Thoughts on Outsourcing Content Marketing

 

(Note: I wrote this article myself, using my own opinions. All mistakes and logical fallacies are my own)

Content marketing has moved beyond buzz-word, passed Hot Seminar Topic, driven right by Panel Discussion & firmly landed as an industry. I’ve read dozens of articles about content marketing the past few weeks that are, in fact, themselves, content marketing. Articles that explain how many ‘touches’ of content marketing you need in order to solidify a sell (it’s 12, apparently. It used to be 10, but now it is positively 12). Articles that define content marketing (it’s a tricky concept but, essentially, you use content to market). And, increasingly, I see a suggestion in content marketing articles about content marketing that the “development” (writing) can be, and maybe even should be, outsourced.

Here’s how I picture this:

                John, Attorney: I need to content market. Can you assist me?

Steve, Content Marketer: Yes, we have experts in many different fields. What would you like to market?

                John, Attorney: I want clients and prospects to know that I am an expert on immigration law.

Steve, Content Marketer: Great! We can do that. We have a research team that can put together the content for your final review.

                John, Attorney: Oh, also, I want to seem approachable. Likeable, even, if that’s possible.

Steve, Content Marketer: That’s not a problem at all. We provide a high level of service to our clients, and we also strive to put a personal touch on all of our content.

So my imaginary scenario is glib and, most likely, disrespectful to outsourced content marketers. I apologize. Let me go ahead and lay out my specific issues with outsourcing the creation of content.

1.      YOU are supposed to be the expert

2.      People want to get to know, and hire, YOU

3.      “Research team” is fancy speak for “Google,” which a lot of people have access to already

You create content to show off your expertise in a particular niche. So, show it off. Did you become an expert by googling terms related to your field, printing out academic articles you find and then piecing them together into a coherent article? No? You didn’t? You became an expert by handling dozens of cases, spanning a variety of issues and touching on many disparate facets of the law?

Many content marketers interview the individual purporting to write the content and then put together an article or articles based on those interviews with the ‘writer’ always having final approval. That’s better, absolutely. But now you are paying someone to dictate, convert your verbal responses to a writing style and add clauses. I want to suggest that the biggest missed opportunity with this approach is the time you would have spent thinking about what you were going to write. Writing is difficult, without a doubt. But sometimes, the most difficult part of it is staring at a blank screen. It can also be the most illuminating part. Think of this way: most professionals spend a majority of their working time actively engaged in tasks. How much time do professionals spend on introspection? Or, for that matter, retrospection on the work you have done? That’s very valuable for you and your clients. Your clients want to know what you do, what you have done and what you know. No interview or research team can encapsulate that. Only you can, and only over time. You will not find your voice immediately, but the process of you finding your voice is actually pretty interesting, as a reader, to watch unfold. There’s no confusion about who is behind the thoughts and opinions, because it’s not carefully crafted and sanitized.

Let’s zoom way out. Why do you want to participate in content marketing? If the only reason is because you heard that Google’s search algorithms reward original content then I submit that’s a bad reason. You can absolutely feel fine outsourcing your content if that’s your reason, but it’s a wasted opportunity. If you are interested in content marketing it should be about something else – about turning your experiences and expertise into something of value for other people.

Think about your audience. Isn’t that the first rule they teach when writing anything? If your audience can find this same exact information in a 0.0004 second google search: what value are you adding?

Think about your audience. If your audience will come away from reading your content with nothing more than “s/he practices immigration law,” you probably could have saved some time and money writing that in your various bios + linkedin profile.

Think about your audience. If your audience will come away from reading your content with a sense of who you are as a professional, what you do and what you know then they will come again to learn more and they will be much more likely to pay to utilize your knowledge and experience because you have added value and, more than that, you have presented yourself. You did not hide yourself or wall yourself in canned industry-speak. That stuff gets read right over when it does get read. Be interesting. Be you.

You can’t outsource you. You can outsource elements of content marketing, of course. The design, the functionality, the delivery system. But you cannot outsource the critical piece that makes content marketing, when done well, so effective: the feeling of connection between the reader and the writer.

Sometime soon I’ll write a quick post on where to spin that monkey mind of yours as you stare at the blank screen. I don’t have much experience or any expertise, but that is a place I know very well.