Conquering Content Phobia

Phobias are a fact of life. Amongst other things, I’m petrified of spiders, sharks and the thought of having children (eek)! Everyone has phobias, even if they won’t admit it. Phobias are common within the workplace as well. Fear of change haunts many people. Others are terrified of public speaking. And some are scared of content. Yes… content. Content phobia is found within organisations that are both afraid and unwilling to publish more than the bare minimum on their web site. And it’s crazy! For reasons I’ll divulge right now…

Why content matters!

It’s simple really. Consumer behaviour has changed. Significantly. And it’s all been brought about by the web. Last year, McKinsey Quarterly released a famous paper with the controversial claim that the legendary ‘marketing funnel‘ was dead. The study examined the purchase decisions of 20,000 consumers across 3 continents to come to this stark conclusion. A number of factors led to this assertion:

• Consumers are more savvy then ever and actively pull information when needed via online research. They no longer rely on advertising.
• Based on that online research, consumers expand the list of brands considered, rather than reducing them (as the funnel hypothesis contends)
• Subsequently, the web is becoming increasingly important in influencing consumers at key moments in their purchase process

Intuitively, the findings from McKinsey make perfect sense to me. It’s certainly true of the way I shop. A number of other research reports came to similar conclusions:

1. A research report from Fleishman Hillard found the web to be critical to the decision making process. In particular consumers use the web to compare options, save money and gather expert/peer advice that increases their confidence.
2. A survey of 200 purchasers of professional services by Rain Today found that only 3% weren’t influenced by an organisation’s web site

By now, I hope my point is becoming self evident. Your prospective customers judge you based on the quality and depth of information found online. If you under-invest in content, you’re underselling your business!

Your web site = Your online sales person

Think of your web site as your online salesperson. And your content is your sales pitch. Actual sales people are measured on a range of criteria including:

• Depth of product information and expert knowledge
• Ability to answer customer questions and circumvent any objections
• Ability to convert interest into a sale

Now… how you would feel if one of your actual salespeople consistently failed to address customer questions adequately. Or worse, what if they deliberately withheld information from the customer during their interaction? You’d be pissed off right? They’d probably get the sack. Yet for some reason, many people think it’s ok to apply those principles to their web site. It’s not. Customers are judging you based on your web site. Disappoint them online and you’re unlikely to see them in-store. Simple!

Overcoming content phobia

Organisations develop content phobia for a bunch of reasons. The most prevalent ones being:

Resource shortage: A lack resources is common (either writing or monetary). However, what is the value of a higher performing web site? From a practical perspective, many marketing and operations people are competent writers (if you can squeeze their time). Or alternatively, contractors can be engaged to produce new content when necessary. Internal resources tend to be better however as they have a firm industry knowledge. But whatever you do, don’t farm it out to India for $5 per article. That won’t improve your business in any way. Guaranteed!

Lack of ideas: Beyond resourcing, many organisations simply lack ideas. Many believe their industry is too dull to justify fresh content. That’s simply not true. If your customers have questions, you’ve got content waiting to be written. Start by answering the most common questions. Speak to your customer representatives if necessary. Also have a think about what sort of ‘How-to’ content you can write. Educational content is both useful for customers, and handy linkbait. Other potential content categories include industry news/opinion, industry research, expert interviews, case studies and product reviews (amongst many others).

Don’t want to give away too much: This is a pet hate of mine. It’s more prevalent in the B2B sector. Organisations withhold information in the belief that if they put too much information online, people won’t have a reason to call. Huh..?!? Rather than giving people a reason to call, this is doing the exact opposite. You’re giving them a reason NOT to call, because your web site sucks!

And that’s my whole point really. When it comes the the web, your content defines who you are. If your content sucks, so do you!

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