5 Practical (No Theory) Examples of Content Marketing Principles

See 5 content marketing principles applied with your own eyes.

Table of Contents

1. Category - The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

The first principle is about niching down. We’ve got to be specific enough for the person who views the content to know that it’s going to interest him.

When I just started on YouTube, I used to do self-improvement book reviews(see image 1), which is very general, and really didn’t have a lot in common with each other (Biography, Veganism, Forex on the image).

After reading “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” by Al Ries and Jack Trout and a few other books, I decided to niche down to just marketing book summaries(Image 2). And so, people would know what to expect, and be more likely to subscribe or come back to the channel.

Also, to make the channel unique I’ve decided to focus on animated summaries, thus making it the only channel which focuses on both marketing books and animation. ( Well, I only know of one which had 2 summaries at the time )

2. Systems - The E-Myth Revisited

"If your business depends on you, you don't own a business - you have a job. And it's the worst job in the world because you're working for a lunatic!"

Michael E.Gerber - The E-Myth Revisited Tweet

What is a business system? It’s a list of detailed checklists which include instructions on how to perform every task in your business step-by-step.

When you have such a list and you follow it, it results in a few benefits.
– There’s no chance you’ll forget something.
– You know exactly what you should do, so you work faster.
– You may teach someone else to do it, without worrying that the job quality will suffer.

Only this way the business could become predictable, and not depend on one superstar person, or on the mood of each employee.

Below are the steps in my blog post/YouTube video system(Image 3), and the details of the image attributions system(Image 4).

3. Return Every Handshake - Superfans

In his book “Superfans” Pat Flynn explains the importance of creating true connections.
A 1000 of those connections that become a 1000 true fans are enough to make a good living.

Answering each and every one of your comments ( Well, as much as possible ) contributes greatly to great relationships which increases the chance of people becoming your true fans.

Below are examples of interacting with people in my YouTube comments.

4. Write Shorter Blog Posts - Everybody Writes

"A good writer knows what to leave out"

Donald Miller Tweet

I used to write long and all inclusive blog posts and video summaries, but after some books including Everybody Writes by Ann Handley, I’ve decided to make shorter blog posts which will concentrate on even less things and cut down even more to the essence.
And so, from single posts of an example length of 4000 words(Image 7), I cut it down to double posts with about a 1000 words each(Images 8 and 9).

5. Answer Questions of Your Audience with Video - They Ask, You Answer

In my 10 Free Audiobooks landing page I used to just have a download now button and a description (See Image 1)

But then after listening to “They Ask, You Answer” by Marcus Sheridan I decided to answer the question that the viewer probably has in his mind “What will happen when I fill out this form?”