How to Do Content Wrong: Part 2

Content Mistake #2: The Grab Bag, aka Apples and Oranges

In the last post, we learned that in content marketing, consistency is key. We continue in our series with today's post on the Grab Bag, which is my term for mixing non-content pieces in with legitimate content. This is another one that may seem basic to content professionals but is apparently much less obvious to everybody else, judging by the number of content streams that are guilty of it. It applies mostly to written content and is unbelievably common, even at this relatively late stage of the content marketing game. Of all of the content mistakes I am going to cover in this series, this is the one that most makes me want to stand up and flip the table in the direction of whoever is still making it. I mean this metaphorically, of course.   

If your company’s customer-facing blog, newsletter, social media profile or other stream features posts about awards you’ve won, photos of team members attending conferences, new product announcements or blatant sales pitches interspersed with good content pieces, then you, too, are guilty of the Grab Bag. To explain why this is so bad we’re going to have to give a brief definition of what we mean by ‘good’ content pieces. But before that, let’s review the formal definition of content marketing according to the Content Marketing Institute:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

There are other definitions with slightly different wording, but they all come down to the same thing. Content marketing consists of publishing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience. Good content is valuable and relevant to your audience. Forget everything, or almost everything, that the old-school marketers say. The new world of content marketing is about giving your audience what they are looking for in the form of information, entertainment, advice, etc. So when we talk about good content pieces, we mean that they need to be good in the most basic sense of the word, i.e. of high quality, and we also mean that they need to be good in a way that specifically applies to content, i.e. relevant and engaging to your target audience.      

Why would your audience care about your team’s visit to a conference or expo?  (Answer: They wouldn’t). I bring this example up because there are so many things wrong with it yet it is so common. If you were to spend the next few minutes looking up a selection of company blogs, Facebook pages or Twitter feeds, I can guarantee that several of them would feature random posts about new hires, awards, high rankings or reviews they’ve received, or their team’s recent trip to an exposition, complete with (non-professional) photos of smiling team members posing in front of a conference center or fountain. 

The main problem with this type of post is that it violates one of the most basic rules of content marketing, one that is specifically mentioned in the above definition: it isn’t relevant to your audience, unless your audience is a cult-like group of diehards eager for every bit of news about your company, no matter how trivial. (In which case-congratulations on working for Apple!)  We could stop right there, as this is a good enough reason to never do this, but there is another big issue with publishing this type of item. Just like with the last one, this content mistake not only does nothing for you, it can actually damage your image and brand.

Sneaking this type of fluff in with actual content displays a lack of focus and effort. And while your audience may not be mentally evaluating your content according to industry definitions, they will pick up on the amateurism that these types of posts project. You’re mixing apples (actual content such as articles or blog posts) and oranges (filler pieces that are from a completely different category of items). Your audience will notice this, and they will stop taking you seriously. Also, in the case of publishing ‘content’ pieces about trips to expositions and conferences-shouldn’t it go without saying that your company shows up at the major events for your industry? Is doing what is expected of you really something you want to frame as exciting news? Attempting to turn something that should be considered routine into a newsworthy item is yet another way that publishing this type of stuff makes you look like an amateur.      

Sneaking this type of fluff in with actual content displays a lack of focus and effort.

So keep your content streams limited to content, and keep the company news in the employee newsletter. I am not suggesting that such news items will never be worthy of your content stream, but make sure that a. said item consists of news that has some angle that your target audience will find interesting and relevant and b. you have taken that angle and converted this news item into content worthy of the name. 

This means that a post about going to a conference would not make the cut, but if somebody from your company presented at the conference, then maybe a few articles or videos about what they presented, not the simple fact that they presented, could make some solid content. Winning an award is exciting for you and your team but a post about it looks out-of-place and a little desperate. There are other places for this information. Work it into your About Us text on your website. Put it in a sidebar on your homepage, with the logo from the award-giver. Give an impression of cool confidence (“We won an award. It’s great, but not that surprising.”), not of hyperventilating disbelief (“OMG can you believe we won an award?! ”).

Disclosure: This was written on an Apple product.