'More content' is not a strategy

The market is drowning in content. And marketing's response is to make more.

More posts. More formats. More channels. More output. AI made it cheaper, so the assumption became: produce more, reach more, grow more.

→ But volume was never the problem to solve. And ‘more’ has never been the answer.

After 25 years and 50+ brands, I keep seeing the same pattern. Marketing on autopilot. Teams producing content because the calendar says so, not because there's something worth saying. Output optimized, thinking outsourced, results disappointing.

That's not an AI problem. That's a leadership problem. Yours.

1. AI is a mirror, not a solution

AI didn't create mediocre content. It just made it faster and cheaper to scale.

If your thinking was shallow before, AI gives you shallow at volume. If your brand voice was vague, AI makes it consistently vague. The slop problem isn't in the tool — it's in what you feed it, and who you hired to run it.

→ The risk isn't AI replacing humans. It's humans outsourcing their judgment to AI and calling it efficiency.

Bad thinking at scale is still bad thinking. The brands winning with AI figured out what they wanted to say first — and use AI to say it better, not instead of thinking.

2. Craftsmanship is the actual competitive advantage

In a market flooded with technically correct, perfectly formatted, instantly forgettable content, the differentiator is perspective. Voice. Editorial courage.

Not production capacity.

Most marketing departments have quietly swapped senior thinkers for mid-level project managers. Cheaper to hire, easier to manage, better at keeping the machine running. And the machine produces content that looks polished, says nothing, connects with no one, and slowly hollows out your brand.

→ If your content offends no one, it reaches no one.

Judgment, taste, and a real point of view are still entirely human. You can't prompt your way to them.

3. Strategy means saying no

Most content exists to satisfy internal egos, not audience needs. Someone wants a case study. Someone else wants a thought leadership piece. The LinkedIn calendar needs filling. And so the machine keeps running, and no one asks whether any of it matters.

Saying no is the highest strategic act available to a content leader. And it starts at the top.

→ Fewer pieces, better maintained, for a precisely defined audience, beats an always-on production machine every time.

About 10% of your content drives 90% of your results. The other 90% is largely noise — expensive, time-consuming, brand-diluting noise that your team is burning out to produce.

The bottom line

You don't have a content problem. You have a prioritization problem.

The brands that win won't be the ones publishing more. They'll be the ones willing to invest in senior thinking, say no to calendar-driven output, and build content that is accountable to a real business outcome — not just a weekly slot.

→ Marketing on autopilot is a leadership choice. So is turning it off.

Over to you. And don't say I didn't warn you.

About my confessions

More about me and my confessions. Why I hold content to a higher standard. And why I write what most people in this industry won't say out loud.

I'm a content strategist with a university background in marketing, media, sociology, and psychology. I've worked in this industry for 25+ years and for 50+ global brands and agencies. 

I've seen a lot. Made many mistakes. Learned even more. 

Now, I share all this to inspire everyone working in marketing and communication to more accountable work. There's already too much crappy content out there; no need to add to it.

Join 2,500+ professionals

Most content advice tells you what to do. This tells you how to think. For marketers and communicators who want the difference. 

Free. Unsubscribe anytime.

→ Subscribe