A number of years ago — round about the time when we were all glued to our fresh new Facebook walls and enjoying the art of ‘poking’ one another — I followed an incredibly dramatic link to a so-called news article; a link appearing on my Facebook feed of course.

With a sort of morbid interest, I wanted to find out all about a man who had allegedly raped and killed an entire family then maniacally laughed his way into the jail cell after being convicted. This info had all been kindly wrapped up for me in the thumbnail: “Man laughs his way into jail cell after raping and murdering family”.

It might come as no surprise to you that my reaction was, “Holy hell”. Although I am a staunch believer in the abounding horror of this planet, I was still a little sceptical. So, I decided to make a leap that very few Facebook users before me had ever undertaken. I clicked on the link and followed it.

What I found was a site full of racially charged fear mongering, manufactured statistics and opinions masquerading as facts at a level of ridicule that I had not seen yet in my life. I won’t name the site. It is, of course, still feeding the hungry, gullible minds of bigots across the country and I’d rather not risk those chaps finding our pretty new page.

Sadly, these days the internet is rife with this kind of thing and most people, including me, can pick up click-bait with their eyes closed. Nevertheless, there are thousands of internet users right now who, like young me, have not yet jaded their virgin online experiences.

So…

WHAT IS CLICK-BAIT

Check it out here.

Why am I telling you about these horrible things?

Well, the point I want to make (and I have no doubt I’ll keep making this point over and over again) is that there is simply no replacement for good content.

Sometimes our clients can confuse likes or hits for success. That is just not the case. Websites like my racist example up there can afford to piss off the majority of people who land on their site because the commodity they’re selling is space on their page to advertise to all the ill-fated morons unlucky enough to land there. Their base of users is only going to include the small segment of fascists that actually believe their articles for whatever reason, and believe me, if that’s your model, you won’t be dealing with us.

When you have a business, the first step is a great product or a great service. Once you have that, marketing becomes about communicating the truth to the right people. Smart marketing is not about amassing hits but generating real leads (people who are actually going to pay money).

So, when it comes to your digital presence, before you pour money into making sure every middle-aged Facebook user on the planet sees your domain, you need to start by checking the quality of content on your site. Then you need to make sure the people you’re trying to reach on the internet are the same people you’ve been trying to sell to or network with.

Content is key. Always has been, always will. Just because our lives are constantly filled with a hail of bullets shooting nonsense into our faces, doesn’t mean we should start firing. We tuck in, think a bit, then plant the mother of all advertising grenades to hit ‘em right in the gonads.

Lovely cuddles,

Cav