Abstract
This article discusses content in the digital age and the decision to make or buy. The goal of content is engaging audiences and achieving results. We describe different forms of online content and their challenges in the digital landscape. Rather than producing pieces of content here and there, companies should build a customized high-quality content library. Selecting the right content for their target audience from this library stands a better chance to attract and convert customers.
What is Content?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the noun “content” as “information made available on a website.” The information on online channels should embody the messages an organization want to bring across. Are they listing the features of product or services on their website? Are they giving examples of the benefits for customers? Are they placing values and mission in a greater context that their audience can relate to? Content can be many different things and fulfill many functions. It is more than a bunch of words that fill up a website or a certain character limit.
The most common forms of online content are text, video, images, and audio (podcast). The means of production to create this content are now available to everybody. The result is a Cambrian explosion in content. It has become hard to cut through the noise. There are two different approaches to engaging audiences with content. Organizations can either push a message your they can pull people toward them. Story-Driven Science works with the “pull” method. We create stories for audiences that make them want to know more. This approach is self-selecting. It attracts those who have their antennas up for a certain issue and look for solutions.
On purpose, we choose the term “audience” here instead of “customers”. An audience is a more powerful concept because it includes all viewers. Content has to do with the thing itself – text, image, video, audio – and with the way it engages the audience.
The Effect of Content
One thing is most important with content: Engagement. Cat videos do pretty well on YouTube. Should organizations post cat videos and superimpose their logo? This silly example shows that the number of views are one of many metrics. More important is the result the content achieves with the people organizations want to attract.
An interview may gives answers to questions that an certain target audience has. Let’s say the video has 100 views on YouTube. Yet, a viewer reaches out and becomes a customer who brings in sales worth $100k. This was worth the effort, even though the video failed on YouTube.
Make or Buy?
Whatever organizations broadcast must spark questions in the minds of their audience.
Back in the day, there was one TV channel broadcasting one hour of content at 8 PM every day. Viewers had no choice. The novelty of watching something move in a wooden box was fascinating enough. Today the situation is different. A constant barrage of images, videos and text reaches us by the minute on social channels. Producing content is almost automatic, but most of it will have zero effect on viewers.
Rather than making content, the better option is selecting the right content for a target audience. The article on Engaging Communities with Layer 3 Content introduces the idea of Layer 3 content. This kind of content creates a library for the communication activities of organizations. They know best the pains, desires and big picture questions they have. Selecting high-quality content for a specific initiative is more powerful than creating content from scratch each time.
Conclusion
Making content seams easy today, and everybody can do it. Many organizations have in-house media producers nowadays, but scientific storytelling is complex and time-consuming. Some content can be made in-house, other content production should be outsourced to a specialist. The key to audience engagement and conversion is a customized high-quality content library. It asks the big questions, pulls the audience in, and embodies the messages organizations want to associate themselves with. Creating campaigns with content from this overarching library stands a much better chance to attract convert viewers to customers.
Open Questions
- What kind of content are you currently associating yourself with?
- What does this content say about your organization?
- Does this content yield the desired results?
- Which results would you like to have?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
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