyers by 2025.

A HubSpot survey shows that 22% of social media users purchased a product directly from Instagram, followed by 21% of consumers who bought directly on Facebook.

“Live commerce” combining influencer, livestreaming, and impulse buying eCommerce has taken off in Asia and this is the year it makes its mark in the rest of the world.

8. Designer content

OK, dream with me for a moment.

The business of social media is a battle of recommendation engines. The platform that can feed you the most fascinating and addictive content wins, because the longer you stay there, the more information they collect, the more ads you see, and the more money they make. For better or worse, the goal is to develop algorithms that create addiction, which is another story entirely.

Now let’s say Instagram learns that you love photos of kittens. Specifically, you want cute kittens dressed in human clothes. Why wouldn’t Instagram simply connect you to an AI that generates endless photos of cute kittens, like this:

I generated this image on MidJourney in five seconds. Here is the prompt I used: Cute kitten dressed in a blue gingham dress, photorealistic. In other words, this was extremely easy to do.

Why wouldn’t Instagram make you even more addicted to its platform by giving you exactly what you want, every day, every click by literally harnessing AI to generate your ideal, addictive images?

Stay with me. Within 18 months, we’ll be able to create full-length AI-generated movies on our laptop. Why wouldn’t Instagram and other social platforms create exactly the video content you want every day? At some point, Netflix and Disney will be doing this, too. You’ll get custom movies delivered to you some day soon.

We’ll just sit there sucking down content all day because we’re so mesmerized by those kittens. Maybe that’s how the Matrix started! You heard it here first: We can blame The Matrix on kittens.

9. Watermarked content

This is the year we will see massive disruption from deep fakes. In fact, it will be more than disruption. It will be chaos. I’ll bet we see at least one death this year attributed to deep fake content/misinformation.

We simply must have some kind of safety watermark for content so we know what’s true. There is progress in this area, but the challenge is creating a watermark that can be universally detected yet can’t be faked.

If you’re working in social media and content creation, this will soon be a major priority for you.

10. Local content hubs

Bill Landry

In my hometown of Knoxville, we have a local celebrity named Bill Landry. I could argue that he was the first independent video creator to monetize an audience — but it wasn’t over YouTube. It was over local TV.

Bill was the writer, director, producer, and actor in a video project called The Heartland Series. He filmed 1,400 short stories about Appalachian history, food, crafts, and rural life. Bill was a remarkable storyteller and his little videos were broadcast on the local TV station, sold as DVD sets, and even put together in a book. Because of his self-made celebrity, Bill was an in-demand speaker.

The classic creator model — build an audience and then monetize. But this was happening in the 1980s!

This is the only partnership between a “creator” and mainstream TV I’ve ever heard of. But why couldn’t this format be widespread today?

Today’s local TV studio has plenty of unused production and ad sales capacity, while local creators need a revenue stream, production facilities, and an audience. It makes total sense. Why wouldn’t local TV stations produce local cooking, sports, and music shows for a livestreaming audience and create a new revenue stream?

This is actually a retro idea. The early local TV stations hosted lots of local talent to fill the airwaves. Today, there seems to be a wall between traditional TV and streaming content, but why? If social media is so crowded, why not reimagine local TV as a relevant community content hub?

Perhaps the most non-obvious social media trends involve posting content and earning audiences in non-traditional places.

So there you have it. I hope a few of these non-obvious social media trends made you think, and perhaps provoked thoughts about new marketing strategies and business opportunities. The world of marketing is endlessly fascinating, and these trends are just the tip of the iceberg of what’s ahead!

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Top image courtesy Unsplash.com

Kitten image was created on MidJourney

The post 10 Non-Obvious Social Media Trends You Need to Consider Right Now appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

In the earliest days of this blog, I wrote a post called “10 Benefits of Blogging Even if Nobody is Reading It.” This was a significant article for me because back in 2009, blogging was all creators had to work with. It still took equipment and effort to produce videos for social media (if you had internet bandwidth to upload them!), and podcasts were a blip on the radar. So blogging was essential. And this was one of my first posts to go viral.

I thought it would be timely to revisit and update the ideas in this post and reimagine the role of blogging in this era of AI, live streaming, and TikTok.

Are there still benefits to blogging … even if nobody is reading it? Here’s a fresh take on blogging, the original content fuel of the creator economy.

The relevance of blogging

First, let me acknowledge the elephant in the room. In an era where short-form video is the rage, does blogging even matter?

Based on the statistical evidence, blogging is actually more important than ever. There are more bloggers than ever, and more blog posts are being published. And this doesn’t count the huge surge in written newsletters being propelled by platforms like Medium, Substack, and LinkedIn.

I think the enduring business case for blogging is simple. Reading is still the preferred way to learn for many people, so blogs will die only when reading dies. A few current stats:

• There are over 600 million blogs. That means that the blogging industry makes up a third of the web.
• People publish 70 million new posts on WordPress.com every month.
• People post over 75 million new comments on WordPress.com blogs every month.
• 22% of bloggers post every single week.

The future of text-based content seems bright because Gen Z loves to read. According to research published by Forbes, 35% say they read more today than they did two years ago, 55% of Gen Z now read every week, and 40% read daily. The difference is that 67% of Gen Zers read on their phones, compared to 51% of older generations, who still savor the feel of paper.

Let’s dissect the benefits of blogging … even if nobody is reading it!

1. Search engine benefits of blogging (maybe)

This may be the most obvious of all the business benefits of blogging. Search engines give preference to websites that have fresh, relevant content. Hubspot research showed that sites with blogs get 55% more traffic than sites without blogs — even if there are no readers!

However, this is a benefit that is under attack. Google is keeping the bulk of search queries in-house and nobody really knows right now how text-based content fits into the AI-based search capabilities. It makes sense that consistent content creation will be recognized and absorbed into AI responses, but clearly this is an emerging field.

Here’s a guess. AI-based search engines will prioritize text-based content because it is easy to process. I am consistently showing up as one of the top ten digital marketing experts, if you ask ChatGPT. Where is that answer coming from? My guess is that ChatGPT is not fueled by my podcast or videos. It has to be from the blog, right?

Perhaps if no have no subscribers, AI is still reading your content!

2. Infinite search life

On a recent podcast, author James Clear revealed that the genesis of his bestselling book Atomic Habits was an obscure blog post.

Several years ago, a reporter researching a story unearthed one of his little-read blog posts and linked to it in a New York Times article. A book publisher happened to click on the link and thought the basis of the old blog post would make a good book. Thus, Atomic Habits was born, a book that sold more than 10 million copies and changed Mr. Clear’s life forever!

And this was a blog post almost nobody had read!

In full disclosure, I have never had a blog post sell 10 million books. If I did, I would be writing this from The Maldives instead of my living room couch. However, I have had many new clients and fans discover me from obscure old posts. Blog posts work forever.

3. Fueling the personal brand

I believe this is the MOST IMPORTANT of all the benefits of blogging.

The only thing that will save us from AI overwhelming our human skills — and even careers — is the personal brand. If you are not working on this, please start.

You must create content to be known in this world and create a lasting emotional connection to people who will help you reach your goals. On this blog, I’ve started to add a badge that says “100% Human Content.” Always has been. Always will be. This is increasingly becoming a point of differentiation!

It doesn’t take millions of readers to succeed with a blog. It takes an emotional connection to the right people who can activate your dreams.

4. The blog writes a book

I do many personal coaching calls with people who dream of writing a book. My number one recommendation is to use blogging strategically to fuel that goal.

Look at it this way. If you outline the direction for a book and then blog an average of 1,000 words each week to support that outline, in 52 weeks, you’ll have 52,000 words. That’s a book … even if nobody is reading your blog.

My blog is the R&D Center for my books. I’ll test controversial ideas on my blog to gauge the response before putting them in a permanent book! I’ve even incorporated blog reader comments into my book.

5. Fuel for the content engine

Your investment in a consistent stream of text-based content can be leveraged in many ways to support a content marketing strategy. I use links from blog posts to answer customer questions, as the basis for speeches, newsletter content, and as reading assignments for my college classes and workshops.

Original ideas first expressed in a blog post often appear later in my Marketing Companion podcast, videos, and answers to questions when I am interviewed. The benefits of blogging show up in my professional life every day.

6. A second landing page

One of the overlooked benefits of blogging is that a post serves as a second landing page for your business. If people share your content, anybody clicking on the link will land on a blog post. Are you using the space around your post to tell visitors what you do? What you sell? Why you’re relevant?

Click on one of my posts shared through social media, and you’ll see invitations to buy my books, attend a class, and register for The Uprising marketing retreat.

I can’t believe how many blog posts are just a blog post. This is your second home page! Use the space around your blog post to connect people to your business.

7. Personal growth

When I started blogging in 2009, I didn’t know anything about blogging.

Seriously, I flailed around for years trying to figure it out.

But I took my few readers along with me on my journey, documenting my wins, failures, and trials. I was teaching myself to blog week by week. And four years later, in 2013, I wrote the all-time bestselling book on blogging.

You don’t have to be an expert in anything to blog. Just take people along with you on your learning journey. Blogging makes you smarter and drives personal growth.

8. Clarity and confidence

One of the biggest benefits of blogging for me personally is achieving clarity.

Let’s say I have an opportunity to take a position on a new development in marketing. Well … what is my position? Writing about it forces me to do the research and develop a logical response.

This shows up in my business in many ways. In the future, I might have to answer a question on this topic in a class, or talk about this new development in an interview. Writing a post helps me become confident that I know every side of a topic and provide a rational response, even if nobody read the original post.

9. Co-created success

I just published the most popular post in the history of this blog (20 Entertaining Uses of ChatGPT You Didn’t Know Were Possible).

Except I didn’t write it.

Well … I wrote MOST of it. But I asked my friends in the RISE community to help me. By tapping into this crowd-sourced expertise, I created something quickly and efficiently, while also providing valuable exposure to my friends.

Could I do this with a YouTube video? A podcast? A short TikTok post? Not with the cut-and-paste ease of blogging!

If nobody is reading your blog, what would happen if a community helped you create something and supported you by sharing the result? I think this crowd-sourced strategy is probably unique to blogging.

10. Physical health

There was a very stressful time in my life when my blood pressure was so high that I was required to take a reading every hour of the day (I documented this dark time in  Chapter 1 of my book KNOWN).

To my amazement, there was one activity that lowered my blood pressure back to normal — every time.

Blogging.

This was early in my creator career when nobody was reading my blog yet. When I became immersed in the activity of writing, the rest of the world faded away. I entered a zone of intellectual stimulation, curiosity, and creativity that provides demonstrable health benefits. It still has this impact on me today.

The immersive act of writing is probably similar to meditation or walking in the woods.

So there you have it. The benefits of blogging are still relevant and important … even when nobody is reading it!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy Pexels.com

The post 10 Benefits of Blogging Even if Nobody Reads It appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Today I’m ripping an issue from the headlines and tying the implications to your current content marketing strategy. Whether you’re a big brand or a solopreneur trying to stand out with a blog or YouTube channel, pay attention. We’re about to have an important lesson about the content marketing arms race served to us by our friends at Netflix …

The juggernaut

Netflix seemed unstoppable. The company raced from mail delivery of movies into the streaming movie space leaving Blockbuster in its dust. At the height of its popularity, Netflix was attracting 2.5 million new users per month.

To secure its place as the premier streaming service, Netflix started producing its own TV shows and movies. While this is common now, at the time this was revolutionary. Netflix was going to compete with the big TV and movie studios? Crazy.

But they did it, pumping out mega-hits such as Stranger Things, Ozark, and The Crown. The company had 105 Emmy nominations this year as well as dozens of Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture.

If we looked at this from a content marketing playbook, they were doing everything right. And yet the company is in deep trouble. They are losing subscribers, cutting costs, and streamlining their movie offerings.

The company is in a meltdown. Netflix has seen 970,000 subscribers cancel in the last three months – the first time the company had ever experienced consecutive months of subscription losses. They’re not the only ones to have issues. Even Disney+ has met challenges keeping subscribers. After the release of Hamilton in July 2020, they drew in new customers, only for 30% of them to unsubscribe just a month later!

And this is something I predicted in 2014 …

The content marketing arms race

Early in that year, I wrote about an idea I called Content Shock. The main element of this idea:

As content niches reach saturation, it becomes more difficult to compete. As competitors enter the field, you’re trapped in a never-ending arms race as companies spend more to produce and promote their content. The companies with the deepest pockets will win. Smaller businesses will drop out because it becomes too expensive. In that event, content marketing is not a sustainable strategy.

I also wrote that this pattern repeats itself in every content channel. At first, it’s easy to earn engagement and views, but that diminishes over time as saturation increases.

What does this have to do with Netflix and you?

Here is a chart recently posted by James McMahon that paints a fascinating portrait of the Netflix content marketing arms race. It’s a little busy, so let me interpret it for you. This chart shows the number of weeks a popular show will remain in the Top 10 of all Netflix shows.

In the early days (2000-2005) about 10 percent of the shows hung around for 40 weeks or more.

Today, movies and TV shows drop off the Top 10 list almost right away. It’s unusual for the best shows to stay at the top of the charts for even five weeks!

What’s happening here?

This is what I predicted about the company four years ago at the height of its popularity:

An all-out content arms race began on February 01, 2013.

That was the day Netflix launched a bold new series called House of Cards. It was a big-budget risk that put the story and the writing front and center. Netflix had one goal — create a serialized show that was so un-missable that people would have to subscribe to the streaming service.

The channel was transforming from a curator of content to a creator of content with its first original series.

It worked — Netflix attracted more than a million new subscribers. And it also began a content arms race that changed the industry … and may destroy the company.

My prediction is coming true. It’s Content Shock in action.

The glue that holds this whole industry together is the content. Not enjoying content is the biggest factors driving cancellations. Over a quarter of the viewers in the US believe that most shows on streaming services aren’t worth watching, with just over 1 in 5 of these consumers saying they mostly watch TV on services like Netflix and Hulu. So there’s a big customer base, but many are left feeling unsatisfied.

The deepest pockets win

As Netflix ramped up the content engine in 2013, so did its competitors and the arms race began. To the viewer’s delight, TV shows became movie-quality as the content creation budgets exploded.

HBO spent an average of $10 million per episode on the original series Game of Thrones. A year later, Disney spent a staggering $15 million per episode on The Mandalorian.

This was quickly eclipsed. Wanda Vision cost $28 million per episode and The Rings of Power averaged $35 million one year later. A content arms race.

Look who’s creating original television content: Amazon, Apple, Disney. These companies have very deep pockets. Can Netflix win? No. At least not in its current form and marketshare.

We see in this chart that Netflix is pushing out hit after hit — so many that the shows are falling off the Top 10 chart in a few weeks. Last week the BBC reported:

After enjoying a long reign as the king of streaming, Netflix faces a tough fight to keep its crown.

It lost almost a million subscribers between April and July as more people decided to quit the service.

Guy Bisson, executive director at Ampere Analysis, said it was “inevitable” that Netflix would start to see its grip on the market loosen.

“When you’re the leader, there’s only one direction to go, especially when a large amount of competition launches, which is what Netflix has seen in the last couple of years,” he said.

It is a stark change for Netflix, which enjoyed years of seemingly unstoppable growth, as it revolutionized the way people around the world consumed entertainment.

What does this mean for you?

Here are a few lessons from the Netflix Content Shock scenario. Look at how the major players are positioned to compete in this streaming arms race:

1. Are you “Amazon?”

The biggest problem in content marketing today is that most companies are pumping out content because they’re afraid not to. They don’t have a sense of their place in the industry or a strategic view of how it’s working for them. So they are creating random acts of content.

Lesson number one is, assess your competitive position. Is your industry saturated with content? How can you maneuver in that environment? Are you the market leader? A disruptor? What are your chances of realizing any benefit from your content marketing?

If you’re the market leader with the deepest pockets — like Amazon or Apple — you’re in a good position to win the content marketing arms race.

2. Are you “Disney?”

The fastest-growing company on the streaming scene is Disney+. At least in one respect, it doesn’t matter what their competitors do because if you enjoy Marvel, Disney, or Star Wars products, you MUST go to Disney+ to see them. They own a unique content niche.

There is a lesson here even for the smallest entrepreneurs. I have a small company. I will never win the SEO war on terms like “keynote speaker” or “digital marketing consultant.” But if you want access to my unique voice and content, you must subscribe to my blog and podcast.

Like Disney, I can have a sizable audience because of my unique properties, as long as I continue to maintain the advantage.

If you have a distinctive voice and authority to your content, you’re positioned to compete in the content marketing arms race. This is where I hope to compete. I’m not the biggest content producer, but i have a unique perspective you can only find on this blog.

3. Are you “Netflix?”

Content marketing is a mature tactic. Lots of companies are doing it. Many niches are filling up with great content, flipping Content Shock into action and initiating that content arms race.

When Netflix fired the first shot across the bow with House of Cards, they hoped to carve out a niche of high-quality, original programming. And they did … for a while. But the big guns at Amazon and Disney started firing back by dramatically increasing their content budget, and Netflix became vulnerable.

If you started on your content marketing path five years ago, is it still relevant and effective? How is Content Shock creeping in?

Netflix isn’t standing still. They see the writing on the wall and are exploring new options like doubling down on their most popular content (Like Stranger Things) and developing an ad revenue strategy that could lower subscription prices and bring in more revenue.

Netflix does not have the deep pockets to compete with Amazon, Apple, and Disney long-term. If you’re in the same boat — a content producer in a crowded niche —  these might be relevant to you, too.

1. Netflix is exploring new revenue streams like paid advertising. Are there ways you could leverage your existing content into other revenue models like online courses or books?
2. Netflix has a portfolio of exciting original content. If they can’t turn their ship around, this asset would be very attractive to a company like Amazon or Apple. They could consider being acquired by a larger competitor. I think this is the most likely scenario for the company.
3. The company could create just enough original buzz-worthy content to at least stay in the game. Think about the impact of sensations like Breaking Bad or Yellowstone. These shows became cultural icons. It might be possible to at least not lose share if they can keep coming up with truly important programming. In your world, this might mean publishing something epic at least every few months to hold the subscribers that you have.

These are the obvious strategies, and I’ll add two more that are also possible:

1. Could you/Netflix create an exclusive experience for subscribers? What if they created a Stranger Things Experience through the Meta app store that was only available to subscribers?
2. Could you create online/offline fan communities around certain shows that are only open to subscribers?

Anyway, I hope this gets you thinking in a new way. I haven’t explored this Content Shock topic in a long time, but it is more relevant than ever. In fact, if you’re working in the field of content marketing, it is the most important consideration in your strategy.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. Discover his $RISE creator community.

Netflix image courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Five strategies to win the content marketing arms race appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

On the TILT blog, Dylan Redekop put forth an opinion that if you’re starting out as a content entrepreneur, you should focus on a private newsletter instead of a public blog. I wholeheartedly and passionately disagree and will put forth my argument today.

It should be noted that I don’t know Dylan. I discovered him for the first time on the TILT blog, not a newsletter So, there’s that.

Let’s dissect the argument: Blog versus newsletter.

The newsletter argument

Dylan states his case:

“Blogs are great. They served a need in Web2 and provided many digital creators a path to online entrepreneurship. But they’re no longer the best way to start your content entrepreneur journey.

“Here’s the challenge with blogs: a visitor reads your post, clicks a few links, and vanishes. No sale, no engagement, no email captured.

“Your visitor did a little window shopping but didn’t ring the register.

“When you start your content business with a newsletter, you capture the most important piece of the audience interaction – their email address.”

Now for the rebuttal.

The six points.

Here are the six points Dylan uses to make his case, along with my views:

1. Collecting emails is the attribute of newsletters

This is his most important and relevant point. With a blog you don’t collect email addresses, and a mailing list is your most important marketing tool so you can communicate directly to your audience.

My view: How do my blog subscribers get their post each week? An email address. Sure, you only get that email if they subscribe, but you only get it if you subscribe to your newsletter too!

I have the email address of every person who subscribes to my blog. There is nothing keeping me from importing my blog subscribers into a newsletter format to offer special announcements, which I do two or three times a year.

If people subscribe to your blog — or newsletter — YOU HAVE THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS.

2. Starting a newsletter is free and frictionless

My view: So is a blog. If you have a website, a blog usually comes along for the ride. I don’t think the cost consideration of a blog versus a newsletter is a real selling point. I’m assuming you need to pay a subscription fee for your newsletter service, right?

3. Newsletters are active content

“You promote the newsletter, and people intentionally sign up to get it delivered to their inbox. (I’ve done this – it’s awesome). And if the newsletter is good enough, you might even be able to charge for it.”

My view: I don’t understand what is meant by “active content.” I mean, people can sign up for a blog, too, right? I don’t charge for my blog but there are better ways to monetize. More on that later.

4. Newsletter ads can bring bigger revenue more quickly

“Getting ad revenue from a blog is hard. It can take a long time to even get to the point where your Adsense revenue covers your hosting and domain costs. With newsletters, once you hit a few hundred subscribers, you can attract sponsors or advertisers on platforms like Swapstack, Paved, or Letterwell.”

My view: Getting meaningful ad revenue from anything is hard. Nobody is going to make a decent income off a blog or newsletter unless they have a huge audience who loves to click on ads. Just not realistic.

5. Affiliate links can work more quickly with a newsletter

“Affiliate links can bring in more revenue earlier for newsletter creators because they have built trust with their audience. The same can’t be said for a blog.”

My view: I think Dylan is reaching here. People trust a newsletter more than a blog? That’s not logical. Lots of people trust my blog. And does anybody really base a career as a content entrepreneur from affiliate links?

6. A newsletter can expand to become a blog

“Most email newsletter platforms offer a blog-style content feed. You can use that link to promote and share your content. You also can leverage the SEO benefits by migrating your newsletter content to a hosted domain at some point. But you don’t have to do that until you’ve made progress in building and owning your audience.”

My view: OK. I just can’t stand it any more. I need to set you straight Dylan …

Four reasons why you should start with a blog

Let’s get real. You should almost ALWAYS START WITH A BLOG.  Here’s why.

1. You need an audience.

The whole idea behind the creator economy is that you can monetize an audience. But first, you need an audience!

Exactly who is going to sign up for your private newsletter if you’re just starting out? Grandma? Cousin Lenny?

To gain the widest audience possible, you need to unleash your content everywhere. Hiding it behind a private newsletter firewall is literally the worst thing you can do to build a content-based audience.

Dylan did a smart thing by publishing on a well-known, public blog because nobody is going to discover him from a private newsletter. I found him on a blog. Others found him. I followed him on LinkedIn. Maybe we’ll become friends. But that can’t happen if your content is hidden behind a subscription firewall.

2. You need engagement

I have never left a comment on a newsletter. Because you can’t.

In the early days of my blog, the comment section was absolutely crucial in knowing what my growing audience wanted and needed. With a newsletter, you’re just guessing. There’s little feedback.

Build a community. People who comment on my blog become customers.

3. You’ll make more money

A major problem I have with Dylan’s argument is that you can make more money with a newsletter because you can directly sell stuff.

Here’s the truth. People do not want you selling stuff. Readers are sick of being sold to and there is no faster way to earn an “unsubscribe” than to use your content as a selling tool.

A better strategy is to avoid the temptation of that $1.50 in affiliate link income and patiently build authority. Here’s what happens when you build authority and an audience that trusts you:

• They hire you to speak
• They buy your books
• They come to your events
• They’ll attend your classes and workshops
• They want you to consult for them

Trust me. This is a lot more profitable than depending on people to click on affiliate links in a newsletter.

Be generous. Give away your best ideas for free. Help people. Don’t sell.

4. You’ll become known

Here is the one and only strategy to monetize in the creator economy. You have to be known.

If you’re known, the doors of opportunity open wide. If you’re not known, you’re going to be pumping out content in vain.

To become known, you have to unleash your content on the world. Don’t make people work to find it. Put it EVERYWHERE. Make it public!

This is the fatal flaw of Dylan’s thesis. It only makes sense to try to monetize a newsletter after you’re already known. And to become known, you need a blog because it can be seen, shared, commented on, and discovered by Mr. Google.

And it’s not just blogs …

In my books and classes, I teach that there are only four content options to build an audience and become known, which is the essential step in the content entrepreneur journey:

• A blog
• A video series or streaming content
• Audio content like a podcast
• Visual content like Instagram or Pinterest.

You pick one to start (because you can’t be great in five places), master your craft, and build an audience.

So a blog is not necessarily the best and only place to start. Depending on your interests, talents, and audience you might choose one of the other content options. Just start, experiment, and do it consistently.

But the one thing I know is, don’t start with a newsletter. Set your content free and build that audience as you set your sights on becoming a successful content entrepreneur.

I want to end this post by thanking Dylan for writing his original post. It sparked a reaction and that is a sign of success. It made me think and I hope it made you think, too.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. Discover his $RISE create community. 

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Should I become a content entrepreneur with a blog or a newsletter? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

One of the themes of my writing has been the need for constant reinvention and renewal to stay relevant. So, it’s time to take my own medicine. I’ll be making some changes to this blog and The Marketing Companion podcast.

These changes are a result of surveys and interviews I’ve conducted over the past few months as well as observing new best practices throughout the industry. I’ll discuss these changes and my thought process today. I’m also revealing a major change to the podcast in this post.

The blog … or paid newsletter?

The biggest trend in content marketing right now is subscription newsletters. Kind of weird right? Words are hot again!

But it makes sense. If you can provide insight that adds value and saves time, why not put it behind a firewall and charge for it on Substack or another platform?

The first decision I’ve made is that I am keeping my content public and free. I like this format, I like this community, and sharing with the whole world is more my style than creating something secret and somewhat elitist.

I also believe strongly that there is more power in content that moves freely instead of constraining it to a newsletter. I have a lot of equity in this audience and I can’t turn my back on that. So change number one is … there is no change to the accessibility of the blog content.

The end of the guests

For more than a decade I’ve paid weekly guest bloggers to show their best work on my site. There were three reasons for this:

1. Help shine a light on worthy new stars
2. Add diversity of opinion and perspective to this blog
3. Create valuable content that can improve traffic to the site

I’ve known for years is that my readers are generally less interested in the guest bloggers. I ignored this feedback because I just liked shining the light on interesting new voices. But in my latest survey, this dissatisfaction came through pretty loudly once again.

Also, some readers complain that I was delivering too much content. I understand that. It’s hard to keep up with so many posts coming at you. So, I’ve decided to cut out the guest bloggers which also reduces the amount of content coming to your inbox. Instead of three or four posts a week, there will be two.

I’ll still have guest bloggers once in a while if some special opportunity arises. : )

Focus and direction

One of the surprises from my surveying is the continued intense interest on personal branding. So I’ll provide a little more content in that direction (I have a lot to say!) as well as more marketing case studies and forward-thinking ideas.

Some people wanted more “tips and tricks” but I will remain focused on “what’s next.”

The big podcast change!

The Marketing Companion is now in its ninth year. I have basically stuck to the same format for all that time — me and a co-host dissecting trends as we discern the future of marketing.

I’ve loved having a co-host — first Tom Webster, then Brooke Sellas — as a comfortable and reliable format that is truly different from the rest of the podcast pack. But being limited to one co-host brain has limitations. There is a lot more to explore. So in this new episode of The Marketing Companion, I talk about an exciting new direction for the show and we say farewell to Brooke as the regular co-host of the program.

Pivoting my content strategy means that other changes are coming over time, but I think it’s time to re-launch the podcast and try something new (while sticking to the core values of insight + entertainment). Listen in to this new show to hear what I have in store for you:

Click on this link to listen to Episode 229

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• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe on iTunes
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• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide
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