TweetI’m sorry.

It’s possible that the Internet marketers have led you astray.

I’m one of them.  Guilty as charged.

We talk about building huge email lists with automated “drip campaigns.”  We advise our clients to send bulk emails through email marketing software because it is “scalable.”

But this isn’t always the best email marketing tactic.

Here’s why…

The Small List’s Strength Is The Big List’s Weakness

There is no question that building an email list within an email software program is a smart move.  The email software absolutely makes email marketing scalable. If you’ve ever tried to manage a thousand email addresses in Outlook you know what I mean.

But there is a cost associated with sending bulk email.  It’s impersonal.  It’s generic.  And your email recipients are well aware of it.

Yes, yes… I know that you can “insert” a first name into the salutation of the email with email marketing software to make it more personal.  But seriously?  Do you think this is fooling anyone?

When your list is small, consider sending personal email to your list members.  Particularly when you are sending offers to buy products and services.

Absolutely continue to build your email list through an email software program, but know that the reason to use this software is [mainly] because it allows you to manage a large list. There is strength in a massive email list.  The strength of numbers.

But don’t discount the strength of a small email list that you are personally connected with.

TweetClick here to listen to this post

While I was busy rushing a fraternity in college, Bill Gates wrote a prophetic article about the Internet.

It was only 1996, and the genius CEO of Microsoft had already grasped what many tiny business owners (and professional marketers) can’t wrap their head around.

The article was titled:  Content Is King.

Fifteen years later content marketers, like myself, still battle the ghosts of traditional marketing on blogs, webinars and in client’s boardrooms.

Adoption is slow.  But those that come to grips with the statements Bill Gates made in this landmark article are reaping the benefits.

While the article is short, there are boundless lessons to be learned.

On making money on the Internet

GATES: “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.

The television revolution that began half a century ago spawned a number of industries, including the manufacturing of TV sets, but the long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information and entertainment.”

It’s a critical point.

The hardware used to deliver the Internet to end users is only a shred of the commerce resulting from the existence of the Internet.  Sure, hardware manufacturers make money.

But the rest of us use that hardware to generate an audience around the informative and entertaining content we create on that hardware.

On who will participate in the content revolution

GATES: “No company is too small to participate.”

This is the game changer.

Even Gates couldn’t have predicted how cheaply and easily I am writing and distributing this very article.

The only barrier to entry is time and knowledge.  And not necessarily knowledge of the technology. The technology is, for the most part, very simple to use.  No, the knowledge I speak of is knowledge about your market and the type of content they desire.

On the creation and distribution of content

GATES: “One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. In a sense, the Internet is the multimedia equivalent of the photocopier. It allows material to be duplicated at low cost, no matter the size of the audience.

The Internet also allows information to be distributed worldwide at basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are remarkable, and many companies are laying plans to create content for the Internet.”

Gates saw the perfect storm being created for traditional media companies.

The Internet, a medium that is able to create and distribute content with no marginal cost.  In other words, as opposed to The New York Times, there is virtually no additional cost for one person or 1 million people to read this article.  There is no additional cost whether my neighbor reads this post, or someone in Sydney, Australia.

On the quality of online content

GATES: “people … must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will. They need to have audio, and possibly video. They need an opportunity for personal involvement that goes far beyond that offered through the letters-to-the-editor pages of print magazines.”

This statement is a thousand times more true today than in 1996, but for a different reason than Gates posits.   Despite the fact that the adoption of content marketing is slow, there is still more content online now than ever before.  Text, images, audio and video galore.

To gain traction, content must be outstanding.  And it must also be interactive, providing methods for commenting and sharing.

On monetizing content

GATES: “For the Internet to thrive, content providers must be paid for their work. The long-term prospects are good, but I expect a lot of disappointment in the short-term as content companies struggle to make money through advertising or subscriptions. It isn’t working yet, and it may not for some time.

So far, at least, most of the money and effort put into interactive publishing is little more than a labor of love, or an effort to help promote products sold in the non-electronic world.”

Advertising through banner ads and other interuptive tactics has proven to be a dead end for most attempting to monetize content.  Most simply don’t have the volume of “eyeballs” needed to make money from advertising.  Since 1996, the cost of advertising through banner ads, etc has plummeted due to poor conversion and the enormous supply of content publishers.

But the monetization problem has been solved.

As businesses continue to adopt and commit resources to content marketing they are finding a market thirsty for information.  Content that solves problems, inspires them or entertains them.  And they are willing to pay for that content by giving the business permission to continue the conversation through email and social media.

These conversations often lead to sales of traditional products and services.

When will you get it?

The phrase “Content is King” has become a cliche in my business.  Uttered multiple times at every Internet marketing conference in the world and scribbled down in notepads by perplexed looking business owners.

But, despite the wide use of the phrase, content marketing remains a mystery to most businesses.

Business owners simply don’t understand the value of becoming the publisher.  Becoming the medium.  Becoming The New York Times of their industry.

What Gates and others have come to understand is that valuable content is the only form of communication that consumers willingly seek.  It is the content that generates an audience. It is that audience that we make offers to.

It’s your choice.  It will be you, or your competition that will create that audience and make those offers.

Bill Gates gets it.  Do you?