In our final post with coverage from Inbound Marketing UK 2013 we get on to the hot topic of content.

Not you run of the mill content, but ‘home run’ content that will put your business on the digital map. Doug Kessler Creative and Content Strategies at Velocity Partners was our guide to this and, by golly did he have some inbound marketing wisdom to impart.

Kessler’s influence in the world of content marketing was clear as audience members waited with baited breath and notepads at the ready in anticipation of his talk. And what did he start with?

Crap, that’s what.

No we are not being rude, this is one of Kessler’s recent success stories. His book fondly and aptly titled “Crap. Why the single biggest threat to content marketing is content marketing” has been a roaring success story. The topic covers something we all suspected but perhaps didn’t have the balls to say quite so boldly as Kessler (we will get back to this very important point of bravery later).

Where we stand today

The inbound marketing boom and its cousin, content marketing, have slowly picked up pace in the last few years and rightly so. However, there are those out there who are abusing the art of creating content and choosing to shovel crap in to our searches in an effort to gain some inbound marketing action.

Content Marketing was once predominantly B2B’s arena but is now slowly leaking in to the B2C world as brands are beginning to see the benefits of producing great content. The result is an endless stream of content filling the Internet with a sea of information. But in this competitive digital world, how do you make sure your content doesn’t sink? Doug Kessler has the answers.

Doug’s rules to avoiding crap

• Aim for ‘home run’ content – A successful piece of content can boost your profile online and will impact upon all your other content and inbound efforts. Take the time and thought to turn an idea for content in to a ‘great’ idea for content.
• Become a student again – study and learn from others. Analyse what works and what doesn’t and improve your content by seeing where others have seen success.
• Steal shamelessly – This was our all time favourite point. Raise your hand if you steal ideas online * small cough from back of the room *. There’s no point denying it, we all do it. But guess what, it’s not the end of the world. It’s actually a great idea. Kessler’s point here was that originality is very rare and creativity is actually a process. Most of the great ideas you see from artists and influential creative individuals have probably been adapted (stolen to you and me) from someone else. Moving swiftly on to the next point.
• Steal from far away – It’s not a great idea to steal content ideas from a neighbouring business. Unless you fancy an Anchor Man styled gang war.
• Steal the right things – The resounding message of ‘Crap’ is that there is plenty of information in the digital realm but for affective inbound marketing you need to build on ideas to be relevant, interesting and engaging for your audience.
• Follow the fear – Kessler demonstrated this with a great illustrative scenario. Picture this. In the boardroom. The ideas are on the table. You all look at one idea and laugh saying, “Imagine if we did that, that would be so funny… So any way, these other 4 ideas”. This in Kessler’s opinion is a missed opportunity. You should follow that initial instinct and don’t be afraid to evoke emotions in what you do. Be brave.
• The rant – Ranting is an underrated form of content that others shy away from. In the world of marketing you can’t be negative. Well that is rubbish in the world of inbound marketing. Being negative is interesting and engaging. Be negative, be critical and be interesting. If you hate something, write about it, chances are you will connect with a large like-minded audience.

Kessler's example of a brand creating great, shareable content: