Keys to Content – Survive and Thrive

Coming up with ideas for new, relevant content that will appeal to your customers is one of the ongoing challenges of content marketing. My business coach Dennis O’Neill shared an idea with me that I thought worth passing along. It distills the essence of what your content should be geared towards.

Simply put, your content should be information that helps your customers and prospects survive, then thrive.

Survive and thrive. Clear. Concise. Simple, yet sophisticated.

What does your target audience need to know, right now, that will help them solve their immediate problems?

Once their immediate problems are resolved, what knowledge will help them grow and prosper?

You’ve probably heard this said a bunch of different ways. “Be relevant”. “Give people what they want.” “Be timely.” “Be useful.” These are all good ways to say essentially the same thing, but I think survive and thrive is clearer and provides more guidance. Ultimately, you can say the same thing a dozen ways, but sometimes it will be the way you say it the thirteenth time that is the Eureka! moment for your reader.

For every piece of content you think about creating, see how well your idea stacks up against the survive and thrive principle. If it doesn’t measure up, work on it until it does. If you’re going to take the time to write, really try to help your reader get to where they want to go.