Is Your Content Criminal?

Recently I had the opportunity to attend Meir Ezra’s Genius in Business Tour, which is an information-packed two-day event held around the country.

One of the concepts Meir discussed was that in life, as well as in business, there are four types of exchange:

• Criminal, when one party takes without compensating the other. Essentially, a criminal exchange is stealing.

• Partial, when the exchange is not what was promised. This can occur on either side of the transaction.

• Fair, when the exchange is completed in accordance with the agreed-upon terms. This is when each party gets what they expected.

• Abundant, when one or both parties receive something extra that was not expected beyond the original terms of a fair exchange.

What does this have to do with content marketing?

Meir Ezra was talking about business exchanges, but I'm going to narrow this concept down to content marketing.

If your content does not provide value at least equal to the time it takes people to absorb it, your content is at best a partial and at worst a criminal exchange.

You’re not likely to get arrested for it, but you’ll still suffer the consequences in terms of lost reputation and audience.

The most effective, powerful content marketing strategy is one that is built on the principle of abundant exchange. It’s creating and distributing content that delivers value so that your prospects and customers feel that the time they spend reading your material, watching your videos or listening to your podcasts is more than simply “worth it” (remember, “worth it” would be a fair exchange). It’s giving information that will make a difference and provide a substantial return on investment.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because you don’t charge for your content it doesn’t need to have stand-alone value. Yes, the ultimate goal of any content marketing campaign is to generate and increase revenue, but if you tease people into thinking they’re going to get something of value but only deliver a sales pitch with no real take-aways, you will be guilty of a criminal exchange.

When you enrich your audience with your content, they will enrich you with their purchases and referrals. That’s exchange in abundance.

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