Content is beginning to bifurcate

Photo credit: thenationalherald.com

Being a writer, I try not to use big, potentially confusing terms as best I can. But, sometimes, they just fit.

That’s the case with our old friend bifurcation. As you may know, the term itself means to divide into two branches or forks, and I believe that’s exactly what’s happening to the content being created by marketers these days.

Some content (AKA the messages created by brands) is getting very good. These brands, like Oreo and Lego, are investing in the creation of quality content and it shows. On the other hand, there are brands who are not investing in the quality piece, rather focusing on the quantity of the content they are creating. This also shows.

My guess is that marketers on team quantity believe if they create enough content, it will bring people to their door (website, etc.).

Whether that’s true or not is a subject for another day. My point here is that content, specifically what I’ll call marketing content (to distinguish from more transactional content) is beginning to break into two camps, two kinds, two areas…oh, it’s bifurcating…alright?

I believe this content bifurcation will continue in 2016 and will further separate the brands who do this content creation thing well from those who do not, creating a haves-vs-haves-not situation.

My urging to you, dear brand marketers, is to get on board with the quality team.

Gone are the days when, if you got enough ‘stuff’ out there, you could get the attention of the search engines and win. The Googles and the Bings of the world and others are far too smart for old school things like key word stuffing…and that should tell us something. It should tell us more than, “Well, I guess we’ll have to try some other trick now.”

There are no more tricks. Your messages have to be relevant, helpful and meaningful for your audience or they will be ignored. That’s it. End of story.

No matter what business you are in or how you sell — B2B, B2C, B2B2C — there are no consumers begging you to send them more messages. And don’t even get me started on those who haven’t decided on a target audience on which to focus (how on earth can you be relevant, helpful and meaningful to someone if you don’t know who that someone is? Ugh.).

Anyway, as 2016 develops, I believe this bifurcation of content will continue and become even more pronounced. Now is the time, brand marketers, to decide which team you’re on…team quality or team quantity.

I’m sure there are those who are thinking, “What about both?” And it is true, to an extent, that brands need to create good quality content and create an ample amount of it, as well. But at some point, one has to take precedence.

There will come a day/project/meeting where you’ll be asked, “Do we want to make several of these or do we want to make one of them really well?”

As content continues to bifurcate, you will have to choose.

Please, I implore you, choose quality.