Is your content driving customers away?

The statistics vary depending on who tells the tale, but they converge somewhere here: for every dissatisfied customer who complains to you about your service or product, another 25 don’t. All 26 will, however, go on to tell another 10 people about their bad experience, and these 10 will tell another 5. That’s potentially 1,300 people who’ll hear bad reviews about your company.

Now, this is useful for understanding the behaviour of customers who actually do business with you. But what about those who don’t? What about those whose only experience of your company is its content?

Good content matters

By content, we mean anything that represents your company — your websites, brochures, advertisements, etc. In many companies, the production of content is often relegated to the last minute, and often to people who either don’t like writing or can’t write very well. Companies might end up getting the job done, but the value it adds can be questionable at best, and negative at worst.

According to Acrolinx, a German linguistic analytics company, the quality of a company’s content is a key driver of a potential customer’s purchase decision. But it’s not enough to be good. Your content must be consistent, too. In September 2015, Acrolinx reported on the content consistency of 170 of the largest global companies. Their research evaluated each company’s consistency of grammar, complexity, tone of voice, style, clarity, and quality. The findings were sobering: only 13% of the 170 companies reviewed showed content that was both good and consistent. In other words, 87% of companies offer content that is bad or inconsistent or both.

The evidence is clear: your business content needs to speak to your customers with a polished and consistent voice across every point of customer contact. Quality content marketing is increasing in importance and is no longer something that can be put off for another time without risking damage to your brand.

How can Wordience help?

Fundamental to all Wordience work is consistency and a razor-sharp eye for detail. What we can do for you depends on where you are now. Are you
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• Creating content from scratch?
• Adding to existing content?
• Revamping existing content?

Wordience will ensure that all content we produce for you is consistent with your established style. Or we’ll create that style for you, and provide you with templates and guides for your future content creation. Or we’ll perform an audit of all your customer-facing content and report to you on all areas that need attention, so you can decide your next steps.

“Content quality matters. According to a recent survey, 59 percent of respondents said that bad grammar and spelling mistakes would prevent them from purchasing from a website ‘because they wouldn’t trust the company to provide good service.'” – Acrolinx, The Global Content Impact Index, March 2015

“When the quality of your content isn’t consistent, it can confuse your customers, giving them the impression that they’re being sold to by lots of different people rather than one unified organization. That in turn can damage your brand. Conversely, when your content is consistently good, it helps create better customer experiences, which in turn builds trust, credibility, and a great reputation.” – Acrolinx, The Global Content Impact Index, September 2015