At Blended Sense we understand your frustration as a small to medium-sized business owner. You need content and a digital content strategy, consistently, just to stay relevant in an ever-changing landscape:
Before we arrive at the crescendo of content and content strategy, here are few up-front reasons to invest in digital assets:
Creative content is no longer a choice. It’s now an essential part of your business’s daily operations. Without it you’re yesterday’s luke-warm start-up, or worse, one of the sad statistics that devastate so many small businesses.
Data provided from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that 20% of small to medium businesses fail within their first year, and 50% fail by their 5th year. One of the biggest reasons for this unnecessary failure is shoddy marketing, and a lack of creative content!
That means that out of 31.7 million businesses started this year in the U.S., at least 6.3 million won’t make it. Don’t let yours be one of them.
The irony is that no matter what service you provide or product you sell, content is still king.
There’s a reason the biggest company in the world does little more than aggregate content and present it to people.
Google can put you on their first page or relegate you to the dusty basement on page 320 where no one ever finds you. YouTube, owned by Google, is based on content too.
FB, Tiktok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Youtube are all aggregating content to present the most creative, eye-catching, ear-popping consumables the world has ever witnessed. How do you get your company to the top of those lists?
Unless you’re a celebrity like Beyonce that constantly gets free press, you’ve got to get a handle on your digital content.
A single Instagram post by Queen Bay is apparently worth several million, but even without 1.5 million followers, you can grow your business with a savvy digital marketing plan.
Beyonce isn’t the only one who knows how to use content to her benefit. According to marketing master Neil Patel, companies are making a killing off of content alone.
Gizmodo, Techcrunch, and The Huffington Post make millions in annual profits.
Nerd Wallet, makes millions in annual profits, and it’s likely to turn into a billion-dollar business.
These companies, and thousands more started as small businesses.
For TechCrunch alone, it took over 640 investors to help it grow into the juggernaut it is today.
There is perhaps nothing more consummate of Da Vinci’s sly imagination and an entire era’s full gangsta lean into creativity than the Mona Lisa’s smile.
It’s also the secret to GREAT content.
We aren’t in the 16th century anymore but there is a Renaissance of creativity and thought brewing that are reminiscent of this incredible age.
At Blended Sense, we get it. We know that creativity runs everything. When you let it. No matter the era, and the preferred art form of the time.
When Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in the 1500s, an uprising of thinkers were experiencing a “rebirth” of creative impulse that blended with other intellectual phenoms.
This created a “network effect” although they didn’t then use this term.
Philosophers, artists, musicians, scientists, and creatives emboldened an era we still can’t talk about enough. Our interest in this time of intellectual flowering has now continued unabated for more than 500 years.
During the Renaissance, the astronomer, psychiatrist and polymath, Galileo, invented a telescope that let him view far-away planets, and developed the idea of a heliocentric universe that eventually led to his house arrest.
Lorenzo De Medici and his family bankrolled dozens of artists, writers, and musicians to help spread a revival of thought that Europe desperately needed.
We live today in a time that is vastly different –– but is it?
Imaginative content creation for businesses in the modern world is an art and a science, just like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Beyonce’s latest performance may not be as timeless as this quintessential painting, but they each get eyeballs. And lot’s of them.
Experts suggest that the smile in this epic work is derived from Leonardo’s scientific research into optics. He learned that light does not enter the eye from a single point, but hits the whole retina. This accurate painting of light in a person’s eyes gives his subject life and character.
Our human capacity to blend art and science is no less fierce, and just as priceless now as it was then.
Today we use artificial intelligence or AI and data to augment our “works” of art, be they paintings, graffiti, cinematography, music, digital graphics, writing, dance, or any other of endless art forms.
We use data and AI to refine our reach, and to touch more people with our originality and artistry. However, AI multiplies what is inherent in human beings (creativity) and has been since the Renaissance, and well before even this monumental oeuvre honoring human ability.
Many lament artificial intelligence and the increasing use of data as a means to reach people, but in the end, it is our humanity that truly reaches one another.
It is the Galileo in us that refuses to bend to the common perception of how the world works. It is also the artist who paints a picture or tells a story like no other can.
It is the individual painter, singer, writer, photographer, and upstart that is ready to use their creative acumen to influence others like a proverbial pebble dropped in a lake, making successive waves that reach all the way to far off shores.
The network effect of numerous creative individuals collaborating and sharing their ideas has multiplied exponentially in the modern world. Not only do we see a network effect in computing power, but we see it in the ingenious and innovative ideas across every industry and sector of life.
As Thoren Rodriguez writes in Tech Republic, “Network effects are some of the strongest forces in the world of technology today. They are partly responsible for the success of both traditional software, such as the Windows OS, and of services such as Google and Facebook.”
The network effect is also one of the strongest effects in the hybridization and spread of human creativity.
We know that creatives are often overlooked in the world, but we’re about to change all that. Again.
There’s an art and a science to content creation, but Blended Sense knows it’s based on creatives around the world that are underutilized and undervalued.
Austin, TX, the home base for Blended Sense, is representative of many vibrant cities. Austin is known for its artistic and original community, but it doesn’t have a patent on creative thought.
In fact, one study that uses data-driven profiles shows that the U.S. is bursting with creative cities aside from well-known hotbeds like New York, and Los Angeles. There are more than 392 MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) with creative zeal. These are cities that impact the revenue generation and industry earnings of not just creative individuals, but every imaginable sector.
Moreover, AustinTX.org’s 2012 study reveals that this single city’s creative industries generate $4.3 billion in economic activity, $71 million in city tax revenue, and more than 49,000 jobs.
Bizjournal says that most of Austin’s creatives are clustered near the University of Texas, and South Lamar Boulevard, but they are everywhere, and their numbers are growing. Around 120 people move to Austin daily, and more to surrounding Austin areas.
At Blended Sense, we think $4.3 billion just scratches the surface of any creative city’s true potential. Our aim is to upset every industry by providing even more access for creatives to industry, and industry to creatives.
Some additional super creative cities are:
Along with the creative capacity inherent in any vibrant city, you need to add a touch of science. This is where smart data comes in.
Add expert search engine optimization (SEO) along with your content creation, and your business is practically unstoppable.
Solid SEO along with great content induces both on-page and off-page SERP to help your business rank better on search engines, YouTube, and every social media platform you can shake a stick at.
SEO is what helps great content find its right audience. If you have the most incredible YouTube video ever, it isn’t going to rank or go viral as easily if you don’t use good meta tags, titles, and a thorough SEO’d description.
At Blended Sense we create great content AND great content strategy.
Blended Sense is a data-driven platform with a human-centered ideology. We match your content needs with creative professionals and you choose the “blend” of content types you like to propel your business into the stratosphere. You might even need Galileo’s telescope to see just how far you can go.
Get started with data-driven, creativity-induced content creation NOW. We deliver creatively curated content monthly, so you can run your business like a rock star – even if you’re not one.
