My commute home is a great time for my mind wander to wander.
There isn’t much else to do while stuck
in the sea of cars headed home. Last night
while my mind was wandering one of my favourite songs came on the radio - Hurt
by Nine Inch Nails. The song is a bit of
a downer, but it gave me a chance to reflect on my younger days, and made me
realize there may be a lesson in marketing hidden inside those memories.
One of my favourite albums ever is the one that the song
comes from - The Downward
Spiral. I enjoy it immensely both
for the music itself, but also for what it taught me about the art of
storytelling. There was a time when as a
young music listener, I’d simply take the individual songs that I enjoyed the
most and put them on repeat. The Downward
Spiral forced me to break that habit. All
14 songs created a story arc, within which Trent Reznor took a listener through
a multi-layered journey of a person trying to uncover all the layers of
emotions that affect him and his mental well-being.
Very deep stuff; But it taught me that an album could be
more than just a collection of individual songs. The songs themselves can be written to speak
to a common theme, and be structured in a way to take a listener through a much
longer story arc, with defined acts that touch on various emotions at different
points in the plot.
Without question content marketing and inbound marketing are
the hottest topics in marketing circles today.
Armies of professionals seem to be pumping out great content components
each and every day - Infographics, videos, blogs, eBooks, you name it. In this community however, the lesson on storytelling
that Trent taught me years ago is relevant again.
Every piece of content should tie back to a common
theme. Every piece of content is an
opportunity to reinforce your core value proposition and positioning. For products that require longer sales cycles
this is particularly important. In those
cases, each piece of content should map to a particular stage in a longer customer
education process.
Content and storytelling both need a defined arc, and
plot.
Without that, you’re just picking your favourite part and
putting it on repeat…
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