The art of writing quality content for business
During the first webinar in the Content Conversations series we are hosting for Sitecore, a poll of audience members identified an interesting disconnection that mirrors the results of a global study called The State of Writing 2020 .
Almost two-thirds of our audience members said they recognised good writing when they saw it, but an even larger number – 78 per cent – said their own organisations are only moderately effective at creating well-written content.
Which-50 asked presenter Sarah Mitchell, the co-founder and director of Typeset to explain the disconnect.
According to Mitchell, “I think it’s interesting that more people are saying they are effective than the number of people who say they know what good writing looks like. Again, these are subjective terms and maybe it’s an indication that the webcast attendees are experiencing results even if they’re not sure the writing is good.”
Content Conversations is a webinar series from Sitecore that brings together content experts and creators to discuss a variety of topics from why how to produce content for multiple channels, the renewed need for content collaboration processes in the remote-working world and the science behind the ROI of content. Mitchell was the first speaker in the series.
She said that business is generally accepting they don’t get a good return on advertising, referencing John Wanamaker’s famous observation, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”
Mitchell noted that baby boomers, many of whom are in decision-making roles, are comfortable with advertising, have had results with it, and understand it. Sarah Mitchell, co-founder, and director at Typeset. “What does this have to do with writing effectiveness? As we move into more content-driven ways to promote our business, the decision-makers haven’t understood content marketing well but they’re beginning to.”
She told Which-50, “They’ve been given activity reports that make it appear everything is ticking up, but they eventually start to ask about ROI. That usually comes when we ask for more budget. A lot of content marketers haven’t had to report on progress against business goals but that’s increasingly an issue we have to address.”
In fact, research from the Content Marketing Institute reveals that only 43 per cent of B2B marketers say they measure the ROI of their content marketing.
Of course, the assessment of effectiveness is always subjective. Marketers on the other hand, increasingly measure content effectiveness with reference to metrics like sales, or audience growth.
“This is where a documented content market strategy is so important. It should detail the goals of your content initiative along with how you’re going to measure and report progress. It’s essential to get these metrics agreed upon and established before you start producing content or there will always be disagreement about what’s effective and what’ not. I wrote about this very topic for Chief Content Officer Magazine.”
The types of metrics marketers should use depend on their specific business goals so there’s no hard and fast rule, says Mitchell, who, nonetheless is happy to offer some suggestions based on […]
