The Content Product

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I think it is worth our time to ask a question: if content is this massively vaunted practice that can propel business, then why is it that so many businesses don’t get the results that they want? Though my current line of work is predominantly design-related, I still find myself asking these questions about content every day. Largely, I ask them for the reason that there are still many people who tell me that they are “doing” or “getting into” content creation, only to not receive the results that they wanted from content in the first place. Could it be that content marketing is not needed, or necessary, for many business models? Perhaps. Could it be that the time-consuming nature of content creation is intrinsically difficult to scale in certain mediums? As a writer, I’ll tell you that this can absolutely be the case. But is it because content marketing is “overrated?”

Probably not.

.Something that I have seen marketers do myriad times in the past, is bill certain efforts as “overrated” because they do not understand them and, as a result, cannot quantify the value or importance of succeeding at them. While this may not be the case for every industry—particularly in the business-to-business space—for consumer-facing brands, content marketing is rarely not an asset to a broader marketing approach. The question, however, is are you doing enough to be successful at it?

.In the case of most brands, the answer is no. If we were to look at the SOPs for the marketing departments in most SMBs around the country, we would find that many of them are already following some agency-prescribed rubric for how many Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts should be made in a week. Some may have a protocol for making additions to their company blog, but let’s be honest: nobody gives a shit. And finally, though there may be an ads budget that can be woven throughout these efforts, the results are almost scientifically unremarkable, and barely move the needle forward.

.From a bird’s eye view, however, it would seem that many businesses are doing what they need to do—and for every business that actually is, there are a dozen more that fail while thinking they are as well. And even if these businesses are close—by providing content that is informative, entertaining, or engaging, having a unique focus that is additive to their industry space, or even delivering concise narratives that leave their customers wanting more—the greater reason for why content is still failing a business is this:

.Many businesses fail to treat their content as a standalone business product.

.This has also been a conundrum that I have had with The Lair Blog, and part of the reason why I took an extended, as well as unannounced, hiatus from adding to it: as a multi-disciplinary creative professional, there are many spaces that I can work in, and as a result, there are many things that I care about. For example, when I started this blog, I was working as a content strategist. But today, as someone who is re-starting it, I am working as a UI/UX Design Lead. While most professionals do not enjoy that level of skill-permeability, in my world, it can at times, obscure my own marketing efforts and make it difficult to stay focused. The honest reality is that after the initial “filler” posts have been put in place, at a certain point, it becomes incumbent on the content marketer to determine the prevailing direction of his or her content, and turn that collection of content into a product.

.To be clear, this is more than simply calling your company blog a “product” because it sounds buzzy and bleeding edge. It means not only having the topical focus, but also the overall directionality and sense of purpose that traditionally accompanies more dedicated outlets. At the same time, it also means talking about your content in a way that frames it to the consumer as its own standalone effort, instead of one that is designed to supplement your primary wheelhouse of products. While it is not always the case, sometimes in order to successfully treat content as a product, that content will need its own standalone brand. Like a physical, itemized product, content may even need its own budget for paid promotions—and one that is indeed robust, in tandem.

This also means that while sales are great, the way some people measure success for content marketing efforts likely needs to change as well. Conventionally speaking, I think marketers of many strokes like to think about campaigns in terms of return on investment—but if your owned channels have no audience, then the first step is to get one, not make money off of one. In the end, this means that regardless of how much money you are spending on advertising, your primary KPI should be audience size, not return on investment. All of this is said to say that if every marketing move is synthesized through a quantifiable, dollars and cents ROI, it is possible to miss the bigger picture.

.If you are treating your content like a product, then you understand that your content will not only have different phases of production but also different phases of adoption as well. Just because you start making content doesn’t mean you are entitled to anyone to caring about its subject matter—even your customers. Regardless of if you are proven in a certain trade, discipline, or industry space, if none of them involve content creation, then for all intents and purposes, the quality of your content product is essentially unknown.

.Note how I said quality: because quality matters, and it isn’t something that you can just go out there and buy. Content has to be well structured, well timed, conceptually sound, and relevant to a topical focus that will build its own identity over time—and provide its own reason to be consumed by a greater audience. Ultimately, if you get to this place, or have gotten to this place already, then your content is already a product. If not, however, it is important to note that should your content not be accepted—or seen as valid—by the audience you wish to market to, then all of your content marketing efforts can be completely voided before they ever start… So do your best, and be your most creative to make sure that your work is good.

.But for as much as being good can have its own levels of importance ascribed to it, there is very little I can share in an article that will make you a better writer, videographer, or podcast host. At a certain point, I cannot give you talent, or the creativity that you do not yet have. With that being said, however, I do believe that when content is regarded as a product, it receives a certain level of treatment that it does not traditionally experience when it is seen as merely a supplement.

.Fundamentally, content that is a product will have its own confederated base of consumers that it can draw on to promote new products, events, and services. Functioning as its own product, content can have a center of gravity that includes people who have never purchased any of a business’ hard products at all—and benefits from having a base that is earned by cultivating its own notoriety. It doesn’t rely on the customer to have already been a customer in order to fully appreciate its offerings—its offerings, and overall value, are largely self-evident.   

.In the inverse scenario, where content is supplementary, the user base is not confederated—it is sourced from a pool of consumers that are already buying/using a product, or have an interest in doing so. When content is supplementary, consumer awareness of it can greatly hinge upon brand awareness, which can have massive implications for how content marketing can be employed as a practice. Considerably, as a supplementary product, the success of content marketing efforts will almost always be directly tethered to the success of the greater brand that those efforts are attached to.

.Though there are some important differences that exist between content as a product versus content as a supplement, the top-level difference between these two types of content can be understood by the directional flow of a brand’s customers. Content as a product functions as its own attraction that flows customers to various hard products in a brand’s catalog. Content as a supplement functions as an extension of existing products, and relies on an effective flow of customers from a given brand’s product catalogue to that same brand’s content library.

.While content as a supplement relies on pre-existing customers to provide its own marketing utility, it can still be used to great effect. Businesses such as online stores, which use their content to provide more details on something that they already sell, are entities that come to mind. The same can be said for entities that are multinational retail conglomerates. For instance, a major shoe company such as Nike can release a documentary series following Lebron James, and despite its supplemental nature, that documentary can still obtain a massive level of internal traction—and simply because Nike’s enormous center of gravity allows for the company to effectively inbound market with services such as email. They could have an entire documentary series released to customers that the general public has no idea about—and simply because they have massive lists, coupled with international esteem and notoriety.

.But of course, not all businesses can be Nike. Hell, most businesses cannot be Nike. This, along with other reasons described are why treating content as a product is the intrinsically superior option for most businesses. While content as a supplement can have strong inbound marketing purposes, if your intentions are to attract new customers via outbound marketing efforts, content as a supplement will encounter significant struggles with being able to do that. As a product, the purpose of your content is to attract people who may not initially know—or care—about what you sell, while you are promoting your content as its own standalone deliverable that is available without any expectation to buy. Ultimately, if the goal of your content marketing is to keep your current customers interested and engaged, then fine, content really only needs to be a supplement. But if the goal of your content marketing efforts is much akin to the goals of others—to attract new customers and increase cash flow—then your content has to be treated like a product.

.That means more than branding and planning your content as a product, but also attaching the appropriate number of paid resources to ensure that it experiences a certain level of success. Almost every blogger that I’ve known who has been able to successfully monetize their content at some level or another went through a period of paid promotion. It is a rite of passage, so your best bet is to own it. Past that, consider if there is any merit to attaching your brand’s name to your content, or if it is better to give your content its own brand. You may find that in order to achieve the promotional ends that you so desire, it will require for you to decouple your messaging efforts from the hard products that you sell. Beyond that, no matter what you do, always make sure that it is consistent. Content marketing is borderline impossible if you are unable to maintain an editorial schedule, and regularly update your preferred media channels.

.So is content overrated? I think the answer would be a yes and a no. Insofar as the perception of unindoctrinated content marketers, perhaps the answer is yes: the fact remains that there is not enough appreciation for the amount of work that needs to be done in order to have a successful content operation. There are far too many people who expect to see results from content within a mere couple of months, while at the same time doing exactly the bare minimum to even make sure that what they are planning to market with is even good. So, on an individual level, it may be that people over-rate the influence of content, and for such reasons come to the conclusion that not much is needed in order to be successful at it. But in terms of its real-world impact value when properly executed, I think that content is not rated highly enough. Ultimately, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what contributes to marketers feeling compelled to dropping content when a content-focused initiative is not bearing the desired results in under 6 months: Because if what feels like a lot of effort is being put in, and it isn’t being reciprocated with a lot of results, then it is understandable why some people would think content marketing is not worth the time or budget.

.At the end of the day, however, you will have to make this decision yourself. Not every business can effectively scale to content, and there can be a whole host of limiting factors—from relevance, to ability, to even simply not having the time to consistently plan and put it together. Ultimately, the first goal of content marketing should be to make your content attractive—regardless of whether or not your physical product exists. Should you be able to achieve this, you will find not only an eager base of fans that will hang on your every word, money, and notoriety, but you will also a base of fans that are eager to consume and sing praises about your product. In the end, the answer to the question of whether or not “content marketing is worth it” will be made self-evident: the answer will be a resounding “yes.”