Why Subject Matter Experts Are Essential for Effective Content Marketing (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Most of your content should be created by subject matter experts. Here's why.

Speaker 2: Eric, why do we always say that our content needs to be created by subject

Speaker 1: matter experts? Well, it's a great question, Mark. I think the big key is understanding what the content is being used for. And at Perficient, our focus is usually on developing content for content marketing purposes, you know, to build our reputation, increase our rankings in search, increase our audience. With all those things in mind, you have to realize that the kind of thing we're trying to do is really thought leadership oriented. You can't just, you know, expect anybody to create that content for you. You need someone who actually knows the topic really well or else our audience won't accept it. So

Speaker 2: you're saying you should never use just like copywriters? Well, first of all, not

Speaker 1: exactly. I mean, there are plenty of good roles for copywriters. There may be a lot of content on your site which is really simple product descriptions or something like that where you don't need a true subject matter expert. But I think the big key in that case is to give them the time to research a topic and be able to write intelligent stuff about whatever they're addressing. But you can't expect them to do thought leadership level content in whatever your marketplace is. You know, you can't just give someone 60 minutes of time and suddenly they're a leading expert on a topic. It really doesn't work that way. But there are still many ways to leverage the skills of copywriters. Okay,

Speaker 2: so can you give an example where SME, subject matter expert level writers, are

Speaker 1: required? Sure. One is if you're trying to build a section on your site like a content hub with thought leadership level advisory content, this kind of stuff. These really work best if you answer common user questions and address their needs related to whatever your market space is. And this typically requires a pretty high level of expertise to execute really, really well. Particularly if you want to create a resource that others might actually link to, right? So this might be a wide array of great helpful articles or video series like Here's Why. Hmm, that sounds like a great idea. Or user surveys or other types of research. This level of content really requires a subject matter expert level of, well, expertise. Okay, well how about another example? Sure. If you engage in some level of off-site content marketing, so for example, I publish regularly on Search Engine Land, a column. This requires, sorry, this provides great visibility for our brand to do that, which is awesome. But Search Engine Land isn't going to let me publish on their site unless I know something about the topic. So this is a case where guest posting really makes sense. It's good for visibility and really getting exposure to your target audience. You've got to use this tactic with care though, because there can be too much of a good thing. So focus your efforts on publishing places that have sizable audiences that are direct interest for your business to be in front of. Those are great tips, Eric.

Speaker 2: And if you want to learn more from us, we publish these Here's Why videos every week. Talk about subject matter expert content, you're getting it here. You can get it every week in your inbox by subscribing. Be sure to do that today.