Schemas of Marketing
Just want to underline, first of all, these are just personal views and thoughts on the matter.
Schema 1: Simba’s Five Forces
There are forces that hinder the success of your marketing efforts, particularly in content marketing. If you’ve ever wondered why your content, including ads, doesn’t receive the attention it deserves, it’s because of these five forces.
In business schools, you get to learn about Porter’s Five Forces and how they impact profitability through (1) existing competition, (2) the threat of new entrants, (3) the threat of substitutes, (4) the power of suppliers, and (5) the power of customers.
I believe Porter’s Five Forces can also serve as a useful framework for explaining the forces that starve our content of attention, which is the most valuable currency on the internet.
Competition for Attention: In any given niche, numerous companies or individuals are already mass-producing content for your target audience, both directly and indirectly.
The threat of New Content: When a hot, popular, or trending topic receives significant attention or eyes, new fresh content flow floods the space, dividing attention into smaller portions. For instance, writing new content about Web3 now would receive less attention as new Web3-related content is constantly being created and shared online.
The threat of Substitute Content: The style and format of content play a crucial role here. Even if you create a lengthy 10,000-word blog article, another marketer can transform it into a listicle or a short video, capturing all the attention. This phenomenon is evident in platforms like TikTok, where the original creator may receive fewer views compared to someone who copied the video, added their own style, and lip-synced to it. The discovery is uncertain.
Power of Content Consumers: Content consumers are more discerning and less loyal than we often assume. With a wide choice of content available to them, they pay attention to whatever piques their interest.
Power of Content Creators/Distributors/Platforms: This force is intriguing. In certain niches, you require experts or individuals with expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E.A.T. = Expertise, Authority and Trustworthy) to put out something. If you lack such expertise internally, you become reliant on their pricing and availability. Additionally, certain creators, even if in their early stages of production, hold the loyalty of your target audience (known as influencers), putting you at their mercy. Content distributors, such as Facebook and Google, resemble final bosses in a game. They distribute content for free but employ powerful algorithms that regulate the attention your content receives from their audience. Each content distributor has its own algorithm, including platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit (which employs a crowdsourced algorithm for content attention). Algorithm updates can significantly impact your content’s visibility, as demonstrated by many in the domain.
Content Platforms: These encompass content publishing software such as WordPress, Wix, and Shopify. The performance and features of a content platform can influence the attention your content garners, including factors like availability, speed, SEO capabilities, and customization options.
How can you determine the effectiveness of your content for your business/brands? Drawing inspiration from the Boston Consulting Group-Growth Matrix, created by the founder, Alan Zakon, it’s a simple yet powerful chart that can help communicate the value of content marketing (and digital marketing) to senior leaders and stakeholders.
Schema 2: Simba’s Content Matrix
A chart to analyze your content based on its business value and the attention it receives. Similar to how the BCG-Matrix helps senior leaders assess their business units or product lines, this matrix can provide insights into the effectiveness of your content.
“Star” Content: Content that receives high attention and holds high business value over time. It is crucial to protect and prioritize this content as it plays a significant role in achieving your goals and enhancing your brand.
“Cash Cow” Content: This type of content may not attract a lot of attention online but holds very high business value. An example could be a case study that may not go viral but generates substantial conversions. Recognize and leverage the business value of such content.
“Question Mark” Content: This category includes content that receives high attention but lacks corresponding business value. Often, this content goes viral but fails to generate a significant ROI. When faced with such content, it is essential to evaluate its alignment with business goals and consider strategies to maximize its potential value.
“Dog” Content: “Dog” content refers to content that receives low attention and holds low business value. While it may be challenging to let go of such content due to sentimental reasons or the effort invested in creating it, it is important to assess its impact on business objectives. If it fails to contribute to goals or generate desired outcomes, it may be best to cut losses, learn from the experience, and move on.
Schema 3: Content/Market Fit
This concept primarily applies to marketers working within early-stage startups. It’s been observed that many startups tend to neglect marketing until it becomes too late because of many factors you have little hold of. In the early stages, startups often focus solely on achieving product/market fit, where their product is embraced by the market. They perceive funding as validation for their product/market fit and expect everything to seamlessly fall into place, it gives a blind eye without even you realising it.
However, successful startups that reach IPO status and grow into significant businesses often accomplish both Product/Market Fit and Content/Market Fit.
Content/Market Fit occurs when a startup can produce content that garners high attention from the mass market, enabling them to cross the chasm and achieve high business value.
A prime example of a startup that has achieved Content/Market Fit is the likes of Notion and Canva. There are so many in the queue.
Schema 4: Customer’s Ikigai
While searching for ways to find personal needs and align my passion for teaching, you’ll come across “ikigai,” a Japanese concept. Ikigai is a Japanese philosophy dating back three millennia, and translates as a ‘reason for being’. Most of our customer research tends to be narrow and limited. By exploring the concept of the customer’s ikigai, we can dive deeper into understanding them by asking four essential questions:
What do they LOVE? This question uncovers their true passions and what they genuinely care about.
What do they NEED? Utilizing SEO keyword research can provide valuable insights into understanding their essential needs, as they express them through searches on platforms like Google and YouTube.
What are they willing to PAY for? Customer priorities, needs, and wants can be discerned by observing what they are willing to invest their money in. Understanding their willingness to pay acts as a traffic light signal, guiding us towards ideas that will appeal to our target audience and their budgets.
How EDUCATED is your customer about your industry, products, and company? An educated customer often proves to be the best customer. Selling to customers who appreciate the product and have a comprehensive understanding of the industry is crucial. Elon Musk exemplifies this well, as he frequently educates his prospective customers about the electric vehicle industry, his company Tesla, and its mission and story, whether through appearances on the Joe Rogan Podcast or Twitter these days.
By incorporating the concept of the customer’s ikigai into our research, we can gain a deeper understanding of our target audience, their motivations, and their relationship with our products or services.
Schema 5: Simba’s Content Value Chain
This concept draws inspiration from Porter’s Value Chain and aims to highlight the importance of taking a holistic view of organizational changes required for effective digital marketing implementation, particularly for businesses which are scaling or already there.
The idea stems from my personal frustration during my tenure as part of a team which are under a similar transition. I realized that simply adopting digital marketing practices without addressing broader organizational challenges often dampens the effectiveness of these efforts. For instance, it would take several months to obtain approval for basic tasks like conducting A/B testing on product pages and the jerks which you face from the organisation.
Many large companies engage in digital marketing, but they struggle to achieve meaningful results due to structural limitations. This situation can be incredibly frustrating for in-house digital marketers.
Simba’s Content Value Chain encourages large businesses to consider the bigger picture, encompassing organizational changes necessary for successful digital marketing implementation. By addressing internal barriers and streamlining processes, companies can create an environment conducive to effective digital marketing practices and unlock their full potential.