
The Content Marketing Handbook (2015) - wanderer42
https://priceonomics.com/the-content-marketing-handbook/
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rwhitman
So I recently started helping my team adopt a B2B content marketing strategy,
after being kind of removed from the marketing world for a few years...

For a small bootstrapped business, with no writers in-house, fledgeling bare
minimum resources starting from scratch with freelancers, the amount of
catching up we need to do is staggering. So, so much money has been pumped
into churning out articles, videos, webinars, etc etc by venture backed
startups. Every conceivable genuinely valuable shareable topic has been sliced
and diced a thousand ways into mush. Nothing we could possibly produce comes
close to what other teams have already drafted, years ago now.

In my career people often bring me in as the creative "ideas" guy, but this
task of coming up with content when there's so much noise to compete with...
it's broken me. Never in my life had I stared at a blank canvas and felt so
lost. Coming up with absolutely nothing.. every idea just feels like cheap
regurgitated garbage.

That's a long way of saying, I think this marketing channel, for B2B at least,
is kind of tapped out. Or maybe I'm tapped out. Probably the latter?

~~~
puranjay
Content marketer here.

While you're correct that in many mainstream industries, every idea, every
keyword, seems to have been exhausted, there are still opportunities for new
formats and angles. If there are already exhaustive articles on your core
keywords and topics, maybe you don't need to take the article route at all.
Maybe you can create something interactive instead - something that leverages
your current skills (design and development).

Also keep in mind that while you will have some audience goals ("readers
should like and engage with my content"), your more important aim is to meet
business goals (attracting traffic and capturing leads). The latter does not
necessarily depend on the former. You can edge out competitors simply by
ranking better than them or doing a better job of capturing leads - even if
the content itself isn't as good.

Another thing I recommend new B2Bs is to focus on building "micro authority".
If there are 10 things your product does, focus on being the most
authoritative voice on only one of those 10 things first. Even the best-funded
competitors can't dig as deep as you can on everything. Better funded
competitors are also likelier to chase higher volume keywords that offer more
potential rewards. But as a new startup, you can target truly long tail
keywords and topics that bigger competitors won't bother with.

While these might not deliver the volume you want, they will help you develop
authority, brand recognition, and a stronger SEO footprint.

~~~
kareemm
Are you potentially open to consulting? If so let me know what email address I
can reach you at or drop me a line - k@savio.io. Thx.

~~~
puranjay
I'm not taking any consulting work at the moment, but I never mind helping
fellow entrepreneurs - will send you an email!

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sixhobbits
What happened to priceonomics? I feel like I used to see their stuff around
all the time and then it just stopped?

~~~
rohin
Founder here! Several years back we focused solely on our data content
marketing agency referenced in this post. We produce content, but isn't the
sort of stuff that's going to end up on hacker news.

~~~
sixhobbits
glad to hear you're still around :)

I'm about to launch a content-based business (technical tutorials) and
priceonomics was definitely an early inspiration! Also loved "everything is
bullshit"

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dang
Discussed back then:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10706228](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10706228)

