Content Marketing: The Risk of Thinking Differently

What does your content marketing niche look like? Assuming you're currently part of a profitable industry, odds are that you're contemplating hundreds or thousands of competitors. But let's pick 3 to 5 to keep things sane for once.

You go on Google to try and extract fresh information to work on something new. All you find is a repetition of repetition. A soulless SEO-cooked mess of results, which will very often defy the principles that state Google favours high-quality, unique and valuable content that provides a good user experience.

Are you sure about that?

I scroll to page 20 of these results, and all of a sudden, neither quality nor anything I want to spend my time consuming. There's a desert crossing of some sort in the digital wasteland, and I need to rethink my strategy.

We blink, and it's 2023. I must have worked across ten different high-profile areas in my career as a content writer, copywriter, localization specialist and all those names we have for wordsmiths . But the more money there is in a business model, the more frustrating content creation can sometimes be.

The More is More Paradox

I tend to dislike content platforms that output content just for the sake of it . The endless basic SEO-compliant Top 10 and How-to Guides. Let me boldly claim without offending you - or myself: 95% of them are utter crap.

Guilty as charged. I've done my fair share of Top 10's and '20s. The how-to guide to putting your pants on and finding the right menu on your smartphone. Android or iOS, throw them on the table, and we'll get it sorted.

So I'm the first to admit that the vast majority includes the same amount of research as reading the front side of a cereal box. In the morning. Over a bad hangover.

It's no wonder AI has a chance to win big as if we were under any doubt. Particularly considering how little we've done in breaking through towards what might indeed be considered better content. If by quality you mean ticking all the boxes that get you #1 seats in Google, surprise, surprise: most of us have been there.

Has it always been through fabulous content, or from pulling the right strings at the right time? I'll let you answer that, and it has the intricate value you want to give it.

If by quality we instead mean taking risks to create something different, then I'm sorry, but I can rarely find it. We find models which work , we optimize them, and we stick to them while they work - that's what we mainly do across every content production board.

It's then no wonder that digital marketing companies brag about numbers without explicitly saying they spent millions creating stuff no one cares about. But do invest in a more is more strategy, and ultimately, it might pay off.

Content Quality as the Main Denominator

Let's assume quality means something very different to each of us. While I might look for interviews with experts and detailed technical guides or regulations on specific markets, my friend is looking at someone jumping on TikTok.

And while I can definitely assume such content is short-lived compared to the hours, days, and weeks of effort to craft one single useful page, am I being too harsh in the end? Does it really matter, or is it simply a question of ROI?

Here's what I do know: great brands invest incredible sums in quality content. They take risks. And it's, therefore, no wonder that we share memes based on their genius, assuming that they can afford to take those risks - sometimes, they really can't.

Simultaneously, what we often perceive as risks from such brands are instead highly-curated processes where that factor - risk - has been minimized. Then, the only doubt is the measure of success. So where does that leave us, the little guys?

I say take the risks you can afford. Play with your audience to the very borderline without assuming you know them exceptionally well. Highlight the pros and joke about the cons. Keep it classy because, you know, we need that now more than ever while we're slowly missing the plot.

The NeverEnding Story

A final thought about my favourite book ever, by Michael Ende . A first edition in Portuguese still lies on a shelf, which challenged me to rapidly learn how to read. I did the same once I picked up the English version. Its quality is undeniable, conquering readers across countries and feeding the dreams of other 80s children such as myself.

"In his view, it was not a question of simply ‘deciphering’ the novel with the author’s help. Readers eager to know whether their own interpretations were correct had to content themselves with an unusual answer: according to Ende, a good interpretation was a correct interpretation, regardless of whether it mirrored the author’s intentions."

Defining the qualities which make such things relatable to human beings should be the core of everything we do. It splits us apart from machines - and AI, in particular - while it has the power to lead us to new, unchartered portions of ourselves.

So please think differently. Please address the unanswered questions but also propose new ones we might wish to avoid. We need to keep investing in human creativity and taking risks. Perhaps sometimes those are the risks of offending someone or ourselves in the process.

What they certainly are is the risk of exposing ourselves further in front of the world. That one, in particular, is one I frequently avoid. Whether by definition of character or a childish fear of blind criticism - ultimately, I'm unsure.

But what kind of writers would we be if we constantly refused to take any risks?