The Artistic Canvas of

Content Marketing

KEYDifferenceMedia.com

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Content on the web across multiple digital channels is what drives Authority, Brand Recognition and

ultimately Sales.

You are the best person to create your content because it’s your message the prospect is in need of.

You know their pains, the hurdles they need to overcome, the risks they need to mitigate and the

shortcut you can o�er to get them the results they are looking for.

Powerful content comes from connecting with one single individual in a way that utterly draws them

to you. Then, like a song that’s written to one person but resonates around the world, that singular

voice gets reformatted into Content that can be hosted on multiple platforms in order to connect with

the masses in each channel. Google and other major search engines rely on the content served up

from these digital channels to produce the best search results, keeping them relevant to their visitors.

Your Content campaign can have whatever calls to action you decide to add to them. Imagine if you

co-branded your content with a customer, sharing their impact story in a way that encourages them to

share it with their followers, but the Call to Action link leads those viewers back to your sales funnel.

There are a number of goodwill strategies you can deploy with Content.

By amplifying your Content and converting prospects into customers, our service can syndicate your

influence to establish you as the dominant authority of your industry.

There are countless ways to leverage a Content Marketing campaign but let’s take a quick look at the

top three that work powerfully together.

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To use Digital Content as a means of creating authority we must rely on the three V’s of Content

marketing more than with any other approach:

Value - The value of the content determines the e�ectiveness

Volume - The sheer volume of the content gives it power

Variety - The variety of digital channels and formats syndicated to,

creates reach

The value of the Content and the nature of the message are what establish authority in the viewer’s

mind. The message of authority is di�erent than a message for brand recognition. To spread

authority you must speak to the pain more intently than even in a sales message. Authority comes

from clearly and definitively pointing out pain. When using the tactic of exposing pain, irritating that

pain and then irritating that pain some more in a sales letter, a copywriter is establishing authority in

the mind of the reader.

PART 11

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1. AUTHORITY CONTENT

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In an authority campaign, pain is the primary focus and when focusing on pain, it’s imperative that

you find the starkest contrasts to expose and then apply the right amount of tolerance and

sympathy. If your product is an acne medicine, you focus on the pain of finding a date; but you

don’t do it focused on someone who is su�ering from Acne Vulgaris (a rare form of skin disease). If

the product is an engine mu�er, you focus on the embarrassment of driving around with smoke

and loud noises pouring out of your car, unless the pain of something like being environmentally

irresponsible is more. If that’s the case, then you focus on that, but you don’t show a car where the

driver is choking from smoke inhalation like some scene out of a Cheech & Chong movie.

The trick to establishing authority without exceeding the tipping point is to find the edge of the pain

and ride it. And you do that by capitalizing not on the most extreme elements of the pain but rather

on the most typical and common pain points.

A boating insurance company once tried to sell insurance by putting an ad at the checkout stand at

popular boating stores of a boat blowing up. And in the same ad, they promoted their solution by

asking the viewer if they were prepared for the worst. The ad failed miserably and actually created

backlash.

It failed because consumers linked the exploding boat to having that insurance. In their minds, that

was such a far-fetched possibility that the karma of having insurance was surely the catalyst for

such a devastating event. They simply couldn’t relate to the disaster pictured.

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Hurricanes

Striking objects beneath the water

Sinking

The top three reasons for an insurance claim are:

Of these three which would you say is the most universally identifiable pain point? Correct, number

two. Although hurricane claims have risen sharply over the past decade, they are regional. Sinking is

a good one, but most people still feel that sinking is a bit far-fetched or at best, the extreme byproduct

of striking an object beneath the water. However anyone who has ever boated has either hit their

share of debris or has at least seen their share of debris floating in the lakes, rivers and ocean waters.

And Content around such events immediately draw on the person’s own mental record of times they

have hit debris, and that image is what they react to.

It is a common mistake for creators of Content to miss out on this key point. You are not ever trying to

insert an image into a person’s mind. That requires the impact of a real-life situation, something that

when done externally demands a mountain of resources to accomplish. With Content and advertising,

you are trying to draw on the images already established in their minds and bring those up from the

subconscious to a conscious level.

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When you expose pain, it is imperative to o�er a solution as

well. But this is where art meets science. The solution you

want to o�er when using Content is merely your brand.

Using your logo and tagline, you should be able to convey

the solution to that pain point. When you find the balance

between a tolerant and common pain point and the ability to

convey its solution through your branding… you have found

the secret to creating Authority Seed Content. Then all you

have to do is apply Volume and Variety.

The final secret to deploying powerful Authority Content is

to NOT attach a Call To Action, or only put a CTA that leads

to more Authority, but not to a sales pitch. This is the

hardest thing to do - to spend marketing dollars on Content

and not to take advantage of the tra�c. But you have to

consider your objective.

Authority is an ideal. It lives in the mind of the consumer and no place else. The most important part

of your cycle is the “gestation period”. With that pain point firmly fixed into the mind of the consumer,

you don’t want them adding or subtracting to it whatsoever. Once the foundation is laid and the walls

of that construct have been erected, it’s imperative that the image you establish engrains its way into

the subconscious.

Mentally, your lead now has a mental image of that pain point that relates to their own situation. They

have then tagged it with a solution by a�xing your brand and tagline to it. The longer that new image

can stay in their minds, without alteration, the more assuredly it will write a new image to their sub-

conscious. And if that pain point you stimulated was causing them enough pain, then your branding

will begin to o�er a bit of pain relief and that small sense of balance restored will send them looking

for your solution.

But, if you send them to a sales funnel too quickly from that moment, you run the risk of disconnect-

ing them from the image construct that is working so well in their minds, and introducing variables

which could remove it.

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How so? Because the next step is intended to begin solving the pain problem with actionable steps.

Immediately after you rea�rm that pain point on the landing page then the copy begins to solve that

pain and relieve it enough to convince the reader that your solution will truly help and this begins to

dilute the image you just spent marketing dollars to create. And by sending them to a sales page

immediately after establishing their pain point, you miss out on the most important element of the

process. And that is their own buy-in. When a consumer buys into the fact that your brand will heal

their pain, they are significantly more likely to take action. But by dangling a link in front of them, they

don’t have to do anything to seek out your solution and it’s the process of seeking out your solution that

reinforces your Authority.

Authority is not established during the ingesting of your Content, that is a mistake to believe. Authority

is established when the prospect actively submits to your suggestion of Authority and willingly takes

action to apply your solution to their life. During this time, the harder they seek, the more they are

lending themselves to your authority. Then when they find you, conversion is just a matter of never

giving them cause for dethroning you as the Authority.

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So then what makes good sales content? It sounds like Authority content with a clear Call to Action

applied would be very powerful sales content. And the answer to that lies in the emotional construct

of Sales Content.

First you have to realize that Content Marketing is not a sales letter or a launch campaign. Content

around the web is fragmented and you have limited control over where the user goes next and what

they see next. Therefore you have to realize that your Content Marketing campaign is much like a

Renaissance Impressionist painting. Up close it’s just a bunch of lines and splashes, but when viewed

from a distance it becomes a whole picture with a depth and resonance far superior to that of an

image you can discern two feet away from your face.

Ever hear about something and decide you want to know more? What do you do? You start

investigating, asking questions, looking for pieces of the puzzle. Then in your own mind you put those

pieces together, taint it with your own bias, add your own imagination to it and voila, you have the

story you were desiring to complete.

As the web moves more into a social construct, and as people

begin to more frequently absorb Content in microbursts

through greater and greater numbers of channels, the more it

will be necessary for your Content to rely on an awareness

that the accumulation of the message is not happening on the

web page. It’s happening in the mind of the viewer.

A story told in fragments across social media and digital

channels will culminate in the mind of a viewer, even if they

only receive that story in tiny fragments.

2. SALES CONTENT

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A sales page is like rubber-necking an accident scene. You have but a few seconds to take it all in and

establish a verdict in your mind as to what happened. Content is more like being the investigator on the

scene and being given the time and resources to determine more completely what actually happened.

You want to build on the awareness that your Authority content is already at work for you somewhere in

the mind of the consumer.

If a consumer digests your Sales Content without a single stitch of Authority Content, it should not

cause them to take action. Content in the digital channels is fragmented by nature. The smart

Content Marketer is aware that the consumer is going to discover their Authority Content soon

enough and then it will begin mixing with their Sales Content. So when you create Sales-focused

content, you don’t want to directly mix those colors with Authority colors, otherwise you will get a

hazy gray reaction in the mind of the consumer.

Ever compliment someone just before asking them for something, thinking you are being nice, but

cheapening the gesture? Or maybe you are just rushed and don’t have the time to give each

emotional element its own space so you smush the two together. Big mistake. Your intentions are

pure but your colors are mixed at that point and their Emotional Mind is unable to separate them.

The result is they “interpret” your actions as devious and misleading.

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Sales Content should not be stylized like Authority Content, rather it should strictly focus on

establishing an emotional connection that has a Call To Action, leading them to a Landing Page.

The moment the prospect arrives at your sales page, they will be newly accosted with the authority

aspect of your message. This is perfect because they reacted to a piece of Sales Content which means

that at some point in their journey, they established you as an Authority in their minds, at some level.

Maybe they saw your product in the hands of someone else at some point. Maybe a PR piece caught

their attention some time back or possibly they were given a gift and it was wrapped in a box with your

label on it. Authority can come from many places, but it first must be there.

So when they then digest your Authority pitch at the top of your

sales letter, it reinforces what was already in their mind as it

adds to the emotional spectrum your Sales Content established.

This reason alone is why most people spend their budgets on

creating Sales Content, because it has the greatest ability to pull

together the other elements of the painting, without losing its

e�ectiveness.

Authority campaigns are for those who have the luxury of

existing Authority through other channels but Sales campaigns

are the bread and butter of most businesses.

In the nonprofit world of fundraising, this is one of the most important

lessons. Never ask for money at the same point where you are thanking a

donor. The two counter each other and the e�ect can be quite disastrous.

So Sales Content is its own color on the canvas of your viewer’s

“impressionable” mind and you must treat it like Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir

and Degas treated their own masterpieces.

The key to good Sales Content is locked up in one word. Emotions.

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Think of Sales Content as the accents on a painting

brushed on top of the forms and shapes of Authority.

Good Sales Content will capture the viewer’s imagination

and compel them to click your Call To Action link. That is

its only purpose. Using similar methodology as Authority

Content, Sales Content relates to the common positive

emotions of the target audience. Not the pain points. Did I

make that clear enough?

A primary di�erence between good Sales Content and

good Authority Content is that Authority Content focuses

on the pain and Sales Content focuses on the pleasure.

Remember, in digital media, each component plays a clear and distinctive role in delivering the final result.

When making Sales Content, this is the critical delineator.

Sales copy is intended to hyper interrupt the emotional profile of a prospect and then use that emotion to

incite a reaction, which is typically to click on your Call To Action. That is it. That is what that piece of

Content lives for.

And to do that, the Content needs to be uplifting, exciting and motivational.

Negative Content does not induce Sharing or Liking or any other action. It tends to be impressionable

and suppressive, which is why it works well to establish Authority. Positive Content, like furry little kittens,

tends to get all the attention.

So delivering upbeat Content about the good your product brings to the world is a classically powerful

piece of Sales Content. Even the upbeat features of your product works well here. Anything that

stimulates a positive emotion will prove useful as Sales Content because the only job of that Content is to

induce the viewer to act.

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Brand Recognition campaigns are often confused with Authority campaigns, but nothing could be further

from the truth. Authority Campaigns in our painting metaphor are the negative space. A skilled artist

tends to use negative space with the subtle capacity to leverage the contrast it provides through what we

see and what we don’t see - knd of like Authority Content provides Solutions as well as pointing out the

problems.

Brand Recognition campaigns on the other hand can be viewed as the “Colored Ground” or “Toned

Ground” of a marketing campaign, whether it be online, o�ine or otherwise.

A Colored Ground is when you choose a tonal center for your painting and cover the entire canvas with it

at the beginning. From there you sketch in your details and begin applying the paint that will form the

image you are looking to render.

This colored tone supports the artist eyes to better interpret the colors while they paint. As well as o�ering

a tonal center to the rest of the palette, this method helps the colors on the canvas come together in the

viewer’s eye.

This is what a Brand campaign does, it sets a tonal center. Like a good song in a specific key, the Brand

campaign is that Key Signature. It’s the home base the prospect or customer always lands on when any

discretion of truth or likeability invades their mind.

3. BRAND RECOGNITION

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The Tonal Ground color of a canvas does just this. It establishes a

common relationship amongst all the colors as they are both applied

to the palette and perceived on the canvas. Your Branding Content

should do just the same.

Brand campaigns are not required for an e�ective sales campaign but

they add so much benefit that they are hard to ignore. They keep you

from an inflated Sales Campaign budget; they help direct you as you

balance Authority with Sales and Retention campaigns; and they

establish a medium that conveys the bigger picture of what you are all

about.

Remember when Tylenol caplets were injected with poison and killed some consumers? It was a

truth-centered brand campaign that included a quick and massive recall that kept Tylenol from

toppling. They actually emerged from that debacle in fine fashion.

How about when Coca-Cola tried to introduce “New Coke” and it was rejected with a resounding

outcry? It was the Coke brand that carried Coke through, giving them ample space to reprove

themselves. This is how branding acts as a safety net, a tonal center and a relationship mechanism.

Brand campaigns can be powerful ways to shift a company’s persona. For example,McDonald’s going

from the most unhealthy menu in fast food to a more healthy persona.

Brand Content campaigns are a luxury for small businesses but a necessity the larger you grow. The

more investments you own, the more insurance you need to protect them.

Fortunately, branding is a natural byproduct of both Authority and Sales campaigns. Every time

someone sees your logo, tagline, products, etc you are perpetuating your brand. So again, this

campaign type is typically not favored by smaller businesses who need to concentrate resources into

Sales Content campaigns. But knowing the role of each piece of Content can give you so much control

over how you spend your marketing dollars between Content, Retargeting Ads and any other digital

media ad buys.

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Take a look at the existing Content you’ve been releasing and categorize it into these three areas of

Authority, Sales and Branding. Ask yourself how much of each Value segment you are deploying.

Then consider your results in light of this.

You should be able to clearly see where you are losing power in your campaign e�ectiveness and

where you are gaining traction.

A good approach to consider (especially if you are on a budget) when determining what proportion

ratios of these three strategies to consider is to refer to the design principles of nature as expressed in

the mathematical formulas of Phi, otherwise known as the Golden Ratio of 1:1.618, often referred to as

the rule of thirds. For the mavens reading this, the Phi-Grid or Fibonacci grid is a more detailed version

of the Rule of Thirds but they work hand in hand for our purposes here.

The idea behind these ratios in design is that they create a pleasant and acceptable balance to the

human perception mechanism which has been established and is perpetually reinforced by nature.

Then once you get your Content Value in place, consider the

Volume of each approach and the Variety of channels, as well as

the channels themselves, that you are syndicating them to.

These balances are a great premise to an optimized Content

Marketing campaign. Sure there are plenty more variables to

consider, but this stu� is foundational.

Whether running a low budget Content marketing campaign or a

big budget campaign, what you release in which channel at what

time is the ultimate factor in e�ectively producing results.

Beyond that, your sales funnel and your o�er are the next

primary considerations.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

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By applying this ratio to your Content, you can quickly surmise the ratio of any two of the three

campaign types and apply them knowing the result (without excessive optimization and cost) will be

generally impactful.

Think of a rectangle that is basically divided into thirds. One third on the left and two thirds on the

right. Where the two lines intersect is the most impacting point.

The left third should be your Authority Content. This creates a strong counterbalance to the rest of

your perceived Content. The right third should be your Sales Content, in which both will naturally be

infused with elements of your brand so that is not lost in all of this.

You should release your Content in unison as if you are filling up this rectangle with a fluid. About 1/3rd

of your first month’s campaign should be Authority content in Authority channels, released at times

when Authority Content is most willfully received. Then that leaves 2/3rds of your Content being Sales

Content released in the best Sales Content channels at the times of the day when Sales Content is

most readily received.

Following this infrastructure creates the basis for a Content Marketing campaign that can be

dynamically optimized as it matures.

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to grab your digital canvas, organize your Content palette and

apply some simple design elements so you can turn all that hard work you spent creating Content into

an e�ective digital image of success!

Want a powerful, creative Content Marketing strategy

that has an impact on your audience? Let us know

your goals and we can come alongside you to bring

your campaigns to the next level.

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