If you’re a marketer, you know content marketing is the flavor of the month. If you’re an experienced marketer, you know content marketing isn’t really anything new. When I started, it was called marketing communications.

Throughout my career, regardless of what we called it, the goal has always been the same: share useful information that helps customers solve their business problems in the hope they do something you want them to do, like return to your site, subscribe to your newsletter or download your latest white paper.

What Isn't Working

BuzzFeed has become one of the most popular sites in history, by taking a few content marketing principles and stretching them until they scream. The 47-word, keyword-laden, linkbait headline (like the one we put on this post, natch) has become the norm. It’s tempting for marketers to try to be more like them. The problem is, people are getting sick of it. It might work, but apparently spam emails work, too. And robocalls. That doesn’t mean we as marketers should emulate these tactics.

Why are people getting sick of being promised “amazing” revelations and stories “they won’t believe”? Because usually those stories aren’t amazing at all and are completely believable. At best, they’re mildly interesting. When you write a grandiose headline like that, you’re misleading your audience. You’re promising something you can’t deliver. You’re setting them up and disappointing them. And since when has that been good business practice?

What Does Work

Marketers, resist the urge. Offer useful, informative, practical content. Create content that makes your readers' lives easier. Share content that makes them laugh. Show them you understand what’s keeping them awake at night and offer some solutions. That’s the way to build a loyal readership who will read, bookmark, and share your content.

Here’s another way to look at it: In the past few weeks, I’ve seen posts on major sites suggesting we’ve all been using those little paper fast-food ketchup cups wrong, and that getting ketchup out of a bottle is nearly impossible unless you follow the helpful tip contained in the post. Ask yourself this question: If you’re marketing to people too stupid to use ketchup, how long do you expect to stay in business?

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