Eli Schwartz is a growth advisor for top internet brands and the author of Product-Led SEO.
Bill Gates coined the phrase “content is king” in a 1996 essay explaining why Microsoft was partnering with NBC. In the piece, he predicted that content providers would be in the best position to monetize the nascent internet.
Gates’ thesis was about the high-quality, exclusive content produced by a media conglomerate. Unfortunately, without distinction, “content is king” has become a part of the modern marketing lexicon. Somehow, this idea has morphed into a call to arms to create content, disregarding any bar of quality. Marketers have fallen in line, flooding the internet with drivel.
The belief is that content will draw people in from various channels. Once they’re on a site, they’ll be trapped into buying, calling, filling out a lead, or whatever the KPI might be. This flawed thinking is endemic across all verticals. Every day, content creators are given goals that feel like directives for a warehouse worker packing boxes: “X content must be produced daily, containing Y words and Z keywords.”
This prescription-type content is not a king; it’s an indentured servant expected to work magic. Using low-quality content as a teaser to get someone to engage with your brand is like a high-end store using cheap knockoffs to entice customers in the door. It wouldn’t work offline, so why do it online?
Content should be considered with the same gravitas as a highly-paid salesperson whose performance is tracked and commissions paid accordingly. It should never be deployed and then not measured. Unlike other marketing methods, content is inherently trackable.
A good salesperson hones their approach with a specific person in mind. Content also needs to be written with the end user as the priority, and it should provide real value to that audience. That’s why I’m a believer in the power of Product-Led SEO, which requires a reader-focused mindset and attaching a clear strategy to every piece of content.
We need to move away from the idea that content is king and that creating it is an end unto itself. Content is a business tool much like any other — and when deployed effectively, it can have impressive ROI over many years. But content with no purpose will never have any return.
Content should be revered, not made to toil as an indentured servant. Because at the end of the day, content isn’t royalty — the user is.
The AI Hype Matrix maps the latest AI news stories across an unimpeachable scale of Hype (everyone is talking about this!) and Fear (will this kill my career? Will this kill EVERYONE?). Here’s this week’s rundown.
The OpenAI soap opera continued this week, with CTO Mira Murati making her exit stage left. The news comes on the heels of the company’s proposed restructuring from nonprofit to for-profit status (and whopping $6.6 billion funding round to boot). In a move that’s probably not a coincidence, OpenAI is dropping hints that its core product, ChatGPT, could more than double in price in the coming years.
The AI regulatory landscape is mired in its own drama. The FTC is launching Operation AI Comply, targeting companies peddling AI-powered products from fake reviews to dubious "AI lawyers.” At the same time, California Governor Gavin Newsom is saying “not so fast” to the state’s proposed AI safety bill. Across the Pacific, China is taking a decidedly different tack, making moves to implement AI watermarking on everything from audio to VR content.
Meanwhile, in the ongoing quest for AI monetization, Cloudflare is launching a marketplace where websites can charge AI bots for the privilege of scraping their content. And Meta is pushing the envelope with plans to serve up AI-generated posts tailored to individual users. (Because the clear answer to Facebook’s death spiral is probably more AI absurdity.)
How are marketers using AI to write copy?
According to research by HubSpot, AI is still more of a brainstorming buddy than a full-fledged wordsmith. While 45% of marketers use it for ideas and inspiration and 31% turn to it for outlines, only a brave 6% let AI take the wheel for writing entire pieces of content. In further evidence that AI hasn't quite nailed senior copywriter status, 95% of marketers who use AI for writing tasks say they still need to edit the content in some capacity.
Chatting cross-functional content management with Ruth White-Cabbell
In this week's spotlight, Ruth White-Cabbell, the former head of content marketing at Snowflake, shares insights on evolving content strategies and cross-functional collaboration.
Here are a few takeaways from White-Cabbell’s conversation with Pepper:
Content marketing has shifted from SEO-focused blogging to creating valuable, customer-centric destinations. This means the metrics that matter have evolved, too, e.g., prioritizing longer viewing times over high view counts.
Content marketing teams must work across multiple functions, including product, demand generation, and sales. This collaboration ensures a holistic approach and cohesive messaging.
Using a CMS can help you manage the many moving pieces of content creation, from strategic planning to legal review, design, and distribution.
AI shows a lot of promise, but it still needs a human in the loop to ensure relevancy, accuracy, and brand safety.
Content marketers must be continuously upskilling to stay ahead of changing content consumption trends.
Read the full Q&A with White-Cabbell here.
Get your docs in a row with NotebookLM
Powered by Google’s Gemini 1.5 model, NotebookLM can transform uploaded docs into a personalized knowledge base in seconds. The tool comes complete with helpful features like in-line citations and source-grounded responses, and people are using it for everything from summarization and note-taking to creating surprisingly solid podcasts from text documents. Reviewers have given the tool relatively high marks so far.
The ‘minimalist marketer’ challenge
In a world of information overload, sometimes the simplest statement is the boldest one. This week's challenge pushes you to distill your brand's essence into its purest form: three words, one color, and one shape. It's not just about being concise; it's about creating a powerful, instantly recognizable brand identity that works across all platforms. (Think: Nike's "Just Do It" paired with a swoosh, or Apple's bitten apple logo with its clean, white aesthetic.)
Suggested prompt text:
"Create a minimalist marketing campaign for [your product] using only three words, one color, and one shape. Describe how to best use these elements across different marketing channels (social media, print, website) to effectively communicate the product's benefits. Explain the rationale behind your choices and how they encapsulate the brand's essence."