Beware headline generators, formulas and shiny red apples

You see more of them everyday. Ads, blog posts and social media posts talking about the latest headline generator or headline writing formula.

Please.

There are no shortcuts here people. If you want great design, you hire a great designer. If you want great photography, hire a great photographer. Great video? You get the idea.

Heck, if you want a great haircut, you don’t look for a magic formula — you go see a professional at a great barber or salon.

Guess what? If you want a great headline, you need to hire a great writer.

I know, I know. People out there will tell you they have statistics that can prove their generator/formula/magic potion will help you write the best headlines and earn attention all across the kingdom.

When I hear that, it reminds me of scary things, like witches who offer up apples to innocent young girls — “Just take a bite,” she says, “and the prince will fall in love you.”

Sound familiar?

We all know how the story of Snow White goes. Her insecurity is manipulated and she’s fooled into thinking she needs magic to have the best headlines, er, I mean to have the prince fall in love with her. Of course, the prince was already in love with Snow White, as he would prove later, saving her life with true loves fist kiss…but I digress.

There’s no doubt that the arguments being made for magic headline generators are compelling. The apple is, indeed, shiny and looks delicious. But don’t fall for those who would tell you they have your problem solved. If it sounds too good to be true, you know it probably is.

When you start to dream about having the fairest headlines in the land, don’t ask a magic mirror — hire a really good copywriter.

He or she is the real prince of the story and they would love to help you.

Content Marketing: it’s not your grandma’s marketing (unless, of course, your grandma is Betty White)

She’s 93 years old, stars in a show called Hot in Cleveland and has more than one million followers on Twitter (is your grandma even on Twitter?).

She’s Betty White and she’s everything that’s right with marketing today.

In fact she’s proof, I’d argue, that what we know as Content Marketing today will simply be Marketing tomorrow.

Let me tell you why.

See, like typical grandmas, marketing used to be all about the safe and sound. Put your (product related) message where the largest audience is and wait for the world to knock down your door.

Oh, sure, the kids all liked the sugar cookies at grandma’s house, too…because that’s all they had to choose from. But that strategy won’t work anymore, for grandma or brand marketers. There are simply too many other doors that all look the same.

And sugar cookies? Please.

Today’s marketing — Content Marketing — gives people what they want and pulls them toward a helpful brand, rather than pushing a message at them that’s sponsored by a brand. (Yuck.)

News flash brands: people have found ways to avoid these messages; they're even willing to pay not to see them — can’t you see they don’t want them?

The best example may be Betty herself. Is she in a rocking chair at some nursing home playing it safe? No way! She’s rocking hilarious TV commercials for brands like Snickers, hosting her own practical joke show Off Their Rockers and starring on Saturday Night Live.

Let the difference here be a lesson to you, brands. Do you want to sit around pushing advertising messages and waiting for your time to come (looking at you Radio Shack)? Or do you want to get out there and market yourselves with the gusto of one Betty Marion White?

I would recommend the latter.

And it’s official: the word ‘content’ is just too generic

So you’re watching a cooking show and the chef tells you, ‘Now, take some ingredients — you know, good ingredients — mix them together, bake at 350 degrees for an hour.  Viola!'

Or you go to a car dealership and tell the first person you meet, ‘I want to buy a car, a really good car… today.' You’d probably get lots of attention, but it’s doubtful you’re going to get what you need.

Let's face it, like the words 'ingredients' and 'car,' the word content has simply become too generic to be out there on its own.

Content can mean so many things, including: the words on a (digital or printed) page, a photograph, video, movie, story, poem, bumper sticker, billboard, text message, tweet, email, even some commandments carved out of a stone tablet.

It’s all content.

So talking about content alone — especially in the marketing world — just isn’t helpful anymore. But don’t despair, it’s not the end of the marketing world.

All you need to do is provide some context. Are you talking about marketing your brand with content? That’s Content Marketing. Are you talking about defining how your content will be used? That’s Content Strategy. Where and how your content is stored? Content Management. See how it works?

Here’s a handy-dandy chart designed to help:

Doing this?                                                                     Call it this!

Using content to market your brand	Content Marketing
Defining how your content is to be used	Content Strategy
Deciding where & how your content is stored	Content Management
Choosing how content will promote your brand	Content Marketing Strategy
Using others’ content to promote your brand	Content Curation
Allowing others to use your content	Content Syndication
Delivering your content to others	Content Distribution
Determining how your content will be delivered	Content Distribution Strategy

See? It’s easy. So the next time you’re using the word content, please give some thought to including context so your audience will know exactly what you mean.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for my cooking class. Ciao!