In “content marketing”, the definition of these two words with the same suffix can help your project succeed. In fact, simply having a definition for them helps.
It sounds simple, but it’s not easy to commit to—especially in a team environment.
- What is the intent of this project?
- What is the content of this project?
I spent most of 2013 giving talks on this idea, but it boils down to consensus around and execution of the answers to these two questions.
Intent
Yes, “defining intent” is another way of saying “set expectations and goals”. The issue is that there can easily be dissonance; you are aiming for pageviews or social shares, but your boss might be aiming for advertising revenue.
It matters.
It matters because intent directly affects content’s effectiveness. It’s the container, the package, the presentation of the message. There may be fantastic coffee in that cup, but it’s leaking and OW! IT’S HOT AND THOSE ARE MY NEW PANTS WHERE ARE THE NAPKINS—
…ahem. The point is: delivery can get in the way.
Jared Spool defines design as “the rendering of intent”, and we know that users will reject a site’s content wholesale based purely on their perception of that design (Source [PDF]). You can see how things can start coming unravelled quickly. If intent is off, than the design cannot work effectively. Consensus here is necessary for both immediate effectiveness and the ability to experiment.
Content
If your intent is anything other than the dissemination of information or edification of readers, your content is no longer just your words. For more social shares, you must consider that interaction part of your content. For more ad clicks, the ads themselves are part of the content. For more form submissions—you get the idea.
- Is the form inviting and worth submitting? What do I get in return?
- Does the ad come across as worth clicking? Where will I go, and what will happen?
- Will sharing this content on a social network make me look smart?
- Was my time well spent reading this?
Be Particular
Intent and content should be specified at each level. I’m telling you, it’s easy to just let each piece of content get sucked up into a vortex of vague techniques. But, even “content marketing” itself has its own intent and content that can get confusing.
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. (CMI)
- Intent: “attract and retain customers” and/or “changing or enhancing consumer behavior”
- Content: “consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content”
At any rate, the overall goal of a content marketing strategy is to get attention through creation and curation. That intent, then, is rendered through the design of how these things delivered, and the content (by our definition) is the consumption of those things.
Even here, words fail because words like “content” have gotten vague. Particular attention must be given to each component of a content marketing strategy.
It’s not enough to say writing consistently great content will just work. You need intent and strategy to be defined at every level.
Otherwise, you just fall victim to the Field of Dreams fallacy: if you build it, they will come. Sorry—that only works for baseball-playing ghosts in cornfields.