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Between the Lines

The ‘Marker’ Guide to Content Marketing for Non-Hucksters

If the term content marketing upsets you, feel free to replace it with a synonym like 🤮

Byrne Hobart
Marker
Published in
13 min readOct 29, 2019

Credit: Yuri_Arcurs/Getty

II hate the term “content marketing.” I’m 100% opposed to calling anything I write “content,” and 100% opposed to thinking of anything I do as “marketing,” so I’m already 200% against content marketing. Sadly, that’s the word for something I do, and something I think more people ought to try.

If the term “content marketing” upsets you, feel free to replace it with a synonym like 🤮.

The basic idea is: there is a lot of money in being an expert, relative to being merely 90th percentile. If you don’t have the right combination of natural talent and a superhuman work ethic, you probably won’t be #1 at any job the average person has heard of. But if you define yourself more narrowly, particularly at the intersection of a couple things you do well, you can be #1. And thanks to the power law distribution of search clicks and salaries, it is vastly better to be #1 in a category that matters to a few people than to be even very good at something with broader appeal.

Take Scott Adams. He’s tricky to use as an example, because most people don’t have a ton of respect for his comics…

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Marker
Marker

Published in Marker

Marker was a publication from Medium about the intersection of business, economics, and culture. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Byrne Hobart
Byrne Hobart

Written by Byrne Hobart

I write about technology (more logos than techne) and economics. Newsletter: https://diff.substack.com/

Responses (8)

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A refreshing read in an ocean of regurgitation. Thanks for thanking the time!

But if you write the stuff you’d like to read, you’ll meet similar people, and they’re people who have read the stuff you’d like to read, too

The single best line in an overall outstanding piece! Very thoughtful, sharp and incisive. This is the quality I would like to see in every Medium piece I read. Excellent!

This answered two questions I’ve been struggling with: Why, as a writer, I’m supposed to have an email list, and whether it’s naïve idealism not to write boring, mass-appeal posts to try to amass views…thanks!