Introduction to the Content Marketing Hurricane

Please bookmark this page if you’re interested in reading The Content Marketing Hurricane essays as they are released from July to early October. This post serves as a sort of Table of Contents and provides some overall context to what was originally conceived as a book for print publication. Thanks very much!

Introduction

Since you’re reading this book, I’m going to make a few assumptions about you. (Don’t worry, if I’m wrong, you’ll still probably enjoy the series, I’ll just look like a fool, which is OK.)

Assumption #1: You’re either a small business owner, the owner of an underfunded startup, or the person tagged with handling marketing for one or the other.

Assumption #2: You’ve heard of content marketing before, and probably even have a fair idea what it’s all about. But…

Assumption #3: It overwhelms you.

First of all, let me say that you’re not alone.

Content marketing is a huge subject, and it’s ever evolving. So I’m not surprised if you’re overwhelmed.

Let me also be the first “expert” to tell you that there really aren’t any true “experts” in the content marketing industry.

Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of knowledgeable folks with lots of experience — I’m proud to count myself in that number — but experts we’re not, and here’s why:

1. Content marketing covers many different disciplines including search engine optimization, web writing, graphic design, direct response copywriting, marketing analysis, big data, social media, content strategy, social media strategy… the list goes on. Who could possibly be an expert in all of that simultaneously?
2. All of the above has changed dramatically in the last few years, and continues to change every day. That’s just the nature of the internet-centric world we all live in now. (Full disclosure: I first compiled and published this book in 2013 and the edits I’ve had to make may as well have been a brand new book…)
3. New tools are being created and perfected as you read this.
4. New rules are being established and broken as you read this, too.
5. The winds of change are blowing at hurricane-level in the marketing world, and have been for a long time now. (Which offers a very nice segue into the theme of this book…)

So I’m not going to try to claim that The Content Marketing Hurricane is your one-stop guide for all things content marketing.

I’m not going to claim you’ll achieve overnight content marketing success just by following the principles laid out in this series of articles.

I’m not even going to guarantee you’ll achieve content marketing success at all.

But I will promise you this:

Within these articles you will find a step-by-step process that offers you an excellent chance of going from zero to hero in building your content marketing strategy from scratch, AND content marketing can and will effectively market any product or service you have to offer.

An important note:

It’s important to note up front, however, that this series of articles is by no means an all-inclusive guide to starting your own business, or even an all-inclusive marketing guide.

Far from it.

These articles focus solely on building a viable and effective content marketing strategy that can be inserted into your business plan to help you take advantage of the power of content marketing in growing your business.

So, beyond what you learn in these pages, you will also need to handle your other business planning, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Market research
• Legal filings
• Funding and financials
• Developing a conversion funnel
• Developing a high-quality product/service
• Fulfillment
• Customer service
• Plans for growth/expansion
• Etc.

Who is this series for?

I’ve written these articles primarily for the DIY marketer: a brave and hard-working person who is willing to put the time and energy into studying and applying basic content marketing principles in order to develop and maintain a successful content marketing strategy for his business.

Closely related to that guy or girl is the savvy marketing director or VP who can see some gaps in the way her team is operating and wants to take a “back to basics” approach to shoring up the content marketing process in-house.

Finally, I hope a number of my colleagues read these articles too. Why? Because I think a lot of them are doing it wrong. Which is not to say that I’m doing it right, necessarily (see items 1–5 above), but it’s my soapbox, so it’s my party.

That being said, we’re all learning here. So I’d love to improve at all costs, even if that means putting my thoughts out there in concrete form and letting the industry dance all over them.

The formation of a hurricane

To set the stage, let’s review why a hurricane is such a perfect metaphor for a successful content marketing strategy.

Disparate Forces

When it first begins to take shape, a hurricane is really just a simple thunderstorm out in the middle of the ocean. No one notices it. It’s not accomplishing anything of value. It just… is.

But what’s unique about this thunderstorm is that it’s formed in the midst of perfect conditions: the air temperature, the water temperature, the prevailing winds, the barometric pressure, all of these disparate forces are ripe to feed off each other.

And so the thunderstorm grows.

Section One: Disparate Forces

What Are Disparate Forces?

Your Upbringing

Your Background

Your Circumstances

Your Unique Worldview

Your Knowledge Base

Your Desire to Learn

Your Passion

Pulling Together Your Disparate Forces

Tropical Disturbance

As the exchange of pressure, temperature and moisture continues to intensify, winds pick up and the storm begins spinning slowly around a central eye.

At this point, trained meteorologists who have nothing better to do than to watch the radar screens for this kind of thing notice something’s going on out in the ocean. They’re certainly not concerned about it yet. But they know it could turn into something, so they keep their eyes on it.

And around this time, the growing storm starts riding the jet stream toward land.

Section Two: Tropical Disturbance

What is a Tropical Disturbance?

What Does it Take to Create a Tropical Disturbance?

The Instant Expert Formula

Initial Decision Making

Finding a Niche

Narrowing the Focus

Deciding on Media

Creating Your Content

Getting Published

Re-evaluating

Tropical Depression

The storm continues to grow in speed and intensity.

At this point, any meteorologist who isn’t living under a rock knows what’s going on and they’re even reporting it to viewers at home.

This storm now has a name.

People on the mainland aren’t too concerned yet. It’s just a bad storm. Some folks who live on islands closer to where it’s forming are battening down the hatches, though.

Although it’s not too big of a deal yet, it’s made a name for itself, and it’s starting to provoke action.

Section Three: Tropical Depression

What is a Tropical Depression?

Think About Your Audience

Plan Ahead

Get Excited

Write Like You Speak

Limit or Eliminate Jargon

Trust Your First Draft

Proofread

Read Aloud

Trash Your First Draft

Know When to Let it Go

Growing Your Tropical Depression

Tropical Cyclone (Hurricane)

Speeds have finally reached hurricane level and that tropical depression is about to make landfall. At this point, everyone is taking action: they’re boarding up windows, evacuating coastal areas, and it’s on their minds even when they’re not watching the news!

As the storm works its way toward land, everyone is paying attention and is ready to drop everything and act at a moment’s notice.

When it finally makes landfall, well… things will never quite be the same will they?

Section Four: Hurricane!

Preparing for Landfall

The Tornado

The Hurricane

The formation of a Content Marketing Hurricane

Like a real hurricane, an effective content marketing strategy starts out small and seemingly insignificant. But, with the right combination of “disparate forces” — which we’ll discuss in the next section — that strategy starts to build. Each piece of content adds to the building intensity and power of this “storm”, and it starts heading toward “land” where the target market resides.

Along the way, with consistent effort, it keeps on picking up steam. First, professionals who work in the industry take notice of what’s going on, but pretty soon everyone in the target market has to pay attention because this thing’s coming right for them!

Finally, when it makes “landfall”, that target market absolutely must take action because the combined power of all that strategically planned and skillfully produced content is simply overwhelming.

Conclusion of the introduction

So if you’re ready to delve into what makes up a Content Marketing Hurricane, I invite you to turn the (virtual) page and go for it!

(If not, and you’re already bored, you may as well stop now. It doesn’t get any better than this…)