Lorem ipsum mortuus est

The minority who studied Latin or the majority with access to http://latin-dictionary.net/, may wonder why I have decided to declare that paragraphs of random text are dead. The simple answer being that I cannot find a latin translation for "mocking up" which is what should really on the digital coroners slab.

In one of those handy yet ultimately fruitless moves, "mocking up" is one of the many practices that have been transitioned between the print and online environments, despite being utterly unfit for purpose.

When working in print there are a few important variables that revolve around content, design and readibility. However, in the digital environment this list expands to content, interaction, usability, accessibility, response and readibility. If we put the primacy of content to one side for a moment you are left with two quite different lists, where the former is largely down to aesthetics and the second more defined by function. In this instance a flat Photoshop document is of extremely limited use as it fails to address any issues of function which ultimately are far more important than physical design.

How something reads, works and responds when put in front of a user is not defined by design but by its architecture and build. Its why studies show that users make decisions around web page design in microseconds, as these are simply not what the mind is focussed on. Look at the web pages you use the most - are they fantastic designs or are the the most useful to you (think Google).

Which is where the problem really comes to a head. You cannot have function without content on the web. A link that doesn't go somewhere isn't a link its a dead end. A page without meaningful content that you can react to and with, is a dead loss.

In the digital environment we need to be thinking of user experience, content streams, wireframes and usability. Not flat designs and mock ups. Think of your favourite movie and then think of it again "mock up" with meaningless content. It won't be your favourite movie any more? So if you find yourself wanting a mock up of a site, an app or anything else then you are probably asking the wrong question, as it will have the opposite to the desired effect.

PS I realise the incongruity of using a latin headline on a page demanding clear content, but that is the point, isn't it?

For no-one

For a while, in the pre-crash days, it was quite vogue to rename an organisation, often as part of a merger or acquisition, but occasionally simply to change ingrained perceptions. Let loose on these projects, branding agencies conjured up unmemorable, unpronounceable or simply odd monikers such as Consignia, Thales or More Than, which were then the subject of intense and expensive marketing campaigns. 

The recent lack of such activities is one of the more welcomed but unplanned consequences of the financial turmoil. However, it has not disappeared completely as those who used to benefit are still employing  the tactic even applying it to themselves and their activities. The latest incarnation of this effect has come to be known as content marketing. 

According to Wikipedia: "Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty." 

While the concept isn't new (ok content free marketing has existed but was not the norm) and some of the channels and techniques required are recent phenomena, there is a deeper issue with the idea of content marketing which I believe will ensure adds up to little more than another passing term.

In a digitally connected world, so many traditional advertising, marketing and communications functions are fundamentally challenged. The ideas of targeting segments, using limited media outlets to disrupt attention, controlling messaging, building communities are all laid to waste in a world of infinite information sources, user commentary, online sharing and social networking. 

Communicating in this environment requires new skills and approaches. Messaging and communications are increasingly decentralised with every employee becoming a  brand advocate and conversations around products and performance happening at the personal level. 

However, the mantra behind content marketing as it is currently enacted is simply "this is more of the same". Organisations continue to try to talk to their clients, not through their people but over their heads; centralised messaging is pushed out via Twitter but with no-one reacting to any feedback and ghost written corporate blogs that eschew opinion in favour of supporting initiatives. 

The failure of content marketing is that too often it is content written by nobody specific for no-one in particular. 

Until organisations grasp the need to fundamentally rethink their model, i.e. the way they interact with their market, and understand how their clients want to interact with them then this is destined to be another online cul-de-sac. 

Those organisations that get digital engagement right, I doubt, will be setting up a content marketing division anytime soon. 

Message in a bottle

So you have a great campaign or initiative or viewpoint you want to communicate to your clients. Where do you start?

Presumably by:

• generating relevant content, 
• creating collateral, 
• drawing down a target list of interested parties
• prepare electronic mail to send to the target group
• approaching the media to see if you can generate interest
• maybe organise an event, 
• put something on the website
• by some advertising 

Then you stand back, press go and watch everything disappear into the ether.

Which is followed by the wait. Not literally of course, because you have to manage all the moving parts. But the reality is that you are now waiting for your clients and targets to read, watch, hear, search or simply trip over the relevant content. And once they have you rely on them to make the effort to come back and ask you for more.

This is the modern equivalent of communicating via a message in a bottle. Once upon a time it made sense, but it seems utterly anachronistic now. Your employees and colleagues are connected to their market in ways that simply didn't exist previously. They correspond and collaborate via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter more than they do via phone or in person.

It makes no sense to bypass your people, and their connections and networks, if you want to communicate with your targets, because that is where the relationships already exist. Where the conversations will naturally occur and where the dialogue that could build to engagement can easily begin.

In a networked world:

1. Lobbing material over the heads of our people into the market is inefficient.
2. Ignoring the power of existing relationships and contacts is wasteful.
3. Expecting our clients to make the running in an engagement is fanciful.

So, if this all does sound familiar, then its time to change the music.