Quality Content: How less can be more
High-quality, thought-through content has never been as important as it is now, yet it’s never been harder to find. The evidence is all around – we’re being bombarded from all angles by a host of different channels polluted with self-serving baloney. And “baloney” is putting it kindly.
Please, let us focus today on the need for high quality content in marketing efforts, the content that addresses the issues the buyer faces, rather than the desperation that the seller feels to get his or her point across. Because let’s face it, there is no shortage of content in the world, but there is still a short of incisive high-quality content to raise a reputation above the crowd.
It’s no coincidence that many of articles in the latest Clever Content Weekly focus on this issue. I have been, am and will always be unashamedly passionate about the value of great content for your business. But you can – and must – pay lots of time and attention to it. Why? It’s important because it sets the tone for everything that happens afterwards. The services that you sell are central to any successful business and the simple, clear and direct messages you send out about them is the way in which you let the world know.
Notice I wrote “messages” in that last sentence – not the “media” you use. The media we use to convey messages have changed greatly in recent years. They will change some more – media will come and media will go – but clear messages and great stories will outlast them all.
Content is also important because an elevator pitch today feels like a luxury of time. Instead, your time to make a pitch is now the few seconds it takes the buyer inside the lift to push the button to slide the doors shut – with you potentially left on the outside. Under this kind of pressure, you don’t need to talk quickly about yourself. But you do need to talk clearly and simply about the difference you could make.
Merriborn Media is a business dedicated to developing clever content, engaged online communities and effective collaborative working and learning for clients. Both Merriborn Media and its founder Trevor Merriden were ranked in the Top 3 of social learning evangelists for 2016 in a recent major study.