14. Don't build your house on rented land

Why it pays to own your marketing assets and platforms

Author

Joshua Poh
March 18, 2024

Hi friends,

This whole “Is TikTok going to be banned or not (again)” saga in the U.S. reminds me to not only build my house (i.e., your marketing engine) on rented land.

Platforms and algorithms change, and geopolitical events can also affect a platform's effectiveness for your business. But owning your content and distribution is one way to future-proof your marketing against all these changes.

  • Rented land: Social media platforms

  • Owned channels: email list, content marketing, website content

If you depend on one channel for new leads, it may be a good idea to diversify your content marketing efforts (speaking for myself as well since the bulk of my efforts are on LinkedIn)

Invest in more evergreen marketing channels where you have better control over them like content marketing and an email list. While you’re still subject to the whims and fancies of the mysterious SEO and Google algorithms in content marketing, publishing your content assets on a website you own (+ having an email list) makes it easier to pivot and adapt.

I’m not saying to get off social media entirely, but to reduce your business dependence on them.

Use rented platforms (Instagram, TikTok, etc) to amplify your website content and evergreen content marketing pieces. Grow your email list. Develop a following who can follow you across channels and who wants to see your content wherever you appear.

Thoughtful reads this week: 

If you’re mass-producing SEO content without ensuring you’re answering a search query or adding value to the conversation, this is a sign to stop. It's also a reminder to writers to continually up our game and deliver content your audience finds valuable and written for humans.

This paragraph stands out:

Today, scaled content creation methods are more sophisticated, and whether content is created purely through automation isn't always as clear. To better address these techniques, we’re strengthening our policy to focus on this abusive behavior — producing content at scale to boost search ranking — whether automation, humans or a combination are involved. This will allow us to take action on more types of content with little to no value created at scale, like pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver helpful content. 

Charming bit of content marketing that's actually a Lucidcharts ad.

Note these videos are 5-6 years old, and they're STILL getting comments. They’re the kind you don’t want to skip because your brain wonders - “just where are they going with this?” 

These quirky videos work because they take a dry software category (mind mapping and visual collaboration tools) and show what they can do using clever writing while covering unexpected topics. A mind map on snakes, really? But they make it work.

More takeaways on this ad for B2B content marketers here.

Reminder: Treat your followers like you’re talking to them in a private FB group - regardless of whether you have 2 followers or 200k. Applies to content marketing too. (Threads) 

Other bibs and bobs from the Internet I enjoyed

See you soon,

Joshua

If you’re looking for content support in 2024 …

Here’s how we can work together.
⭐ B2B SaaS product-led content: People look for solutions and information online. Why not position your product to illustrate a point and show why your product is the best at solving a problem? It attracts visitors and educates your customers while motivating and guiding them to use your product. Talk about a win-win!

⭐ Customer case studies: Highlight how you’ve worked with a customer and celebrate their success! Case studies build trust with potential customers and show how your work has solved their issues. Attract customers like your ideal clients who want to solve a similar issue.

⭐ Whitepapers, research reports and e-books: Nurture valuable leads for a marketing campaign with an in-depth, persuasive long-form piece highlighting an issue and articulating your brand’s expertise. They help start sales conversations and showcase industry authority with original data. Besides interviewing stakeholders and research, I'll assist your team from outline to design to publication.

⭐  Content repurposing: Don’t let the content you worked so hard to put together collect digital dust after publishing. Repurpose your existing content to reach a new audience. For example, I’ve worked with clients to repurpose speaker recordings into blog posts and turned internal sales slides into e-books.

I’m fully booked at the moment, but you can still join my waitlist (earliest estimated client opening around April). DM me and let’s schedule a call to chat about your content! Let’s figure out what types of content fits best for your customers, and craft a way forward together.