Content Management or throwing crap at the wall to see if any of it sticks?

Content or just crap?

When I was a small boy, my grandmother used to recite a phrase to us, when any of her excitable grandchildren were talking too much or spinning a tall tale as small children do. She used to say, “if you have nothing useful to say, its better to say nothing.”

Wise words that in my view and something that the content management world might like to consider.

I’ve spent the last few months deliberately subscribing to newsletters from a broad range of business to business vendors that are using a content management approach to generate awareness, interest and sales leads.

The one thing that stands out a mile is quality. It may just be me, but it feels to me that an awful lot of the companies I have subscribed to are generating a vast amount of content of which very little has either any depth or quality. It honestly feels, to paraphrase an old saying that they are just chucking as much crap as they can at the wall and hoping that some of it sticks.

On the basis that content marketing is all about demonstrating expertise among other things in order to be seen as a credible provider of a product or solution, then isn’t it wiser to assume that quality is more valuable than quantity.

To illustrate what I mean, of the 25 companies I subscribed to:

• 60% send out something at least 3 times a week and often more.
• 24% send out something at least once a week.
• The remainder only send out something when they have something of value to say 

The interesting thing, for me at least, is that the companies that are bombarding me several times a week with papers, opinions, blogs and other forms of communication are the ones I will be unsubscribing from now that I have published this blog article. The primary reason being that even with a big team of content experts, not even the busiest companies in the world will have that much to say without reducing quality in favour of volume. As a result an awful lot of what they are sending me is just rubbish without any clear purpose other than to fill up my inbox.

On the other hand the small group of companies that only communicate when they have something of value to say, are the ones I will continue to subscribe to because when they communicate with me, it is of value and relevant to me.

For me it all goes back to that point my grandmother made, but perhaps put in a more positive way – When you have something useful and valuable to communicate to your customers, make sure you do, but don’t waste their time when you don’t.

As always folks it would be great to hear your thoughts on this blog and any experiences you  think are relevant.