HIGH COST, LOW (OR NO) IMPACT: WHY CONTENT PRODUCTION IS A BIG PROBLEM
Jan 06 2025
Content is costly—no matter how you slice it.
Put your in-house team on a project, you can expect a 50/50 split between ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’. And that’s before you think about the million little micro steps—from the first seeds of an idea all the way through to it going live.
Sure, the outcome could be ace. But that’s not the point. It’s that creating content that actually works—marketing that doesn’t just dazzle, but drives action—takes a boat-load of effort. Teamwork. Time. Money.
There are alt routes, though no real shortcuts. Maybe you outsource, or buy off-the-shelf. This may save time, and cost more. Or be budget-friendly, and suck. Either way, company time (and $$$) still gets spent.
And that’s only half the story.
Let’s say this content is great. Costly (in every sense), but A+, 10/10, tell-your-friends-and-followers marketing. If you can’t measure its impact—ideally, in the form of actual dollars—you face a new (and increasingly urgent) question.
Where does that money go?
If the answer is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, that’s a problem.
This mental maze has stumped CMOs for years. Because if knowledge is power, the lack of it will only descend into uncertainty over time. (Or, worse, weapons-grade Dunning-Kruger).
The upshot? Marketing teams everywhere who strive like salmon to create great content, with no clear idea whether their time, sweat and budget makes waves. All the while, the revenue gap (that is, the abyss between your content and revenue) grows wider.
Yet there is no secret, no special sauce, and certainly no solution to the content production conundrum—is there?
Isn’t there?
There is, actually.
HOW TO SOLVE THE CONTENT PRODUCTION PROBLEM?
AI tools can help you go further, faster. Not our take, but that of science.
It makes sense. If you automate the boring (but key) bits of content creation, you can drastically speed up production, saving precious time to nail the content experience.
Of course, it’s not as easy as slapping a prompt into your nearest LLM (“Create me some content that will build pipeline, drive sales & boost revenue—please and thank you”), else the two-thirds of marketing folk who already use AI would be billionaires.
So, what does this look like in practice?
- Idea generation. A few quick clacks of a trackpad, and you’re awash with new concepts. Don’t be fooled, this isn’t meant to kill a marketing team’s creativity—but the opposite. An onslaught of ideas (even bad ones) can provide a springboard for speedy invention.
- Supercharged copy. You wouldn’t want AI to write your content. But that doesn’t mean it can’t jumpstart, shape, or hone the work of your creatives. That might be an outline, a first draft, or trimming fat at the end.
- Expert insight. Need a world class consultant who knows your company history, brand voice and competitors better than the firm's founders? Then meet large language models. Always there, never takes a sick day, and yours for far less than anyone from McKinsey.
- Optimized design. Simply drag-and-drop (or copy-and-paste) your way to on-brand, brain-friendly docs—ready to perfect and send into the world. Like all the above, this fast-forwards production at the same time it boosts performance.
- Impact. You need a process that helps you create content to drive the outcome you want. With AI, you can fast-track your ability to start a feedback loop (more on this in later blogs).
Don’t be fooled—this is not about efficiency. Or at least not efficiency at the expense of everything else.
Pair the right people with the right tools, you’ll see that secret sauce is very much on the menu.
Faster? Sure. Better? You’re goddamn right. Efficient and effective.
Save time. Harness human talent. Drive revenue.
Buon appetito.
Next, find out how an Academy Award winning ‘Best Picture’ can (sort of) help you chart a course for better performance and pipeline building.
