Let’s talk about a super fun and not at all depressing topic today, burnout. Now, when people talk about burnout they usually mean the physical and mental kind. The kind where you just want to give up on all of the work, lay your head on your desk and sleep forever. Yeah, we’ve definitely all been there. But today I’m focusing more on the other kind; content burnout. Whilst it’s true that you can recycle certain pieces of content to the advantage of your B2B marketing strategy, there’s such a thing as too much recycling. So, when do you begin to exhaust your content, and how do you stop it from happening?
First let’s spare a moment to talk about how the first kind of burnout I mentioned can affect your marketing strategy. If you’re mentally and physically fed up with life, it’s going to start being reflected in your work. This is especially dangerous in B2B as we move towards a more emotion-led approach to our business model. It’s all about tone, voice and emotions, so if you’re having an awful time it could start to reflect in your work. For example, if I have a horrible day and then write one of these blog posts, it probably isn’t going to end up as my best piece of work, is it. And if it starts reflecting in your site or social media, leads are bound to pick up on it and you might start losing conversions as a result. Understandably – would you want the help of an agency that comes across as already given up before they even create something for you? Always ensure that you’re putting your best work forwards at all times, and if you do feel burned out then collaborate with colleagues and get another opinion on your work before it goes out.
Now let’s talk about the other kind of burnout – content burnout. This is less an effect of you, and more an effect of lack of inspiration or complacency. I’ve previously spoken about how sometimes refreshing and reusing old content instead of constantly churning out new content could be beneficial to your B2B marketing strategy. However, going too far with this idea could end up harming your brand more than helping it. It’s incredibly easy to fall into a routine of just going back to your old content and revamping it before sending it out again. It takes a lot less time and energy than consistently finding fresh content and can become rather appealing. The downside of this is you’ll get trapped in a cycle, and your content will become repetitive and, dare I say it, boring. If you’re not presenting new and exciting ideas on a regular basis to leads, they won’t be particularly interested in what you’re saying, as they’ve likely already heard it before.
So how do you avoid becoming a repetitive B2B robot? The easiest way is constant research. Spend a little time each week researching marketing trends, technology news (that one’s a little more specific to our agency) even funny things going on in the world that your social media can piggyback off of. You might not get lucky every week with something usable, but those are the weeks where you can turn to older content. Remember that you are aiming for a healthy mixture to keep things consistent and engaging. Try making a schedule of when to post what, and ensure you’ve already started working on a project in advance of the day it will be posted.
Now, there’s another kind of content fatigue that isn’t usually directly caused by the marketer themselves. Once a new trend emerges, it’s exciting and cool to talk about for around a week, before everyone jumps – and overloads – the same bandwagon. Pretty quickly, it’ll be the leads who will become fatigued by seeing the same thing over and over again from everyone. This might seem contradictory – didn’t I just suggest you research new trends? However, as I always seem to say, there is a perfect balance. If you want to escape the crowds, focus on trends that apply directly to both you and your customer. It’s all about their individual needs, so make sure both your revamped content and fresh projects reflect that at all times.
So, there you have it, fatigue isn’t just for a Sunday afternoon. Content burnout can negatively affect your entire marketing strategy, so make sure you consistently combat it using multiple methods. Good luck!
