10 Content Marketing Rules for 2020

Back in 2016, I wrote up and introduced the concept of the 10 rules of brand content. Those content marketing rules got shared widely and even made their way into our presentations back when I ran the agency side of my former company, Toast Studio. But the content marketing landscape moves fast, and social media algorithms get tweaked and adjusted every single day. It’s time for an update: the 2020 edition of these rules.

Why do we need rules at all?

Honestly, we don’t.

Back at my former agency, it started out more as a marketing stunt. Think of these rules less as commandments and more as best-practice suggestions — a checklist, or a mental tattoo that guides our strategy. In my case, they’re the result of months of thinking and working through problems with clients.

As we navigate content bubbles filled with noise of every kind, it’s important that our message stays relevant and actually gets heard. Setting a few rules for ourselves helps us raise the quality of our work, protect good practices, and hit the goals we’ve set out for ourselves.

The 2016 rules

These rules had the advantage of being short, simple, and pretty obvious. They cast a wide net. Here’s a quick reminder:

• Don’t be boring
• It’s not about you
• Keep it simple
• Tell a story
• Trigger FOMO
• Have an unfair advantage
• Build partnerships
• Publish where your audience is
• Be useful
• Break the rules (duh!)

Do these rules still hold up? Maybe. At the very least, they’re still useful, but they read more like a way of seeing and approaching content creation than actual rules to follow. For 2020, these “suggestions” can be sharpened and expanded with new rules that are even clearer, more precise, and above all more useful.

So without further ado:

The 10 content marketing rules, 2020 edition

#1 – If you’re boring, you pay more

This rule means two things.

First, you’re going to pay one way or another, but you’ll pay more if you’re boring. Pay-for-play is a reality, and brands need to accept that they have to pay to be seen and heard. Fair enough — before social media even existed, that was already the case. Sure, you can hope to reach your goals through sheer effort, word of mouth, and organic reach. But even the most viral crowdfunding campaigns needed a little media-buy boost to get their organic reach off the ground.

Second, if you’re boring, you won’t earn that organic bonus. In fact, if you’re boring, your message will literally drown in an ocean of content. People will treat your message as noise, and you’ll be forced to spend even more money — or outright interrupt people — just to get them to consider your message. Don’t go there! You have to pay to be seen, that’s a fact. But those who publish truly great content, the kind that genuinely interests and excites an audience, will hold an edge over everyone else.

Small extra note: just because your targeting costs more doesn’t mean it’s bad. Sometimes certain audiences simply cost more to reach. What matters in the end is the quality of the audience (not the quantity) and the return on investment.

#2 – Content marketing is a relationship

Whenever I told an entrepreneur or a VP of marketing “it’s not about you,” they’d frown — and rightly so. In the end, that was a pretty bad rule, or at least a poorly explained one.

The real trick is to sync up your expertise, your know-how, and your product with your target audience’s needs and desires. You’re a leader, so what you offer is leadership and expertise. The client isn’t trying to buy your product — or as Seth Godin would put it: the client doesn’t want your beautiful drill, they want a 3/4-inch hole.

The starting point is always the client’s needs, their interests, their problems, their values. Content marketing isn’t in service of your company’s product — it’s in service of the relationship with the client.

Sometimes you have to see it as a separate product from your physical one, or even an extension of your products, one that serves other functions beyond the product or service you sell. In other words, inbound marketing, content marketing, shouldn’t start from a sales objective. Sales are a consequence of a great relationship with your audience. And good content is the path to loyalty.

Small extra note: be careful — sometimes your product and its function are exactly the type of content your audience is looking for. That’s the case, for instance, in spirits marketing.

#3 – You’re 100% responsible (for the outcome… and the relationship)

When you put on your expert hat, your source hat, your reference hat, you become the authority on the subject. You put your credibility and talent forward by producing content. Your role is to bring more clarity to your audience — to illuminate them, to show them the way. Even more important than simplicity is clarity. Clarity is your leadership in action. You’re there to blaze the trail.

Ultimately, the relationship isn’t one of equals. On your end, you have an intention: to grow. To get there, you have to demonstrate leadership and authority. And to do that, you’re responsible for having a clear, precise message.

Small extra note: I recommend reading Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. It’s primarily a personal development book, but the attitude it proposes applies just as well to brands.

#4 – The most important things need to stay the most important things

Loosely inspired by author Stephen Covey, who said: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Succeeding at content marketing means delivering the right content to the right person at the right time. But to get there, what actually matters most? The message, the headline, or the way the message is delivered?

You’d think the message is what matters most.

Actually, in order, it’s exactly this:

Context > headline > content

Context is the channel, the moment, the type of content. To reach your audience, you need to know where they are and why they’re there. Next comes the hook — the title, the headline, the status update that pulls the person further in. Finally, there’s the content, the message itself.

Bottom line: be smart about your priorities and don’t get lost in artistic or vanity considerations. In marketing, as in football, there are plays that always work well. Start with those.

#5 – Have a plan

Break the rules

Marketing is like a conspiracy. You need to conspire with your accomplices to make sure you succeed. Success is planned. Building a content marketing plan means influencing the future so it unfolds the way you want it to.

So even more important than breaking the rules is having a plan. It might sound obvious, but I can confirm it’s common to see companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that don’t have a content marketing plan.

But what does having a plan actually mean? It’s simply:

• Thinking through our objectives
• Finding the useful data
• Getting our ideas down on paper
• Sketching out a customer journey that features our content
• Building a calendar
• Producing the content pieces
• Publishing
• Regularly tracking our campaigns

Small extra note: content marketing isn’t like launching a rocket into space. There are tons of sites out there that walk you through exactly how to do it.

#6 – One person at a time

Marketer Neil Patel points out that we should spend 20% on creation and 80% on promotion. These days, publishing or even promoting isn’t enough. Social media shouldn’t be seen as ONE commitment you have with thousands of people, but as thousands of individual commitments you have with each person.

Every person in your audience has the potential to become a customer, a fan, or be converted into an ambassador. Every interaction or share can make a difference.

So once a piece of content is published, the real work begins — one person at a time. Make sure every engagement from your audience is acknowledged and responded to.

Small extra note: you can use tools to make this work easier, like Buffer, Agorapulse, Hootsuite, or Sproutsocial.

#7 – Know who you are and why you’re doing it

Before you begin, you need to know who you are and where you want to go. The first step is finding your DNA, your mission, and your tone. You don’t need to look far — a brand is a reflection of the people behind it.

Next, think about what you want others to see in your brand and the kind of relationship you want to build through your marketing. Finally, as a bonus, if you manage to own a content niche, you’re on the road to success.

Small extra note: avoid creating empty engagement. There’s nothing worse than wasting your time with an audience that isn’t a good fit for you.

#8 – If it doesn’t get shared or spread, it’s dead

“If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead” – Henry Jenkins

For the lucky ones who’ve already had a post go viral, you’ve probably noticed: it’s in the first few minutes or first few hours that you know whether you’re looking at a success or a massive success.

Given the way social media is designed, a piece of content’s success is decided in the first few hours, and it depends on too many factors to always draw a clear, immediate conclusion (e.g., the weather that day, the day’s news, people’s mood, etc.).

You have to accept this very “lottery-like” reality of social media. The same post, with a few different words, or published on a different day, might have succeeded. With time and trial and error, you’ll find angles that work.

Repost your content often, rewrite it, break it apart across every platform you can!

#9 – Keep it simple

This rule stays; it’s really the only one that does, but it’s also one of the most important.

Keep it simple, stupid. In marketing, as in everything else, the moment things get complicated, you lose people’s attention. People don’t have the time or the will to watch your brand video talking about yourself. They’re not interested in reading your five-page founding story. Deliver your content in small bites, one simple, clear message at a time.

Small extra note: when in doubt, do it anyway. As they say, come as you are! Be yourself, document, and show up every day.

#10 – Consistency is key

Content marketing isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. Building an audience takes time and effort. The return on investment is often slow to materialize. We live in an era where we want results fast. But content marketing is, first and foremost, a way of building a powerful lever. Once you get that lever, it’s easy to lose it if you’re not consistent.

Repetition matters too. If you change your key message every week, your future customer won’t have time to form a clear picture of you. To paraphrase Seth Godin: change your message when your accountant tells you to!