Does your marketing content resemble this cartoon? – Courtesy Gary Larson, The Far Side
In this Far Side classic (weren’t they all classics?), the pet owner lectures his dog, Ginger, who of course only recognizes one word: her own name. The rest is ‘blah, blah, blah‘ content which absolutely kills corporate marketing.
How do you get around it? In short, do your research.
As a breed, marketers struggle with research, primarily because it adds still more work to already overburdened schedules. It also means taking risks by venturing into foreign waters, which is to say, moving beyond the comfy, familiar confines of one’s own corporate domain.
After all, it is one thing to write and speak of what you already know, quite another to open yourself up to the competitive and contextual informational rigors of the open marketplace. It is one thing to talk about yourself (e.g. the awesomeness of your products or services), another merely to reference your company as but a part of a much larger picture.
In new research by Jakob Nielsen, content marketers are urged to dispense with the blah, blah and to dive into the facts and figures that give customers the meat that they want and compels them to read. “There’s so much blah, blah, blah on the Web that straight talk stands out,” writes Nielsen.
Nielsen’s eye-tracking studies demonstrated that customers – regardless of their background or area of interest – were likely to scan, skim, or abandon generic marketing drivel and, of equal importance, were likely to actually read weighty content filled with facts and figures.
My advice, then, is to strap on the explorer’s hat and get on with your research because – and trust me on this one – your customer (or your competition, or an industry blogger, etc.) is going to do the work if you don’t.
And therein lies the hidden benefit to research: It informs and educates you prior to those future customers, making it easier to create marketing content that speaks to the Big Picture that those customers are going to see anyway. It’s a kind of home field advantage.
It also prepares you for any questions that may come out of left field, and if the Internet is good for anything it’s enabling customers to come up with those doozies.
Research takes time. It takes a modicum of intelligence. It takes an open and inquisitive mind, one able (and willing) to walk through the doors that that same research inevitably will open. And to some degree research takes courage because you don’t always know where it’s going to lead you.
Research isn’t a one-time, kick-off type of activity. Research means getting on top of and then staying abreast of your topic(s). If you’re writing about the organic blueberries your company sells, do the research into what organic means not just to your company but to the customer. Monitor industry, blogger, mainstream and social media chatter. Our world is more dynamic and nimble than ever, which means your content marketing needs not merely to keep up but to lead the charge.
Again, if you don’t do it your customer – or competitor – will.
Want more doug food? Doug Rekenthaler Jr.
I eat my own dog food, meaning I only write about topics that I personally have found to be effective business marketing tools. So if you're interested in having posts like this sent to your inbox in a convenient weekly digest, click here. I promise not to waste your time (or mine).
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