Excess content invest in quality

There was an interesting article on TheDrum, also printed in an edition of Adformatie. In this piece, Samuel Scott, keynote marketing speaker, describes what marketers should do when a recession occurs. His advice? Cut back on content, social media and content marketing. I think that's perilous advice and would be happy to explain why.

Samuel Scott is a respected writer and speaker in the field of marketing. However, this former journalist manages to spoon-feed three misconceptions in his article If there's a recession in 2019, here's what marketers should do. Here are the misconceptions:

Misconception 1: lots of content is inherently worthless

"A Meaningful Brands survey released by Havas found that 60% of the world's brands create 'content' that is absolutely useless," I read in his article. He himself shares his experiences as a content marketer. When he worked for a software company, he saw that eighty percent of "his" content had no effect. The strategy behind his content marketing does not seem very hopeful:

"I once had various high-tech software companies as clients at an agency. Part of my job was to write countless blog posts that the clients would then spam around the Internet to get website clicks (and hopefully sales leads). Yes, it was direct response by a new name. (...) But most 'content marketing' fails because it skips those two parts of the process. It mass produces and distributes anything and everything without any strategic or tactical thought. All that matters is that you make and transmit 'widgets' with direct-response calls to action next to them."

You don't have to be a content marketing expert to know that not every piece of content needs to result in a Call To Action (CTA) following. By tying a target audience to your platform (site, newsletter, social media channel), you are solidifying A relationship with true fans and customers (when you are careful about the hygiene* of your channels) and your investment in content marketing is in fact already paying off. Return is just a lot more subtle than Scott states.

Misconception 2: Content boom is reason to quit content

The fact that many companies put out content that their target audience doesn't want is a reason to stop content marketing as a whole, according to Scott. There's a saying for that: throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

"Marsha Lindsay of BrandWorks University said at EffWeek that there is a 'content crisis' because output per brand per channel is up 35% per year but engagement is down 17%," Scott quotes. One response to a surplus of supply and a shortage of demand for content is to decide to stop producing content. That is lazy and lazy. By investing in quality, content stands out again.

That means you need to think from the target audience, research what motivates them to consume content and collect, access and update data from your target audience.. Compare publishing content to launching a new product: you don't do that without knowing if there is a market for it either.

Misconception 3: Social media have no effect

"If most companies would close their social media accounts tomorrow, nothing would change. To maximize effectiveness in a recession, the resources spent there are also best allocated elsewhere." Bold is such a statement, but it does not make much sense. Companies and organizations that neglect their social media activities are abandoning their relationship with their target audience. One party that can speak to this is the festival Pitch. After neglecting their post-rate (the digital heartbeat), interaction with fans dropped drastically and the festival eventually disbanded.

"I will never understand why companies conduct customer support publicly on social media. Just see the flack that Slack got last week when the company released a new, divisive logo. Social media rarely builds brands but certainly inspires people to damage them. There is little to gain and much to lose from being there." This shows Scott to be unworldly or at least hopelessly old-fashioned: instead, we expect 24/7 contact with companies, through all available channels.

If a service or product is not working properly, we want to be helped quickly and appropriately through a platform where we are already present. Not having a presence on social media: an ostrich approach that you hope is meant to be ironic.

Invest in quality

Frankly, I hope Samuel Scott's article finds much hearing in the marketing industry. After all, it creates opportunities for organizations, artists and brands. If others are not more committed to publishing content, there is less supply. As a result, your content will stand out more.

At the same time, it doesn't relieve you of the obligation to invest in quality content and be continuously present on the channels where your (potential) fans and customers are. Having the right hygiene of your channels is the magic word for 2019!

* Channel hygiene means: getting rid of "mass followers" or "suspicious accounts" that follow your brand on social media. Regarding email addresses, this means: email addresses where your messages arrive that belong to real people.