{"id":33,"date":"2014-12-27T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staunstrup.se\/en\/?p=33"},"modified":"2014-12-27T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-27T12:46:08","slug":"dont-homer-simpson-content-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staunstrup.se\/en\/content-marketing\/dont-homer-simpson-content-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t be the Homer Simpson of content marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a classic Simpson episode Homer gets an opportunity to design a car (called the Homer of course)<\/a>. His brother hires him to create a car that will appeal to the \u201caverage\u201d American, thinking that Homer must be in tune with that broad demographic. It ends in disaster, of course. Homer adds everything he can think about to the design \u2013 like two bubble domes, three horns (\u201cyou can never find the horn when you\u2019re mad\u201d) that plays \u201cLa Cucaracha\u201d, gigantic cupholders and tailfins. In addition, the engine sound is supposed to make people feel \u201cthat the world is coming to an end\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"the-homer-inline2\"<\/a>So why do I bring this up, apart from my love of all things Simpson? Although \u201cdon\u2019t be like Homer\u201d is pretty good all-around advice, there is a connection between his aspirations as a car designer and a lot of the content marketing happening right now: Instead of trying to create content that is specific, addressing real problems or opportunities for the target audience, there is too much generic or broad content being produced.<\/p>\n

One aspect of this is the enormous amount of content being produced, another is the quality of each piece of content. For a great take on both take a look at Doug Kessler\u2019s Crap<\/em> presentation \u2013 more relevant than ever<\/a>. But it is the latter I find more interesting, and where I see the connection with Homer\u2019s failed car design clearly. There are a lot of blog posts out there that don\u2019t contain much value, a lot of infographics that aren\u2019t that informative, a lot of videos that we don\u2019t want to watch and so on. And the reason for this is not that they don\u2019t address interesting topics \u2013 it is because they do so in a very bland, one-size-fits-all kind of way. Just like Homer the people behind this content has tried to pile everything in there, in this case talking to everyone at once, rather than focusing on a specific target group and pinpointing their needs.<\/p>\n

Recently Tony Zambito wrote an interesting piece, asking \u201cIs your team executing content marketing or pitching content?\u201d<\/a>. In it he lists several danger points, like marketing teams using the concept of content marketing to do what they always have done \u2013 pushing product-centric, supplier-centric etc content. If you don\u2019t prioritize your target audience and actually research their challenges and needs you will never be able to create content that is really useful and valuable to them, and you will be pushing the content equivalent of the Homer on your potential and existing customers<\/p>\n

The best way to make sure you create content that actually serves a purpose is to start with a content marketing strategy, that clearly outlines your goals, target audience, resources, channels and KPI\u2019s etc. With a strategy, provided you make sure it\u2019s implemented properly, you can avoid creating unnecessary content and achieve some real results.<\/p>\n

And it might actually save you money too. The Homer was not just a design disaster, it was an expensive disaster that brought down the entire company. Which is another risk we run if we create inferior content \u2013 paying a lot for content that does very little, both for our target audience and for our company. “Do-oh” as Homer would put it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This post was originally published on LinkedIn in July, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a classic Simpson episode Homer gets an opportunity to design a car (called the Homer of course). His brother hires him to create a car that will appeal to the \u201caverage\u201d American, thinking that Homer must be in tune with that broad demographic. It ends in disaster, of course. Homer adds everything he can think about to the design \u2013 like two bubble domes,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8,14],"tags":[4,5,15],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-marketing","category-content-strategy","category-target-audience-analysis","tag-content-marketing","tag-content-strategy","tag-target-audience-analysis"],"yoast_head":"\nDon't be the Homer Simpson of content marketing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is too much generic or broad content being produced. 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