Written by Barry Mills
September 6, 2007
Content Strategy Beyond SEO
I agree with a lot of what Michael Linehan says about the value of content, though not about it being so ridiculously easy. I also agree that the typical reaction of a business owner is along the lines of "how little can we get away with", because it's all a bit of a pain and they don't really see the point. But surely, that's our fault (the "industry" I mean).
I'd like to suggest a different way of looking at the same issue, which might help both to focus digital marketers on genuinely value-adding content, and help business owners to "get it." So here goes...
Stop thinking about adding content, and start thinking about identifying and fulfilling customer needs, seeking out gaps in the market and capitalising on them. Because really, it's the same thing. Web marketers want to add content, because it boosts link traffic, search rankings and stickability. But not all content does this -- only content which fulfils a need. Adding well written material to a web site will never do any harm as such, and because we all know that it's easy to be lax about targeting it properly.
But there IS a significant cost to most worthwhile content initiatives, even if it's "just" the owners time (actually, that's the most precious resource of all). The content that generates most benefit for a web site is that which covers material which is searched for a lot and which is not well covered on many other established sites on the internet. This stuff is easy to SEO, and compelling to link to. In other words, content for which there is demand (evidenced by the search volumes) and a lack of adequate supply.
Next time you want to pitch content development, instead of asking the entrepreneur to develop more content, talk to him about gaps between supply and demand for information, ask him what information & resources his customers & prospects want or need (to make them buy, or just to make them happy), and if he doesn't know, ask him to ask them, or let you ask them on his behalf. Then investigate how readily available it is, consider whether that which is not readily available fits with the brand of your client, and look at how the need could be fulfilled. You may sometimes identify content which is so valuable if can be a revenue stream in its own right. More often, you will identify stuff which realistically needs to be given away, but instead of explaining this in SEO terms talk about loss leading, brandbuilding, attracting customers to frequent your establishment, and cross-selling. These are concepts entrepreneurs understand, and they are the real reasons why adding compelling content is good business.
Barry S Mills
Chairman
Netstep Corporate Communications
http://www.netstep.co.uk
 this post appeared in
LED Digest 2486
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