What's Content? It's a Waste of Space

Content. Content. Content. 2017 is going to be the year of content.

Or so the content marketers say. I’m getting emails every day asking about content writing services. And I reply with one simple question every time someone asks about content.

“What’s the point?”

There seems to be a mindset in the marketing field that content for content’s sake is a worthwhile endeavour. That copywriters (or as the rebranders would have it, content creatives) should be glad of the extra business. That all that really matters is hitting a word count.

Bollocks.

Any fool can write content. Blurb. Bumpf. It’s just words to fill a space.

Words to empty your pockets.

It’s not just marketing where the content myth holds sway either. Here’s what video game iconoclast Jim Sterling has to say about the current trend of bombarding customers with content.

“[The] problem is that video games are so thoroughly obsessed with making their games as big as possible, a lot of them have forgotten to actually put things in their vast, expansive, utterly boring vacuums.

Far too many of them have settled into a familiar little masking tactic that we can simply call content.

Content, content content. Nebulous contextless content shoved into the empty spaces between what little sparks of meaning all these open world games may possess.”

Jim Sterling – The Jimquisition

Replace the word game with website, or ebook, or Twitter feed, or brochure, and you’ve got the tactic of every charlatan hawking content as a means to an end.

I’m not interested in that.

I’m more interested in words that fill your pockets. Words that work. That generate enquiries. That deliver a return on your investment.

Words with meaning.

Every single word your business puts in front of a client or lead needs to have meaning. If it doesn’t, you’re wasting your money and your customers’ time.

I’m not saying every word has to sell. But every word has to work.

So next time you decide on investing time, money or effort in a piece of content, ask this question:

“What’s the point?”

If the answer isn’t to inform, entertain or persuade, don’t bother.

If the answer isn’t to build confidence, authority or reputation, don’t bother.

If there’s no goal beyond filling white space in a design template or word document, just don’t bother.

Without meaning, content is just a waste of space.

With meaning, it’s going to be a crucial part of your business’ success.

If you’ve got something to say, drop me a line. I’ll help you say what you mean.