The lure of cheap content, continued

I wrote the other day about the lure of cheap content in B2B marketing. A few weeks back, I also wrote about the potential of marketers taking a journalistic approach to marketing. 

Now comes news that more mainstream media companies are themselves falling prey to the lure of cheap content. According to AdAge, major publishers including Thomson Reuters, Hachette Filipacci, and Cox Newspapers are outsourcing article production to cheap content mills that pay freelancers as little as $5 per article.

Here I am holding up journalistic standards as something marketers should emulate and the journalists run off to build a "content candy store," as one editor from Thomson Reuters put it. Aargh! I know times are tough for the media, but really folks. This ain't the way forward.

It's certainly not anything for B2B marketers to look at. Candy stores may sell a bunch of stuff, but the momentary buzz from even a great piece of chocolate doesn't last. With B2B, we need to focus more on content that helps create lasting relationships, not quick sugar highs. And that means quality. And quality ain't cheap.

Am I ranting too much here? What do you think?

Comments

[Rob Leavitt]

Hi Michael -- I agree that content is an essential competitive arena for B2B but Im not sure that large companies have such an advantage. Certainly they have deeper pockets. In my experience, though, the bureaucracy and caution of most large organizations pushes against the need to create compelling content on a consistent basis. There are exceptions, of course -- mostly the big professional services companies that have always gone to market on the basis of their expertise. But more of the big companies have the same tactical, promotional orientation that you cite with the smaller firms.

In my opinion, the key is the mindset, as you mention, and then the commitment to spend the time on quality content. Even the smallest companies can afford to take some time to produce content on issues that their customers care about. Im not at all opposed to contracting with outside writers (full disclosure: I earn part of my living this way!). But I dont think that off the rack content is the way to go. Instead, B2B marketers from firms of all sizes should emphasize content for education, creating and sticking to an editorial calendar, and investing in quality content that consistently reinforces your point of view on key customer challenges. Decently produced off the rack content may be better than the promotional fluff that too often represents marketing output, but it will not ultimately serve the needs for quality engagement that B2B marketers need most.

[Michael Selissen]

Content seems to be evolving into another front on which B2B enterprises have to compete. That’s going to tilt the scale towards large companies that have the resources to devote to thought leadership, research and content creation. And to the tiny percentage of small and medium businesses that already have a strategic marketing mindset and processes.

But what of the majority of companies? They mostly whip up stuff in response to a tactical need, focus on promotional rather than educational material, use their product staff to write white papers, or do nothing at all. It's not so much a lack of knowhow or understanding as it is a cultural view of marketing as a sideline.

So would it be such a bad thing if companies could go out and buy content off the rack rather than have it custom made? If the content has merit and is pretty well written, I don’t think it could be worse than some of the stuff out there now. But time will tell.