A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
There is a new hope… a hope that one day, marketers can pair their phenomenal content with a sublime and seamless experience. There is a new hope that one day, the dark side will be vanquished from resource centers, blogs, and more, and the power will be back in the hands of the marketer.
In the spirit of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, let’s have a look at what Star Wars can teach us about content marketing by using some famous quotes from the series to help explain why content marketing and the user experience are so important.
1. Don’t half-arse your content
Do or do not, there is no try.
– Yoda
At 1,000+ years old, Yoda’s sage insight continues to prove to be valuable, whether you apply it to Jedi training or content marketing.
There is no “try” in content marketing. You either provide valuable, relevant, and contextual content to your audience, or you don’t. This is something that marketers sometimes forget when keeping up with the daily content crunch. Maybe they’re missing the mark because they’re feeling the pressure to meet deadlines, or maybe they’re low on resources, or maybe they don’t actually know what’s valuable to their audience.
Your content simply isn’t going to work if it’s not made with the intention of providing value to your audience. If you are writing a piece of content about Star Wars and how it relates to content marketing, for instance, you’d better make sure that it resonates with your target audience, and isn’t a complete waste of your reader’s time.
Despite our best efforts, this can happen to every content marketer. As you go forth and create content, remember this: your audience deserves a certain quality of content. Don’t give them anything less!
2. Give your audience what they want
Princess Leia: I love you.
Han Solo: I know.
One of the classic dialogues in the history of cinema: when Leia tells Han that she loves him, and he responds with “I know.” Absolutely classic. It still gives me goosebumps.
But how does this relate to content marketing?
It’s all about your audience! You should be publishing content that makes your readers fall in love with you. Whether you’re publishing a fun top-of-the-funnel holiday-themed GIF post or an educational bottom-of-the-funnel eBook, you should always strive to win your audience’s love.
How will you know your audience loves you?
In the world of content marketing, love can be measured in a multitude of ways: social shares, views, click-through rates, or via content score. No matter how you choose to measure the love your content earns, your end goal metrics should be prevalent in everything you do.
Eventually, you’ll just know.
3. Use your big content ideas over and over again
The force is strong in this one.
– Darth Vader
So far, I’ve been focusing on the good guys of Star Wars, but there is always something the dark side of the Force can teach us, too. In this case, it is to acknowledge and embrace the power of your best performing content. The quote above is about Luke Skywalker, and how the force was emanating out of him so much, you actually could feel it.
Coming up with a consistent stream of killer content ideas is a near-impossible feat — even Walt Disney didn’t have this kind of creative capacity. Instead of putting this type of pressure on your content team, figure out which big ideas are working, make them small, and spread them everywhere. Don’t reinvent the wheel! Embrace content atomization to improve your content marketing productivity and performance.
Keep your thumb on the pulse of your content to find out what is working and what is not working. Then, take the ideas that are working and atomize them into new content formats to better reach your audience.
Don’t underestimate the power of the Force within one big content idea!
4. Give your users a streamlined content experience
You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? …It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.
– Han Solo
The Millennium Falcon was the best ship in the galaxy (not up for debate). It’s one of the smaller ships with light speed capabilities and the only ship to do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
Awesome, but what can it teach us about content marketing?
By having the best user experience, Han was able to travel the galaxy and remain a wanted pirate for a long time. It was the experience provided by the Millennium Falcon that made him a better pilot and an overall a better person. Imagine if he’d been stuck in a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle — he probably wouldn’t have even made it to Coruscant, and certainly would not have been able to travel the galaxy, that’s for sure.
The content experience is just as impactful for your content marketing efforts. Without a streamlined experience for your users, you might as well just drop leaflets from the sky with your latest blog post written on them.
The content experience provides your users with the ideal environment to consume your content. A good content experience incorporates responsive design, recommended content, and easy discoverability. These aspects not only allow your audience to improve their skills, but also allow you to meet your marketing goals by encouraging conversions and engagement with your content.
Put your content in a Millennium Falcon experience, not a Death Star experience.
The content experience is the new hope
You could have the best content in the world, but content is nothing without context. Will you use the Force to provide value to your audience and build a killer content experience, or will you use the dark side of the Force and take the quick and easy path to achieve sub-par content marketing results?
The power is in your hands!
Learn how to improve your content’s discoverability in our free eBook.
