A recent blog post by George Watt at CA Technologies is an example of the kind of content I like from IT companies–especially those whose websites are filled with phrases like “solutions to accelerate innovation, transform infrastructure and secure data and identities” and “enhance your service management experience and improve productivity.”
Prepare for More Cloud Outages
I am not a buyer of IT services so I am not the target audience for this post, or not the primary audience, anyway. But I am reasonably well-informed and know some things about cloud computing, so I find the subject matter interesting and can put myself in the shoes of the intended audience. Those shoes may not fit me exactly or really look all that good on me, but you get the point of the metaphor (I hope).
No matter how much we try to get away from it, there is always going to be at least some business-speak/tech-speak like those phrases above on the website of an IT company that sells complex products and services. No getting around that. Yet I argue that, when it comes to content marketing (i.e., content designed to educate your audience v. content that discusses details of your products or services), there is also need for content that is much less technical. And that is true even for content aimed at a technical audience and discussing a technical topic like cloud computing.
The analysis
- Length
434 words = good. ‘Nuff said. - Style
Friendly, knowledgeable, and written to educate readers. This makes me want to read much more of Mr. Watt’s writing. - Content
He uses a current event as a jumping off point for the piece. Even if you never heard about the outage at Amazon, by using this example he immediately makes clear the potential impact of a failure. He offers a quick description of how to mitigate the threat, without going into excruciating detail. And he includes links to additional articles for more information. - Format
In the current climate in which people skim content or read it on mobile devices (I read the post on my laptop), I like to see a few bullet points, subheadings, or other formatting to make a blog post a bit easier to skim or read. Having said that, I’m not afraid of paragraphs! And the writing is quite effective at leading the reader from start to finish. - Salesy quotient
Very low
If this was the only page I ever read on the CA Technologies website, I would never know they sell cloud computing products and services. And I regard that as evidence of using this blog (or at least this blog post) to educate not to sell. - Educational quotient
Very high
Now I know much more about what can cause failure for cloud computing services and some basic steps to mitigate the threat.
Do you agree with this analysis? What worked or didn’t work from your perspective?