to find out what makes content successful, you have to deconstruct it

First, define success.

Then, find content that achieved what you want to achieve.

We pull it apart into its most basic elements and find out what made it work. We repeat this process until we find patterns – the things that tie all these pieces together. Only then are we ready to start coming up with ideas. We might not always love what we find, but your audience will. And if our research finds that the best route forward is a simple blog post – then that’s what we need to do.

What’s important is that you achieve what you set out to do. That you get a return on your investment.

content marketing is not what you think it is

Making something doesn’t automatically mean you’ve got an audience for it. Even if it’s amazing.

People devour art, music and video, created for nothing other than enjoyment, every day. But making content that fulfills a business goal is as much science as it is art.

Sure, you could get lucky with a viral hit – but how many times can that happen by luck alone, and how do you follow it up? Can your business realistically make that kind of content while adhering to brand guidelines?

why isn’t your content working?

Your content marketing agency could charge thousands for a video, or an interactive piece, or a huge survey – only for you to find that when it comes to promoting that content, it flops. It’s a bitter pill to swallow after all the money you’ve put in. You might get a few retweets, the odd Facebook like – maybe even a link. But there’s no return on your investment. It hasn’t done what you needed it to.

The truth is: nobody ever wanted that content in the first place.

Just because your content marketing agency or even your boss thinks it’s a great idea, doesn’t make it so.

If more time was spent researching your audience and finding out what they really want, your content would have been easier to pitch, or more widely consumed – it would have been overwhelmingly more likely to succeed. Our agency does content marketing the way we do everything; we take time to research as deeply as possible before making a single move. We see what’s out there. We see if anyone wants more of it. We figure out who we’ll need to pitch it to.

We get the facts and do the science.

That gives artistry a direction and a purpose, beyond wild creativity.