What kind of content should I be putting on the web?

Grant Leboff:  Steve, delighted to have to here with us at Sticky Marketing.

The first question I really wanted to ask about is ‘content’, because everybody is talking about it. Most organisations appreciate the importance of it, everybody now owns a channel – because their website means they own a channel – and that’s before they’re on YouTube, or social media, and other things. So where do you stand on this? How do people go about it?

Steve Barton: Well what I find interesting with a lot of brands, is they’ve been doing content for a while, particular for events and key launches, etc., but there’s a real disconnect between that content – a lot of PDF’s and leaflets and things – and what they put on the internet. Sometimes they think, well we’ve been publishing that, we’ll just put in on there, and then they try and retro fit it in some way, shape or form. But what really needs to be asked is; “What will my people be most interested in engaging with on the internet?” which can sometimes lead into different areas.

Grant Leboff:  So the thing that people have got to look at, and I tell my customers this all the time, is it’s about value from the customer’s perspective. What are they going to value? Because the point of this content, of course, is to get people to engage and then to start to have some sort of relationship with that company and raise credibility and trust. So how do you go about that? If you’re going to say ‘what do my customers value?’ how do you start to approach that to make it work for yourself?

Steve Barton: Well, I call it the ‘poor man’s’ approach and the ‘full boiling of the ocean’ approach. So let’s start with the poor man’s approach, because that’s probably the most relevant for most of us. I think I start with what people ask.

Actually there are case studies on the internet now about IBM and what they have done their content, and strategic approach to content.  But starting with the basics, they were doing a lot of the ‘making leaflets and really understanding what their people wanted’ and publishing that.  And they flipped it on its head about a year or two ago and they said, what are people asking about? And they just went to Google and they looked at what people were searching, their most popular phrases and out of that would come questions – I’m making it up now – but, e.g., ‘How do I integrate a something system?’ And what they do they create a short video that specifically answered that question and then, instead of making ten videos they made fifty videos, all focused on those questions.

So that actually is a lovely orientation I think. What are the questions that people ask? Answer those directly, do it in 30 – 60 seconds, get in get out, and then provide them a route to more detail. So that’s the poor man’s version.

The ‘boiling in the oceans’ is more a strategic approach, is really, audit what you have. I think it’s very interesting to find people, a lot of clients I’ve worked with, are very surprised they had so much stuff and so much stuff that was relevant.

So start with an audit and analysis of what you have and what people are most interested in. Have a look at how they interact with material, some people want detailed information up front, other people want light weight information and then a route to more detailed information. Then publish that information in lots of different formats and of course videos are important. I’m sure we’ll come onto talk a little bit more about that, and then build the measurement up because you need to constantly analyse what their looking at, what they want more of, and then you keep improving and building more of that content in.

Grant Leboff:  I like that, so looking at the questions that people ask, is a great way of coming out with some nice content. I agree with that.  And then understanding where do the customers go next, so if they like that; if that answers something, what do you want them to click on next? What do you want them to do next? What’s interesting for me is you said do a 30-60 second video on that and then move on. What’s your take on the importance of video now online?

Steve Barton: Well, it’s in the numbers. Your SEO ranking can improve, according to Forrester, between 50 – 500% by having videos on (your website). The conversion rates go up, the numbers are something like between 50-100%. People like video and they like to pass on video. Why? Because it gives them a quick answer and they can watch it and for people where English isn’t a first language, they can repeat it without feeling stupid about having to ask for the answer over and over again. It’s just easy, that’s the reason I go get a recipe online and watch it on YouTube, it’s more fun, it’s more interesting than go reading it in the kitchen. You can watch it, and watch it, and prepare it, and off you go.

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