Quality Content: Devices, Sales and Crisis; Unscripted Marketing Links

What makes quality content?

Quality content often sparks a discussion that’s seemingly subjective before, and empirical, after publishing. That is until an author toils over an article only to see it capture nary an eyeball.  Meanwhile, the piece that is written hurriedly, and on a whim, gets shared over and over in social media.

How can we define quality content?  Here’s my definition: quality content is of clear utility for your intended audience.

In this sense, the word utility can range in meaning from entertainment to education, among other variables.  However, it’s important to note this definition is offered as a philosophy and a starting point for shaping a culture of content and content marketing consistency, as opposed to a hard and fast rule demanding strict adherence.

To that end quality content is the theme for this week’s Unscripted Marketing links – where people read it, how sales people can use it and why it’s a foundation for a crisis communication platform.

1. Quality Content gets Read; Even on Small Devices

There may be a message in distributing content over a given medium, but people will still read the back of a napkin if the content is compelling enough. A few weeks ago we shared a study that suggested readers tended to be more engaged with long-form content and this week we offer another. MarketingProfs reports on a study analyzing nearly 75,000 articles by Parse.ly and Pew Research that found:

“Although shorter news content is far more prevalent than long-form, and therefore draws more total traffic, individual lengthy articles are accessed at nearly the same rate on mobile devices as short pieces, the analysis found. Moreover, the total engaged time with articles 1,000 words or longer averages about twice that of the engaged time with short-form stories: 123 seconds compared with 57.”

2. Quality Content Enables Sales

Sales enablement is a worthwhile endeavor for content, especially in B2B marketing. Of the five ways content can help salespeople listed in this piece, two really stand out for me: a) keeping in touch during a long sales cycle and b) selling internally.  These two are striking because it seems to me it demonstrates how a single piece of good content can be applicable during different stages of a deal:

“The average company has seven execs involved in a B2B tech-buying decision. When your sales reps are selling to their prospect organizations, they are no longer selling to one person. They are selling to a committee.”

3. Quality Content as a Crisis Platform

There’s something remarkable about an investor going to bat for an entrepreneur.  When crisis strikes it’s instinctive to back away or put distance between entities.  Not so for Mark Suster, a venture capitalist who often emphasizes points of core concern for PR types.  As compelling as his commentary is, I’d argue it wouldn’t be so powerful absent the time and effort he’s put into building that platform over time.  It’s why I often say content marketing is PR.

“And if you are afraid of failure and if you never take risks and if you never try to push the boundaries of what is possible — then you certainly will never succeed in break-through innovation.”

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How do you define quality content?

Did you know?  Most PR firms are good at either media relations or content marketing, but rarely both. Sword and the Script Media, LLC delivers seven services including PR and content marketing that deliver results. Contact us today to set up a time to discuss your marketing needs and goals.

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Photo credit: Flickr, $amii (CC BY-SA 2.0)