How to Define Quality Content for Content Marketing

When you’re in the thick of it, how can you know if what you’re doing is of good quality?

This is an example of quality, FYI.

Just like everything else in life, quality content marketing can be broken down into smaller pieces. And if you tackle these pieces one at a time, then it becomes much easier.

For quality content, these pieces are three questions:

Is it relevant?

Is it timely?

And, is it helpful?

If you had all three of those you have a home-run in terms of content.

If you have two of the three it’s pretty darn good.

If you have one of the three then look to do better.

But What is Content Marketing?

Those would be the three measures I would typically use for quality content, if we’re looking to define it. However, I must say there is no such thing as content marketing.

Good ideas, good content, comes from books, from learning.

To me, marketing is about content, its about substance. It’s about steak not sizzle. I get a little bit frustrated, and fairly often it shows through when I talk about content marketing.

As an example:

What is non-content marketing? Are you talking about nothing? Well that’s just fluff. Marketing is about content.

It’s about substance.

It’s about things that are real and helpful and timely and relevant.

Let me also, while I’m talking about content, talk about Socrates the great philosopher, his test for discussion on people and things — his test for “Content.” He used three things for his metric.

Number one. Is it truthful? Can it be validated and verified as such?

Number two. Is it good? Does it move people, things, life, and, thoughts forward or up?

Number three. Is it useful?

Is your marketing forgettable?

Now, not all of those map across perfectly into all content or marketing but, I think certainly as a thematic direction or as underlining principles it is certainly hard for me to argue against Socrates as to philosophical underpinnings for some of the things that we do.

I would also suggest that, in order to have a powerful message, effective marketing, or memorable impacts, we should have the following priorities:

Think about a memorable conversation you had. Why was it memorable? Why are your ads forgettable?

First and foremost: your ideas.

Secondly: events or things.

Third priority: people.

Remember this familiar addage, often attributed to successful and intelligent people throughout recent history:

“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.”

People are forgettable, things are left behind and replaced, but ideas are everlasting.

If you listen to your conversations around the office and amongst family members inevitably you find yourself talking mostly about people, then things, and rarely ideas. It’s natural, and therefore, easy.

And your marketing will follow suit.

The reality is, if you put it in the right sequence there, you have much better conversations, you become a higher-calibre individual and your content improves as a consequence.

Aaron Webber is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Webber Investments LLC, as well as a Managing Partner at Madison Wall Agencies.

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