In or about 1445, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. In the decades and centuries that followed, the dissemination of ideas became increasingly possible and The Renaissance took hold, as writers and artists created astounding works of what we now call “content.” As far as we know, there was no snarky Luddite who proclaimed that there was suddenly “too much content” and that they didn’t want to “add to the problem” by creating more content. No one wrote about da Vinci Shock.

Instead, they channeled their energies into creating even greater works. A kind of competition took hold on a quest for greatness. So, why is this era – similarly a time of rapid introduction and distribution of new ideas – different?

A frequent lament (or is it a copout?) when organizations contemplate a content marketing strategy is that “there’s already so much out there, and our audience is already overwhelmed.”

Ya know what? It’s definitely a copout.

Because the obvious answer to this is to create better content than what is already out there. To deliver something to the audience that no one else is delivering. Or that no one else can deliver. One way to do this is to dive deep… to not worry about creating content that appeals to a mass audience, and to create content that zooms in on specific aspects of your business. To live in the long tail of the Internet. Even if only a few people ever read posts about “How Real Estate Brokers Can Use 1031 Exchanges To Create Tax Advantages,” odds are high that you’ll be significantly closer to landing a new client after they read it. The people who read this granular content are high value readers. They’re not just skimming the Internet; they’re focused on finding solutions. The entity that helps them to understand a more intricate problem is the one that wins at this game.

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This deep-dive content aligns perfectly with the bottom of the sales funnel.

This should be content that focuses on specific situations and demonstrates real subject matter authority. It assumes the audience already knows the basics and doesn’t bother with reeducating them. This content is not designed to accumulate eyeballs on your website; it’s written with the confidence that the audience is already there and is searching for something more.

So, where does this deep-dive content come from?

It comes from a journalistic approach to uncovering stories. Journalists are trained to ask questions and have conversations. They are naturally curious. This is a major reason why we believe that a content marketing effort must be driven by always-on journalists – because when they hear a nugget of a story in the hallway, their ears perk up and they seek out more details.

If one of your salespeople has a conversation with a prospect that focuses on a niche issue, a good brand journalist will uncover that story. She’ll learn about the details that someone else might not think to ask; these details help to bring the story to life and make it truly useful for the audience.

And that journalist has been trained to take those disparate details and weave them into a story that resonates with an audience.

While some folks complain that there’s too much content out there, the truth is that they’re just doing it wrong. They’re afraid to dive below the surface level content because either they can’t do it or they won’t do it.

And that’s your opportunity – dive deep.