Everyone needs an editor.

Everyone needs someone to test their ideas on and help them get their ducks lined up.

Whether you are Ernest Hemmingway or Doctor Who (The Editor was played by Simon Pegg on a TV episode of the sc fi series, named, aptly, The Long Game), you are going to need someone to bounce off and check you aren’t disappearing up your own behind.

One group who needs them a lot right now are content marketeers.

Content marketing is hot. Companies striving to capture attention in the era of “Skip Ad” are turning to content as a way to reach an audience who might actually seek their message out – if their content is good enough.

It’s led to an explosion of sponsored reports, videos, slide-shares and just about any other kind of content a human being might voluntarily choose to consume (as opposed to having it foisted upon them as pop-ups and banner ads).

But there is a problem: most of it is much more marketing than content.

You’ve probably lost count of the number of times you’ve made it to the end of a video or blog only to find yourself still waiting for useful information, insight or even a coherent argument rather than just another pitch for a book or – ahem – a consulting practice.

Disapointing readers with lame content is no way to build your brand or drive sales. Sexy headlines or quick quizzes might generate traffic but will they win over the hearts and minds of potential customers if they abandon the article half way through?

The numbers tell the story: 27 million pieces of content are created each day, but still 60-70% of website content goes unused.

Content marketing has been commoditized, emphasizing volume of content at the expense stuff that people actually want to consume.

So improving the quality of content marketing is critical to business.

But creating excellent original content that attracts, engages and retains an audience requires a mix of competencies that go well beyond what you find on a typical marketing team.

At the top of the list of those missing competencies is professional editing.

I am not talking about proof reading and copy editing (although that is nice.) And I am not talking about content strategy either.

I am talking the bit in-between – execution.

And the person that can help you there is an editor.

An editor acts as a proxy for the reader, and ensures your content offers the reader real value in return for their time; an editor can spot if an idea is worth a 140 character tweet, a blog post or a full report; an editor can tease out the best work from an author and fashion it into a compelling piece of content.

These skills are the difference between a site full of content marketing and a site full of content that is actually an effective part of a content marketing strategy. Capiche?

Look a IBMblr, IMB’s Tumblr, where the company shares a mix of visual and text based snippets that really conveys the company’s passion for innovation.

Companies that want content like this don’t need more marketing genius – they need editorial genius.

Yet the scramble to produce content marketing capacity has not yet translated as a scramble for good editors.

The truth is, very few opportunities in content marketing are for editors, the kind of folks who are in the trenches ensuring high quality execution.

But to deliver really effective content marketing, companies need to hire editors who have the time to make sure each piece of content serves the reader as well as the business.

And editor’s need the keys to the Tardis –  the authority to make significant changes or even kill some contributions so that every piece of branded content produced is at least as good as its paid-for equivalent.

Companies that make this kind of investment will be most successful in translating their content marketing aspirations into a daily reality of excellent and effective content.

It’s time for marketeers to recognize what media outlets have long known.

If you want quality content that wins business – you need an editor.

 

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