It happened again.
Jim Nantz warned me it would.
It was Sunday night and I inadvertently was glued to what was (still) on my television. This same thing happens about 20 times a year. I shouldn’t be surprised anymore.
After a day of relaxing and watching sports on CBS, I get up from my couch, make dinner, and end up staring (more) at my television because the content is captivating.
For 60 minutes.
It’s 60 Minutes.
For football fans, the classic ticking of the 60 Minutes promos just means your day is coming to an end. You’ll make the jarring shift from high-speed human collisions to Anderson Cooper discussing global politics. For many, I’m guessing the television gets turned off quicker than a Tyreek Hill slant route. For me, that’s typically the intent but often the TV remains on in the background.
This Sunday, it was The Masters. A sacred day of sports watching that signals the start of Spring in our house. And just like I do in the fall, I got up from the couch after Hideki slid on the Green Jacket and began to make dinner.
Then, I unintentionally, learned about the economic recovery with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, how the US Military is trying to ensure there’s never another global pandemic, and that there is a literal vault of unreleased Prince music.
Every Sunday, it’s content serendipity.
In an attempt to understand why I end up loving this accidental Sunday night tradition, here are five lessons we can learn about content marketing from the consistent ticking of 60 Minutes.
Set expectations: I know exactly what I’m getting into with 60 minutes. The promo reads during the sports events tell you exactly what the stories are and the name of the show tells us just how long it’s going to take! Even during the breaks, they share the ticking pocket watch with a real-time update of where you’re at in the 60 minutes “process.”
Do your readers, watchers, listeners know exactly what they’re getting into when they come across your content? “Is this a quick-read? Or do I need to block time to read this? I see the headline but what am I actually going to learn?”
Time is our greatest resource. Set expectations with your audience on how they’re going to spend that resource with your brand. There are incredible solutions that can help you and your brand set expectations with your audience.
Educate your audience: I always feel smarter after watching 60 minutes. Maybe it’s because I watched hours of millionaires playing a game right before it? More likely, it’s because the content is about a subject matter I wouldn’t otherwise research on my own. Or perhaps, it’s a fresh perspective on a subject matter I am familiar with. Either way, I am always learning something new.
Too often, the goal of our marketing is to just get people to the content and not to help them actually learn from the content. When content consumers are actively seeking content, they’re not looking for forms, keywords, or to be shoved into the sales process. They’re looking for a solution. When done well, content marketing is a noble pursuit. The audience should learn from it. They should be better off at the end of your content than they were the start of it. Is your content serving the goals of a marketer or the goals of your reader?
Have consistent characters with unique points of view: Whether it’s Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Anderson Cooper, or one of their other correspondents, you understand immediately how they bring their perspective to what they’re reporting on.
With the rise of “Building in Public,” it’s important that brands have consistent characters that share or extend their brand voice to share their perspective. Content consumers don’t want a brand voice robot sharing the latest “social copy” on their timeline. No, they want to know how the brands employees are experiencing the same pain points or challenges. They want to know they’re solving them, unique to their role. They want to know how and who is going to help them with their solution. They want to know who your characters are.
Always tell stories: At its core, 60 Minutes could likely be described as a “News show.” But it’s not just delivering the news. Rather, it’s wrapping the news in really insightful and powerful storytelling. It’s current events with a splash of pop culture, always shared through a powerful story.
Don’t just tell your audience what you do and how you do it. That is old news. Stories will always win. Share the stories of your customers, your partners, your employees, your company. Always tell stories.
Find your distribution sweet spot: 60 Minutes has found its distribution sweet spot. Sunday night as you wrap up your weekend and before you head back to the “real world,” it provides your dose of reality. It meets its audience where it’s at. Or maybe, they know there’s a lot of people like me who have it on in the background that they trust they can win over in 60 Minutes. Regardless, it works.
Too often, marketers make great content and then don’t know how to distribute it. 60-70% of all marketing content goes unused. We share content behind forms, chat bots, old-fashioned landing page experiences hoping the audience will find us. Go find your audience where they’re at -- where they want to consume content not where you want to market content.
That’s what we’re building at The Juice. A content ecosystem where content marketers and content consumers can come together and share powerful content. If you’re interested in discovering B2B Content that is hyper-relevant to your role and your interests, join 1,300 other sales and marketers on our waitlist.
We’ll be launching later this spring and we’re excited to draw on the lessons we’ve learned and help content marketers and content consumers connect more intelligently.
Now, all we need is a Jim Nantz ad read.
