What is “Big Content?” 5 Content Marketing Formats Few Marketers Will Ever Try

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“That’s good advice, Andy. But we have bigger plans. We’re launching our new print magazine next month.”

My jaw dropped when my client told me this. Wow, I thought. That is some next-level content marketing, so far beyond anything, I would have considered. It took me a second just to process the idea.

You may know marketers like this. They have big ideas. They make big plans. They are automatically differentiated in ways that make their competition irrelevant.

These big ideas may be risky, but they also can be extremely effective. Let’s take a minute to consider some really big approaches to content marketing. Let’s talk about “Big Content.”

What is “Big Content?”

Big Content is a content marketing format that requires far greater time and effort to produce than the more common formats (i.e. blog posts). Big Content is often based on a novel or original idea and is differentiated in its form, frequency or duration.

Think of Big Content as an extension of the more common formats. They’re the same concepts on a much bigger scale. Compare:

Who needs Big Content?

If it’s not for everyone, who needs it? Who would benefit the most from adding something really big to their content mix?

• Companies just getting started with content marketing
• Some of these formats (original research, tools, a regular column) can speed up the process of building momentum. They’re perfect for young content programs.
• Companies within very crowded niches
• If everyone is doing X, you need to either do Y …or do 10X. The more competitive the category, the more important it is to use one of these automatically-differentiated formats.
• Companies with deep pockets
• Having the resources to do more shouldn’t mean doing more of the same. Use those resources to do things at another level.

Now let’s look at five examples of Big Content in action, from XL to XXXL. We’ll look at how these advanced strategies perform with some special emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO). We’ll also ask why these approaches aren’t more common.

We have actually tried some of these ideas here at Orbit, so when possible, we’ll share an example showing the costs and the outcomes.

1. Launch a tool

Most content marketing strategies are built on how-to articles. The goal is often to make the brand a useful resource. But there’s another “format” with far more intrinsic utility: a tool.

But original tools are very rarely part of any content program.

But they check all the boxes of great content: engaging, memorable, triggers sharing and word-of-mouth, etc. Less obvious benefit, they are magnets for links and great for SEO, according to?research by Foundation .

Why don’t more brands build online tools?

In other words, why aren’t there actual, functioning resources in company ‘resources’ section?

Lack of vision or lack of budget. A great tool, like?this fun hair color changer , might cost 1000x more than a guide for picking your hair color. But the moments are priceless.

Usually, when a brand adds a tool, it’s because it’s expected (i.e. mortgage calculators). But when that’s the case, it’s undifferentiated. Might as well skip it.

Example: Orbit’s URL Builder

We have a?Campaign URL Builder ?on this website (it’s the best). It took one of our developers 24 hours to build, which is roughly $4000 in billable time. It ranks in search, attracts around 16,000 visitors per year and has been linked to from 20 websites. Worth it? You decide.

2. Write a book

I’m sure you’ve already heard the benefits of writing a book. There are many. Thought leadership, sales support, PR, branding.

Books are one of the few formats for content marketing that doesn’t have a back button. They go deep into topics. They stay longer, often lingering on shelves for years.

A less obvious benefit is?personal SEO. Once Google identifies a person as an author, they look different in search results.

And if the book is referenced by academic papers, a Google Scholar page is automatically generated. The author just needs to claim it. And don’t forget to add your profile (and link) to Amazon Author Central.

Why don’t more content marketers write books?

Lack of time and lack of forethought. Marketing programs that plan ahead can gradually “blog into a book.” The trick is to outline the chapters in advance and then produce blog articles that can later be combined into long form guides, and eventually a book.

This is a brilliant strategy because all of the content “market-tested” by your audience before you go to print!

Example: Content Chemistry

The idea was to repackage our best content into a more organized, detailed format. Basically, turn our blog into a textbook.

It wasn’t ready yet. When we made the outline for the book in 2012, we found a lot of gaps: topics we hadn’t yet written on the blog. So we spend another year or so blogging on those topics. Once we got to around 80% of the content done in blog format, I spent 6-10 hours per week for several months, shaping it into an actual book.

Then editing, then design, then printing, then?finding the perfect distributor ?who works with self-published authors. So the time invested (after those articles had been written for the blog) was around 200 hours. Design and printing cost were around $8000 total.

After a year or two, we realized that it was out of date. So we updated it in 2014, then again in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Each revision is another 100+ hour project, plus design and printing costs. We’re working on the 6th edition now.

It always felt like an act of faith, but the results are real.

• It’s an excellent “leave behind” in sales meetings
• It’s part of our account-based content marketing program
• Its page on our site has attracted 280 links (yes, book pages are link magnets)
• It’s been?translated into Italian
• It’s used by university-level marketing programs around the world
• It has tons of reviews and endorsements, including this quote from Jay Baer “The most practical book ever written about modern digital marketing.”
• …and it pays for itself. Revenues exceed costs (we’re pretty sure). This report shows $113k in lifetime sales.

Continue to the full article.