NO ONE CARES ABOUT CONTENT. Here’s What Really Matters in Doing Business Online (or Offline)

Remember that time you giddily paid for a can of nondescript food at the supermarket, skipped and hopped all the way home, salivating at the thought that you’d soon be sitting on your sofa, silk napkin tucked under your chin and silver spoon at hand, about to devour the delicious contents of your marvelous can?

No? Never? That’s not even appetizing?
Then why are you serving your clients canned content?

There’s a great big hoopla going around these days about the importance of “content” and how everyone and their cat should be “pushing out” content (any old, regurgitated content) like the world’s about to die from information starvation. “Just write anything” they say, or “find a popular article and rewrite it in your words,” or, if you’re feeling fancy, “add an extra point, too!”

FLASH NEWS, dear business owner: The world is STUFFED up to its throat with content! No one wants more content to consume, and NO ONE wants some rehashed information, or another same-ol’ how-to article, or another pointless listicle, or another version of a beaten-to-death topic that everyone’s written about a million times already.

For the love of everything digital, and for the love of your personal sanity and business health, we implore you:

STOP HURLING CANS OF CONTENT AT YOUR CLIENTS’ HEADS!

Not because you’re not good. And not because your opinion doesn’t matter. But PRECISELY because your opinion and expertise do matter.

Think about this way:
Would you ever go into a restaurant and ask what contents they’re serving tonight? Why not? It’s food, and contained in a dish! What’s the difference between that and the contents of the can you gobbled down last night when you had no time for cooking human food? A LOT, right?

We call restaurant food a meal, a dish, a main course, a piece of art even, but NOT content. And we all understand that it takes skill, and experience, and practice, and creativity, and the time of a talented chef to create. That’s food.

But simply, “content”? That’s the lower form of substance. And when you hurl chewed-up content stuffed in pre-ordered cans (see: formulas) hoping to hit a few clients on the head with it, you’re not just risking throwing out a shoulder, you’re also sending people a VERY important message about your business: Lowest-form stuff here!

It doesn’t matter how good your products or services are. If you’re just churning out content, the ONLY think you’re going to attract is a bunch of flies! Think what would happen if Nike didn’t put out all those inspirational, opinionated, motivating, funny, controversial, even, ad campaigns, but stuck to “why you need good running shoes” content to tell their story. Wouldn’t their product completely fade away from being the running shoe to just another running shoe?

Forget about what the internet “whizzes” tell you. You don’t want to offer content. You want to offer experience. And in order to offer experience?

You have to add CONTEXT.

That’s what makes anything preferable, unforgettable, desirable, premium, and successful. That’s what adds personality and interest to the “content” and a name – YOUR NAME – to the experience of your clients. And no, context is not just for the big like Nike. You just have to get creative with it.

At Chocolate & Caviar, we’re ALL about creativity and context.

YOUR brand’s context that’s going to liven up your “content” and turn it into a once-in-a-lifetime experience your customers can’t live without!

Over the years we’ve developed many different creative ways to help our clients add context to their online content to make the experience delightful, desirable, unique, and dear to their customers. Here are just some ideas you can use to spice up your content and whip it into a unique customer experience that truly aligns with your brand:

Add the human factor:

When a financial company came to us for help with getting published in a major online publication, we took their “content” and taught it some intriguing human speak before sending out to the web. The result? Not only was the publication THRILLED to publish them, but they came back ASKING them for more FEATURES (NOT content!), because their audience couldn’t get enough of the delightfully jargon-free industry insights!

Inject it with emotion:

When two seasoned business coaches came to us for help with bringing their over-a-decade old offline practice to the online world, we knew we’d have to dig deep into the heart-well. Not only did the STORIES we wove using the threads of their experience bring them an influx of responses from their newly found online audience, but brought even THEM to near tears. They had spent the weekend reading and re-reading every single one of the stories we created for them, feeling like we had captured their experience better than they could ever have explained it for themselves. Content may attract, but STORIES MOVE – not only our customers, but our customers’ customers. And THAT’S what defines success for us!

Give it personality:

When an animation company wanted to create an informational series on video production for their audience, we didn’t even consider scripting “How-to” guides. Because no one wants a dry “how-to” guide, even if it’s animated! Instead we turned their fish logo into a fully fledged, funny-yet-pesky character, who delivered the “information” to their audience in the most entertaining way possible. We didn’t deliver content; we communicated the SPIRIT and PERSONALITY of the company by indirectly showing their clients how fun it is to work with them. WITHOUT having to say as much! (Because bragging ain’t attractive.)

Anyone can get a can and stuff some content in it. People do it around you every single day. But to actually pour your heart into your business and material and put in the CONTEXT of who you are, rather than a can… THAT takes creativity, and guts, and investment, and emotion.

And most businesses don’t have that. But that only makes it better for you. Because only the businesses who DO provide context will survive this online world of ours in the long-term and THRIVE on strong customer connections.

And with that, we’re letting the cat out the bag: