Why Your Content Must Be Created by Subject Matter Experts – Here’s Why #214

Consumers want accurate, reliable, easy-to-understand information. Can they trust your content?

In this episode of the award-winning Here’s Why digital marketing video series, Eric Enge explains why It matters who creates your brand content.

Publishing Note: Starting with episode #215 scheduled to publish on May 20th, the series will feature Eric Enge and a variety of select industry guests. After episode #215, the publish schedule will be every other week.

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Transcript

Mark: Eric, why do we always say that our content needs to be created by subject matter experts?

Eric: That’s a great question, Mark. I think the big key is understanding what the content is being used for. At Perficient, our focus is usually on developing content for content marketing purposes, to build our reputation, increase our rankings in search, and increase our audience.

With all those things in mind, you have to realize that the kind of thing we’re trying to do is really thought leadership oriented. You can’t just expect anybody to create that content for you. You need someone who actually knows the topic really well, or else our audience won’t accept it.

Mark: You’re saying you should never use just copywriters?

Eric: First of all, not exactly. I mean, there are plenty of good roles for copywriters. There’s maybe a lot of content on your site which is really simple, product descriptions or something like that, where you don’t need a true subject matter expert.

I think the big key, in that case, is to give them the time to research the topic and be able to write intelligent stuff about whatever they’re addressing. But you can’t expect them to do thought leadership level content in whatever your marketplace is. You can’t just give someone 60 minutes of time, and suddenly, they’re a leading expert on the topic. It really doesn’t work that way, but there are still many ways to leverage the skills of copywriters.

Mark: Okay. Can you give an example where SME, subject matter expert level writers are required?

Eric: Sure. One is, if you’re trying to build a section in your site, like a content hub with thought leadership level advisory content. These really work best if you answer common user questions and address their needs related to whatever your market space is. This typically requires a pretty high level of expertise to execute really, really well, particularly if you want to create a resource that others might actually link to.

So, this might be a wide array of great, helpful articles or a video series, like “Here’s Why”. Hmm, that sounds like a great idea! Or user surveys or other types of research. This level of content really requires a subject matter expert level of, well, expertise.

Mark: Okay. How about another example?

Eric: If you engage in some level of off-site content marketing–so for example, I publish regularly on Search Engine Land, a column. This provides great visibility for our brand, which is awesome, but Search Engine Land isn’t going to let me publish on their site unless I know something about the topic.

So, this is a case where guest posting really makes sense. It’s good for visibility and really getting exposure to your target audience. You’ve got to use this tactic with care, though, because there can be too much of a good thing. So, focus your efforts on publishing in places that have sizable audiences, that are direct interest for your business to be in front of.

Don’t miss a single episode of Here’s Why. Click the subscribe button below to be notified via email each time a new video is published.

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