Why Your Content Sucks

By Andrew and Pete | July 14, 2016 |

So you’ve wrote a blog, you’ve shot a video, you may have even recorded a podcast and you are super excited for the world to see it.

You hit publish…

You have butterflies in your stomach… your content is now ‘out there’ for the world to see, watch, comment upon, judge.

You pat yourself on the back for mustering up the courage to do it.

But then, something happens.

Remember those butterflies in your stomach. Turns out they weren’t butterflies, they were…

Content Crickets. A real thing. Honest. They chirp in ComicSansMS apparently.

And you end up asking yourself: Does my content really suck??? Why does nobody seem to care about it?

Here’s the thing, yes your content may suck, but the question you need to be asking is: why your content sucks?

Why Your Content Sucks: It’s Not Your Fault.

If the internet was a bucket it would be overflowing with content. It doesn’t need anymore average stuff for average people. There’s is too many: blogs, vlogs, Facebook Lives, Periscopes, Emails, Webinars, Conferences etc. etc. etc.

We see content going the way of advertising, where we have so much flung at us, that it just becomes a noise we end up ignoring.

So, it is your job to ensure you are creating better, more creative content that people actually want.

Stop asking why your content sucks, and start asking how can I make it better?

3 Tips for Sucky Content

Before we go on, this is a blog about content creation, not content promotion. That’s a whole other ball game for a different day.

Tip 1: Do the Logo Game

If you were to take off any branding, any logos, any author names from any of your content, do you think people would still know that it is yours?

[CLICK HERE TO TWEET]

If not, you have a problem, and you are probably adding to the noise, rather than rising above it.

If you don’t want your content to suck, you need to create your own unique style and tone for any content you create, and this should align to your brand values. We talked about brand values in our last video.

Tip 2: Entertainment is Underrated in Content

We are all human beings, and although this is business, our potential customers ALL have one thing in common: we like to be entertained. Seriously. Think about that. We all seek out entertainment in some way in our personal lives. But then why is the entertainment factor an after-thought when it comes to business?

We challenge you to be a bit more entertaining in your content, because you could be losing out to companies that are entertaining. If a potential customer has a choice of your blog, and the competition’s, but they know that the competition has a tone of voice a little bit more entertaining – who do you think they will choose?

Content is soooooo easy to produce these days, you can wack out a blog in 30 mins if you wanted. BUT that doesn’t give you an excuse to wack out a blog in 30 minutes which sucks.

Tip 3: Go ALL out

Imagine a Utopian World where you got paid to create content. Doesn’t that sound amazing? We would all be skipping down the path to that World…

But, if you were getting paid, how awesome would that content be? Would you go the extra mile? Would you include more images, GIFs, sound bites, collaborations, go in more depth, publish more frequently etc.?

Yes?

In a convoluted way (which included a GIF of The Wizard of Oz), we wanted to prove that we can all do more with our content if we wanted, we just have to put in the effort. And guess what, with consistent effort… it will end up paying you back.

Getting Started with Your Brand Values

We mentioned earlier, a good place to start is with your Brand Values. But if you are struggling with deciding upon brand values, we have a download for you. It’s our HUGE list of brand values, to give you inspiration.