4 Valuable Content Marketing Lessons the Cronut Can Teach You

The cronut is becoming the biggest craze since fried ice cream. Winning the hearts of pastry lovers from around the globe.

Who would resist the combination of a doughnut and a croissant?

According to the black market and the number of copycats, a lot of people cannot resist the tasty treat.

It's described by many the most viral dessert item to date. One day after releasing the product, images of the tasty treat brought 140,000 links back to Dominique Ansel Bakery.

I don't know about you, but I'd love to get my hands on one. Who ever said you cannot have dessert before your meal or even breakfast? The cronut is no longer loved by just foodies, but its market has expanded to international lexicons.

You might be surprised to learn that the food industries biggest craze can play an integral part in ensuring that your content marketing strategy is receiving five stars from your readers.

Here are 4 valuable lessons you can learn from the cronut craze that has taken the food industry by storm.

4 Content Marketing Lessons From the Cronut

1. Be Remarkable

No one was told that their content was remarkable by following the main street and what everyone else was writing about. Stand out from the crowd.

Now that the cronut has taken the world by storm, everyone is taking a stab at creating their cronut. It tends to be human nature to find a trend and latch on to it. Don't let that happen to your content. In an interview Dominique Ansel talked about how the cronut went about being trademarked, "I didn’t think there was a need to trademark and thought, "What respectable chef would so blatantly rip off a product from someone else’s shop?" I was right to a certain degree. None of the chefs I respect have ripped it off."

No one likes a company that rips off their content. Consider taking something that beloved and elevating it to something sophisticated that attracts a following. In other words, find another angle to write about something that's pretty general.

Create your own little piece of heaven for your audience. They'll thank you for it.

Remarkable isn't about stealing someone else's thunder; it's about creating something others haven't thought of. Dominique Ansel says, "You can never predict what ideas will go viral. The only thing you can do is keep producing, keep thinking. Don't hog or save your best ideas. Set them free." That is some really great advice. I couldn't have said it better. When you craft something relevant and remarkable, don't keep it locked away. If you do, your competitors might beat you to the punch.

2. Be Creative

One thing I think many people forget about when writing content for their blog is to showcase their personality. Your readers cannot create a connection with a blog. They make connections with the writers and people at the company. Don't be afraid to step out of the box. That's what Dominique Ansel did. Before May 10, 2013, I bet the idea of a doughnut and croissant hybrid wasn't even a possibility in your mind.

Don't just be creative with your blog. Be creative throughout your content marketing strategy. Take different angles and approaches to covering content. Develop content your audience didn't even know they wanted to read or watch.

If you're a cronut connoisseur then you know, they release a new flavor every month. In the previous months their flavors have included; rose vanilla, lemon maple, blackberry, and coconut. Stop in anytime in September to try fig mascarpone.

Do something that keeps them coming back. Keep your audience on the edge of their seat. Keep them guessing about what you're going to talk about next.

3. Great Content Spreads Naturally

This goes back to quality over quantity. Dominique tested and tested to ensure that the cronut was of high quality. They don't rush the three-day process to produce as many cronuts as possible. The bakery only makes 200 - 250 cronuts a day. If you don't get there pretty early, you might miss the chance to grab the tasty treat.

The morning after the cronut was released, Ansel prepared to open the bakery and found the line wrapped around the block. All it took was a great product and a review on a food review site to generate 140,000 links and a line around the block in just one day. Imagine what the same philosophy could entail for your content.

One way to get your readers to share your content is to make your readers feel something. Your content needs to hit an emotional chord. There's a strong relationship between virality and emotion. According to a Study by the Wharton Business School, the most shared content garnered a strong connection, igniting key emotions of surprise, joy, sadness, anger, or disgust.

If you create remarkable and quality content, people will naturally link to you. Great content is the key to expanding your reach.

4. Nail Your Headline

No one is going to want to read your content if your headline's are dead on. The secret lies in creating a blog title that's concise, descriptive, keyword rich, and shows emotion. You don't want to put them to sleep. Catch their attention with an eye popping or thought provoking headline.

Do you think the cronut would have spread like a wildfire if it's name was longer or plain (giving no indication that it's a hybrid of two breakfast favorites)? Probably not.

Due to the trademark, copycats are left scrambling to find an enticing and different name. Some copycat names include; Cronie, Zonuts, Dossants, Frissants, Croughnuts, and Cro-Nuts.

When writing your blog posts, ensure that your headline answers these three questions.

• Is this blog post valuable?

• Is this post compelling and remarkable? If I stumbled across this article would I read it? (Just because it's your article, doesn't mean that you'd actually be interested in reading it.

• Is this something I should read right now?