3/30/2010
The New Content Math – Quantity Equals Quality
To Establish Thought Leadership and Credibility, More Is More
Plant Plenty of Content
As a result, this company is all over Google for just about any relevant search term a potential or existing customer could think of. Merely by surveying search results, a potential customer will reach the (accurate) conclusion that our client is a leader in its niche. Merely by visiting the corporate blog and noticing the impressive volume of archived posts, a potential customer will conclude that here’s a company that knows its stuff.
And all of this thought leadership and credibility is established without more than a smattering of content being read.
So what does a company gain from a stockpile of content?
First, prospects who are wavering come into the fold. Given the choice between a seller with no paper trail and one with a pedigree, which would you choose to do business with?
Second, new revenue streams open. Subject matter experts can command a price for speaking, training, consulting, and delivering exclusive content. For some, content can transform itself from a labor of love to an even more lovable profit center.
Third, a company’s universe of collaborators and brand evangelists expands, leading directly to opportunities for new ventures and high quality referred business. I’m pretty sure these are two things most businesses are interested in.
Is the Quantity Equals Quality equation fair? Probably not. But then again, maybe so. Companies that are passionate about what they do want to talk about every dimension of their work. Companies that care about and respect their customers strive to inform and educate them. Great companies make time for content.
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8 Responses to The New Content Math – Quantity Equals Quality
Brad,
Prolific market–or niche–communication really is important, though we don’t always focus on that factor of our branding and marketing efforts and don’t often hear very much about it from those who advise us in these matters. I’m definitely learning lately how important it is to strike a balance between quality and quantity because, while quality will always be critical to long-term credibility, quantity not only gives an overall impression of authority (and therefore credibility) but also makes it far more likely that our quality content will actually be read by enough people to make a difference in building our businesses and/or brands.
Thanks for these great insights! They certainly help put the quality/quantity question into perspective!
Hi Jeanne, More good content – good. We certainly shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that more bad content is bad. Glad the article helped you – you’ve always done a good job of striking the right balance!
Everywhere except on my blog, I’m afraid. (Sigh) I always seem to have so many other projects going that my blog falls by the wayside. Really must remedy that, though the busier I get with paying gigs, the more difficult that will become! (It still amazes me, though, that because of all the content in my archives and how much of it is indexed with Google–along with a few other factors that Orble measures, such as followers, comments, etc.–my blog ranks #26 in popularity (as of today) out of over 10,000 Orble blogs, many of which receive far more traffic and post far more often than I do. I find that really difficult to fathom. But, I guess it brings us back to your main point. Though I may not be posting often these days, I have three years worth of content built up, which definitely adds up to quantity!)
Hi Brad
I think you said it yourself…
“As a result, this company is all over Google for just about any relevant search term”
Guess if we want to be successful on the net we have to do what Google wants, and that appears to be everyone on the net talking to everyone else.
Is that so bad?
I write good posts, but I also try and write good comments on other blogs and get on with people in the blogosphere.
No big deal, just the way it is!
Hi Keith, Excellent point about blog commenting – perhaps a dying art? Social Media B.T. (Before Twitter) seemed to be rich with serious and often fascinating discussions on blogs. I think blogging is still hard to beat as a platform for deep business communication, so it’s great you’re taking the time to continue commenting in earnest. For me, commenting is more exhausting that writing blog posts, simply because the exercise forces me to think of issues that aren’t always top of mind, and from completely different points of view. I should get back to doing more of that. Thanks for the pep talk!
Hi Brad
Thanks for a supportive reply.
Great thing about reading other blogs and then commenting is that you learn things….
“Social Media B.T. (Before Twitter)”
I’ve just learned what BT means.
I find that a good post makes it easy to leave a good comment.
And discussion in the comments make the whole thing come alive.
Brad,
It’s not just quality by itself that counts – though this is pivotal.
It’s not only quantity which counts either – though this too is certainly important.
What really counts is quantity of quality output.
Hi Andrew, True enough. When it comes to quality, more is always more.