In today’s marketing Content is King. However, a wise man once said: “No King rules forever, my son.” This stands true as more and more people experience Content Shock in their lives. But what is Content Shock, really? Does it apply to the B2B market?
Mark Schaefer coined the term, after he realised how totally overwhelmed we are by content in our everyday lives. Nielsen‘s studies show that the amount of content people consume daily has grown from two hours to eleven hours since the 1920s.
Only 24 Hours in a Day
In the first few years of the 2010s, the average amount of content people consume daily had increased by two hours a day. We can attribute this to mobile devices. This still stands true today, as the average minimum media consumption in 2020 was above 10 hours.
This is basically the amount of time we spend awake, and this is what Content Shock is. It is the inescapable barrage of information and content that surrounds us at home and at work. Because of Content Shock people are either disinterested in new content, or it just gets lost in the ocean of content overload.
Is There a Solution to Content Shock?
Thankfully, organisations are not entirely powerless in their struggle. Identifying niche markets is one of the potential solutions. B2B companies have an advantage in this regard, as their audience is inherently narrow and specialised. In addition to being more interested in otherwise considered ‘boring’ industry focused articles.
However, regardless of segment a good practice is to find out what makes us exceptional, and then create exceptional content based on that. While keeping in mind that the market is already vastly oversaturated, which means that any breakthrough will take a time. But with perseverance our efforts will return the investment.
Another key is differentiation based on research. Companies are fighting for the finite, thus extremely valuable, attention of customers. Therefore we must research what people are interested in. We need to ask what the status quo is, and then try to – reasonably – differentiate ourselves from it.
For their Content Marketing to be effective, organisations have to offer a new interesting perspective. If we just repeat what the largest companies say, no one will hear our voice, because money speaks the loudest.