The dark side of content marketing: bounce rate versus engagement, loyalty and convergence

Have you ever wondered what the dark side of content marketing is? Bare with me. This needs an intro.

I had a client meeting last week. An online magazine writing about startups and tech called me in to chat about the kind of content they publish, the kind of ways they make money and what to do to differentiate themselves from other tech magazines. So I went there with a bunch of ideas on how and what to do the way others aren’t doing it. A few things happened in that meeting. I’ve been re-assured it’s not about the content — there are sites to drive traffic to their website — catchy headlines is the only thing to worry about. If they have the right traffic, they will get advertisers. Instead, they wanted to chat about how to do advertorials.

I felt like I am stuck in a slow inevitable car crash. This didn’t come from a brand or a corporate company, this came from a magazine. Not a brand looking to create a blog. A magazine. I feel I should share a few views, so other companies, publishers and brands (before throwing their money away to push content onto their website) make their website ready to receive that content.

To begin with, the issue of brand (and in some cases magazine) content is replicating. Sites like Taboola recommend editorial and sponsored content across many of the world’s sites with high traffic. It means it helps readers to discover your content by putting it in front of them in a highly measured and personalised way. It sounds brilliant, and it truly is a brilliant tool. But only if you have content worth discovering (otherwise you’ll end up with a sky-high bounce rate). So as a brand, if you use Taboola (there are many other similar sites) on a quality content platform like ‘Time’ and want to draw readers to your site, you need to start doing something a little more original than 4 superfoods to stop aging. When speaking at the Frontline Club, Luke Lewis, UK Buzzfeed’s Editor, made it clear that many brands, when trying to replicate Buzzfeed’s content, look like “your drunk uncle at the oldest cousin’s wedding”. Also doing honestly good and engaging lists about funny cats is not so easy — try and see if it goes viral.

So no lists? Not necessarily. If you do it, and it’s true to your brand, then do it in a unique way.

Lastly, brands fail to run with opportunities that sites like Taboola put into their hands. When Taboola offers content strategy workshops, which is great and content should never be published for the sake of ‘putting something out there’, content must always solve a problem. Brands traditionally are not publishers and struggle to tell engaging stories.

There is a threat that results, generated by sites like Taboola, will become ‘a vanity metric’. We, at The Magic Elephant, experienced brands sitting there seeing numbers grow, but also see their bounce rate grow and not getting any real customers. How many new visitors subscribed to the mailing lists? How to make sure content is engaging, true to the brand and positions the brand as a leader, personal storyteller and opinion former? Headlines and photos — these are crucial, but there’s a danger of over-promising. Which doesn’t build relationships. If the goal is to tackle discoverability issues, there must be good content to discover in the first place.

This is not an ad for Taboola. And I am using this name just because I picked it up at the meeting and believe those guys are the best at what they do, which is pushing content or helping to discover it — up to you which one to use to describe their services. At TME we aim to help brands publish better content (for everyone’s sake). Our latest work is Pronto’s lifestyle and wellness blog as well as our own magazine. If you are ready to invest in better content and better relationships with your online customers, reach out @rasajusionyte or @create_magic.

And keep your bounce rates low, that’s a metric that matters.