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It’s Not (Just) About Content

Gee RanasinhaCommunications

Read the latest marketing books and blogs and you’ll be told that producing relevant, engaging content for your target markets is the way to get your brand noticed.

But what if you’re producing top-drawer stuff, but no-one’s getting to see it?

Content Only Gets You So Far

It can’t just be about content. If it was, we’d just have to product amazing stuff and people would find it. If we Build It, They Will Come, and all that.

Content is important – of course it is. But content on its own only gets you so far. “Context” (sorting the wheat from the chaff – or ‘curation’ in today’s parlance), on the other hand, is certainly as important if not more important, than content. But there’s a bigger one: “Delivery.”

We all know that the printed newspaper publishing industry is suffering a readership decline that few doubt will ever be reversed. Is that because newspapers are suddenly producing poor content? Not at all (well, apart from a few exceptions).

Newspapers are suffering due to a combination of delivery method and cost. Why do I need to go and buy a printed newspaper – to read yesterday’s news – when I can read today’s news from my laptop (usually) for free? I can even get my news delivered directly to my cellphone, to an eBook reader like the Kindle, or a tablet device such as the iPad.

CD music sales continue to tumble, while (legal) online download sites such as iTunes and Amazon continue to thrive. Is the “content” of the online version of an album any better than its CD counterpart? Actually, in terms of audio quality, it’s worse. Nevertheless, consumers opt for the more convenient delivery method.

Content may be a Duke, a Baronet, or even a Prince. But it certainly isn’t king.