How (and Where) Will Skimping on Content Cost You?
You may have sacrificed your website’s greatest strength.
I know, I know. You needed to save money. The go-live deadline was breathing down your neck like a rhino with halitosis. Clients are complaining. Just get the site up, we need X Y and Z!
So you went ahead and did it.
You skimped on the content.
(*minor-key piano!*)
Why Did You Do That?!
Maybe you succumbed to the “talk about ourselves” temptation.
Or tasked the writer to come up with a whole website’s content with barebones source material, and wound up with sparse content.
Or maybe you just put content development off until the last minute and wound up missing a piece of the website’s puzzle 3 days before launch.
Whatever the reason, the end result is the same. The website LOOKS great – nice clean layout, colorful, easy to navigate. Except the pages read like an stockbroker’s ledger from 1914.
The (Scary) Reasons Content Gets Low Rung on the Totem Pole
Time – Researching, writing and testing good site content takes time. More time than most people have, given their other tasks each day. More time than they’re willing to give to it too.
Money – The biggest reason. “We can’t afford spending that much on content.” This sort of thinking comes from undervaluing content in the first place. And from…
Under/Overestimating Your Audience – If you assume your audience either doesn’t need to know anything specific about you (overestimated), or they know absolutely nothing about your industry & you must teach them (underestimated), you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Boo!
The Inevitable Cost of Skimping on Content
One way or another, bad content (or worse, mediocre content that acts like it’s helping) bites you back. This can come in a variety of ways.
- Loss of business
- The site isn’t able to compete with bigger/more popular competitors
- Your site launch stumbles – not much search engine traffic, poor rankings
- Difficulty promoting the site in social media
The worst part of it is, sometimes you can’t feel the bite until much later. When you’re already in panic mode.
Solution? Simple.
When doing any site updates, put content FIRST.
Poll your audience, and respond to their needs. Make and stick to a strategy for updates. Test content if you’re uncertain how effective it’ll be.
Yes, this all takes time and money. It also forces you to prioritize content. Guess what? The Web no longer cares. Skimping will cost you.
(P.S. – I’m aware this sounds like me trying to justify my work. It’s not that; I’m actually pretty busy right now. I’m blogging because I know I’m not alone in this. And my colleagues and I see lots of opportunity just slip past our clients.)
Are you guilty of skimping? Confess below! Were you good and put content first? If you comment you get a Web-cookie.
I Have a Guest Post at CMI on Content Editing!
Part of the reason I haven’t blogged here lately is because I was writing up a guest post for the Content Marketing Institute. (Okay, and working too. That tends to take up time.)
And now that guest post is up! Observe:
How to Avoid a Never-Ending Edit Cycle (The Dangers of “Just a Few More Changes”)
Who should read this?
- Content Writers, Freelance or Staff
- Marketing/Marcom Managers
- Smart Companies Who Use The Above
Why?
It’s a reminder about edits. Specifically, why marketing pros should keep the edit cycle in mind. Why you should have a policy when it comes to every edit cycle. And, in case that doesn’t work and you’re stuck in an endless back-and-forth of “just a few more changes,” how to break that cycle and still come out with content intact.
My sincere thanks to the Content Marketing Institute (and Michele Linn in particular) for being so open and helpful. If your job has anything to do with the creation, publication and online marketing of content, visit www.ContentMarketingInstitute.com for a heap of helpful posts. With more to come (including from yours truly!)
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?
Why I Don’t “Guarantee” My Content’s Results
“Can you guarantee your content will help us out? Like, you’re sure it will boost our traffic?”
“No.”
Woah, woah, hold on. Why did I say THAT? Isn’t that like shooting yourself in the professional kneecap? Don’t I know how bad this could make me look to clients?
Sure I’m aware. But there’s a simple reason why I don’t “guarantee” my content’s results.
Because it’s impossible.
It’s impossible to guarantee a big result – or ANY result – from any one single piece of content.
Content Evolves With Your Results
It’s 2010. Content is no longer a “put it up and await the flood” item.
Everything must change over time. Testing, analytics, feedback…all of this is done to inspire changes in your website’s performance. Sometimes it works, and you get lots of qualified traffic. Sometimes it doesn’t, and you need to figure out where you’re bleeding visitors.
What gets changed for all this? The content. We have A/B tests for a reason.
No Phony Guarantees Please, We’re After Real-World Results
Anyone who claims they can guarantee X amount of traffic or X number of sales from content (or SEO, or emails)…is lying to you. They’re just after your money.
More importantly, they’re not interested in making a real effort towards effective content.
Why would they be? They can just slap a guarantee on the front, deliver content and walk away. Oh, it didn’t work for you? Hey, I guaranteed the content works. What did YOU do to screw it up? Sorry, no discounts on edits.
This kind of behavior really burns me (and most everyone else I’m sure!). Fortunately it’s rare.
But the “guaranteed ROI” mentality isn’t.
So keep this in mind. I will gladly work with clients to improve their content. I’ll happily edit my own work for better effectiveness. (Believe me, there’ve been times when I look at older work and think, “What was I ON then?”)
But I don’t guarantee results from the vastness of the Web. Nobody can. I just write my best and revisit it later.
Speaking of, I think I’ll blog about things to check on after new content’s up. Coming up next.
Meanwhile, have you experienced this kind of situation? Did you receive a “guarantee” that turned sour? Please share it in a comment. Or send it to me on Twitter at @blueferret.
