My Recent Depressing Realization about All This Crappy ‘Content Marketing’

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One of the things I do every day is blog. I haven't been blogging here as much because I have too much work these days. I'm blogging on LSA Insider, Search Engine Land and its sister sites Marketing Land and MarTech Today.

As a person who has been writing or editing in some capacity for more than 25 years I take "content" seriously and try my best, often under intense time pressure, to be thoughtful about what I say. Which is why I became somewhat depressed this past week when I was struck by an epiphany of sorts about all the content, surveys and reports that I'm constantly receiving from tech companies and PR folks.

The market is awash in "content" and content marketing — reports, infographics, surveys and so on. A majority of it is garbage.

Before I get to my "epiphany," a digression about an earlier one. Years ago I was in Moscone Center in San Francisco for one of the then-massive AdTech events. I was standing on a mezzanine level looking down at lots of people seated at various "bistro" tables. These were mostly male attendees presumably doing "biz dev" meetings. There's nothing wrong with that.

However, my realization at that moment was that in some way, shape or form each of these conversations boiled down to one essential thing: "I want your money." It was kind of horrible.

I had a similar feeling earlier this week when I realized that the 50+ pitches I see every day from companies and PR people are really just about SEO, about getting links. All the studies, surveys, reports and "content" being generated — so much that most of it is lost in the noise — is really about links. In some cases it's about generating downloads for sales follow-ups. And in a fraction of cases it's about branding and "thought leadership."

If you work with Forrester Research or a comparable firm to create a report, you're paying $20K – $40K or more. Then the PR firm is getting at least $5K or more per month to pitch your content to somebody like me. And because it's mostly created for purposes other than exposing the information in the report it's usually mediocre. But almost nobody in the system cares; it just needs a hook or some data to get pickup — and links.

So the sponsoring company winds up spending perhaps $50K overall and may not get much if any exposure or coveted links or leads. For every 20 pitches featuring a report, I'll ask to see one or two. I may write about one. I have very little time to do more than scan these docs for top-level findings, let alone read them carefully and digest their implications. But most of the time they're not intended to be read that way.

Beyond the realization that this is all about SEO, nobody is really very invested in the "content" they're promoting — except in rare cases. It's all part of a giant, relentless, impersonal marketing machine.

I write some of these sponsored reports myself on behalf of LSA and some of our members. When I do it I try to work closely with the company on questions that I think are interesting or important to the broader industry and develop interesting data and ideas. I'm often late in delivering them because I care about the work and what it says. (People want quick turnarounds because these docs are highly disposable or perishable.)

I'm somewhat sleep deprived and so chalk my mood up to that. But all this strikes me as pretty horrible and empty.

Source: My Recent Depressing Realization about All This Crappy 'Content Marketing'