The Paragraph Gauntlet of Doom [Content Marketing Cartoon]
Content marketers spend lots of time and energy writing great, attention-grabbing headlines, landing page copy, and ebook covers. But these front doors often belie the content "adventure" that awaits inside the actual piece. In too many cases, it can be instantly apparent that the magical promise of the entry point you clicked just isn't backed up by top-notch content. The signs are all there: blatant errors in grammar and spelling, a lack of quality and creativity, and uninteresting thoughts that drone on and on.
This is bizarre when you really think about it. Conversions, whether measured through subscribers, leads, app adoption, downloads, sales, or just plain old positive reactions from people, happen after the click. A lopsided amount of time is spent with your work after the click. So why not pay a lopsided amount of attention to the stuff that happens after the click? (Also known as the "content" part of "content marketing.")
It's a sign that content marketers focus too much on "reaching" people -- "getting eyeballs" as big agencies and brands like to say -- rather than on resonating with them.
Headlines are important to draw clicks. Clicks represent views. But the most powerful way to generate views is to make every single second a reader spends after the click great. The better your content, the more visceral the reaction to it, the happier your readers are to spread it...and the more visitors you'll get -- all of whom will find smoother sailing right to converting.