I was talking to a friend who recently finished an internship at another agency and asked him
if he knew any great copywriters for a couple different industries. His response was:
Copywriters are easy to find. All they need to do is look at what competitors are doing and rewrite it."
I could pass this off as a 21 year old that still has a lot to learn, but then I learned this was the advice he had received from his team. Since then, after running this idea by others, I have found this thought process is more prevalent than I imagined.
On the surface this may seem harmless, but there are a number of reasons why the strategy of recycling content will fail in the long term.
People do not share what they already know. How well content is shared directly affects search optimization. Both these opportunities are wasted with recycled content.
Great content is the only content that makes a difference in buying decisions. Even if the content you found was originally great, it will lose its greatness when it is copied and re-copied.
You aren't showing that you are an expert. The area you are an expert in is the best place for you to effectively help you customer. Even if the content you borrowed helps you get customers, they are likely to be a poor fit because they will think you are an expert in something they need.
Your content is the same as everyone elses. With no differentiation why should a customer choose you?
You will never be a thought leader. A thought leader is someone who people look to first for answers because they are ahead of the curve. You will never get ahead of the curve by recycling content.
Makes the web a worse place. Noise is one of the biggest problems the web must conquer. When you are talking for the sake of talking you are part of the problem.
We all know content is valuable, but writing content for the sake of having more content will not help you reach your goals. It is not how inbound marketing works. Write content about what you are an expert in and help make the web a better place.
