On all The Walking Dead quizzes I’ve taken, the results always show that I’m a Carol (TWD fans, you know what I mean).

But we’re not fighting actual walkers (or Saviors) – just the zombiefication of legal content marketing that’s been happening over the last couple of years as the patina wears off on our shiny new toy of content. Who’s with me?

This week, we’re looking at the second tactic that Shane Snow of The Content Strategist outlines in his piece for combatting content zombies, and that’s data – YAY DATA!

Tech-enabled and data-optimized content

Now I’m really worried that I’m losing some of you, as this will be well-outside of your comfort zones. But really, we’re talking about a lot of the same things we’ve always talked about – producing more of the content that your audience wants.

Doing that means looking at data, which sounds like a terribly boring thing. Snow keeps with his television theme for us, and injects it with some interest, illustrating how to do this in a way that’s concrete and purposeful. He walks us through Netflix’s decision to move from offering streaming of other companies’ television shows and movies to purchasing their own show for the first time – House of Cards.

Through its data, Netflix knew three things: People who watch Kevin Spacey movies tend to watch all the way to the end. People who watch David Fincher movies tend to watch lots of David Fincher movies. And people who watch the British House of Cards tend to watch it all at once and all the way through.”

With that data, giving House of Cards the greenlight seemed like a no-brainer. And Snow confirmed “Based on the number of new subscribers Netflix picked up because of the show, the company’s $100 million bet paid off in under three months, according to analysis by The Atlantic.”

Netflix isn’t making predictions with a crystal ball. They’re using lots of data, that they have access to based on their existing customers, to predict future consumption behavior. And entertainment isn’t the only place where this makes sense. Snow says:

A relatively small number of super loyal subscribers paying Netflix $8 a month is more profitable than a huge number of viewers tuning in to a commercial on CBS. In the same way, a relatively small number of loyal readers or viewers can be worth much more to a brand than a bunch of one-off ad impressions.

This is the way the future will work in every content medium, not just television. The creators and companies that make smart use of data and tech will have a huge advantage over the rest.”

Read more: http://www.zenlegalnetworking.com/2017/01/combatting-the-zombiefication-of-legal-content-marketing-with-data/