Category Archives: Content marketing

Green hushing

February 6, 2024Content marketing, Sustainability, Talking to your customers, UncategorizedSebastian

I recently came across the phrase ‘green hushing’. Green washing yes, but ‘green hushing’?

For those uninitiated, like me, it is apparently the practice of businesses keeping quiet about their sustainability efforts for fear of facing a backlash from commentators – anyone from clients, to influencers, the media, politicians or even their own employees – who might disagree with the organisation’s sustainability strategy.

Or it might also be that businesses don’t want to invite increased scrutiny on other, less wholesome areas of their business and perversely, trigger allegations of green washing. It’s a bit like believing that people living in glasshouses – or greenhouses in this instance – shouldn’t throw stones for fear of what might come flying back in return.

In many respects, you can’t blame a business for actively wanting to play down its green credentials given the gaping reputational traps lurking out there. And the regulators are on the case too when it comes to green washing. For example the Financial Conduct Authority has proposed “an anti-greenwashing rule in the ESG Sourcebook to help ensure that sustainability-related claims made by all authorised firms about their products and services are fair, clear, and not misleading, and consistent with the sustainability profile of the product or service.”

A green tick for your organisation’s sustainability approach?

Be real
So, should you or shouldn’t you promote that sustainability initiative? The communications conundrum reminds me of that nice old phrase, “You can’t do right for doing wrong”. But I think the answer is easy: the best communications always come from a place of authenticity.

Businesses should not be afraid to communicate what it is they stand for and what they’re doing to meet their sustainability objectives just because they fear possible negative publicity provided of course, that the communication is an authentic representation of what the business is trying to achieve from a sustainability perspective.

Boldly go and break the law*

June 2, 2022Content marketing, Talking to your customers, Talking to your employees, WritingSebastian

No, I’m not suggesting you go out and rob the local bank, or even (and I’m talking to men here attending industry conferences or going to sporting events) wear red trousers – that really is unforgivable – I’m talking about many of the arcane laws of grammar and punctuation.

Who says for instance that you can’t start a sentence with a conjunction? “But we were taught never to do that,” I hear you scream. And, why shouldn’t you use one word sentences? Don’t believe everything. They. Tell. You.

End with a preposition? That’s the stuff we want more of.

It can be fun to deliberately break the rules of grammar and punctuation to emphasise a point, add a bit of spice to your writing, or just to simply get a reaction. That said, you have to know you’re breaking the rules otherwise how do you know you’re breaking the rules? Where’s the fun in that?

So boldly go to split infinity, stick it to the punctuation pedants and grammar geeks and don’t be afraid to break those laws. Having said that, dangle your modifier and I’ll be coming for you…

*Any grammar and punctuation mistakes within this post are purely intentional (even the ones that aren’t).

Is your company ‘jumping the shark’?

February 1, 2021Content marketing, Talking to your customers, Talking to your employees, WritingSebastian

A bit late in the day, I’ve recently come across the phrase ‘jump the shark’ – so called after the episode in TV’s Happy Days (younger readers ask your older colleagues) when the Fonz literally jumps over a shark on water skis.

This was the sad point when Happy Days had passed its best and the script writers started to resort to the ludicrous to mask a general decline in script quality. My own personal ‘jump the shark’ favourite would probably be Bobby Ewing ‘resurfacing’ in the shower in Dallas. But there are numerous others to while away your next coffee break.

Is your business jumping the shark?
Businesses too go through their own ‘jump the shark’ moments when particular initiatives pop-up that should probably have been resigned to the cutting room floor. As communications professionals, we’re often called upon to communicate these initiatives or work on the best way to communicate corporate messages that have a distinctly ‘sharky’ whiff about them.

As painful as it can be, it’s our job to call out those ‘jump the shark’ moments that are often lost in the echo chamber of corporate life. Failure to do so can mean anything but a happy day.

I tell stories therefore I am (a content marketer)

November 20, 2014Content marketing, Talking to your customers, WritingSebastian

According to the Content Marketing Institute (and you just know something has arrived when it gets big enough to have its own institute). Content marketing is defined as:

“A marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

I’m not sure how content (ahem) I am with that definition. Here’s maybe one that’s a bit less wordy from Scribewise:

“The creation and distribution of journalistic, audience-focused content that helps people do their jobs or live their lives.”

But maybe, it can be even simpler:

“Stories that interest/excite your customers.”

Make it interesting
That’s mine so feel free to shoot it down. But it captures the key tenet of content marketing as I see it that whatever you’re writing, filming, recording etc, and wherever you publish it be it on a website, an online newsletter, or a social media platform for example, it must appeal to the interests of your customers.

The advertorial – now more commonly badged as native advertising – is a great example of content marketing. In days gone by it was pretty bad (scarcely much more than an advert), but most businesses seems to have cottoned on to the importance of making it a really audience focused piece (i.e. make it interesting) where the hard sell is impossible to detect. After all, what’s the point in paying for something that no one reads?

Nothing new
Most people who’ve worked in public relations for any length of time will scoff at the idea that content marketing is something new; they’ll say (alright, I’ll include me too) that we’ve been coming up with interesting content ideas for businesses for years that work to exploit themes and topics that will interest the customer without resorting to an overt sales pitch (journalists have long been great filters for what makes good content marketing and what doesn’t).

Quite true. The excitement now of course is that those journalistic gatekeepers can’t get in the way of all the new communication routes to the customer that technology has introduced. The danger is forgetting that an easier route to market doesn’t mean any less effort should be made in making the product that we take to market (in this case the content) something that our target customers really want to read, watch, or listen to.