Reader Question: Why Are Most Agency Blogs Unreadable?
August 12, 2010
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The other day, I wrote a post on the fact that most marketing and PR agency blogs are unreadable. In it I shared my observations that this bothered me – but didn’t provide any real reasons why (pretty much just a rant on the situation).
The reason I didn’t is – to be perfectly honest – modern marketing and PR professionals should already be able to devise their own ways to create a compelling, well-read blog. It’s not really a new skill set. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be on marketing, they should just be able to create a popular web publication they own about something. Otherwise their competence will always be questionable.
However, a commenter – Jeremy Meyers from Waggener Edstrom challenged me to list out my reasons:
I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind defining your terms a little. Calling blogs ‘unreadable’ without giving any context for what you mean doesn’t really give anyone any room for improvement.
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’m really wondering what your criteria is.
I left a short reply in the post, but I promised Jeremy a better response via email. So I jotted down the following list of some specific problems I see:
1. They don’t have opinions or take sides
No one cares to read those who blindly agree with others or rehash what’s already been said. If you are doing this, you’re easily skip-able. I don’t care if other people are telling you to ignore analysis/commentary/controversy because they are “risky.” That’s nonsense. It’s riskier to be invisible – in fact, the largest risk for any agency in the social web isn’t upsetting stakeholders or prospects, it’s obscurity. Further, prospects actually want you to take a stand on things. No one wants a consultant who sits on the fence, the whole point of hiring one is because they’re confident and embedded enough in the industry to be at the edge of discussions. If I were client side I’d rather hire a consultant with a mind of their own vs. a drone who wouldn’t tell me the truth.
2. Missing passion
Hint: passion is a secret of the social web. You can’t outsource this, you can’t assign it away. Either your team members have passion for what they do or they don’t. It’s cut and dry, and that’s one of the best aspects of blogging. This extends far beyond marketing and PR – anyone with a product or service who has raw passion behind it can put that on display for the world to see. If done right, this can be a huge reason to be chosen ahead of purely profit-driven competitors.
3. Lack of personality
Who are the people/voices behind a blog? If you’re an A-list marketing or PR firm, your team members should likely be involved enough in the industry personally to have a known voice. If not, that’s okay (do try and get some if you can) but your own brand of media still shouldn’t hinder the personality behind writers. For some of the best multi-author blogs, I can immediately know who drafted a certain piece even without reading the author title – and that’s powerful. It’s powerful because I’m already going to trust what they’re saying (they’ve built that with me over the years) and I’ll be far more likely to share it since it’s by someone I’m a fan of. For agencies, it’s about people as much as the brand.
4. Content fails the “so what” test?
Agency blog content especially needs to pass this – think about it, clients are likely hiring you for your ideas. Your blog puts them on display for the world to see. As Chris Garett succinctly describes:
A much overlooked aspect though is “So What?”. What should the reader take away? Where is the benefit? Why should we listen to you?
5. They aren’t consistent enough
This one speaks for itself, if you’re not updating what’s the reason people have to come back? This one is obvious (if un-followed) so I’ll just leave this link here if you’re not sure.
6. They’re trying too hard
Yes, it’s possible to try too hard. As I noted in the post linked above, natural dialog flows easily and effortlessly, like art. It’s less the product of a process and more the product of a flow experience — improvisational, not mechanical.
7. Lack of differentiation point
Marketing agency blogs are a dime a dozen. Only a few razor sharp groups like the team at Outspoken Media have launched agency blogs that became ultra-successful, fast. Note that team was personally experienced well before they launched their blog, which sort of proves my original point.
8. Fear of making enemies
The truth is most agencies wouldn’t dare make enemies with another blogger or web personality. They’re afraid of ruining relationships with others they think they’ll forge organically in the future. 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.). If you’re not making any enemies, you’re doing it wrong.
9. Digital marketing strategy problems at the agency level
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. A firm needs their own marketing down pat before engaging in a dialog with the web. Far too many (even large) agencies lack this.
10. No effort at forging connections
As I noted in a post on content marketing mistakes:
Without actively connecting to others, you will never form a network of your own. Your content should be forming connections organically as part of your process. Doing something like making every post a link post is a simple enough way to do this, but you should be doing multiple things which forge connections on a consistent basis. Get creative, there are really no limits on how to do this.
Quite a bit for being off the top of my head, right? I could have added more. But that’s my point, you can only learn the nuances of successful digital publishing by doing it yourself.
What else do you see agencies doing with their blogging that could be improved?
image credit: Stephen Aaron Rees via Shutterstock
David Sonnen replied | Aug 12, 2010 (2 comments)
Adam,
Valuable list. Agency bloggers need to learn from your perspective, but they can’t.
Here’s why.: Corporate blogs are unreadable for the same reasons that new cars look the same. Yea, that’s a stretch. But, hang with me for a sec.
New cars have to meet a narrow set of specs for fuel efficiency, safety and such. Automotive designers and engineers work hard to make new cars unique and appealing, but they have to stay within legal specs and the laws of physics.
Automotive design tools, like wind tunnel testing for example, push designs toward optimal performance for that particular tool. In the case of wind tunnels, the optimal aerodynamic shape looks pretty much the same every time.
To be unique, designers try to make that optimal shape look a little different, but the laws of physics don’t bend much. So, their designs look a lot alike.
Agency and corporate PR folks have a similar problem. In their case, designs are limited by how they can differentiate and a legal framework. There are just a few legal ways tech products can be differentiated — features, efficiency, costs and a few others. So, the process and constraints for differentiating are pretty much the same for all of them.
Each big company has their (sort of) unique process that makes their products, marketing and blogs look and feel a certain way. We call that branding and it’s highly valued. This video says this much better than I can: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9HfdSp2E2A .
This means that corporate blogs are necessarily shaped by an incorruptibly consistent process that makes them. er.. consistent. It’s not so much that corporate blogs are unreadable, they are just predictable to the point of being tiresome and irrelevant
As an aside, that might by why individual blogs, like Future Buzz, come across as real, bright and valuable. Individual bloggers don’t have an immovable corporate process to shape, vet, brand and “add value” to what they publish.
Catherine Lockey replied | Aug 12, 2010 (63 comments)
Use data, do research, and provide interesting visuals. I still have a long way to go but am determined to get there.
Adam Wilbur replied | Aug 12, 2010 (1 comment)
Well said….if everyone is such a “thought leader” these days, then why are there so few new thoughts? The hype around content marketing is out of control. The result is that the same concepts get regurgitated so many times that it just becomes noise. Funny, because it really just makes the legitimate content even more difficult to find. Personally, I find it frustrating as hell. Just my opinion :)
Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder replied | Aug 12, 2010 (1 comment)
This is so well said and it sounds like the money concept… coins do make a lot of noise but it’s the paper bills that are not being heard and do add up!
We have to trust our own instincts and go for it, not paying too much attention to the noise makers…
Sunny greetings from Georgia,
MariettesBacktoBasics
Danielle replied | Aug 12, 2010 (1 comment)
Adam, those are some really valuable points and as a paid blogger for a major private business I try to avoid those things. I could really use a second set of eyes though and would love it if you (or anyone else who cares to spend the time) would like to stop by my blog and give me some feedback.
Nanette Levin replied | Aug 12, 2010 (2 comments)
Adam,
This is a great post! I think corporate behemoths will always have challenges doing things that are relatively easy for the small business owner. Add the marketing, legal and management approval layers to the mix and the idea of individual, creative and opinion-related public commentary with these firms is virtually unattainable.
Of course, when you look at some of the witch hunts (and firings, resignations, product pulls, etc.) that have transpired due to stupid comments or out-of-context videos being posted on Twitter, YouTube and such, the cautionary stance is understandable. Still, your point is spot on – these folks shouldn’t be proclaiming blog making expertise if they can’t showcase an effective approach with their company product.
Jon Buscall replied | Aug 14, 2010 (16 comments)
This is an important post because it provides the kind of blueprint agencies need to think through if they’re going to push their blogging onto the next level.
It takes time, effort and considerable resources to create a great blog. And that goes for agencies just as much as anyone.
If you’re going to promote blogging as a useful marketing and communications tool you really have to demonstrate you can walk the walk.
Hannah J replied | Aug 16, 2010 (1 comment)
Understandable and I can certainly see your viewpoint. As the popularity of blogging has risen, many agencies have ‘jumped on the bandwagon’ as it were and created a blog without much in mind of what they want to say or achieve.
However there are instances where agency blogs are truly brilliant – Wadds of Speed Communications has created a blog that emulates his often rather controversial opinion and he continues to set the bar blogging about wage levels within his firm and PR matters of interest.
I also have to say Wolfstar are known for their outspoken blog with their MD criticising Paratus Comms earlier in the year and causing an all out blog comment war!
Finally, with our blog (WPR) we talk about PR (occasionally) like to continually criticise Rupert Murdoch (simply because we can as we’re not a member of News Corporation) and talk about all that we’re passionate be it Fashion or the ever-evolving digital world….
Jewel replied | Sep 4, 2010 (1 comment)
You’ve done an excellent job of analyzing the “agency blog” problem, and I agree with everything you’ve written. (I’ve unsubscribed several of them over the years.)
But as a long-time agency *person*, I can explain all the points you’ve raised. I was so moved by your post that I actually blogged a brief explanation @ “What Is Content Marketing” | http://bit.ly/dAnljq
But more than this, what I like about your post is that it tells a cautionary tale to ALL bloggers. We’ve got to be smarter and more energetic when writing for the Web.
Keep up the great blogging – this is an example of how it’s done right!