Scaling Content on the Razor Branding Podcast
What if we lived in a world where commodified content didn’t dominate online marketing? What if people would pay a premium for premium content and low-quality, contextless content disappeared? This isn’t just a dream anymore. It’s our current content marketing and SEO reality. Recently, our founder and CEO, Dave Snyder, joined Jaci and Michael Russo of BrandRusso on their He Said, She Said Razor Branding Podcast to talk about the change in the online marketing game and how to scale your content to get ahead.
In today’s recap we’re looking at the things you need to know, even if you didn’t have time to listen to the show:
- AI vs. Human Content
- Buy Into Content Storytelling
- Customized Content Plans
- Keeping Up With Google Changes
- Influencers vs. Subject Matter Experts
AI vs. Human Content
These days, many brands have two options for developing content at scale: AI-generated pieces or working with an agency to create premium-quality content. There’s no middle unless you want to work with a low-quality agency. But why would anybody do that when the computer can do it for less? While AI is a tool, it’s not a content solution. According to Dave:
“AI, at its best, is just replicated humanity. AI can’t come up with new ideas or new concepts. It can pretend to be Van Gogh. But it can’t be Van Gogh.”
When you use AI as a tool rather than a solution, it opens up unique development opportunities. It fits well into long-term workflows. For example, if you have an insane amount of content to produce, like product descriptions, you could use AI to write them. Then, bring that content back through human editors, quality assurance (QA) checks, and subject matter experts to fact-check before publication. This hybrid model allows companies to leverage the efficiency of AI without losing emotion and messaging for connecting with audiences on a human level.
Buy Into Content Storytelling
The reason AI is a tool and not a solution is that it can’t tell an emotional story. AI can spit out a list of product features, but that’s not what your audience wants to see from content marketing. About 99% of the time, product or service lists won’t set your brand apart from the competition. Your audience wants to know how you’re going to solve the problems they have.
How do you make my life easier? How do you make me cooler or more attractive? How will you help me make more money? These questions play to a person’s emotions and the things they desire most. Know who you are as a company and be clear in your brand message. You can define and solidify that message through content marketing storytelling.
Customized Content Plans
Brands must have some kind of strategy to stay in control. But your company doesn’t have to be everything for everyone. Specializing is key. Content marketing services like CopyPress work to help drive your brand to the right places. Not every channel or every type of content is right for every business. The ability to customize your content strategy and plans keeps clients long-term.
Though most companies think that your channels, or where to put the message, is the most important part of content marketing, it’s not. That success actually starts much earlier with creating your brand style guide. Style guides set up a creative team and an entire company for content marketing gains. To have a living document that details the brand’s audience, voice, and tone expectations is key.
Set people up for success with a style guide first. Then you can combine that guide with constant team training to tweak and change the little things until you reach your standard of “content perfection.” Once you’ve hit perfection, you can scale your content to create more of it quickly at that same high-level quality.
Related: Content Planning vs Content Strategy: Are They Different?
Keeping Up With Google Changes
There’s always panic on the bandwagon when Google releases a new update. But there doesn’t have to be. Don’t be reactionary to Google’s changes by always chasing the next big update. If you’re looking for a way to “Google-proof” your company and content, turn your company into a digital publisher or content provider.
Google doesn’t need more commercial websites, even if it makes money off of them. The users go to Google to get answers to their questions. They need content publishers more than they need commoditized ads. And if your company isn’t a publisher, it better be a brand. Your name has to become synonymous with whatever you do, like Amazon or McDonald’s.
No matter what Google tells you, any company can be good at SEO if you put in the effort. Everyone wants “the silver bullet” that helps you ace Google’s algorithms. But finding that magic isn’t real. No SEO shortcut allows you to put in minimum effort and zero money and still come out on top. You can, however, rank for any keyword if you have the strategy, time, and budget to put into doing the work.
Related: 8 Ways To Prepare for the Next Google Update
Influencers vs. Subject Matter Experts
For B2B companies especially, you need to find your niche when choosing content distribution channels and partners. There’s value in working with subject matter experts, where chasing the big audience doesn’t provide a lot of value. Be concerned with more than just how many followers your partners have. There has to be quality behind that number of followers.
That’s why we recommend using subject matter experts rather than influencers for scaling your content distribution. Being able to leverage someone’s expertise takes your content to the next level. Choosing someone in the right field with name recognition builds authority. Readers or viewers know this person has the authority, not just the paid contract, to speak on the topic.
For B2C companies, subject matter experts may be harder to find. In those cases, work with a real content creator rather than a paid influencer. Content creators develop their own content rather than sell other people’s stuff exclusively. Their work has value rather than just being a collection of social media ads.
The most important thing to remember about branding and content marketing is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy. Trust your content provider and be able to give up some control over what your brand produces. That trust comes from knowing you’ll get top-quality content at scale from the very first day of your partnership. At CopyPress, we’re dedicated to providing that sense of security. Don’t believe us? Fill out our contact form and share more information about your brand needs. Then we work with you to create a specialized plan to take your content marketing to the next level.
CopyPress writer
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