A Game of Thrones is without a doubt the most intricate stories to have been adapted for screen in some time.

But what makes it stand out so much isn’t the violence, sex and intrigue – we had plenty of that on our screens already.

It’s the brutal reality.

Of course, it’s set in a fantastical world – I know that, you know that, and that is what gives us some semblance of comfort. 

But when we really look at A Game of Thrones, I mean really look, what we’re seeing is a reflection of ourselves.

We see our own society staring right back at us.

As Damien Walter once wrote in an article for The Guardian: 

When we look up from the page we recognise those same conflicts in the world around us and in ourselves.

And what we see is a brutal truth: It’s survival of the fittest.

But what does fittest really mean? The strongest? The fastest? The biggest?

No, no and no.

The fittest are the innovative and subtle schemers, the ones who can adapt to new circumstances the fastest and the characters who take on leadership roles with an air of caution.  

Is content marketing so different, really?

With this in mind, let’s look at some of the lessons that the 5 major houses in A Games of Thrones  can teach us about surviving, adaptation and leadership.

I’m all about getting bang for your buck.

And if you’re a start-up, I’m sure you are too.

Well luck is on your side!

There are a ton of free tools for start-ups on the web, so you can easily save money now (when you need it most) without having to sacrifice the quality of your business. 

1. Evernote

Putting your writing on the internet for everyone to see, comment on and criticize isn’t an easy thing to do. It takes courage to face an audience and say: “Here it is. Here are my words. Here are my thoughts”.

We’re all afraid of being judged, and it’s really hard to hear that your writing isn’t up to scratch.

But even though we all know negative criticisms aren’t exactly fun, we have to remember that they are a huge part of the learning process.  

Sourcing free images can take a lot time and hard work. 

But we do it anyways, because we understand it’s probably one of the most important things to succeeding at content marketing for your business.

After writing excellent content, that is.

But chances are, no one will stick around long enough to read your excellent content if you’re just providing them with a huge block of text. 

Times have moved on. 

We’re much more easily distracted now.

In fact, our attention spans are worse than a goldfishes.

And our brain processes images 60,000 times faster than it does words.

Good job, brain.

This is a guest blog post by Maggie Chuang.

In our increasingly cyber-reliant world, true personability is becoming harder to convey. A lot of exchange and transaction are increasingly taking place digitally, often without speaking at all.

Blogging is a wonderful tool to deliver humanity in a digital age. Its freestyle format lets length, content, and volume become entirely within your control. This freedom allows for the real you, the voice of your company, to shine through.

But if your blog entries consist mainly of product or service promotion, chances are you’re taking the risk of boring your readers.             

Once upon a time, there was a lonely prince locked up in a tall tower. On his shoulders was the burden of the world (or at least, his business. Which kind of felt like his entire world).

Day in and day out the Prince would sit hunched over in the dark, shut in from the world, his nimble fingers working hard to produce content that would one day lead him to freedom.

But the days soon turned into years, and he became so tired.

So one night, while gazing out of his window, wondering what he was doing wrong, he saw a shooting star pass before his eyes.

Feeling a little foolish, but like he had no other options on hand, he very quietly made a wish.

This is a guest blog post by Michelle Nickolaisen

You’ve probably been told that blogging is a must-do for your business – after which you nodded, put it on the list of things to do, and moved on to something else. But did you know that small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those without? (Source)

Today’s post addresses one of the most common problems business owners have with blogging: making the time from “just started blogging” to “actually getting customers and clients through my blog” as short as possible.

The key to a blog that actually sells your products and services? An editorial calendar.

The latest marketing stats suggest that 74% of consumers prefer to receive commercial communications through their email. 

But if this true, then why are people still choosing to unsubscribe from certain emails?

Figuring out where you went wrong is the first thing you need to do to stop those numbers dropping.

And that’s why I’ve compiled a list of the top 9 reasons people might be unsubscribing from your emails (and how to stop them, of course!)

Quality versus quantity is the question on a lot of content marketers’ minds right now.

It’s the same type of questions all over my news feeds.  

Which is better? Where should our priorities stand? If we have to create a huge quantity of content, where will we find time for quality content? What if I spend a lot of time on quality content and it doesn’t pay off? Will I have to pull 16 hour days to get this done? Will the quality of my regular content suffer? Will this make me lose customers? Is it worth the risk?

In summary: There’s too much to do, too little time, too little confidence.

But I’m here to try change your tune.

I’m going to convince you, with all the energy I can muster up, to start creating big content.  

There’s a lot of content marketing myths circulating the web and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fiction. 

But finding out the facts is crucial to business.

Why?

Because working off of incorrect information is just asking for trouble.

It’s like punishing a dog for eating a kid’s homework. We all know the dog didn’t eat the homework. Dogs don’t even like paper!   

I really don’t want you jumping to any conclusions about content marketing.  I don’t want you to make any decisions based off myths. And I certainly don’t want you to blame the dog for something he didn’t do. 

Instead, I want you and your business to work to the best of your abilities, and that means being informed about the facts.  

So that’s why I’ve trawled through the internet and found the most reoccurring and popular myths around, and have worked to debunk them so that you don’t have to.