We may spend days, weeks, or even months carefully crafting content before publishing it and receive little to no response.
Most content on the internet fails to earn reach. Even if it’s expertly produced high-quality content. Here’s a look at the numbers:
91% of the content on the internet generates no traffic.
94% of content earns no referrals.
85% of content gets fewer than ten social shares.
In my opinion, there are largely two main reasons that contribute to it:
1. Wrong Motive
Most content is still developed with sales in mind: to reach potential customers with content so we can convert them into paying customers.
When conversion is the motivation for content creation, two things happen:
1️⃣ First, we’re inclined to create more content exclusively for those who know they need our solution.
2️⃣ Second, we push potential buyers with our product content through an otherwise long and complex journey.
And both of these actions cut off the best chances of our content reaching potential customers over some time. Because modern consumers are more intelligent and aware of our tricks, our content channels will eventually become a reputation liability.
2. Wrong Audience
The audience for our content should be different from the audience for our products.
By only producing content for those who have discovered the need for our solution, we miss out on the opportunity to establish ourselves as a valuable resource for those who have yet to discover it.
And becoming a valuable resource channel is a slow, long-term process of building trust and authority.
To accomplish this, we need to create content that will appeal to and engage an audience that our potential customers will respect and trust.
In his audience research blog, Rand Fishkin highlights “If you want to earn amplification, the kind you’ll need to build a true content flywheel, you need to appeal to an audience that has both the ability to amplify and channels on which to spread the word.”
The most successful content – the stuff that earns amplification and future conversions, is built on creating content with the right motive for those amplifiers who your potential customer’s respect and trust.