What’s the cost of content?

Before you begin writing something, ask yourself this: What’s the cost, and what’s the value?

Everything you write has a cost. This cost matters more in a business context, but it’s still present, regardless of what you’re writing, and why.

First, there’s the obvious cost of the time and resources you’ll use to write. That should be relatively easy to figure out: The value of your time multiplied by the amount of time you’ll spend, plus the cost of the resources. (Those resources could be insignificant--for example, a legal pad and a pencil, plus a bit of electricity to power your desk lamp—or major—such as books you may need to buy, a recorder for interviews plus transcription services, or access to online databases like LexisNexis.)

These costs—your time, and the resources you use—are front-end costs. They’re incurred before the content is delivered.

But they’re not the only costs. What about your audience?

These are the back-end costs, incurred after the content is delivered. How long will it take someone to read, and if necessary, respond to the content? What’s the value of their time? How many people will read it?

Here’s where the costs can start exploding. Assume you’re writing an email message that you’ll send to a company distribution list. The message isn’t long, so let’s say it takes five minutes to read. Only five minutes; that’s no big deal, right?

Well, how big is the distribution list? 100 people? In that case, if we assume the value of their time averages $60/hour, your single email costs the company five dollars per person, or $500. (That is, ($60/12)*100.) 

Now, add on a 10 page whitepaper that you’ve attached (because it contains valuable background information). How long does it take to read and digest that?

We haven’t added the cost of your time and resources here, but remember that there’s no multiplier effect magnifying those costs. (This analysis also disregards the cost of the delivery channel, which might be significant.)

You see, the cost of even a little thing like an email can add up to a sum larger than you expected.

This leads us to two lessons:

• First, a little extra effort on your part—a few minutes rewriting the content for clarity, pruning out the jargon and extraneous information, putting the main point at the top—can drastically cut the back-end costs. For example, let’s say you reorganized and rewrote your five-minute email and cut the reading time down to two-and-a-half minutes. That cuts the back-end cost from $500 to $250. Or perhaps the message can be sent to a smaller group—10 key people, rather than 100, cutting the back-end cost by 90%.
• Second, before you begin writing, ask whether the value of the content outweighs the cost. Think about it: How much time do you spend sorting out the really valuable kernels from all the email chaff in your inbox? Multiply that amount of time across your organization, and then decide whether you want to create more kernels of value, or chaff.

Your turn: How can you cut the costs or add to the value of what you write?