Way back in 2013, Velocity published a piece called Crap: Why the Biggest Threat to Content Marketing is Content Marketing.

In it, we warned that, as content marketing went mainstream, the game would change. And that doing content marketing when everyone else was doing it would be a lot harder than in the good old days when it was the exception instead of the rule.

Crap must have hit a nerve because it got more views than anything else we’ve ever done (1.8 million and counting).

And, I think most marketers would agree, it came true.

But what didn’t come true is the idea that 99% of all content marketing would be crap. In fact, most content marketing is not crap at all – the way that, say, 99% of all advertising is crap (which it pretty much is).

In fact, most content marketing is intelligent and clear and credible and fairly well-made.

But most content marketing is missing something important.

Most content marketing has no Mojo.

Why You Need Mojo

It’s middle-of-the-road, tick-the-box, ho-hum, yadda-yadda content that anybody could create and nobody will ever get excited about.

That’s not just a shame, it’s a hugely expensive missed opportunity. Because content with Mojo dramatically, measurably and indisputably out-performs content without Mojo.

I did the math.

A while back, I compared the YouTube views of two films that, on paper, were very similar. Both were public service films for kids about the dangers of playing on railroad tracks.

Both were well made. Both were on-strategy. Both were professionally produced.

The first film (“Be Safe: Always Expect A Train”), earned 11,174 views, Not bad at all for a public service message.

The second film didn’t just do a bit better. It blew the first film out of the water, along the land and off the edge of the Earth.

The second film, at that point, had earned 105,204,671 views (today, it’s over 118 million).

The second film was called Dumb Ways to Die and it’s one of the most successful pieces of content marketing ever created.

It’s a beautiful piece of animation, with a catchy little song, that manages to make people laugh about something as awful as getting hit by a train.

It’s also based on an important psychological insight: that, for kids, fear of embarrassment is way more motivating than fear of death.

Most importantly, Dumb Ways to Die had a heaping helping of the magic ingredient that ‘Be Safe Always Expect A Train’ didn’t have: it had major Mojo.

What is Mojo?

Check out my recent MOJO for content marketing WEBINAR (with slides) where I’ve defined Mojo, shown why it’s so important and provided examples of work that has lots of Mojo and work that has none.

For this post, I’ll boil it down to this:

Mojo = Confidence x Attitude x Energy

Mojo takes a stand.

Mojo gives a shit.

Mojo earns people’s attention – then rewards it.

And, as elusive as it sounds, Mojo multiplies your marketing budget by replacing a so-so piece with a major home run.

Here’s the scientific calculation:

Dumb Ways To Die out-performed the next-best (and not bad at all) rail safety piece by a factor of 9,416.  (That’s 105,204,671 divided by 11,174).

Think about that.

The same topic.

The same goal.

The same market.

The same medium.

The same length.

The same delivery channel.

But the one with Mojo out-performed the one without by over 9,400 times.

Mojo talks, Nojo walks.

Now It’s Your Turn

So here’s what I’m begging you to do:

Take the time and budget and resources that you plan to give to your next ten pieces… and put it all into one. In fact, the Curata marketing team recently found that long-form blog posts — the ones that they put these extra resources into — generate 9x more leads than short-form blog posts.

Here’s one example of a long-form blog post that Curata did, resulting in 14,000+ page views and generating 600+ leads: The Comprehensive Guide to Content Marketing Analytics and Metrics. This post has a whopping 5,000+ words with content marketing frameworks, data and expert insights curated from industry experts.

So make that one piece the very best piece you can possibly make.

And make it the very best piece on the Internet for the topic you choose.

And give it all the Mojo your team can muster – all the confidence in your company; all the attitude you know you’ve got; and all the energy the subject deserves.

Then stand back.

Way back.

And expect a train.

Want more content creation tips? Download Curata’s eBook, Business Blogging Secrets Revealed.