In a world obsessed with content creation, it’s easy to get caught up in the pursuit of followers and likes. But while many content creators chase social media fame, others use content marketing to build businesses that generate real revenue. Be intentional about which one you really want because the strategies for achieving fame differ from those that create fortune.
Fame vs fortune
Fame in content creation means having thousands—perhaps millions—of followers. It means viral posts, high engagement rates, and name recognition. Fortune, on the other hand, means having a successful business with healthy revenue, paying customers, and sustainable growth.
Getting famous requires mass-appeal content that resonates with broad audiences. Building fortune requires targeted content that attracts potential customers and moves them through your sales funnel.
Neither path is wrong, but you need to be honest about which one you’re chasing.
The fame trap
Many business owners fall into the fame trap. They create content to attract as many likes and followers as possible without considering whether those followers will ever become customers.
The problem with chasing fame is that it rarely pays the bills directly:
- High follower counts don’t automatically translate to sales
- Likes and comments don’t pay for business expenses
- Building an audience of non-buyers creates vanity metrics, not money in the bank.
Unless your business model depends on sponsorships or advertising revenue, fame alone won’t sustain your business.
Fortune focus
A fortune-focused approach to content marketing prioritises quality leads over quantity of followers. It values engagement from potential customers over engagement from anyone. Most importantly, it measures success in sales and revenue, not likes and follows.
With a fortune focus, you:
- Create content specifically for your ideal customers
- Measure success by conversions, not just reach
- Build relationships with potential buyers
- Focus on solving customer problems.
This approach might not make you famous, but it can make your business profitable.
Content marketing for real results
If building a fortune is your goal, here are some strategies to transform your content marketing from a fame-seeking exercise into a fortune-building machine:
Know your customers deeply
Create detailed profiles of your ideal customers. What problems do they face? What solutions are they looking for? Where do they spend time online? What content formats do they prefer?
The better you understand your customers, the more effectively you can create content that speaks directly to them and their needs.
Create a strategic content plan
Rather than posting whatever feels right in the moment, develop a content plan tied to your business goals:
- Awareness content to introduce new people to your business
- Consideration content to help potential customers evaluate your solutions
- Decision content to convert interested prospects into buyers
- Retention content to keep existing customers engaged and buying.
Each piece of content should serve a specific purpose in your customer journey.
Build owned media assets and channels
Social media platforms can change their algorithms or disappear entirely. Build content assets you control:
- A business blog on your website
- An email newsletter that goes directly to subscribers
- Videos hosted on your own platforms
- Downloadable resources that capture contact information.
Owning your media gives you direct access to your audience without platform interference.
Implement clear calls to action
Every piece of content should guide readers toward taking the next step with your business. This might be:
- Subscribing to your newsletter
- Downloading a free resource
- Booking a consultation
- Making a purchase.
Without clear calls to action, even the best content fails to generate business results.
Focus on conversion, not just consumption
Create content designed to convert. This means:
- Addressing pain points your products or services solve
- Demonstrating your expertise and unique approach
- Including customer success stories and testimonials
- Comparing your solutions to alternatives.
Conversion-focused content might attract smaller audiences, but those audiences will be far more likely to become customers.
Measure what matters
Track metrics that relate to business outcomes:
- Website traffic from content
- Time spent on sales pages
- Email sign-ups from content offers
- Sales attributed to content marketing
- The lifetime value of content-sourced customers.
These metrics tell you whether your content is building fortune, not just fame.
Finding the balance
While the distinction between fame and fortune is important, the best content marketing strategies recognise that some degree of visibility is necessary for business growth. The key is to pursue visibility with the right audiences for the right reasons.
Some content can serve both purposes—building your reputation while also attracting potential customers. Case studies, for instance, can showcase your expertise to a broad audience while also demonstrating the specific results you’ve achieved for clients.
Three content types that drive sales
- Problem-solution content: Identify common problems in your industry and show how your product or service solves them. This positions you as helpful while highlighting your offering.
- Educational content: Teach your audience something valuable related to your business area. Educational content builds trust and positions you as an expert worth paying for.
- Social proof content: Share customer testimonials, case studies, and reviews. Nothing sells your business better than satisfied customers telling their stories.
Moving from fame to fortune
If you’ve been creating content focused primarily on building an audience, you can shift to a more business-focused approach:
- Audit your existing content to identify pieces that could be optimised for conversion
- Develop a clear customer journey and map content to each stage
- Create offers specifically for your existing audience
- Test different calls to action to see what resonates.
The transition might cause a temporary dip in engagement as some followers who were never going to buy drift away, but your content will begin working harder for your business.
The bottom line
Content marketing can be a powerful tool for building either fame or fortune. The choice is yours, but be deliberate about which you want. If your goal is building a sustainable, profitable business, focus your content efforts on activities that drive revenue, not just likes that take as much time to dish out as a blink of an eye.
