RightSpot Media | Digital Performance Marketing

What’s your content pain?

Posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 8:36 PM by Simon Smith  |  Comments (0)

You probably have your own horror story.

Maybe it’s the time, with a deadline looming, you stared at a blank page for hours—rewriting the same sentence over and over while the clock ticked loudly in your silent, deserted office.

Or maybe it’s the time you rigorously edited a document for an important meeting—only to discover that version was two revisions out of date.

You might have even faced one of the most frightful experiences of all: finding a serious typo in a published website or an expensive batch of printed documents—or worse, finding a glaring factual error.

And the survey says …

These are the type of stories we heard over the past week while conducting a survey on content-related frustrations and desires.

I wanted to share our findings to show how universal the pain can be—and to encourage more feedback from people who know the challenges.

See how well this list reflects your frustrations and desires, then add your own in the comments below:

• It just takes too much of my time: Saving time is a common desire. One person we spoke with had a complete book from which to source content, yet still felt frustrated with the amount of time it took to convert this material into website content.
• Simple grammatical errors and typos should never happen: Despite the pervasiveness of spell check, several people identified poor quality control as a key frustration. Many related this back to time; they find it frustrating to have to scrutinize materials that content providers deliver. "That’s what we’re paying them for," we heard from one respondent. One respondent identified "consistently perfect content" as a desire. Now that’s setting the bar high.
• How can they not understand the audience and subject matter? We heard several complaints and concerns about content producers who either didn’t have the requisite expertise to write on a subject, or didn’t take the time to get a proper briefing.  One respondent, who works in interactive marketing, expressed his desire succinctly: he wants "subject matter experts who can write for the web." More specifically, respondents want content providers to be sure about such variables as voice, tone, reading level, target audience, regulatory constraints and referencing requirements and style. In short: they want content providers to do their homework.
• Too many words! Several respondents also complained about excessive wordiness. (A problem commonly associated with jargon.) They want content that’s short, to the point and accessible. We heard desires like "friendly, professional content," "accurate and appropriate," and  "simple, clear content." That’s, um, pretty simple and clear.
• Oh no, not another revision: Ah yes, the neverending revision cycle. Revisions and version control made many respondents’ lists of frustrations. (We can really relate, which is why we’ve instituted collaborative document sharing and version control processes that ease revision cycles and eliminate version conflicts. I hope to write about them soon.) One respondent, discussing pharmaceutical marketing, summed up her frustration: "the client says the copy is done, but it isn’t. It’s never final."
• I just want to trust somebody: Besides time, another underlying theme is trust. Respondents want "content experts on hand when needed." People they can work with to plan, scope and deliver.
• Going from nothing to something great: Ultimately, content is creative. And many people find the thought of creating content from scratch daunting. Several respondents identified with the fear of a blank page, and the pressure to turn it into purposeful communication. The pressure rises when you hear some of our respondents’ desires. One account manager’s goal?  "Copy that will WOW the client."

Express yourself

Agree or disagree?

Have something to add?

Don’t let others speak for you!

We want to know your thoughts on content.

Be it horror story or happy ending, add a comment below and tell us your biggest frustrations and desires.

Tags: content, copywriting