It was back in 1996 when Bill Gates famously declared “Content is king.” We have heard it repeated many times since then – it has become a constant in our marketing lives. But the role of marketing has changed, especially in the last few years. It has, for example, finally and rightfully earned a place at the boardroom table.
If Marie Antoinette were alive and a board member today, she would have said “Let them eat content.” She would have said that because content alone is not enough for success – it isn’t the bread and butter of marketing.
Let me put it in perspective for you.
This morning at our daily meeting at Cognis, we discussed the day ahead, writing some content together, then distributing the rest among ourselves.
- For one customer, we decided to look up the latest headlines in their booming industry and write a post about the vast potential lying ahead of them.
- We had a long back-and-forth composing a new LinkedIn InMail for a customer.
- We then split up, one of us creating the script for an upcoming end-of-year promotional video, another corresponding with a colleague in Germany, a third drafting web copy for a new website, and a fourth working a new brand frame.
All the while we were texting customers, potential customers, and each other.
So many different “content types,” so many different purposes.
Going back to the cake analogy – for us at Cognis, content is like the baking powder of a cake. It helps websites, blog posts, emails, and ads rise to their full potential. It’s a critical ingredient regardless of the type of cake we are baking – chocolate, orange, banana, pecan.
We follow good writing practices. We strive for originality in thought and brevity in words. We apply precision and patience. But there’s more to marketing than great writing. There are other ingredients we must and do use. How do we know the best recipe?
Our pastry chef – a.k.a. the human element – is the actual king. It tells us whether our customers and their end-users are best served with bread, cake or something else depending on the industry, company positioning, buyer persona, the vision, and the mission.