If you think creating content for boring industries is tough, try creating content for an expensive product that'll be sold in a so-called boring industry. Such was the problem faced by Mike Jackson, head of sales for a large Denver-based company that was debuting a line of new high-end products for the fishing industry in 2009.
After years of pestering the executives of his traditional, non-flashy company to create a line of products that could be sold to anglers looking to buy premium items, he finally had his wish: a product so expensive only a small percentage of anglers could afford them.
(image source)
What looked like being boxed into a corner was actually part of the plan.
When asked how he could ever put his neck on the line for a product he'd find tough to sell and even tougher to market, he revealed his brilliant plan.
"I don't need to sell one million of [these products] a year," he said. "All I need to do is sell a few hundred thousand, which won't be hard. And as far as marketing, that's easy: I'm ignoring the folks who'll buy the items. I'm targeting professional anglers, the folks the buyers are influenced by. If the pros, the influencers, talk about and use the products, people will buy them."
Such was my first introduction to how it's often wise to ignore who'll buy the product in favor of marketing to those who'll help you market and sell the product.
These influencers are a sweet spot in product marketing and they are largely ignored by many brands
Looking at content for boring industries all wrong
A few months back, I received a message in Google Plus that really piqued my interest: "What's the best way to create content for my boring business? Just kidding. No one will read it, nor share information from a painter anyway."
I went from being dismayed to disheartened. Dismayed because the business owner hadn't yet found a way to connect with his prospects through meaningful content. Disheartened because he seemed to have given up trying.
You can successfully create content for boring industries. Doing so requires nothing out of the ordinary from what you'd normally do to create content for any industry. That's the good news.
The bad news: Creating successful content for boring industries requires you think beyond content and SEO, focusing heavily on content strategy and outreach.
Successfully creating content for boring industries—or any industry, for that matter—comes down to who'll share it and who'll link to it, not who'll read it, a point nicely summed up in this tweet:
I just don't understand the mindset of 'build content --> build links to it'. Identify link opps FIRST, then create content to service them.
— Jon Cooper (@PointBlankSEO) April 7, 2015So when businesses struggle with creating content for their respective industries, the culprits are typically easy to find:
- They lack clarity on who they are creating content for (e.g., content strategy, personas)
- There are no specific goals (e.g., traffic, links, conversions, etc.) assigned regarding the content, so measuring its effectiveness is impossible
- They're stuck in neutral thinking viral content is the only option, while ignoring the value of content amplification (e.g., PR/outreach)
Alone, these three elements are bad; taken together, though, they spell doom for your brand.
If you lack clarity on who you're creating content for, the best you can hope for is that sometimes you'll create and share information members of your audience find useful, but you likely won't be able to reach or engage them with the needed frequency to make content marketing successful.
Goals, or lack thereof, are the real bugaboo of content creation. The problem is even worse for boring industries, where the pressure is on to deliver a content vehicle that meets the threshold of interest to simply gain attention, much less, earn engagement.
For all the hype about viral content, it's dismaying that so few marketers aren't being honest on the topic: it's typically hard to create, impossible to predict and typically has very, very little connection to conversions for most businesses.
What I've found is that businesses, regardless of category, struggle to create worthwhile content, leading me to believe there is no boring industry content, only content that's boring.
"Whenever we label content as 'boring,' we're really admitting we have no idea how to approach marketing something," says Builtvisible's Richard Baxter.
Now that we know what the impediments are to producing content for any industry, including boring industries, it's time to tackle the solution.
Develop a link earning mindset
There are lots of article on the web regarding how to create content for boring industries, some of which have appeared on this very blog.
But, to my mind, the one issue they all suffer from is they all focus on what content should be created, not (a) what content is worthy of promotion, (b) how to identify those who could help with promotion, and (c) how to earn links from boring industry content. (Remember, much of the content that's read is never shared; much of what's shared is never read in its entirety; and some of the most linked-to content is neither heavily shared nor heavily read.)
This is why content creators in boring industries should scrap their notions of having the most-read and most-shared content, shifting their focus to creating content that can earn links in addition to generating traffic and social signals to the site.
After all, links and conversions are the main priorities for most businesses sharing content online, including so-called local businesses.
(Image courtesy of the 2014 Moz Local Search Ranking Factors Survey)
If you're ready to create link-earning, traffic-generating content for your boring-industry business follow the tips from the fictitious example of RZ's Auto Repair, a Dallas, Texas, automobile shop.
With the Dallas-Forth Worth market being large and competitive, RZ's has narrowed their speciality to storm repair, mainly hail damage, which is huge in the area. Even with the narrowed focus, however, they still have stiff competition from the major players in the vertical, including MAACO.
What the brand does have in its favor, however, is a solid website and a strong freelance copywriter to help produce content.
Remember, those three problems we mentioned above—lack of goals, lack of clarity and lack of focus on amplification—we'll now put them to good use to drive our main objectives of traffic, links and conversions.
Setting the right goals
For RZ, this is easy: He needs sales, business (e.g., qualified leads and conversions), but he knows he must be patient since using paid media is not in the cards.
Therefore, he sits down with his partner, and they come up with what seems like the top five workable, important goals:
- Increased traffic on the website - He's noticed that when traffic increases, so does his business.
- More phone calls - If they get a customer on the phone, the chances of closing the sale are around 75%.
- One blog per week on the site - The more often he blogs, the more web traffic, visits and phone calls increase.
- Links from some of the businesses in the area - He's no dummy. He knows the importance of links, which are that much better when they come from a large company that could send him business.
- Develop relationships with small and midsize non-competing businesses in the area for cross promotions, events and the like.
Know the audience
(image source)
Too many businesses create cute blogs that might generate traffic but do nothing for sales. RZ isn't falling for this trap. He's all about identifying the audience who's likely to do business with him.
Luckily, his secretary is a meticulous record keeper, allowing him to build a reasonable profile of his target persona based on past clients.
- 21-35 years old
- Drives a truck that's less than fours years old
- Has an income of $45,000-$59,000
- Employed by a corporation with greater than 500 employees
- Active on social media, especially Facebook and Twitter
- Consumes most of their information online
- Typically referred by a friend or a co-worker
This information will prove invaluable as he goes about creating content. Most important, these nuggets create a clearer picture of how he should go about looking for people and/or businesses to amplify his content.
PR and outreach: Your amplification engines
Armed with his goals and the knowledge of his audience, RZ can now focus on outreach for amplification, thinking along the lines of...
- Who/what influences his core audience?
- What could he offer them by way of content to earn their help?
- What content would they find valuable enough to share and link to?
- What challenges do they face that he could help them with?
- How could his brand set itself apart from any other business looking for help from these potential outreach partners?
Putting it all together
Being the savvy businessperson he is, RZ pulls his small staff together and they put their thinking caps on.
Late spring through early fall is prime hail storm season in Dallas. The season accounts for 80 percent of his yearly business. (The other 20% is fender benders.) Also, they realize, many of the storms happen in the late afternoon/early evening, when people are on their way home from work and are stuck in traffic, or when they duck into the grocery store or hit the gym after work.
What's more, says one of the staffers, often a huge group of clients will come at once, owing to having been parked in the same lot when a storm hits.
Eureka!
(image source)
That's when RZ bolts out of his chair with the idea that could put his business on the map: Let's create content for businesses getting a high volume of after-work traffic—sit-down restaurants, gyms, grocery stores, etc.
The businesses would be offering something of value to their customers, who'll learn about precautions to take in the event of a hail storm, and RZ would have willing amplifiers for his content.
Content is only as boring as your outlook
First—and this is a fatal mistake too many content creators make—RZ visits the handful of local businesses he'd like to partner with. The key here, however, is he smartly makes them aware that he's done his homework and is eager to help their patrons while making them aware of his service.
This is an integral part of outreach: there must be a clear benefit to the would-be benefactor.
After RZ learns that several of the businesses are amenable to sharing his business's helpful information, he takes the next step and asks what form the content should take. For now, all he can get them to promote is a glossy one-sheeter, "How To Protect Your Vehicle Against Extensive Hail Damage," that the biggest gym in the area will promote via a small display at the check-in in return for a 10% coupon for customers.
Three of the five others he talked to also agreed to promote the one-sheeter, though each said they'd be willing to promote other content investments provided they added value for their customers.
The untold truth about creating content for boring industries
When business owners reach out to me about putting together a content strategy for their boring brand, I make two things clear from the start:
- There are no boring brands. Those two words are a cop out. No matter what industry you serve, there are hoards of people who use the products or services who are quite smitten.
- What they see as boring, I see as an opportunity.
In almost every case, they want to discuss some of another big content piece that's sure to draw eyes, engagement, and that maybe even leads to a few links. Sure, I say, if you have tons of money to spend.
(Amazing piece of interactive content created by BuiltVisible)
Assuming you don't have money to burn, and you want a plan you can replicate easily over time, try what I call the 1-2-1 approach for monthly blog content:
1: A strong piece of local content (goal: organic reach, topical relevance, local SEO)
2: Two pieces of evergreen content (goal: traffic)
1: A link-worthy asset (goal: links)
This plan is not very hard at all to pull off, provided you have your ear to the street in the local market; have done your keyword research, identifying several long-tail keywords you have the ability to rank for; and you're willing to continue with outreach.
What it does is allow the brand to create content with enough frequency to attain significance with the search engines, while also developing the habit of sharing, promoting and amplifying content as well. For example, all of the posts would be shared on Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook. (Don't sleep on paid promotion via Facebook.)
Also, for the link-worthy asset, there would be outreach in advance of its creation, then amplification, and continued promotion from the company and those who've agreed to support the content.
Create a winning trifecta: Outreach, promotion and amplification
To RZ's credit, he didn't dawdle, getting right to work creating worthwhile content via the 1-2-1 method:
1: "The Worst Places in Dallas to be When a Hail Storm Hits"
2: "Can Hail Damage Cause Structural Damage to Your Car?" and "Should You Buy a Car Damaged by Hail?"
1: "Big as Hail!" contest
This contest idea came from the owner of a large local gym. RZ's will give $500 to the local homeowner who sends in the largest piece of hail, as judged by Facebook fans, during the season. In return, the gym will promote the contest at its multiple locations, link to the content promotion page on RZ's website, and share images of its fans holding large pieces of hail via social media.
What does the gym get in return: A catchy slogan (e.g., it's similar to "big as hell," popular gym parlance) to market around during the hail season.
It's a win-win for everyone involved, especially RZ.
He gets a link, but most important he realizes how to create content to nail each one of his goals. You can do the same. All it takes is a change in mindset. Away from content creation. Toward outreach, promote and amplify.
Summary
While the story of RZ's entirely fictional, it is based on techniques I've used with other small and midsize businesses. The keys, I've found, are to get away from thinking about your industry/brand as being boring, even if it is, and marshal the resources to find the audience who'll benefit from from your content and, most important, identify the influencers who'll promote and amplify it.
What are your thoughts?
The biggest problem is not that you cannot design an amazing content and outreach strategy for a "boring-industry client".
The biggest problem is that the CEO and Board of Directors themselves start yawning when asked about their industry niche, and that leads to a sometimes impossible to win existential pessimism about the results of the strategy you are proposing them.
Personally, when we have to deal with this kind of natural close-mind attitude, what I try to do is:
1) ask to talk with the best salesman of the company and - if exists - with the person in charge of customer care. The first surely doesn't think it's work and industry is boring, the second know the pulse of the clients;
2) based on the conversations with the people individuated in point 1, and thanks to their collaboration, present a pilot idea, which can show the potentialities of the strategy you proposed, and ask the final-cut prerogative, albeit keeping always informed the client;
3) Set up the KPIs, ones that the client can easily understand and agree with;
4) Execute
5) Have your client changing his own mind and, finally, starting helping you for real.
Your point 1 is a great hint, it is unbeleivable how many people exists, wich think they do something because it's a job to earn money - that's the reason. No - thats a result and not why I do something. So the best salesman couldn't think it's boring. He could tell you a thing or two, not so boring things i guess...
Gianluca,
Thank you for commenting. Your words are always valuable and welcomed. What I've learned to do - and found to be hugely successful - is cut to the chase. When clients talk about keywords this, content that, etc. etc., etc., I ask them "What's the goal here?" In the end it comes back to three things that eventually boil down to one thing.
1. Links - which they see as helping them rank better and aiding the turning down of the PPC spigot
2. Qualified leads - which is why they're willing to invest in content
3. Conversions - what I'll ultimately get fired for
As a former newspaper and PR/branding person, outreach is in my blood, so I feel confident in helping them earn links. What I do my best to make clear, however, is content is simply part of the puzzle. Without the other parts, we cannot be successful.
The biggest thing I've learned in all of this is some clients - those who cannot get this - aren't going to get out of their own way long enough to be successful.
RS
Thanks Ronell for the great post. I'll definitely be sharing with the Citation Labs team. I especially love your emphasis on not depending on "viral" content. Even as a previous commenter pointed out, I think we so often hear "make great content, and the rest will just happen" without any real understanding of what makes "great content." Viral is often luck, and it's also (often, not always) big-budget, which many smaller "boring industry" businesses can't afford.
"Great content" doesn't mean it has to be a dynamic infographic with its own microsite. "Great content" just means it's thorough and useful to the audience, like your example of "The Worst Places in Dallas To Be When a Hail Storm Hits." That information may not make Good Morning America or the top of Reddit, but it may very well make the local news and get links from local businesses with enough outreach. Yes, everyone would like to pull a "Dollar Shave Club," but the ubiquitousness of that example goes to show how rare that level of viral success really is. You can't plan for virality, but you can plan for quality link earning, even for "boring" businesses. And I think your post did a great job of showing that.
Hi Megan,
Thanks very much for your comments. Viral content is great, if you can get it. My problem is there is often no tie to conversions or long-term success. Even if there is a correlation, it typically sets up companies for failure, as they seek to only invest in so-called viral ideas.
That's akin to a baseball team having an entire lineup of home run hitters. Lots of strikeouts.
At some point, brands have to stop thinking about quick wins and commit to lasting success.
RS
"What's the best way to create content for my boring business? Just kidding. No one will read it, nor share information from a painter anyway."
I'd suggest that we often need to stop thinking like SEOs and "content marketers" and think more like creatives in PR, publicity, and advertising departments.
The moment I read the word "painter," here was my first thought.
Take videos of the CEO running up to a random people on the street, in a restaurant, at work, and elsewhere and splashing them with a bucket of his paint. The reactions -- which will vary -- will be priceless. Then the person will probably chase you down the street -- or who knows what will happen?! It'll be different each and every time -- that's the novelty. Maybe they'll jump on and start punching him, maybe they'll start laughing, maybe they'll freeze in shock. Then, he'll hold of the bucket of paint with the label facing the camera and say some funny, memorable tagline.
End scene.
Make it an ongoing series. Then, for the last video in the series, gather all of the original people who were surprised and tape them going into the CEO's office. Then, one by one, they dump a bucket of paint on him for revenge. Could be five, ten, twenty buckets! Ta-dah!
I'd watch the heck out of these videos, and I'm sure millions of people would watch and share them on YouTube. And this would be very cheap to do. (And, yes, everything could be staged in advance.) Put the videos series on YouTube, and initially pay to promote and publicize them while posting them everywhere online and on social networks. See if it takes off.
This is unrelated to Ronell's post, but can I throw out an idea to the community since it's on-topic? Can we stop saying the word "content"? It's generic, meaningless, and mostly useless (see here and here). Can we start being more precise and say exactly what we mean?
"I am creating advertisements / marketing collateral / sales collateral / informational material / etc. / etc. / etc."
Oreo's Super Bowl tweet was not "content" -- it was an advertisement that just happened to be created very quickly in response to a news event and transmitted via the specific channel of social media.
The more precise that we are in our writings and recommendations, the more helpful we will be in our essays and the more successful we will be in our jobs.
When I was at BrightonSEO a few weeks ago, I heard a brilliant talk by Distilled's Hannah Smith on the difference between formats and ideas. She said: A guide is a format, not an idea. A video is a format, not an idea. An infographic is a format, not an idea. People don't share formats, they share ideas.
"Content" could also be called a format that communicates an idea. (Though in light of communications theory, I prefer to call it that which contains a message that is then transmitted via a channel.) We think so much about the format of the "content" -- "Let's do an infographic!" -- that we forget that the type of message and the message itself is what matters first. First you create the message, then you package it into something.
What would get people excited about paint? I thought first of the CEO dumping paint on people and then thought about putting it on video. One's first thought should not be "Let's make a video!"
Love the idea, Sam. I've even worked on teams that delivered ideas such as that to the C-Suite. I wished we hadn't. Those ideas, to me at least, play into the notion that the ability to create viral content (a) is a given and (b) significantly boosts a brand's bottom line for an extended period of time. That's has not been my experience.
What I'm trying to do in the short time I work with clients is threefold:
1. Get them to see content as a part of everything, but not the whole of ANYTHING. It's not going to save the day or bring them gold. That requires far more than words, text or technical prowess.
2. Turning them away from the quick-wins philosophy and nudging them to focus on sustenance. That is doing all of the little things that bring lasting success, not one-time big gains.
3. Showing them what content strategy can do for their business, in addition to sharing with them how to manage the content creation process on their own.
Let's face it: In all but the rarest instance, when working with clients, you're in one of several stages of getting fired. Our job is to do the best work we can while helping to provoke change that should lead to lasting success.
RS
Ronell, thanks for the comment!
Those ideas, to me at least, play into the notion that the ability to create viral content (a) is a given and (b) significantly boosts a brand's bottom line for an extended period of time. That's has not been my experience.
Of course, virality is never a given -- and I think most people know this. How many blog posts / commercials / etc. do we remember from yesterday, let alone a year ago? 99% of the time, it's not going to go viral it will be forgotten. And all creative agencies and their clients have always known this.
But forget about my farcical paint example. Here a real-life one -- what's more boring than razor blades? Well, look at what Dollar Shave Club did. And all of the new customers they got certainly boosted their bottom line for a long time, if not still today.
In short, the answer in boring industries -- if not for exciting ones as well -- is to think like creative agencies and departments. I'd also add that people need to focus less on creating more "content" and more on creating better "content." Quality, not quantity.
There are no boring industries only boring ideas to market them.
Painting as a boring industry? Please. It's practically BEGGING to be marketed for. It's colourful, it's fun, it's ... swishy!? I don't know ... that one seems like a no-brainer to me.
I understand that some niches are harder to find your angle - but there's almost always an angle - whether it's education, entertainment or something else entirely. There's always a way.
Boring is a statement on where your ideas ARE not where they could go.
Exactly. Boring, to me, means opportunity. It means few/no one is marketing it well. Also, we forget EVERY category is boring or exciting based on who's observing it.
RS
Hi Ronell,
I am really happy to read this valuable blog post. I am eCommerce marketer and know, content is king and need to put unique and quality content on website to rank well on Google. I was searching very classical keyword on Google about How to rank well on Google and found interesting articles over there.
I would like to share quick overview about articles which I found on Google. Write unique and quality content is one common point in all articles. But, No one had suggested answer on it. How can we draft unique and quality content? What is ultimate definition about it?
1. Simple & Clean Design
2. Keyword Research
3. Proper Title & Description
4. No Keyword Stuffing
5. Image with Proper Alt Tag
6. Write Unique and Quality Content - HOW? HOW? HOW?
7. Engage with Users
I am happy after reading this blog post. Because, I got certain answers on my questions. I am working on eCommerce website and facing day to day challenges for contents just like follow.
1. Client is ready to develop entire eCommerce website, ready to add 1000+ products, all investment behind development, coding, design, server, more and more... But, content... They are confuse...!!
2. I have 100 category pages where I am displaying products, ratings, price and everything... But, How can I establish interesting content for category pages which will add value to page? I know, It's not boring industry... But, It's quite difficult to streamline content development process.
3. Can SEO guy produce content for Interior Design website? I can draft content for Panda update, Penguin update and many more SEO subject. But, no no no for other industry. Because, No one will take interest on it.
4. Sometime, I am getting website, services, products information in audio version from client by discussing with them and trying to populate / convert it as content... I think, This is best way to produce content in boring industry... What you think about it?
We must remember that no matter the industry we work in, there are large numbers of people who are interested in/make a living in it. And to a sizable number of the folks interested in the industry, it's far from boring. To them it's as sexy as any other industry.
For Ecomm sites, I think REI pretty much sets the example. Their content is downright compelling, even so-called boring industry content.
A few keys:
RS
Hi Ronel
I am happy to read your comment. Let me make my work sexy by pulling team members and gathering inputs from them. This really make sense...
You could have stopped after thinking about "user intent." SEOs and those that curate content do not think about the user's intent enough. Was their query informational, transactional, navigational? If it is informational they are at the beginning of the buying cycle. Whether you own an eCommerce site or other, we should all be trying to attract the user perfroming transcational queries.
Ronell,
Enjoyed the article and like some of the easy to take-in-stride tips. That's so crucial for businesses to be able to actually DO something as you know and sustain it.
I semi-felt like I could reply to this for an hour with various thoughts, but I think the value you might be limited. The only thing I want to point out, is that I hope people really consider what it takes to be good at outreach. Whether you are an external marketer working for a business or your part of the internal team, so much hinges on your ability to create relationships. If you're not able to do that, you'll really struggle with growing interest in what you're doing.
Sounds so simple, but I've been quite amazed out how our society has become very poor at getting to know people, caring about them first, and generating true connection.
If you can master that AND figure out how to produce even a few things that resonate, you'll do better than most in many situations IMO.
Thanks again for your time!
While working for an a agency, I entirely rejected the notion that link building should be a part of content strategy. Over time, however, I realized how limited content marketing is without links. Clients expect them. That's when I began to fully comprehend the power of outreach and link earning.
Relationships are, as you assert, so valuable for our marketing to be successful. But trying to establish such a relationship when you need something from someone is not the best course of action.
People are far more willing to share your content if they feel/know you're invested in their personal or business success.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
RS
Completely agree. It's funny, when I was working agency on the SEO side, I quickly came to believe the way you scale link building was through content and pounded that drum within my own little world. It's unfortunate many organizations still view many of these disciplines separate - whether by choice or accident. Silo's are terrible things.
Hello Ronell!
Creating material that has value in our business is making customers to maintain interest. Many times, but try to create new content and experiences to our customers, we fail to maintain interest.
As you said in the post, it is easy to create amazing content when companies are big and powerful (such as Coke), because they can invest huge amounts on marketing, but perhaps for our business is not so simple, for the subject to which we are dedicated.
I appreciate your post, there is always something new to learn in this world!
A greeting.
Thanks for the comment, Tino
We must do the best we can do with what we have. One point I hoped to make with the post was we can create all the great content we desire, but if it never gets amplified, it does little good to anyone.
We should think outreach and amplification well before any content is ever created.
RS
Great article, good to see someone spreading the word!
I think it all comes down to mindset - do you see a problem or a challenge? I'd say take it as a challenge, which (if successful) can give huge rewards and really help differentiate your business. Most competitors in "boring" businesses will probably see it as impossible and not even bother to try, which creates a huge possibility for those who actually try.
I think the key is to get beyond thinking about (b) making the content interesting and (b) simple creating content. The key is to develop a holistic plan that takes into account your main goals. If it's simply shareability, that's fine. But mistake shareability to link-worthiness. The latter certainly isn't a given, but it can be made easier to attain with outreach and amplification in mind.
Thanks for your comments.
RS
Sometimes is not easy at all to create content for some kind of business. We have a special case in our agency, we have a client that is a printer and cartridge distributor company and they have a blog that is updated every day with a new article written by us. Really difficult topic if you don't want to bore everyone. Probably some people think that a blog is only useful for SEO, and maybe that is the reason why this client want it.
We are totally agree with one point on your post, it doesn´t depend on the topic, it depends on the person who writes it. We have three importants requirements that a person must have:
Good and incredible post. I have been done SEO offpage more time and I have not had always good results. You need to do the correct content to have the good results. You are right.
Thanks for sharing :)
Very good article for a tough topic. Unfortunatley, when it relates to sales, there are in fact certain products that are mundain in nature and aren't necessarliy in high demand. The fishing equipment example is an excellent one. Selling expensive, high tension rod line is not very exciting - even to the vast majority of people who fish, who are mainly "weekend" warrior types to begin with. However, being able to target the "Pros" in the market is key to what Ronell is telling us. The SEO or digital marketing challenge is finding those "Pros" who are looking for that off the maintstream product that really doesn't appeal to anyone else. Ronell does a good job also putting into perspective that it only takes a handful of sales versus a bucket load of sales that makes all the difference. Nice explanation!
I love this post - I've been carrying out a content marketing campaign in the construction industry for over a year now, having previously worked on marketing for the much more exciting festival / live music events industry. I've managed to find loads of topics to make this industry more interesting for people - it's really tied up in people's locations, local and national politics, economics etc so you can drag people in in quite a few different ways, however qui9te often I find myself going after the traffic rather than producing the content that generates little amounts of content but which is more relevant to the customers - it's hard finding the balance, and there's got to be a mix of the types of content you put out there to both inform and entertain. Some of the topical and controversial content is great for link bait - other's isn't as good It's hard going, I've created something like 650 written articles on the site in that time, all of which have been promoted to a greater or lesser extent, some of which have generated thousands of visits, some of which have barely scraped into the tens of visit - but overall it's delivering organic growth and sales - something like 20% growth month on month. It's delivering much slower overall growth than I anticipated though. It is therefore entirely possible to make something that could be seen as boring to be quite interesting, to get growth but it's hard work and takes a fairly long time to get things moving when it's not a traditionally exciting subject matter!
Great post and provides valuable insight into a content strategy for a difficult niche.
Great to see you Ronell with another master piece of a post, as a B2B marketer I have to deal with a whole bunch of boring industries like plumbing, construction and some weird machinery. But we always rely on one thing, finding what our audience would like to read and share, we came up with some mind blowing posts for even the packaging industry and it helped us not only earning links but conversions too.
Really appreciate this article. I'm currently struggling to come up with great content ideas and strategies for a pretty 'boring' niche and you have enlightened me in many ways. Love what the guys at Dollar Shave Club to promote razor blades btw. Absolutely brilliant!
This is very interesting, thank you. Another way to address the 'boring' problem is to offer specialist expert informational content surrounding the topic. This is clearly worth linking to, particularly when offered in a contextual manner
Well..... You have used your experience in making this post attractive and useful. Nice post. I think if we are creating content then it should be subject (Keyword) specific. Lets see, I will implement these things.
What are the most effective tools that you use in order to locate influencers and determine their online behavior, needs and topics?
Followerwonk works well for Twitter. Any others?
I'm big on the following:
If I had to narrow it down, though, I use G+, Twitter and FB more than anything, primarily because I'm looking for/at people and the content they share, not the content itself.If you find the right people sharing the content in your vertical, your work is done, in large part.
The biggest issue with creating content for boring industries is we forget how ineffective content is all by itself. Content needs help to be successful. The more we think content-first, the more problems we face in trying to create content that moves the needle for our brands.
RS
Wow some really great tips here, when some content is 'boring' we also rely heavily on images and/or video to make things interesting.
Really good article!We just posted a blog about content marketing in the construction field, so you might want to check it out:
https://blog.geniebelt.com/content-marketing-construction-company
Great read.
I think, coming from event marketing in a rather boring industry, you've hit the nail on the head. Too often companies are wanting to talk about themselves, rather than what their target customer needs.
You've hit the nail on the head - too many sales teams are ignored during the conversation pre-campaign, and as they're the ones who talk to clients the most, it's a big mistake.
Salespeople are on the front lines for any (and often all) interactions with the folks who sign the checks. As marketers, we're often working with directors and such. But if we can determine what the C-Suite is looking for/at, we'll find success much easier to attain.
When working with startups, I've typically found that a 30-minute call with the founders can do wonders for content strategy and better enables any content marketing efforts.
Thanks for your comments
what a boring article!
You require a wide network all through the association when making substance for an exhausting industry. Be similar to a paparazzi who recognizes the rich material from any corner as customer them selves would be so exhausting it couldn't be possible impart this to you.
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Loved this piece! We have an in-house content team that's frequently tasked with writing copy for a variety of industries, and sometimes, this ends up being more fun than other. But I 100% agree with you that "Content is only as boring as your outlook." If you challenge yourself to not only think from the mindset of your target customer and craft each piece of copy like a story, you'll create articles that are not only interesting to read, but entertaining to write.
Nice Post!! No industry is really that boring!
I learned that if you have customers, you have content opportunities. Even if your product or service isn’t appropriate for everyone, you’re creating content for the people your business is targeting. If you’re in a boring industry, get your content inspiration from other people in similar fields, and don’t waste time comparing yourself to exciting consumer products and media outlets that have the advantage of generating click-worthy content without much thought.
Thanks for information
Mucizefikir
How to improve my web sites page rank sir help me
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Hi there! That's a very big question. I'd recommend reading the Beginner's Guide to SEO, followed by Cyrus Shepard's post "How to Rank."
In the future, though, please keep in mind that questions like these are better suited to our Q&A forum. We ask that blog comments relate to the topic of the post. Thanks!
Ronell Smith Though we have heard that we need to create interesting content rather than boring one. But it was worth reading! Thanks.
You need a wide connectivity throughout the organisation when creating content for a boring industry. Be like a paparazzi who identifies the creamy material from any corner as client them selves would be too boring to share this with you.
I get a DMOZ link and nothing has happened
Thanks for the article.