The Super-Common ‘Dumpster Diving’ Content Strategy (I Hope You’ll Quit Using)

What you’re about to read is — I believe — the reason most B2B blogs completely fail to produce any real traction with the audiences they’re trying to attract.

Much of this post is based on an article I wrote about content quality a little while ago.

I’ve expanded the ideas here because dumpster diving is so prevalent, I thought it deserved its own post.

If you care about growth — not just traffic or rankings — read on.

My History as a Writer

I was a full-time freelancer for a while, and in the early days, I made the rookie mistake of wildly underpricing my services. To make ends meet, I had to accept a ton of projects and work fast.

As a result, I wasn’t very picky about the projects that came my way.

Many of my clients wanted volume at cheap prices — usually “for SEO” (their words) — so that’s what I gave them.

What follows is the process I used to create their content. This is the same process many, many marketers use today, both full-time internal employees and contract freelancers.

It’s sometimes called “research,” but (as you’re about to see), it’s really just semi-plagiarism.

Here’s how it usually goes:

1. Pick a target keyword (or receive one from a boss or client)
2. Spend 20 minutes on Google finding existing list posts on the topic
3. Pretend I’m an expert in the field
4. Spend 30 minutes rewriting bits and pieces of those articles into a new list post
5. Add links — usually 3 internal and 3 external
6. Add a feature image from a free stock photo site (Unsplash, Pixabay, ext.)
7. Proofread
8. Send to client.

In total, the whole process took me about 90 minutes.

Like many freelance writers, I charged around $100 per article.

Why I Call It ‘Dumpster Diving’

I call this process “dumpster diving” because it’s so rampant, writers are now just rewriting each other’s content over and over again.

It results in surface-level articles that aren’t interesting to high-level decision-makers in the companies you’re trying to reach.

In my experience working with a few dozen companies in various markets, here’s what I can tell you:

• Dumpster diving for B2B content is a waste of money at any price.

I haven’t studied data from B2C companies so I can’t say for certain if it’s true there as well.

I strongly suspect that it is. But as with all recommendations, don’t take my word for it.

Check what I’m saying against your own data to be sure.

From what I’ve seen in B2B, even as an SEO play, dumpster diving content just does not lead to actual paying customers.

Another way to say that is this:

• Rankings and traffic ARE NOT the same thing as leads, signups, or sales.

And honestly?

I care very little about traffic numbers or email list signups when they’re disconnected from conversion data (as they often are).

The point of content marketing is not to drive traffic or to bribe people to download a PDF so you can capture their email.

The point of content marketing is to build an audience of people who trust you and buy from you.

Remember this: Dumpster diving content almost never converts to leads, signups, or sales.

Three Fantastic Alternatives to Dumpster Diving

Enough about what doesn’t work.

Let’s talk about what does.

You may be in a place where dumpster diving is the only strategy you’ve ever seen tried for content marketing strategy.

What follows are three field-proven approaches to content that I use all the time.

It’s not an exhaustive list. I know of other content marketers who use other formats.

But I have found these three to be extremely effective. They are the ones I use daily as I do my work.

Approach #1: The Hero Case Study (Interview-Based)

I call them “hero” case studies because they make the person we profile the hero of the story. This is a different approach than you usually see in standard case studies, where your product is the hero of the story.

I love hero case studies, and not just because they’re fun to write.

I love them because they freaking work.

They get traffic. They get engagement. They create conversions. You can write them about anyone interesting.

If you feature a customer in a hero case study, the article can be even better than a standard case study and can be a tremendous help to your sales team.

They also work in every market I’ve tried them in.

How to Find Someone Who’s Accomplished Something Interesting

To create a hero case study, I start by locating someone who has accomplished something interesting in the eyes of my target audience.

Sometimes I find the person on my own. Other times, a client refers me to a customer with an interesting story. (Often, a client will hand me a testimonial lead they were going to turn into a standard case study.)

I start the process by scheduling a 45-minute conversation with the contact.

I relentlessly (but politely) ask follow-up questions until I discover the steps they took to solve a problem or achieve a remarkable result.

Then I write an article about what they’ve accomplished.

How to Structure a Story-Style Article

The format of the article is simple:

• Describe the result the person achieved
• List the steps they took to achieve it.

It’s journalism-style content, but it’s not journalism — because it still has a business agenda.

It’s designed to speak directly to the pain points of the audience I’m trying to reach by telling them the story of someone else who’s successful.

Want examples?

I have a ton I could show you. You can read a few here, here, here, here, here, and (my personal favorite) here.

If you want an example of a site that does a lot of story-based articles and does them extremely well, check out First Round Review.

Remember this: Hero case studies are written by writers who act like journalists.

Approach #2: Thought Leadership (Directly Written or Ghostwritten)

Ah, thought leadership.

This is the kind of content companies think they’re getting when they hire writers to go dumpster diving.

But true thought leadership is written by experts for experts.

The article you’re reading right now, for example, is a thought-leadership article. So is this one, which did as well as anything I wrote last year.

Thought leadership is either:

1. Educational (including “how-to” articles)
2. An opinion.

Often, it’s both.

The point of a thought leadership article is to position your company as an authority in the field — a source whose opinion can be trusted.

The very best thought leadership articles are powerful tools for sales teams and account managers.

They’re evergreen, and they’re as helpful as almost anything else your marketing department could produce.

That’s in direct contrast to what most companies do: focus solely on SEO and rankings and (as a result) create low-value content you’d never send to a high-value prospect.

The 3 Types of Thought Leadership Content

Within the category of thought leadership, there are three types of articles that work extremely well.

#1: Detailed Answer to a Question Typical of Existing Customers

You’ve heard the rule of thumb that it’s five times easier to keep a customer than it is to acquire a new one, right?

I know everyone is crazy focused on creating new sales leads, but you’re absolutely missing out if you don’t have “air cover” content for existing customers, too.

These meet that need — giving salespeople and account managers a way to keep a positive conversation going with the people you want to renew year after year.

#2: Detailed Answer to a Question Typical of Active Sales Prospects

Almost no one talks about this type of article, but they’re about the most valuable content asset you could give a salesperson.

The reason is this:

They provide detailed, well-crafted, standardized answers to the most difficult objections salespeople face every day with later-stage sales prospects.

Wouldn’t you like it if your salespeople all had fantastic answers to the objections they get the most often? The ones that block huge sales deals?

That’s what this kind of article is for: overcoming objections, and moving prospects from “opportunity” to “closed won!”

#3: Detailed Answer to a Question Typical of Prospective Customers (Not Yet in an Active Sales Conversation)

This kind of article is the traditional “inbound” article that many companies produce.

The idea is to catch the attention of someone hunting for a solution to a problem.

This kind of article is specifically optimized to be found in Google. It’s also designed to be shared in forums where discussions are happening with members of your target audience.

Thought Leadership Can Never Fully Be Outsourced

Here’s the key thing you need to know about thought leadership:

• Thought leadership can NEVER fully be outsourced to writers.

It can be ghostwritten by writers. Or the writer can take the time to become an expert in the field, as many journalists do after years covering a specific industry.

But if you don’t have a writer who’s an expert, a true expert must spend time working with the writer. Otherwise it’s not going to work.

Ghostwriting is one of my favorite types of work. I love working with smart people to help them create content that shows off their expertise.

I do not share examples of my ghostwritten work in public — a good ghostwriter never does. 😉

But I can give you an example of the type of content you’re likely to get from a good ghostwriter.

My favorite example of a blog that does thought leadership extremely well (and has done so for years) is the Signal vs. Noise blog by the people at Basecamp.

I’m pretty sure they write their own articles.

But many founders and business owners — including many whose names you know from the marketing space — work closely with ghostwriters.

I know. I’ve written for several of them. 🙂

Remember this: Thought leadership articles position the author as a trusted expert in the field. To be effective, thought leadership content must be directly written by experts or created in partnership with ghostwriters.

Approach #3: Data Research (or Data Posts)

I hesitate to even include this one because I don’t want you to confuse it with dumpster diving content.

Like dumpster diving content, “data research” content is often created mostly using Google searches.

But… that’s about all the two approaches have in common.

Dumpster diving content has no unique information or analysis. It also lacks depth or original insight.

Data research articles — by contrast — are based on deep, unique research. The defining characteristics are original insights and original research.

One writer I work with specializes in data research posts. He’s a software developer who’s also a writer.

He takes large data sets from sites like LinkedIn, Ahrefs, or GlassDoor, analyzes them, then creates unique insights based on his analysis.

For three very good examples of data research articles, see here, here, and here.

Remember this: Data Research articles are NOT created by rewriting other blog posts on similar topics. Instead, they have unique research and original insights.

None of This Means I’m ‘Against’ SEO

Don’t take any of what I just said as evidence that I am somehow “against” SEO.

If you’re an SEO person, you’ve surely noticed how many SEO best practices I’m not following in this post.

The reason for that is simple: organic traffic isn’t part of my strategy for this site or for my community.

I know: Heresy!!! But that’s a post for another time. 🙂

For 99% of you, organic traffic is and should be part of your long-term strategy.

It certainly has been for every company I’ve ever worked with — both as an employee and a freelancer.

And if organic traffic is any part of your strategy, you’d be crazy not to optimize all of your articles for organic traffic.

Lucky for you, it’s entirely possible to optimize anything you write online for SEO — and you don’t have to go dumpster diving to do it.

For example, all three of the methods I described in this article are 100% compatible with all the most recent SEO best practices.

Want to target the keyword “customer relationship management best practices,” but you’re not a CRM expert?

Go for it!

Just don’t pretend you’re an expert by copying what others have written and slapping your name on it.

That shit makes us look bad.

As an industry of professionals, we can do better.

Find an influencer or an expert or a leading sales manager and interview them about CRMs.

Then, write about it. Act like a journalist or ghostwrite an article on behalf of the person you spoke with.

Or do real research of the kind I described above. And cite your sources.

You’ll be far more credible this way, which is the first step toward the trust you need to convert someone into a paying customer.

You can (and should!) still put “customer relationship management best practices” in the title, the URL, the intro, and an H2 within the article, just like you normally would.

Add your internal links and external links. Include a few LSI keywords or create a keyword cluster based on your research.

In other words, do all the SEO things you would normally do.

Just don’t go dumpster diving.

A Note About ‘Effectiveness’

In talking about this with people over the last few months, there’s one main objection people have to my argument, which is this:

“But it works!”

And, in some situations, I have to admit that there are some situations where dumpster diving content can lift the DA of a website enough to have an impact on sales to the broader site.

I have been shown data from several sites illustrating this.

From what I’ve seen, it only works when the site is a transactional site (ex. an eCommerce site with a simple product line).

The lift is not huge, but it is noticeable. It comes from the overall DA bump, not from anything that happens on the individual blog posts.

The blog posts still don’t convert. But the site as a whole gets more traffic, which leads to more sales.

A few thoughts about this specific situation:

1. It’s still a shitty practice
2. You have to publish a ton of posts to see a lift, and the lift isn’t huge
3. Good luck getting backlinks

What Google Is Trying to Reward

Also, if you look at what Google has rewarded with its algorithm changes over the last five years, you can see what they’re trying to reward.

Every year, these kinds of “hack Google” strategies are becoming less effective.

Remember when you could “spin” content and publish it on those aggregation sites for a backlink boost?

It seems like ancient history. But it was only a few years ago.

Everything Google is doing is trying to reward unique, quality content.

The algorithm isn’t perfect by any means. Which is why dumpster diving is still so popular.

Even so…

I would have a really difficult time betting the 5-year future of my company on organic traffic from DA built on top of a pile of dumpster diving articles.

I admit I have no data on that.

It’s just my feeling based on what I’ve seen. I don’t think it will be the same for all sites.

But as with all things, the data from your own site should be the first thing you listen to. 

For You Writers…

This article is written for those of you who control the strategy and approach being executed on your website (or the websites of your clients).

But maybe you’re a writer on a team and your job is to crank out dumpster diving posts every day.

Maybe you have one of these bosses:

You’re given assignments. You don’t choose them.

Maybe they expect you to write five to ten articles a day, for example, on a variety of topics.

Or maybe you’re a freelancer and the only jobs you can get right now are dumpster diving posts.

If that’s you, let me say this:

There is no shame in doing what you have to do, and you should not feel bad about your work.

I do want to encourage you, however.

My hope is that you’ll start looking for better opportunities or new clients — for work with companies that get it.

There is a whole world of work out there for writers who write high-value content.

You may not be able to get those jobs today. But I hope you’ll start working toward it.

If you’d like to know more about making that transition, I invite you to join our free community for content marketers: The Content Marketing Lounge.

Many in that group are writers who’ve made this journey (myself included). I hope it’s a place where you’ll be encouraged and equipped to improve your skills and your situation.

That’s It. Now Go Out and Impress Your Target Audience

Maybe you know the content you’ve been producing isn’t really that good.

Maybe you’ve been coming at the task thinking too much about keywords and rankings, and not enough about the people you’re hoping to reach.

Maybe (now that you’ve read this article), you can see the reason: You or your writers are going dumpster diving to create the content.

I cannot tell you the difference it will make if you stop publishing low-quality content and start using these three approaches instead:

• Hero case studies
• Thought leadership
• Data research.

What Did I Miss?

Are you a professional content marketer who uses a different approach than the ones I listed here?

Let me hear about it in the comments!

I don’t claim to know everything, and I’d love to learn what’s working for you.

Next Steps

Want to learn more about what actually works in content marketing (and not just the latest hype)?

Here are some options for next steps:

• Join The Content Marketing Lounge for free. It’s a troll-free, spam-free community of 7,000+ content marketers who are constantly discussing all the latest trends and insights from our industry.

If you have questions about this topic or anything content marketing related, drop a comment below. I’d love to hear from you, and I’ll respond to your comment as soon as I can.

Or, as always, you can ping me on Facebook or LinkedIn. I’m active on both platforms and would love to connect.

Thanks for reading!

Note: A version of this article was first published on our Content Marketing Lounge community site.