What hip hop can teach you about content marketing
THE POWER OF THE REMIX
Most businesses have plenty of content already. And they keep going around in circles trying to figure out what else they can say.
Remix! Take article 1 and article 2 to see what type of combination you can come up with. Take an old article and update it.
Throw in a different viewpoint.
CULTURE — EMBRACE WHAT’S TRENDING
Rappers of the 90s leveraged gang culture and life on the streets. Anyone who’s listened to Mobb Deep, Tupac, Notorious BIG, Nas and Jay-Z would know this.
When you address trending topics you let your audience know you’re up to date and relevant. If you’re in fin tech, you better be talking about Crypto.
MIXTAPES
From hip hop’s early days, EmCees depended on mixtapes to run experiments. They pumped out large volumes of music via mixtapes to see which tracks struck a chord with their audience.
It’s the same with content. We must keep shipping to land a couple of good ones.
AUTHENTICITY
No one likes an imitator or a me-too. Rappers like JaRule fronted a gangster image but had his career destroyed when 50 Cent called him out on it. While gangster rap still sells, rappers like Kanye West and Drake did not jump on that bandwagon. Why? Because it was not a background they were from. They remained true to themselves, thereby remaining at the top of their game.
The only way to stand apart is to infuse personality into your content by being vulnerable and having your own voice.
BEEF — POLARISE
Think Tupac and Biggie. Nas and Jay Z. 50 Cent and Ja Rule.
Some of hip hop’s biggest beefs helped those involved sell millions of records.
Eminem’s lyrics are usually filled with controversial lyrics. It divides the audience. Those who support him remain loyal for life. The haters, ignored.
For you, this would mean creating polarising content that may divide your audience, but increase loyalty.
DISTRIBUTION
This goes back to mixtapes. And every other streaming service on the internet. Rappers exploit every medium they can to get their music into the hands of their fans. That even includes “accidental leaks” of a track prior to an album launch.
Creatin content is only the tip of the iceberg of your content strategy. To have an impact, you must distribute it. Many businesses spend a lot of resources on creating content only to share the URL once on Facebook or LinkedIn and forget about it.
Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, Quora, Medium, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups. Distribute your content far and wide.
COLLABORATIONS
Remember Nate Dogg? If yes, you’ll know the power of the “featured” artist.
A lot of rappers feature one or more artists in their tracks. This helps them leverage each other’s audiences while bringing a nice “flava” (an ode to Flava Flav) to the song
Identify businesses that operate in the same region as yours or offer services related to yours to piggyback off each others’ strengths and audiences.
Are you a fan of hip hop?
What other lessons have you learned from the genre that help you with your content game?
