Content Marketing Strategy: The Final Word on Quality Vs. Frequency
More than a month ago, I argued that quantity, or even better, the frequency, doesn’t determine quality. Since then, I’ve been struggling with this question.
As a brand editor, I make daily decisions about the quality and relevancy of an impressive array of texts, podcasts and videos by also considering the brand’s overall story, their prospects and customers, and channels the content is intended for.
Last month, I twisted Joe Pulizzi’s argument, “Everywhere I go, I find marketers who are challenged with creating more content. More blog posts, more eBooks, more videos, more podcasts … more, more, more. … I’m done with more.” I focused on the correlation between ‘more’ and ‘good’.
It didn’t end there. I’ve been bothered by this a lot. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then last week, I came to the same conclusion as Joe. Quality first, frequency second (depending on high quality content that is ready for publication).
It’s not like this is new, but many brand editors and content marketers are under pressure to post new content as many times per week as possible; research shows that even a modest increase in publishing increases leads.
But last week I made peace with myself; it was probably my d’oh moment: as editor you shouldn’t succumb to pressure to publish more. Your main concern should be the quality – not saying yes because there’s nothing else to post but you’re expected to post something.
I’m not saying I’ve been doing that; I just talked to many content marketers who are responsible for sourcing and even writing original content for their site and that’s exactly the pressure they’ve been feeling lately.
It’s like, damn if you do, damn if you don’t. I strongly believe that you should pay more attention to high quality and relevancy, taking all other factors into account. Great quality makes readers come back.
You may say, “D’oh, Nenad.” Well, it isn’t as obvious as you may think. Many are struggling with this. According to B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Research Report, for example, producing enough content is the biggest challenge across B2B marketers.
Each one of you have to find what’s best for your case. It’s good to look around and see what worked and what didn’t for others. Just because Content Marketing Institute can publish seven quality posts a week (and they worked hard to get to this point), it doesn’t mean you should “copy” them. Every case is unique.
So, if a day or two or three or even more pass by without publishing new content, you shouldn’t panic, unless you promised too much. Rather post when you have something relevant to say. And say it well.
bogart deforest trololo
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957)[1][2] was an American actor[3] and is widely regarded as an American cultural icon.[4][5] In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.
After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film. His first great success was as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), and this led to a period of typecasting as a gangster with films such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and B-movies like The Return of Doctor X (1939).
Bogart’s breakthrough as a leading man came in 1941, with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The next year, his performance in Casablanca raised him to the peak of his profession and, at the same time, cemented his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Other successes followed, including To Have and Have Not (1944); The Big Sleep (1946); Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948), with his wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); In a Lonely Place (1950); The African Queen (1951), for which he won his only Academy Award; Sabrina (1954); and The Caine Mutiny (1954). His last movie was The Harder They Fall (1956). During a film career of almost 30 years, he appeared in 75 feature films.
Cover of Humphrey Bogart
Related articles
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957)[1][2] was an American actor[3] and is widely regarded as an American cultural icon.[4][5] In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.
After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film. His first great success was as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), and this led to a period of typecasting as a gangster with films such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and B-movies like The Return of Doctor X (1939).
Bogart’s breakthrough as a leading man came in 1941, with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The next year, his performance in Casablanca raised him to the peak of his profession and, at the same time, cemented his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Other successes followed, including To Have and Have Not (1944); The Big Sleep (1946); Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948), with his wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); In a Lonely Place (1950); The African Queen (1951), for which he won his only Academy Award; Sabrina (1954); and The Caine Mutiny (1954). His last movie was The Harder They Fall (1956). During a film career of almost 30 years, he appeared in 75 feature films.
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957)[1][2] was an American actor[3] and is widely regarded as an American cultural icon.[4][5] In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.
After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film. His first great success was as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), and this led to a period of typecasting as a gangster with films such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and B-movies like The Return of Doctor X (1939).
Bogart’s breakthrough as a leading man came in 1941, with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The next year, his performance in Casablanca raised him to the peak of his profession and, at the same time, cemented his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Other successes followed, including To Have and Have Not (1944); The Big Sleep (1946); Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948), with his wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); In a Lonely Place (1950); The African Queen (1951), for which he won his only Academy Award; Sabrina (1954); and The Caine Mutiny (1954). His last movie was The Harder They Fall (1956). During a film career of almost 30 years, he appeared in 75 feature films.
Related articles
When Bloggers Become Publishers
A year ago I discussed the differences between ‘bloggers’ and ‘journalists’. I wrote: “Choosing a catchy name for your blog doesn’t make you a blogger. Just because you’re writing doesn’t make you a blogger. The audience, your readers make you a blogger. If you’re a columnist or a journalist, it is the publication you write for that brings you your audience.”
In the last twelve months especially, however, we have observed monumental changes on the Internet that may not be as clear to some. Many bloggers have turned into publishers.
So, who are publishers?
Traditionally, a publisher refers to the owner of a media brand or publishing house; she manages the writing, production, and sale of books, newspapers, magazines, etc.
Has the Internet changed this traditional view of the publisher – a media capitalist, to put it bluntly? Do publishers still exist in the world of free information (Is there such a thing as FREE information?) and the technology that is being upgraded daily?
Of course they do! And I don’t mean only traditional publishers who have turned into digital ones.
This post is about true, Internet-born-and-raised publishers. You shouldn’t liken them to bloggers gone pro. Well, not really.
When we say bloggers, we still understand the word in accordance with the old and widely accepted definition of a web log/personal journal. That’s how it all started almost 20 years ago.
Since then, the best of those personal blogs or online diaries have grown into true media brands. Great examples are TechCrunch, Lifehacker, and Engadget.
How or when do bloggers become publishers? In the past year, I’ve observed three common scenarios:
1. When true costs arise
Eventually your readership grows so much that you have to pay someone for hosting the CMS. Indeed, WordPress.com will get you far, but then maybe you’ll want to pay them to be able to customize your site. However you turn it, when you get ‘serious’, your costs increase too.
2. When real revenues start rolling in
When you make a living out of blogging, you’re not just in it for the fun and self-expression alone. Business made you a publisher.
3. Your audience grows noticeably
For some, the point of change is when you realize you have an audience. This may happen before the previous two scenarios kick in.
I see this happening over and over again: a blog starts as a random collection of ramblings and musings, but with a special, appealing twist that attracts readership. Then slowly, but surely, the blogger starts listening to the crowd; you become aware of them in advance, while working on your next post. I believe this changes your activity from musing to writing.
On the other hand, let’s not forget the brands who set up their own blogs because they have a marketing budget to spend, or they covet ad revenues, or they want to influence the public opinion.
Let me end with a quote from my last year’s post: “In the end, what someone is called is the matter of the industry terminology. It’s more about the relationship between content and consumers. It’s about the quality of the content you are producing and sharing. Not so much about who did it. We’re all publishers. Journalism, social media and blogging mean publishing. It’s about content creation and content sharing. And that’s all it matters.”
Bloggers, You Don’t Need to Hire a SEO Expert
Whether you have been running a blog for years or you are planning on starting a new one, one topic has surely come to your attention at least once. And that is the topic of search engine optimization. But the real question arises in what you are to do about it, do you tackle the abstract science by yourself or do you hire a seo expert?
In today’s digital age, abiding by the compounding rules of search engines is becoming more and more daunting – every few months a new update or refresh to Google’s algorithm comes along. Although this may seem like a pain to everyone that owns or operates a website, in reality all the search engines are trying to do is improve their product which therefore increases their user experience.
So, don’t panic whenever you hear news of a new update on the horizon. As long as you are continually focusing on quality the experience of your users, you should not have to worry. One piece of advice is to form a content policy, one that all blog contributors follow. Not only will this help to keep your content uniform, but it will also help to stay focused on your readers. Try asking yourself these four questions:
- What is its purpose?
- Who is your target market?
- Are you helping them out or providing them value?
- Are you reaching to them through the appropriate channels?
Here are a few quick and easy fixes so that you don’t have to hire a SEO expert:
Content
Although search engines pay attention to content, the real incentive to creating valuable content is the benefit of having your readers link to it – whether through the social networks they are engaged in or through blogs or websites that they operate.
Try to put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Approach your content from a different perspective and ask yourself if you would share it if you hadn’t created it. If you are having trouble doing that, ask a friend (ideally someone who didn’t know that you owned the blog) what they think about your site.
Integrity
Don’t give in to the various out-dated SEO strategies that you will find online. Gone are the days when keyword stuffing (both in meta data and in the content itself) is effective. Focusing on a certain topic or keyword for a new blog post is still an effective way to bring in organic traffic, but make sure you are not giving up user experience in the process.
Backend
Although content is king, you do still have to make sure that your blog is accessible to crawlers and bots.
Most modern day CMS platforms are fairly SEO-friendly so most bloggers don’t have to worry here, but you should still do all you can to ensure accessibility. Take full advantage of tools like Google’s Webmaster Tools, broken link checkers, and your robots.txt file.
Also, be sure to do what you can to get and keep search bots on your site. Link around your site and make use of related posts and site indexing tools.
However, don’t make a spider-web of links on your blog; keep things simple and remember to always focus on your content and user experience.
Theme and Host
As a final note, and this is especially for people who are considering creating a new site, make sure that you have a clean and professional looking site on hosting that is speedy and reliable.
Be sure to settle for nothing less than high quality web hosting for your blog. Not only will your readers be happy, but it will have a positive effect on your SEO.
