You’ve probably heard people say that they wish they could have bought a property in a nice area fifty years ago. The rationale is that because the land was undervalued ‘back then’ compared to today, it would be a lot easier to make money from it.
But that’s just not true.
Whenever land is cheap, it’s because there has been no work done to make it into something valuable for humans. Fifty years ago, today’s ‘valuable land’ wasn’t valued at all. It was just a barren plot that needed work and patience to make it valuable.
Starting with an Empty Plot
This same argument seems to make its way into content marketing. Everyone thinks there is no point in doing any content marketing now because all the big players have already scooped up the attention.
When we look at someone like Gary Vaynerchuck, for example, it seems impossible to emulate or catch up to him in terms of brand reach or popularity.
And yet, Gary started doing content marketing the same as all of us, with a barren plot of land that nobody was interested in.
All of the best content marketers: Ann Handley, Rand Fishkin, Brian Dean, all started with a blank slate. They had ideas in their heads and the willingness to keep sharing them online. Fast forward five or ten years and they were sitting on a valuable plot of land they’d created themselves.
Building Houses, Then Hotels
One of my marketing mentors, Brad Smith from Codeless, gave me some sage advice when I started out as a content writer. He explained that content marketing is a lot like playing monopoly.
You start small and buy a few small green houses on the cheap streets. Slowly, as your skills and experience grow, you gain the ability to go after nicer locations and eventually put big red hotels there.
In SEO terms that means writing content for long-tail keywords, and slowly building domain authority. Over a few years, you can aim to rank for higher volume general keywords in your niche.
Since he taught me that, I’ve stayed focused on building my brand through content marketing and this simple approach.
Every Content Piece is An Investment
When you create a piece of content for your business or personal brand, you are doing more than writing a blog or recording a video. You are investing in a long term reputation.
The short term benefit of doing content marketing is that you get some online attention to your business, and you help out those who follow you.
But you are also adding another content piece to your website, and slowly building a reputation. Better yet, you are helping Google to see your website as more valuable.
The more content you create, the better your chances of ranking for the terms that your customers are searching for. Eventually, your best pieces of content may appear on the first page of Google. This is the equivalent of having some oceanfront property in your niche.
Growing Your Value Piece By Piece
Whenever I work with a new business to develop a content marketing plan, I explain that they must think long-term. They are building brand trust, reputation, and online domain authority for their website.
Taking a short-term view means they are stuck paying for advertisements forever and can get outbid by another company with deeper pockets.
But when you invest in creating content week after week, month after month, year after year, you create something unbeatable. You build a unique brand position that lasts for years and brings you tons of free, valuable attention.