Chapter 84. Creating Honest Content Marketing

Content marketing has an opportunity, should you decide to take it. Instead of going the route of old marketing, those who create content with the intent of building business relationships could try going the route of being honest, being genuine, being human. It's no more difficult than the alternative: crafting something that's dishonest but perhaps shinier. The thing is, if you start with honest and genuine, there's a chance that people will give you extra points for it in the long run.

In a recent post, Seth Godin offered some storytelling suggestions,[268] and the best of it is at the bottom of the post:

Start with the truth. Identify the worldview of the people you need to reach. Describe the truth through their worldview. That's your story. When you overreach, you always fail. Not today, but sooner or later, the truth wins out. Negative or positive, the challenge isn't just to tell the truth. It's to tell truth that resonates.

In her post[269] about a series of viral videos created by OfficeMax, B. L. Ochman quotes Vinny Waren on how words become shifted one notch higher in marketing speak: ". . . funny becomes hilarious, and interesting becomes fascinating."

That's exactly where the troubles start.

Keith Burwell writes on his Better Closer blog about GM's employee discount pricing[270] program, and the fact that we all know this just means GM is not selling enough cars.

See a thread here?

Make your creations honest and open. Why not? ...

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