I've been watching the B2B Summit from afar thanks to the magic of the Twitter hashtag #b2bsummit16 and Glisser, a platform through which I can see the keynote slides as they're shared.

As a result, I came across a great slide by Joe Pulizzi this morning. It demonstrates the sweet spot where great content marketing lies: between your expertise/skills and your customer's pain points/passion. I happened to be giving a webinar on content marketing for business this afternoon, so couldn't resist sharing it (you can see it in the video attached below).

One of the big errors of content marketing is trying to be all things to all people. It's very easy to get distracted by all the shiny things online and want to become viral. However, these are not tactics that are likely to get you noticed by your target audience.

Instead you should concentrate on creating 'boring' content, that's where the sweet spot lies:

• What questions are your customers asking?
• What search terms are they inputting into your website (and failing to find answers for)? 
• What complex part of your business could you clarify?
• Is there an aspect of your business your customers would find entertaining (nothing wrong with being both fun and boring with your content!)

The shape this content takes doesn't have to be a blog. Content marketing is varied and multiple and the format(s) you choose should be the ones that your audience is most likely to want to digest. So why not try:

• A newsletter
• Social Media Updates (LinkedIn Pulse, Facebook Notes, Snapchat video, etc)
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Interactive content (quizzes, video games, mobile apps, etc).
• Infographics
• Guides
• Webinars
• But also: whitepapers, in-person events like conferences or Meetups, research pieces, etc

The list goes on and is likely to continue to grow.

So, time to stop the scattergun approach and focus on the sweet spot!