I don’t think this is a Venn diagram you’ll have already seen. I have been trying to express the idea for a little while and I think it’s original. It certainly seems the easiest way.
In the diagram below, the first circle (A) represents all the technology needs a company has. I’m using technology as the example (could be accounting, courier services, raw materials from China) because that is a big market Collective Content serves. And I’m using a company rather than an individual consumer because we mainly work in B2B.
We can only see part of this need because it is huge. (But also remember it is a sub-sector of all the things that a company buys. Could be 10 per cent of spend, could be 80 per cent if the entity is wholly internet-based.)
The second circle (B) shows where a distinct category intersects with this company’s technology needs. Imagine it is email. A proportion of all the email offerings on the market are relevant to this company. That’s the overlap (in diagonal red).
But circle (C) shows where our client has its specific offering. Again, for example’s sake, let’s say here that our new client specialises in very secure hosted corporate email. It is a distinct subset of the larger email market.
Now for the important bit.
What kind of content should we be creating to help this client with their positioning, gaining trust, reaching a wider audience and ultimately selling?
The easy – and wrong – answer is where C and A intersect. Companies are used to talking about what they know best. That is usually themselves.
The right answer is where B and A intersect (criss-crossed in grey). Content marketing is about your customers (or would-be customers). What do they care about? They care most about themselves and not about you. They want you to be helpful. Most likely a secure hosted corporate email provider can talk with authority about the whole email market. Do so.
There is of course a final question to ask. In some cases a company can speak with authority even more broadly. We’re not saying that can’t be a good thing but we think we know the content sweet spot, the place where your content and your customers are most likely to meet.
Feel free to disagree…
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