Content Feeling Outdated? 4 Signs Your Content Needs a Rehab

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Posted on July 3, 2012 by Jayme Thomason - no comments

In 2006, my husband and I began remodeling our home from floor to ceiling. It has been a HUGE undertaking, but well worth it. We’re mostly finished, except for some trim and touch-up paint, but we constantly have some kind of home project going on. However, we actually enjoy removing walls, tiling, sanding and painting. To me, there’s so much satisfaction in taking something ugly and making it pretty again (see my real before/after photos above).

What remodeling proves is that no matter what condition you find your space, with a little elbow grease and a lot of love you can transform it into something amazing. I believe the same is true for your content. Unfortunately, I’ve seen so many scenarios where companies think content isn’t, by their loose definition, “working” and so they throw the whole thing out.

This is concerning, because we know that content, when thought out and produced on a consistent basis, can yield great results for companies. So my request to companies struggling with their content performance is this: it might be ugly now, but it can be saved. It may just be that all your content needs is a bit of a makeover. How to tell?

4 Signs Your Content…uh…Needs Some Love (and How to Fix It)

Sign #1 – Non-existent or declining engagement. There is debate about whether or not the number of shares, likes, comments and whatnot is directly related to how valuable your content is. Gini Dietrich wrote a great article about whether the number of comments is actually related to how well your blog does. Interesting findings here. But, if you are truly getting no comments, or shares and engagement has declined over time, you could have a problem. The Rehab – Knowledge is the first defense. You need a benchmark when determining whether or not you need to rehab your content, so pay attention to these three metrics to see trends over time. This will help you diagnose your problems:

• Traffic (unique visitors and pageviews)
• Engagement (number of comments)
• Shares (number of times your content is shared with someone else)

Sign #2 - Getting content from others is harder than it should be. Being in our line of work, we hear a lot of people express frustrations with getting others to contribute content. To me, this is a red flag that there is a breakdown in process. The Rehab - If this is you, you may need to just reengage your team by formally documenting your workflow process, approval chain and editorial planning. An old boss used to tell me, “It’s not really a plan unless it’s on paper.” Get your plan and process on paper then follow-through by holding team members accountable for their content…and missed deadlines.

Sign #3 - Lack of momentum. The ideal trend is generally up and to the right, depending on which metric you’re paying attention to. Lack of momentum usually rears its ugly head in the form of “peaks and valleys.” What happens is someone has a great idea for a “campaign.” You do a ton of social, video and blogging about it (Peak). Then after the campaign, there’s nothing as exciting as your campaign to talk about, so the content stops (Valley.) The Rehab - The only way to remedy this symptom is to stop “campaigning” your content, and start planning valuable, evergreen content that will build a following over time.

Sign #4 - Running out of content topic ideas. This sign is related to signs #2 and #3. Companies never believe me when I tell them they won’t run out of content ideas – not unless they shut their doors. If you spend adequate time on your content strategy, themes and editorial brainstorming with stakeholders from all sides of your organization, there will ALWAYS be something to talk about. The Rehab - We encourage companies to have one long brainstorming meeting per month, then shorter ones every week to keep your content pipeline full. Plus, inviting other people into the planning part (sales, and even the CEO) can help with sign #2 because they will feel more ownership in the process. Another way to rehab this is to take a look at others’ content – the same way you get inspiration from renovation magazines or looking at other peoples’ homes for ideas for yours. Notice which topics get the most engagement, pick out the ones that attract you, and then try to replicate those types of content into your strategy.

Bottom line, when your content isn’t working, don’t abandon it. It may look ugly now, but with some vision, hard work and follow through, your content will look like new!

Tell me how you rehabbed your content efforts…