Ask IH: What's next after Content Marketing?
With the growth in popularity of Content Marketing, it's inevitable that at some point we will reach "Peak Blog" and people will move on to focus on greener pastures as CTRs drop.
What do you think will be your next big marketing strategy? Anything unusual you've had success with?
Side project marketing.
I don't know that content marketing will ever truly die. What won't work anymore is just doing the same old things that other people are doing. But that stopped working years ago, anyway. Otherwise, content continues to be effective.
For example, Indie Hackers itself began as 100% content, but it was able to cut through the noise due to the combination of (a) unique and helpful content that's (b) directed at the right niche via (c) the right distribution channel (Hacker News). If I'd just been writing blog posts on Medium then tweeting them out as an afterthought, then it never would've worked.
Also, it's worth reading Traction. There are so many other approaches to marketing besides just writing long-form content, and almost all of those paths are less trodden.
I second the vote for Traction. That book made me aware of how my preconceptions made me blind to most marketing channels and permanently changed my approach.
I've never really thought about how important the distribution channel is before. Interesting point.
Did being acquired by a bigger company change your marketing strategy in anyway?
Only indirectly. It freed me up to spend less time focused on revenue, and also upped my ambition for the site. And as a result of my goals changing, my marketing strategies have shifted slightly.
I think the premise is inaccurate.
Content marketing isn't just blogging, it's targeting content (of any kind) at potential customers in order to make them more likely to buy your product in the future.
What I'd definitely agree with (and I think this is what you meant), is that the days of quickly writing an SEO-buzzword filled, generic post (or getting an intern to do it for you) and posting that to blog.domain.com are over and have been so for a while now.
With this increase in competition for potential customers' attention comes the need to improve your content marketing game. Broadly speaking, I think this can be done in two ways:
Increased personalisation
Increased utility (this could be by showing the content at the optimal time, in a more easily digestible/relatable format such as video, or simply by increasing the value add. of the content)
IMO this goes some way to explaining the resurgence of webinars in B2B sales, as well as the increasing popularity of products as marketing (eg Unsplash).
These are just some quick thoughts I have on the subject and by no means cover the entire spectrum.
"With this increase in competition for potential customers' attention comes the need to improve your content marketing game."
Sounds like this can only be a good thing really.
I had a look at Unsplash, and I don't quite get it - was it originally started as a way to market a different company or product? Or did they use other products as a way of getting people back to Unsplash? Or that the photos themselves were advertising Unsplash?
https://crew.co/blog/how-side-projects-saved-our-startup/