Weekly Alert: Is All Your Content Loaded?

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If we include your submission in an upcoming Weekly Wrap, we’ll credit you as the source of the inspiration.  A Note From Robert Rose Is All Your Content Loaded? For a research piece I’m writing, I’ve been searching for and reading thought leadership papers lately on everything from technology to customer experience research to the future of work. The papers have offered a mixed bag when it comes to value. It doesn’t surprise me at all that a recent LinkedIn and Edelman study found that only [15% of decision-makers]( rate the quality of the thought leadership they’ve read as “excellent.” I’m fascinated by how many of the papers start with a loaded question as their hypothesis. A “loaded question” is one that pushes an answer that serves the questioner’s agenda, no matter the specific reply. This approach has become increasingly popular in media and politics. Think of headline questions such as, “Do you think the media purposely divides Republicans and Democrats?” Even if you say “no,” you’re still admitting that the media divides people. It just does so accidentally. You might see this question in your social media feed: “Are you actually going to vote for this corrupt politician?” There’s no way to answer that question without agreeing to the assumption that the politician is corrupt. I’ve seen a lot of “loaded content” in the thought leadership that I’ve been consuming. I’ve changed the names so I don't throw anyone under a bus here, but I’ve seen some doozy titles and opening hypotheses. For example, I read a whitepaper called, Are You Still Pursuing a Failed Digital Transformation? I watched a conference talk called, Will CMOs Abandon Unreachable Content Personalization? I read an eBook that was entirely based on the question/premise of, “should today’s successful CMO be worried about the high value of third-party data that is increasingly difficult to obtain?” Interestingly, in all those pieces, the arguments themselves were pretty solid. But I was so turned off by the loaded questions in their premises that I started poking holes in the argument and ended up suspicious of the entire piece. As creators of thought leadership, content marketers are taught to take a side, to have an agenda, an argument, a point of view. I’d hazard a bet (with zero empirical evidence) that thought leadership promoted with a loaded question performs better in terms of downloads or views. As I research this more, I may discover that I have a similar relationship to loaded questions as I do with pop-ups on websites. I hate them – but I know they work. Even if you have an agenda – and even if loaded headlines perform better – I advise you to watch out for loaded questions in your content. They’re easy traps to fall into. I’ve done it myself – and I plan to avoid them from now on. A great thought leadership piece lets the audience feel a sense of self-discovery of the argument. You have the biggest impact when you guide someone on a journey that lets them feel like they discovered the right answer to your questions. Loaded questions are a lazy way out of building a more fulfilling argument. If you avoid loaded content, you might lose in terms of the numbers you reach. But you’ll gain in terms of the deeper impact it has on those who consume it. It’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute This article from Robert is available only in this newsletter for you, the newsletter subscriber. 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