When it comes to using content to develop our brand, generate leads, and close deals, the question of what makes quality content is on our mind all the time.

I was at a seminar once and we were talking about media relations. And the speaker asked the audience what the definition of “news” was. He got a bunch of suggestions, all kinds of ideas, and eventually somebody gave him the right answer: news is whatever the editor decides it is.

To adapt that idea here, good content is whatever the reader decides it is.

Which brings us to Greentarget, a strategic communications firm in the professional services vertical, who recently published the 2022 State of Digital and Content Marketing survey.  Working with Zeughauser Group, they surveyed 200 executives and CMOs.

(Brief digression: For all the “7 ways to do this” or “Ultimate Guide to doing that,” tropes in the business blogging world, doing a first-quarter post called the “The State of WHATEVERTHEHELL” is as prevalent as dandelions.)

This is an update of the survey that they have done 10 times, most recently in 2019. It reinforced some ideas we already had but also showed how the pandemic has impacted even this area of our business.

Let's be clear that we are talking about how to develop richer, more effective content. You will find a lot of articles about keywords, spacing, headers, and subheads and those are important but that's not what we're talking about here. We’re talking about content that advances your reputation.

That said, here are a few actionable ideas for better content for CEOs from this report.

Keep Media Relations in Your Mix

Media relations is a zombie. Executives who participated in this study still favor “traditional media and other editorial filtered sources.”  This is really interesting and potentially a factor of the age of these executives because you are not seeing that in the population overall.

The idea that someone (an editor with years of experience) finding and developing content adds value has lost currency, and I am never sure why. Still, this finding reinforces that if you're going to target C-Suite executives, you need media relations in your overall mix.  (I posted on this a couple of times.  The best current model of our profession is the PESO model, which includes media relations as an element. My whitepaper on reputation management builds out these ideas.)

Focus on Utility

To me, the lead takeaway is that utility is what CEOs crave most.  We’re going to say that we knew that all along, but I wonder if we our content choices over the last year reflected that understanding.

It doesn’t mean, for example, that they are not interested in case studies or in trend stories…or stories on industry research (pulls at collar nervously).

It means that they want those stories to be accessorized by actionable steps or strategies that are suggested by the trend, case study…or industry research.

Simply put, utility demonstrates “the continued importance of content that tells busy executives what they need to know and what to do with that information.”

One Actionable Insight on Utility

(See what I did there?) The actionable recommendation here is to be over-the-top obvious about where your actionable insights are.

This shouldn’t be a read-between-the-lines type of deal.  I know some bloggers put their insights at the front of the article.  Sometimes you can use pull texts or infographics or subheads to help you do this.

But make sure you have actionable insights and make it obvious.

Articles Rule the Roost

The research indicates that articles are preferred over all other content types. This is not a terrible surprise but we often see things like videos and webinars and research reports and white papers as types of content that we could employ. But this research indicates what I think we would suspect and that is that an article is the preferred vehicle and probably the gateway drug before we get to some of the other more long-form content, which are better off deeper in the funnel or for cross-selling.

The Digital Shift is Also Happening Here—LinkedIn Especially

Despite still favoring edited or curated content, the study did find that executives are undergoing the same digital shift that we all are. They were increasingly more likely to find LinkedIn, thought leader websites, and blogs valuable.

Especially notable was a surge in LinkedIn's popularity among decision-makers. LinkedIn appears to be solidifying its position as the social media of record for business. Invest your time accordingly.

Actionably, I would say that if you are targeting CEOs you will want to use the full PESO approach…even they are impacted by the digital shift.  Second, when looking at your program, you need to be interacting on LinkedIn because the CEOs in this research say that they are there.