Our Commitment to Content in 2021: We’re Sorry

I’m not going to cheapen the internet anymore

Maybe it’s the inner cynic in me poking its head out after the dumpster fire of a year we’ve just had, but it’s come to my attention that I’m allergic to the internet.

And you know what? It’s my own dang fault.

I started writing for Tailor Brands over two years ago, with all the good intentions of a newbie employee.

But when I look back on some of the earlier content I published — and unabashedly promoted to our audience — I can’t help but cringe.

Fake it ’Til You Make it

As writers, we’re (hopefully) equipped with a skill set that includes making it sound like we know what we’re talking about.

And that’s what’s expected of us; we’re supposed to take subjects that we may not have any experience in and write like we’ve been immersed in them since toddlerhood.

Case in point: In my pre-Tailor-Brands freelancing life, I’d written an article that questioned whether China would overtake the US as the next superpower, having had no knowledge of the subject two hours prior.

That article was then republished in Business Insider.

And that’s all well and good; no beings were harmed in the creation of that post, the research was sound, and it was supposed to be thought-provoking rather than didactic.

But what happens when there’s a community on the other end of your posts who are relying on you to know what you’re talking about?

That’s where just being able to Google and summarize doesn’t cut it — and here’s why.

The Inherent Problem(s) with Content Writing

Let’s say you’re tasked with writing a post about “3 Hacks for Getting Stains Out of Your Tablecloth”, and you have, in fact, never successfully gotten those wine spills out of your own linens.

Here’s how the majority of content writers would go about it:

1. Google “get stains out of tablecloths”
2. Read the top 3 ranking articles on the subject (8, if you’re feeling super jazzed about this particular post)
3. Summarize the main points in your own words
4. Add stock images of tablecloths in various states
5. Proofread (maybe)
6. Publish

But those top 3 articles? They were likely created by writers, just like you, who are well-intentioned but have never actually done the type of tablecloth-cleaning that the people searching are desperate to read about.

Maybe, if you’re lucky, Karen from Kentucky has a thriving homecare blog in which she shares her tried-and-true secrets to tablecloth success, and somehow, her post has curried enough favor with the Google gods to rise in the ranks and catch your eye.

(Unlikely.)

Again and again, information gets recycled in a slew of posts that are playing internet telephone with each other — until we, the current writers, end up sharing tips that we don’t know are actionable and can’t verify are true.

And this is why:

Problem 1: Writers often lack experience about the things they attempt to discuss.

Result: It’s difficult to create in-depth and informative articles, resulting in fluff, fluff, and more fluff attaching itself to the SERP.

Problem 2: Content is a function of marketing; it’s become something you “just have to do”.

Result: Done > helpful in the pecking order, and you focus more on checking posts off your to-do list than on providing value to your readers. (Guilty!)

Problem 3: Who are you writing for, again?

Result: If you don’t know your audience, how do you expect to create content they’ll find informative and engaging?

But if I had to boil it down, I’d say the main problem with content writing is that it’s an industry that’s largely left its readers behind. We have deadlines to hit; we have search engines to please; we have KPI’s to reach — and our readers have become second (third, fourth) priority.

And I’ve been guilty of it all. I could come up with some excuse, like that creating amazing content is time-consuming, that there are a million things to do and “done is better than perfect” — but I’m sick of contributing to a problem that not only makes the internet a cringey place to be, but also negatively impacts the customers that are looking to us to give genuine advice.

I’m sorry, and I need to do better.

Putting Everything Through the “Pat Filter”

About a year and a half ago, we were invited to contribute a guest post on a pretty visible blog, managed by a guy named Pat.

The post: Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses on a Budget.

I wrote and sent in a piece that I thought was “decent enough,” focusing more on checking it off my to-do list than anything else. To be honest, I’d never gotten pushback on a guest post before and was pretty used to hearing positive feedback.

But Pat sent it back — with comments. (The audacity!)

Here are just a few of my favorite:

“Add a couple paragraphs on HOW to ask for referrals and streamline that process. Please be specific!”

“Can you show 2–3 examples of amazing landing pages with images.”

“Include an example of a specific email campaign that performed exceptionally well, and why.”

I’m not going to lie: At the time, I rolled my eyes, tugged at my hair, and groaned about it to my manager, Gordon.

I didn’t have the time to devote to someone else’s blog when ours was in deep need of TLC, and who asked him, anyway?

But the worst part was knowing that he was totally right. I’d written an overview of general marketing practices, but I hadn’t left his readers with any actionable takeaways. And, clearly, Pat set a standard for the content he published that he refused to compromise on.

(And I could grumble all I wanted about it, but we had a deadline to hit.)

So I did the work. I went into our email campaigns to see which actually did perform well, questioned our product team about landing page tests, and if I couldn’t find personal examples from within Tailor Brands, I scoured the internet until I found other businesses I could reference.

It took time, but it was content done right.

And Pat published a great post.

To this day, Gordon and I bring up Pat a lot — and his is the standard for which we strive.

Our Commitment to 2021

This year, my team and I are committing to giving our readers — early-stage small business owners who want the tools to grow — valuable, interesting, actionable, REAL information.

(And we can still hit all of our KPI’s while we do.)

At the end of 2020, we started a new content hub, Thrive, that was intended to do just that.

I won’t lie and say that every blog post — or email, landing page, and video script, for that matter — we’ve created is at the standard it needs to be yet, but we’re on a very aggressive crusade to improve.

Here’s what we have in mind:

How to Create Better Content This Year (join us?)

This is a rough list of things my team and I aim to do this year in order to publish next-level content:

1. Draw on the expertise of coworkers. I’m privileged to work with brilliant, talented people, not to mention some top-notch marketers who are experts in their field. Who better to talk to about how to grow a business than, say, those who are helping grow a business?

2. Interview people who are doing it in real time. In the branding niche, there’s a tendency to compare everything to behemoths like Apple, Nike, Starbucks. (Like I said: Guilty!) And while no one can take away from the successfulness of those brands, they’re completely unrelatable examples for our readers.

So, to get tips and advice that speak directly to our customers’ needs, we’re going straight to the source: Small business owners who have successfully launched and started to grow their brands.

And, it’s okay if our interviewees don’t have all the answers! Interviewing them will also help us understand more about our own customers and some of the questions they’ll have or problems they’ll face, which we can then attempt to address.

3. U-s-e-b-e-t-t-e-r-i-m-a-g-e-s. Wow, is this something I have to work on! I’m not a designer by nature, and in the past, I’ve sort of taken the approach that, if I close my eyes, it doesn’t exist. But images are best practice, and readers need visual aids in order to stay engaged with your content. So, it’s going on the list.

4. Put external contributors to our blog through the “Pat Filter.” This one is hopefully self-explanatory.

5. Verify every claim. You won’t always have done the thing you’re writing about — and that’s okay. But, you can certainly find other people/brands/businesses who have, and who can illustrate what you’re saying with a relevant example. Dig deep for those examples, and don’t consider a post “finished” until it’s rippling with them.

Also, it’s on us to do our due diligence and verify that the source we’re using is a reliable one. I won’t name names, but there are so many blogs out there that get millions of visitors per month — reputable, household-name-blogs — yet they post the most surface-level, inactionable information. We can’t let that be the standard anymore.

6. Serve the user intent. Are you trying to get a post up on the internet just to say you did, or are you trying to help answer someone’s question? I know when I go to Google to figure out whether or not the bump on my finger is an early sign of cancer (we’ve all been there, amiright?), I sure as heck only want answers from people who either went to medical school or sit next to someone who did.

The same goes for the content you create. Again, I’m not saying you need to be a neuroscientist in order to write about it (actually, neuroscience should probably be the exception here), but if you are giving advice, it should be grounded in lived experience — either yours or someone else’s.

7. Make everything actionable. I don’t ever want us saying things like “you should create a voice for your brand” without explaining what that means, giving concrete examples, showing how other businesses have done the same, and teaching our readers how they can do it themselves.

That said, this one does come with a caveat; if the reader is coming to know “why” they have to do something, I would argue that you don’t need a 1,000 word digression on how they can go about it (though it’s always good to give that little extra!).

8. Provide resources. You don’t know the exact tax brackets for low-income earners in Tennessee? No problem! Link to a (verified) article that does, and guide your reader to the answer. Or, create downloadable templates that guide them through the steps of how they can calculate it for themselves.

I’ve found that a good litmus test for our content is to try and use it as a resource that helps me do something from scratch — like going to an old post on “how to define an audience persona” and using it to help me create one as if I’m a new business owner.

Do questions come up while I’m doing it? Does the post answer them?

For some of our content, the answer is a resounding yes, and I preen a little. For others, unfortunately, it’s still a no — and those posts are going on a growing list of content we intend to update.

Bonus: This is a personal pet-peeve of mine, and if you’re still with me, I’d love to hear your take. There’s this new-ish thing content marketers are doing that involves CAPITALIZING words to really EMPHASIZE what you’re trying to say and GRAB attention.

We get it; someone once came up with some data about the type of internet writing that’s the most persuasive, this was mentioned, and now we’re all scampering to create content that mimics the formula.

But to me, the MESSAGE it sends is that your audience is TOO DUMB to grasp this information on THEIR OWN and that’s WHY we’re the right people TO TELL THEM how to GET NEW FOLLOWERS and GROW THEIR BIZ and BUY MY COURSE BYE.

I think it’s infantilizing, and I want no part of it.

Like I said: We can (all) do better.

How’s 2021 Looking?

So far, we’ve kicked off the year with an incredible webinar (thank you, Gordon!), and have 3 more webinars lined up.

Our content team has had 4 interviews with successful small business owners, and an additional 2 have been scheduled.

We have a free, in-depth “Intro to Branding” email course nearly ready to rock, replete with downloadable templates and actionable advice.

This is the path we hope to continue on throughout the rest of the year (and forever, really, but let’s take it one step at a time).

So, if you see us publishing thin or uninformative content, please, call me out. We have a responsibility to the community we’re here to serve, and I’m intent on holding up our end of the bargain.

Do you think brands have a responsibility to create audience-first content, or would you take a different approach? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!