Inbound marketing is a bit like one of those giant bug lights you see that should be hanging in a nightclub but instead, are zapping away in the backyard. Once you turn it on, it starts attracting your prospects (in this case, bugs). This is different than outbound marketing where you need to get out the fly swatter and run around expending a lot of energy going after a bug at-a-time.

Content marketing and inbound marketing are really one in the same and creating content that someone actually wants to read is tough enough, but exciting them enough to take an action or next step to get to know you and/or your company better is even more difficult.

The Good News: It Still Works

The Bad News: It Is Getting Tougher

Inbound marketing is not anything new, but things have changed that are separating the rookies from the pros.

Title Turn-Offs

Ever hear of banner blindness? It aptly describes how we don’t pay attention to banner advertising on sites anymore. Banner advertising is of course, those little pop up banners that show up everywhere, and over the years they’ve become more creative with animation and movement to catch our eye. However, since we have been bombarded with them, we have become blind to them.

Content marketing titles are going through the same evolution.  Titles like…. This Is What Happened When He Came Home, or This Little Secret Helped Her Cure Her Acne By— are slowly becoming annoying enough that people are starting to get turned off to them. People aren’t stupid, they are just human, but humans adapt quickly. As such, they are becoming turned off, blind and apathetic to those “bait titles” just like banners.

Bait and Switch

Speaking of bait, titles that promise you might learn something, but end up after 450 words being just bad bait to get you to sign-up is becoming more prevalent.  Good content marketing gives you enough to educate you, and makes you feel you’ve received something valuable for your time. It should build trust and not make you feel ripped off with the hope of getting you to sign up because when you feel that way, you don’t sign up. Bait and switch is happening more and more, and that’s why quality content that truly educates will really stand out.

Keywording Is Only Gravy

We are the original “SEO is Dead” people so don’t get yourself all in a huff.  However, it’s getting pretty crowded out there and if you think that your content is going straight to page 1 position 1, just because you wrote it, you will be as disappointed as watching a new Nicholas Cage B movie.  You are going to need a lot more social push and digital marketing to get your content mainstream. This isn’t 2007.

Quality Becomes Rare

This is not to say that we won’t see more quality, but the more rookies that run on the field, the more it will feel like quality is rare. This however, makes the pros look better and better and their content more valuable. Quality content is what separates true success from luck and will be even more important in the future. Quality first, volume second.

Visual is part of the content

Quality content is everything, and this is going to be true for not just the content, but the digital assets that go along with them like Landing Pages, Calls-To-Action, Etc…. Standard buttons and formatted landing pages are slowly giving way to a more rich visual experience. Don’t think that visual is important? Apple has been killing at creating a visual experience for years and ask Google why they have been a visual rampage in the last six months? They too know that our basic brains crave more than functionality; it also wants to be WOWED!

The Big Three

Inbound marketing will be alive and well for those that have three things:

• Military Like Consistency
• Extremely Good Quality
• Always, Always Having The Prospect’s Interests In Mind

That last one covers a lot of bases, but it really does say it all. So, make sure you lay out a great long-term plan, a great execution plan, and prepare yourself to start pushing out a lot of exciting and powerful content to get people excite. Go get em’ and Smash em!

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