Content Gone Awry

- by guest blogger Michael Buller. 

Michael is one of the leading thinkers in the content marketing industry, and I asked him to submit a post for the Junta42 blog. He was gracious enough to accept. I'm sure you'll agree, Michael knows his stuff. - Joe Pulizzi

I like Honda cars. That’s why I bought one last year. An Odyssey to be specific. It was brand new, slate grey, and ready to go. My wife, two sons and I had entered the minivan phase of our lives.

None of this should mean anything to you, unless you know me personally, or were the dealer who sold me the minivan. If you were the latter, it’d give you a good bit of inference data upon which you could draw, which you think would be helpful if you were, say, sending me an e-newsletter called Under Our Hood.

For the first three months that I received the newsletter, I did what I suspect the majority of readers did: I hit delete as soon as it popped up in my inbox. Finally, when the January issue hit, I opened it. And I was excited… but only in that I had finally found the perfect example of content gone awry. Forget the very unfriendly design—the first thing you see is the masthead, complete with more than 25 car logos. Ugh! My first reaction is: ah, I know what’s most important to this dealer – not ticking off any of the brands he sells.

Then as I scrolled through this newsletter from my car dealer, I found, interspersed with some stories about new cars articles on “Festive Football Eats!” and “Clementines in Ginger Syrup” and a review of “Charlie Wilson’s War.”  Huh? What does this have to do with my Odyssey? Or Honda's? Or any car, truck or minivan for that matter?

It doesn’t, of course and that’s my point. This is the most common mistake among content marketers. Take good content, just because it’s good content, and find someone you can send it to – whether they want it or not. I’m all for recipes about clementines in ginger syrup, but just not from my car dealer. Sure, it’s picked up from a reliable and credible source in epicurious.com, but still, this is a newsletter from my car dealer.

It all comes back to one of the pillars of content, if you’re going to engage in content marketing, make sure it’s targeted and relevant. If not, you’re just adding noise to an already loud room.

Think of everything he could have done. If he’s going to syndicate copy from other sites, how about articles on safe driving? Or keeping kids entertained on long rides? I bought a minivan, after all! Or sales on roof racks, portable DVD players, HD radios? The opportunities are endless: content on getting good gas mileage, little tips buried in the owner’s manual, specials from the service department. How about a link to the service department to set up an appointment? Sure the stories on the other cool cars in the dealership are fun, but I dismissed them. It’s the credibility rule: If you bury credible content in a sea of useless and irrelevant copy, your credible copy is guilty by association and readers will ignore not just the fluff, but the important stuff, too. 

If you’re going to engage in a meaningful dialogue with your customers, treat them with care. Feed them content that’s targeted, fresh and relevant. It’s what separates content marketing from spam.

Michael Buller is Vice President/General Manager of Custom Publishing for The Pohly Company, a diversified marketing and publishing services company specializing in engagement marketing and customer communications.

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Comments

[Jack Shipley]

Michael,

You hit the mark here. Why so many recipes? Guess everyone thinks that if Realtors do it, it must work!

Not being pertinent is a missed opportunity to establish credibility. Credibility for car dealers, Realtors, gee, anyone, is what puts them at the top of the consumers mind.

Jack
write Results

[Michael Buller]

Jack:
Thanks for the comment. I agree - a completely missed opportunity. On the flip side, I get a print newsletter from my insurance provider (auto, home insurance) and lo and behold, not a recipe to be found. There is the information you'd expect (safe driving, safekeeping of your valuables and important documents, etc.) but that's what I want to hear from my insurance company. Now they could make the newsletter more visually interesting and better written, but that's a tactical execution. Strategically, at least they're talking from an area of expertise about content that's relevant.

Now, why so many recipes? That's an interesting question. I think there's such a glut of food content out there - online, in print, on television, that on the surface, it must seem to marketers as an easy way to find content that seems relevant. "Hey, everyone eats!" Of course, nearly everyone drives too, but I'm not going to get driving advice from Whole Foods.

--michael