Who’s doing your thinking for you? And what does that say about your organisation? These questions came to mind when I saw yet more great content marketing from First Round Capital. (I’ve written about them before – and their approach is stunningly, monotonously impressive.) This piece works on several levels, like most of the First Round Review stuff. And it’s a lesson for others.

First, the email promo is punchy, complete, grown-up (it’s not link-bait per se, but has a subject line that draws you in) and makes it clear what exactly you’ll read if you click through.

 

Second, the long-form article it links to – directly, no messing around with survey pages or sign-ups – is detailed, practical and laid out simply with appropriate graphics. No stock, no waste, no reading glasses needed.

Third, there’s a video. Video isn’t critical. And, frankly, I’m dubious about claims for its effectiveness when it shows someone talking (as it does here). It’s quicker to read what they said. But people still seem to like TED talks, so I guess I might be wrong. Either way, First Round isn’t forcing the reader to choose. Take the short email version. Read the long-form piece. Watch the video. Do what you like!

Fourth – oh, joy! – this is about the company commissioning the “content”. Again, First Round is a paragon here. Its pieces aren’t about what it does (it’s a VC) or who works there. But they are about the people it knows, the companies it invests in, the companies like those companies. This piece is a great example: the presentation was made at its own CEO summit by a consultant. So the words don’t need to shill for First Round – they are saying, implicitly, “look at what a bunch of smart people we work with. It could be you next. (And why wouldn’t you give us some of your pension fund to invest with such smart people?)”

(Interestingly, the two best conferences I’ve covered in the past 18 months were leadership summits for a private equity house. The insights were stunning. Yet the output was confidential – for attendees only. What a waste.)

In other words, First Round has found its “thought leadership” from people who are genuinely “thought leaders” and allowed the comms professionals – the editor is Camille Rickets, well worth a twitter follow – to present that in a compelling and appropriate format. (That’s what the writers and editors at Content Cloud and Progressive Customer Publishing do, hint hint…)

Check out the now-massive archive of their stuff here. And remember these four lessons:

1. Outreach is vital. Brief, but clear and informative, emails and tweets should explain what the reader is getting – and will get by clicking further. Warning: crappy CRM systems and spammy emails/tweets from other parts of the organisation will poison this well.
2. Go long. Direct marketing guru Drayton Bird cites evidence that most people who will read 250 words of copy will read 2,000. If you have things worth saying, by all means do a TL;DR version, but go as long as it needs. Also: if the opportunity presents (like in this example), infographics and video are fine. If. The. Opportunity. Presents. Try not to manufacture those things for the sake of it.
3. Play to your strengths. Do not commission writers or agencies to do your thinking for you. PLEASE. Find the smart, articulate people in your organisation or among your extended stakeholder group and get them talking to writers and editors about cool stuff. Corollary: do not sell. “Content” is about implied competence, not flogging a dead horse.
4. Be interesting. Maybe you have no smart people, no interesting customers, no innovative suppliers, no great stories. That’s cool – lots of businesses get by without those things. But if that’s the case, don’t come a-knocking to a writer or content agency asking them to produce you something like Wired or The Economist to make you look edgy or on point. Seriously. Save your money. Lots of us here are pretty smart – but what we’re smart about is making words and pictures, apps and web sites, magazines and email read and look great. Your content needs to be about your smarts.