What is the Goal of Your Content?
A question every web writer – and every web writer’s client – should ask
While sloughing through post topics, I glanced at Twitter.
A tweet came through from Lorraine Thompson, @WritersKitchen – itself a retweet of Nick Usborne’s, who posted a link to the Web Content Strategy Blog titled An Interesting Content Manifesto.
(Why am I thinking of Kevin Bacon all of a sudden…)
Anyway, this blog post makes a very, very crucial point in regards to content. ALL content.
“Content Manifesto: Don’t create content ABOUT something. Create content IN ORDER TO DO something. To achieve goals. All content should be in service of a goal. If not, cut it.”
In service of a goal. I agree 100%.
But what goal?
Do Something? How about “Spur Reader to Action?”
I have asked clients the question of what goal they want to accomplish with content. Almost every time the answer goes like this…
1. “Just something about the product/service.” (Okay…what?)
OR
2. “It should tell the client about how great our product/service is, how great we are to work with, that we’re the only one to work with…” (See a “self”-evident pattern in there?)
Many clients want the goal of their content to be “talking about themselves.” It’s understandable; if you’re passionate about something, you want to talk about it.
But it’s not the kind of goal you should use when writing content.
Look at that citation again. “Create content IN ORDER TO DO something.” Now obviously, companies want their content to do something.
Like what?
Most would agree that they want their content to spur the reader to action.
Question is…what kind of action?
Examples of Content Goals
Asking questions like this helps us specify the goal for a piece of content. In order to do something, a content’s goal must be specific.
These are a few goals I’ve used when writing content in the past.
- Drive visitors to sign up on a website.
- Get prospects to read an email.
- Reward people for downloading a file or application.
- Encourage readers to consider a product/service in their project plans.
- Educate the reader on specialized information the company has.
- Make people want to bookmark a site and return.
- Encourage visitors to email the company about a project or question.
- Purchase a product/service.
Include Content Goals in Content Strategy? Definitely.
The Web Content Strategy post concludes by suggesting a “page goal” be incorporated into content strategy. Again, I agree. For content to belong in a matrix, it must DO something to forward the company’s overall goals.
Wait a Second, Does This Post Have a Goal Too?
Yep. The blog post you’re reading right now? It was intended to remind you – content must do something. You must decide on a goal for your content. That’s the goal here.
And if you read this far, it means the content succeeded!
To what goal will your next content be in service?
Why is Content Creation “Someone Else’s Problem” When “Anyone Can Write?”
I went to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco yesterday. Had a good time – talked with all sorts of people, listened to some presentations. I was even surprised by a few things coming up soon in IT.
But one thing stuck out. As far as I could tell, I was the only writer there. (No, that’s not as good a thing as you think. Keep reading.)
What’s worse is, I heard talk about content. About aggregating it, managing it, distributing it…
But NOTHING about creating it!
Microblogging, mobile apps, social platforms, CMSes…
…so when’s the content enter the picture? You know, the stuff around which all of those are supposedly built?
“That’s Someone Else’s Problem.” Are You Sure?
I started asking people where they get their content. Who writes it, who photographs it, who designs it and lays it out all nice and neat?
The answers I got were slightly troubling.
- Blank stares
- “Marketing/Web Dev handles that. I don’t know.” (A sales rep at a major expo tells me this?)
- Acquired from customer
- “Not my problem.” (Yes, someone actually said this to me.)
Admittedly, I didn’t question everyone. But not one person told me that they or someone they knew directly was responsible for content creation. Arguably the most important part of any website, marketing strategy, or lead generation material (for, say, a big convention expo)…and nobody knew where it came from!
Look, I’m a writer. I admit that a lot of my livelihood is invested in this topic. But this sort of willful ignorance worries me. When there’s a disconnect between content creation and content use, its effectiveness is drastically lowered.
So “Anyone Can Write” But No One Is?
Let me change focus here a second. The second-biggest objection to outsourcing a content writer is the notion that “anyone” can write content. (The biggest is cost, if you wondered.)
With that in mind, consider the mindset of “someone else’s problem.” If you don’t care about content creation, and you think anyone can write about it? What does that mean?
It means you don’t value your own company’s message.
And if you don’t…then why would you expect customers to?
Worried yet?
