May 16 in Content Marketing
Written by: Heather Rast
But first I thought it would be fun to look at some reasons why some companies don’t think content matters. From the hallway and lunch table conversations I noted, these issues are fairly commonplace.
- Your boss, or your boss’s boss, is unfamiliar with the term Objectives and his friend, Goals. Look, squirrel!
- Internal politics is so wound up that content everybody’s concern. And nobody’s end-to-end responsibility.
- Code and programming are specialized skills. It’s not necessary to hire someone to come in and write. Janis could probably handle it. Did you check with her?
- We spent a lot of money on the corporate brochure and web site a few years ago. Still waiting for that to pay off.
- Sure, a new website is on our list of priorities. It’s just that everybody really needs to focus on sales right now.
- We have just the one website, and it only has a few pages. Anything more is overkill, really. Plus we’re in the book and go to the major conferences.
- The company’s been around a long time. Everybody knows us already.
- We’re a manufacturing company (distributor/niche services provider/soup kitchen, whatever). We really don’t have that much to say.
- There’s no way to measure that.
- We spent the last of the marketing budget for this fiscal on these great thumb drives for Sales to hand out in the field.
- Pretty sure our competitors aren’t worried about content.
- Our information changes so fast because of the industry and product development cycles. There’s no practical way we could keep up.
Tongue-in-cheek, of course. Well-planned content that’s clear, useful, and relevant is indeed important to business because of the myriad ways it (and the supporting values system) matters to customers.
What reasons would you add? What other excuses or fallacies have you heard that gave you a <headdesk> moment?
Related posts:
- Good Content
- 5 Ways Good Content Welcomes Customers
- Your social media measuring stick doesn’t matter
4 Comments for: 12 reasons why good content doesn’t matter to your company
Your post made me laugh. In my experience, companies are often too close to the business to realize the information their customers are looking for. One solution that I have found to be effective is interviewing customers. When they hear customers saying they want information online it becomes eye-opening.
Joanne Costin´s last [type] ..Tell an Authentic Story
[...] proceed back to hamster wheel). Our behaviors support processes which perpetuate the flawed “content doesn’t matter” [...]
[...] proceed back to hamster wheel). Our behaviors support processes which perpetuate the flawed “content doesn’t matter” [...]
Heather Rast
Twitter: heatherrast
Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Joanne, you make a great point. Being too close to any situation (heck, even in our personal lives) leaves you with a narrow point of view. External perspectives can’t find a way to wedge in and shed new light on assumptions or comfortable “truths.” When that happens, it becomes a form of inbreeding (sorry for the image) that results in stuff that’s not. quite. right. And the new employee or other fresh set of eyeballs that enters this situation? Well, they’re usually doomed. Newcomers couldn’t possibly know what the veterans know…
Many thanks for taking the time to read, and more so for jumping in with a comment!
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