What's the point of content?

Content, what is it good for?

Whether your content is a 100-word product description, a 30-second video or an e-book stretching to several pages, there’s one question you should be asking: ‘what’s it for?’

Without a purpose, then your carefully crafted words & pictures are likely to prove instantly forgettable.

What are you trying to do? Promote awareness of a subject, build your brand, or sell a product? Broadly speaking there are four categories: Educate, Entertain, Convince or Inspire*. If your content doesn’t fall into one of these broad groups, then alarm bells should start to ring about whether the premise is right in the first place.

Getting the balance right

Just because you’re trying to educate, doesn’t mean content can’t entertain and who say’s you can’t appeal to somebody’s emotional side to inspire them while also convincing them with hard facts at the same time. It’s good to mix and match.

Beware though of trying to squeeze in too many objectives. You might lose the message. A good example is the dark arts of product placement in TV and film. When done well it pays for production costs while also promoting the brand and most viewers won’t even bat an eyelid.

But, if it’s not a good fit, or done badly, then it’s a turn off. Kiefer Sutherland’s Designated Survivor was roundly mocked for a lavish 90-second lavish demonstration of the Ford Fusion's smart features, while 80s’ Sc-Fi ‘Mac and Me’, is today chiefly known for a four-minute dance sequence promoting McDonalds.

Stick to the point!

So, what was this article for? Has it educated, entertained, inspired or convinced? Ultimately, what was the point?

Here’s how to judge whether you’ve got it right. It’s the pay-off.

Many people won’t read on after the first paragraph or watch past the few seconds of a video clip. How you start is essential to keeping the reader engaged. But how you finish is equally important.

Your ending helps form the lasting impression and, if you’ve stuck to your point throughout (instead of, say, being distracted by linking readers to clips of 80s movies) it should be straightforward. If the final conclusion is too hard, maybe you’ve given yourself to much to do and the premise wasn’t right in the first place.

…and if you’ve made it this far, here's a bit more about what I do!!

*The original (and much more detailed) Content Marketing Matrix was drawn up by Smart Insights. You can find out more here