Why 90% of Published Content is Rubbish
by: Laurence James
We live in an information age, an era of mass communication. In this world, some people consume information, while others provide it. It's a constant and essential cycle. Information is valuable, and those who present it as high quality content will make money doing so. It's the biggest growth industry in the world.
In the past, information was published by specialist organizations. Today, everyone has become a publisher. The Internet and home publishing software make electronic and traditional publishing easy and affordable. As only 0.003% of content published every year is in printed form (1), the Web accounts for the vast majority of this content explosion, with websites and blogs springing up in their millions.
The Internet in particular is an empowering medium, a place where everyone can have their say, where the ability to publish for yourself is key, and the quality of writing isn't necessarily the issue. The problem is, the majority of businesses view publishing information in the same haphazard way, especially online.
In business terms, presenting your company to a competitive and fickle marketplace using poor quality content is commercial suicide. It's a mystery, therefore, why companies don't see publishing information in all its forms as an opportunity to shine. If you were to make a business presentation to a room of potential clients, you would choose your words very carefully, so why don't we do the same with our written content? Sadly, it seems that when it comes to copywriting and content, on the Internet and in print, many companies are happy to settle for mediocrity – and unfortunately mediocrity doesn't sell.
Less than 10% of books submitted to ‘conventional' print publishers get published. Stringent quality controls mean only the best books get through. Yet in terms of corporate writing, in sales letters, brochures and on company websites, it often appears that no quality controls have been used at all. Customers notice this lack of quality in your content and wonder if this negative approach extends throughout your whole organisation.
If your competitors use sparkling content to sell their products and services, while a well-intentioned staff member who is not a professional writer produces your copy - you can guess what will happen. Not only will you lose business due to ineffective content, you'll also be paying a non-specialist to write it. No wonder so many new businesses, especially Web based ones, sink without a trace. As experienced copywriter Gerry McGovern says, "It's the classic ‘garbage in, garbage out' situation" (2), where companies produce rubbish content, and are then surprised by the equally rubbish response to it.
It Pays to Get Your Copy Right
So how does your business get into the top 10% in terms of publishing consistently high quality content? The solution starts with a simple notion – respect for your reader. In the rush to make themselves heard amongst the millions of voices in the mass media, it seems that many businesses panic, and hurry to express themselves in an incoherent way that doesn't do them justice. In producing corporate content, their view becomes one of ‘We must get out there and shout louder than the rest!' - without paying much attention to what they're actually shouting about. In the information age this is sometimes called ‘hype' or ‘lack of substance' – some call it ‘spin'. Whatever the description, no one is buying it.
On the other side of the equation, the company that chooses well thought out content, delivered in a clear and consistent voice directly to their target reader, finds they don't have to shout at all. They suddenly discover that content alone has given their company a unique personality.
In short, top quality content will definitely be read if it is delivered to the right reader at the right time, and it won't have to jump up and down to make its point. The resulting effect will be copy that represents your company with refinement and panache, and people will see you as somebody worth doing business with. So remember, whether spoken by your sales team, printed in your brochure or published on your website - in the information age it is words that sell your business.
Sources
1 & 2 – Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton, ‘Content Critical', Prentice Hall Financial Times, 2002
About The Author
Laurence James
An English graduate from the University of Birmingham and professionally trained journalist at postgraduate level, Laurence has been copywriting for over ten years. A Member of The Institute of Direct Marketing, he is also founder of The Copy Box -
http://www.thecopybox.com
