How to Fix the Content Marketing Problem

If you’ve been following Copyblogger for any length of time, you know we teach people online marketing. Specifically, something that is now known as content marketing.

I’ve been a practitioner of “content marketing” since 1998. And we’ve been preaching it since 2006, years before that sexy terminology became the norm.

Here’s the main thing you need to understand about online content that builds a business: It’s different from traditional marketing, but it accomplishes what marketing is supposed to do.

It’s those differences that cause so many people to struggle. At this point, I’ve come to the conclusion that the terminology is part of the problem.

First of all, there’s the word content. What a horrible term to characterize what are essentially creative works — whether articles, audio, movies, books, and music. It’s all technically “content” — like something that fills a bucket.

Apparently, the Louvre in Paris is filled with “content” that just so happens to be surrounded by frames. Let’s face it … it’s a bad term that’s unfortunately what we have to work with.

But even worse, I think, is the word marketing. Especially the way most people use it, which is as a euphemism for selling people crap they don’t want.

Like I said, what we’re talking about here does what ethical marketing is supposed to do, but it operates in a way where people actually seek it out, instead of trying to avoid it.

Once you tell traditional marketers it’s “marketing” though, the traditional practices creep right back in, and customers start running away. And that’s the problem.

So how do you fix it?

First of all, it’s a mindset thing. I can give you plenty of examples from traditional media that demonstrate how “media, not marketing” sells lots of stuff under the radar.

Second, it’s about understanding your role in relation to your prospects. They have all the power, not you — and yet there are proven, executable ways to make those prospects seek you out, choose your solution, and tell their friends and colleagues that they should choose you as well.

Finally, it’s all about execution. This isn’t rocket science, but it is a combination of art and science. Do the ground work and lay the proper foundation, and this thing called “content marketing” will deliver results that astound you.

We’ve put together the New Rainmaker course to deliver all three steps, and much more. It’s likely the most valuable training we’ve ever given away for free.

Two weeks of intensive training, no charge …

Like all good content marketing, this free training is good enough to charge money for. In this case, we actually created it with the intention that it would be paid training, and that’s exactly what it will become.

For now, however, it’s yours at no charge.

It consists of seven foundational lessons (audio and text formats), three webinars (with transcripts), and follow-up lessons and case studies. Here’s a list of the initial two weeks of training:

Lesson 1: Why the Key to Business Success is Media, Not Marketing
Lesson 2: Why a Personal Media Brand Beats “Marketing” Every Time
Lesson 3: How to Build a Lucrative Asset While You Make it Rain
Lesson 4: Why the New Rainmaker is a Digital Media Producer
Lesson 5: Eight Ways a Digital Media Platform is More Influential than “Marketing”
Lesson 6: How to Earn Targeted Traffic – Today, and into the Future
Lesson 7: The New Rainmaker as Magical Mentor on the Buyer’s Journey

Webinar 1: The Three-Step Process to Creating a Digital Media Platform that Sells
Webinar 2: The Rainmaker Content Strategy: Create Less to Sell More
Webinar 3: The Rainmaker Conversion Approach: Accelerating the Buyer’s Journey

Find out more and register for the entire course here.

Let’s make it rain!