What Does a Leftover Halloween Candy Basket Teach Us About Content Marketing?
Halloween has passed, and after looking at a bowl of “fun-size” candy bars, I realized this is a perfect metaphor for content marketing.
We need “fun-size” content — smaller, snackable, memorable content that easily fits in our daily life. There is less waste, less outer coating and more of the sweeter treat inside. We also need to be able to scan the content like trick-or-treaters scan a bucket of candy, so we can make a quick selection and head to the next house.
Audiences are hungry for content, and they want to consume it at a faster pace and on smaller and smaller platforms.
- Snackable. The content is designed for quick, easy, on-the-go consumption by people who are looking at smaller mobile screens.
- Scannable. The content needs to be visual. Charts, graphs, boldface, bullets, images. All designed to help the viewer decide to invest precious time.
- Shareable. Do you want to share it with others? Just like a great taste treat, you want to share the bite-size experience with others and move on.
Snackable content is loud and literal. Highly useful. There is a sweet satisfying feeling after ingesting.
How do you provide the snackable approach for a longer brochure or white paper? Think of each paragraph or idea as a snackable moment. If the person only reads the first few lines and the last few lines, will they get all they need?
Fun-size all your content no matter the overall length.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.