I love Throbbing Gristle. Most people have no idea what that is. And if you look it up, you probably won’t thank me. Hint: It’s music. That’s the problem with content marketing dogma.
You can tell me all that you want that TG is unlistenable, that it’s not music, that it’s upsetting. But I love it, and so do many other people. There are no objective, universal criteria, even if some artists get fewer likes or plays on streaming platforms—which is why this post is about content marketers.
Content marketers are not subject-matter experts. Especially not in complex, specialized, institutional topics. They are not the people making buying decisions.
Yet, they have a funny way of using their subjective criteria as universals. They start using terms like “boring” and “unrelatable.” They start falling into Top 40 thinking about traffic, engagement, and rankings. They have their own expertise, but it’s out of context when they forget the difference between contextual and universal.
The truth is, at the time of considering or making a buying decision, a B2B buyer cares very much about that boring, unrelatable thing. They need the details, the throbbing, gristly, gory innards of operational specifics that an average content marketer or general audience couldn’t care less about.
Because it’s the buyer’s job. It’s how their week feels late on a Friday.
Insightful and well-written content that fits the context of their decision may seem boring. And the resulting content is unlikely to rise to the top of any charts. Except, it places on the one chart that matters—how the buyer decides.
You don’t need to be Dua Lipa to get them to listen. You just need to make and play the music that matters.
