The other day, I wrote a post on the fact that most\u00a0marketing and PR agency blogs are unreadable.\u00a0 In it I shared my observations that this bothered me \u2013 but didn\u2019t provide any real reasons why (pretty much just a rant on the situation).<\/p>\n
The reason I didn\u2019t is \u2013 to be perfectly honest \u2013 modern marketing and PR professionals should already be able to devise their own ways to create a compelling, well-read blog.\u00a0 It\u2019s not really a new skill set.\u00a0 In fact, it doesn\u2019t even have to be on marketing, they should just be able to create a popular web publication they own\u00a0about something<\/em>.\u00a0 Otherwise their competence will always be questionable.<\/p>\n However, a commenter \u2013\u00a0Jeremy Meyers\u00a0from Waggener Edstrom\u00a0challenged me\u00a0to list out my reasons:<\/p>\n I\u2019m wondering if you wouldn\u2019t mind defining your terms a little. Calling blogs \u2018unreadable\u2019 without giving any context for what you mean doesn\u2019t really give anyone any room for improvement.<\/p>\n I agree that a lot of blogs run by companies in general can lack a strong editorial focus, and come off as sales tools rather than honest opinion pieces and writing meant to clarify a POV or put something out there for the community, but I\u2019m really wondering what your criteria is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I left a short reply in the post, but I promised Jeremy a better response via email.\u00a0 So I jotted down the following list of some specific problems I see:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 They don\u2019t\u00a0have opinions or take sides<\/strong><\/p>\n No one cares to read those who blindly agree with others or rehash what\u2019s already been said.\u00a0 If you are doing this, you\u2019re easily skip-able.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if other people are telling you to\u00a0ignore analysis\/commentary\/controversy\u00a0because they are \u201crisky.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s nonsense.\u00a0 It\u2019s riskier to be invisible \u2013 in fact, the largest risk for any agency in the social web isn\u2019t upsetting stakeholders or prospects, it\u2019s obscurity.\u00a0 Further, prospects actually\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0you to take a stand on things.\u00a0 No one wants a consultant who sits on the fence, the whole point of hiring one is because they\u2019re confident and embedded enough in the industry to be at the edge of discussions.\u00a0 If I were client side I\u2019d rather hire a consultant with a mind of their own vs. a drone who wouldn\u2019t tell me the truth.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Missing\u00a0passion<\/strong><\/p>\n Hint:\u00a0 passion is a secret of the social web.\u00a0 You can\u2019t outsource this,\u00a0 you can\u2019t assign it away.\u00a0 Either your team members have passion for what they do or they don\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s cut and dry, and that\u2019s one of the best aspects of blogging.\u00a0 This extends far beyond marketing and PR \u2013 anyone with a product or service who has raw passion behind it can put that on display for the world to see.\u00a0 If done right, this can be a huge reason to be chosen ahead of purely profit-driven competitors.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Lack of personality<\/strong><\/p>\n Who are the people\/voices behind a blog?\u00a0 If you\u2019re an A-list marketing or PR firm, your team members should likely be involved enough in the industry personally to have a known voice.\u00a0 If not, that\u2019s okay (do try and get some if you can) but your own brand of media still shouldn\u2019t hinder the personality behind writers.\u00a0 For some of the best multi-author blogs, I can immediately know who drafted a certain piece even without reading the author title \u2013 and that\u2019s powerful.\u00a0 It\u2019s powerful because I\u2019m already going to trust what they\u2019re saying (they\u2019ve built that with me over the years) and\u00a0 I\u2019ll be far more likely to share it since it\u2019s by someone I\u2019m a fan of.\u00a0 For agencies,\u00a0it\u2019s about people\u00a0as much as the brand.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Content fails the \u201cso what\u201d test?<\/strong><\/p>\n Agency blog content especially needs to pass this \u2013 think about it, clients are likely hiring you for your ideas.\u00a0 Your blog puts them on display for the world to see.\u00a0 As Chris Garett succinctly\u00a0describes:<\/p>\n A much overlooked aspect though is \u201cSo What?\u201d. What should the reader take away? Where is the benefit? Why should we listen to you?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 5.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t consistent enough<\/strong><\/p>\n This one speaks for itself, if you\u2019re not updating what\u2019s the reason people have to come back?\u00a0 This one is obvious (if un-followed) so I\u2019ll just leave\u00a0this link here\u00a0if you\u2019re not sure.<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0 They\u2019re\u00a0trying\u00a0too<\/em>\u00a0hard<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s possible to try too hard.\u00a0 As I noted in the post linked above, natural dialog flows easily and effortlessly, like art.\u00a0 It\u2019s less the product of a process and more the product of a\u00a0flow experience\u00a0\u2014 improvisational, not mechanical.<\/p>\n 7.\u00a0 Lack of\u00a0differentiation point<\/strong><\/p>\n Marketing agency blogs are a dime a dozen.\u00a0 Only a few razor sharp groups like the team at\u00a0Outspoken Media\u00a0have launched agency blogs that became ultra-successful, fast.\u00a0 Note that team was personally experienced well before they launched their blog, which sort of proves my original point.<\/p>\n 8.\u00a0 Fear of\u00a0making enemies<\/strong><\/p>\n The truth is most agencies wouldn\u2019t dare make enemies with another blogger or web personality.\u00a0 They\u2019re afraid of ruining relationships with others they think they\u2019ll forge organically in the future.\u00a0 Oh, if only they understood basic psychology or how the social web actually works (enemies link to you, hate turns to love much easier than indifference turns to love, etc.).\u00a0 If you\u2019re not making any enemies, you\u2019re doing it wrong.<\/p>\n 9.\u00a0\u00a0Digital marketing strategy\u00a0problems at the agency level<\/strong><\/p>\n When there is no internal digital marketing strategy the whole team is following (or there are internal conflicts over who owns digital, no unified effort, etc.) it quickly becomes apparent in an agency blog.\u00a0 A firm needs their own marketing down pat before engaging in a dialog with the web.\u00a0 Far too many (even large) agencies lack this.<\/p>\n 10.\u00a0 No effort at forging connections<\/strong><\/p>\n As I noted in a post on\u00a0content marketing\u00a0mistakes:<\/p>\n Without actively connecting to others, you will never form a network of your own.\u00a0 Your content should be forming connections organically as part of your process.\u00a0 Doing something like\u00a0making every post a link post\u00a0is a simple enough way to do this, but you should be doing\u00a0multiple<\/em>\u00a0things which forge connections on a consistent basis.\u00a0 Get creative, there are really no limits on how to do this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Quite a bit for being off the top of my head, right?\u00a0 I could have added more.\u00a0 But that\u2019s my point, you can only learn the nuances of successful digital publishing by doing it yourself.<\/p>\n What else do you see agencies doing with their blogging that could be improved?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The other day, I wrote a post on the fact that most\u00a0marketing and PR agency blogs are unreadable.\u00a0 In it … <\/p>\n