As a content marketer I’m seeing more and more companies, and even competitors, falling into “cargo cult” thinking with their content marketing. Heck, I’m probably (definitely) guilty of it myself.
But before I get going, I’m sure you’ll be asking “what is ‘cargo cult’ thinking?”
You might have heard of it in the context of “cargo cult programming”, but it’s actually something I first heard of via the excellent JM8 (aka Design Delve) on the Second Wind gaming YouTube channel.
JM8’s great video brings up the term in an excoriating takedown of the videogame industry’s tendency to develop games in a certain way just because that’s what their competitors did.
If you’re not familiar with cargo cult programming(/thinking), here’s a quick overview:
While it’s a term and phenomenon that has been around for a while, the idea of a “cargo cult” came to prominence during and immediately after WW2.
During the war, military powers occupied small islands around Pacific Melanesia.
In this time the occupying forces had vast amounts of cargo shipped and flown in to keep their military bases stocked, and they shared some of this with the local people.
After the war ended and the occupying forces left, the local people continued “cargo rituals”, emulating the same conditions that had previously provided them bounty.
They created wooden runways, lit signal fires, even made headphones from wood trying to replicate the same conditions that had previously provided them riches – crucially without fully understanding the context of why it had worked before.
The mythos of these cargo cults has been carried over into the term cargo cult programming.
It’s when junior or inexperienced programmers include useless code in new releases simply because it was there before, even if they don’t understand why it was included or why it might not even be needed now.
It’s a sign that someone is imitating not understanding what they’re doing.
Right, with that out of the way.
Cargo Cult Content
Okay, so this context could clearly be applied across marketing, business, life – and probably should be – but I’m a content guy and this is my post, so cargo cult content.
It’s something I’m seeing affecting more and more companies with their content marketing and wider brand messaging, and it breaks down in two distinct ways:
Competitor Comparisons Fall Short
The first and most obvious way brands are succumbing to cargo cult thinking is in attempting to replicate their competitor’s success without understanding why it worked for them in the first place.
In the content they produce
Think about brands attempting ‘thought leadership’ posts (pot, kettle, black?).
They’ve seen other brands getting great traction with these – think about the likes of Ahrefs’ staff, or agency leaders like Glen Allsopp in the SEO space – and try to hop on the trend themselves.
The thing is, in that example, it’s not just about what they’re saying, or even how. It’s who is saying it.
They’ve spent years building cachet in the industry, both as individuals and under the umbrella of their employers/brand.
You can replicate the tone of what they’re saying, even what they’re saying itself, but if it isn’t the right person saying it, the audience will simply bounce off it.
In the way they frame it
This is a big one. Ever seen a brand mimicking E-E-A-T credentials? They’re copying the layout, they’re putting the author front and centre, it has a little “reviewed by” module.
The trouble is, you’ve no idea who any of them are – and that’s before you get into the furore of faked E-E-A-T…
It’s not just E-E-A-T where this happens, of course, but it’s a nicely visible example.
In how they say it
This is a lot more visible these days – I’m thinking especially about socials here.
How many brands have you seen trying to be the next Duolingo? Be honest. And the rest.
But do you think they know why Duolingo’s brand tone works? Do you think they even really know why they’re mimicking it? Duolingo is a B2C marketing wonderclass for a service that thrives on the social chaos they produce.
Why on earth would that work for your client’s B2B roofing brand?
Effective content is not just driven by what you say, but how you say it.
fatjoe’s brand manager, Vic, is embracing our own take on a playful, lighthearted tone – and it’s going down fantastically, I might say. But, you can be damn sure she thought long and hard about it before introducing it (I know, I saw the brand book drafts).
Praise Be To The Wise And Bountiful Google
The big G (no, not that one – Google) is the second – and probably most notable – area where we encounter cargo cult thinking.
It intersects both content marketing and wider SEO nicely.
Think about the origins of the cargo cult mentality – rich bounties delivered and then taken away without any understanding of how they arrived, or why they went away.
Remind you of anything? Got a post in mind that Google loved?
I’m sure you, the remarkably content marketer that you are, did all your due diligence and dove deep to understand specifically why Google loved that post.
But, would every content marketer? Or would they, or their CEO, simply declare MORE OF THAT with no understanding of why that particular article did so well.
It’s something I’ve been guilty of.
A few years back, we posted a blog post about Parasite SEO (boo hiss), what it is, key tactics, etc etc.
It did, by our standards, rather well – immediately ranking well for key terms and picking up good traffic.
Awesome! Now to do it again…
We quickly drew up other similar topics like “What Is Programmatic SEO”, drew up the templates, out they go and – oh, they fell flat.
On reflection it was obvious – we’d happened to strike while the iron was hot on parasite SEO, we’d found a rare moment where your Ahrefs or your Semrush and the like hadn’t covered it yet.
The moment we applied it to other topics they were already there and we got batted away.
It’s a very simple example, but one that I think encapsulates all that’s wrong with cargo cult content – momentary blips informing entire “strategies” and approaches.
Escape: Deprogramming From Cargo Cult Content
Luckily as summaries and “well what should we do”-s go, it’s a pretty simple one in name, if not so much in nature.
Take a beat, slow down, think, then execute.
There will always be a moment where you are basing your new content strategy on past successes, or your competitors’ success, that’s fine just make sure you understand why they succeeded, not just that they did.
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