Investment in branding initiatives are going to waste with research from Templafy, revealing that 4 out of 5 employees (81%) admit to using Google to find company images and logos.
40% claimed that they did not know where to find company-approved content or templates so they used what was saved on their desktop or turned to Google and another 40% of respondents said their company did not offer shared databases of company-approved content.
David Nemes, Regional Director for Asia Pacific at Templafy said, “The Digital HQ has totally transformed the way enterprises need to think about content within their companies.”
“Content is more than just what is curated by the marketing department, it encompasses everything from legal documents to employee’s email signatures or a customer-facing deck.”
“It’s all a representation of your organisation and the brand bedrock a business is built on.”
“As such, the lack of content infrastructure we uncovered in this research is cause for concern in enterprises globally and specifically in Australia.”
Templafy’s research looks at the role content plays in brand integrity, trust and activation.
Over 2,296 full-time workers at enterprise-level companies in Australia, the USA, the United Kingdom and Germany were surveyed with Australian companies highlighted as having the second most inefficient and inconsistent content creation processes outside of the USA.
Uncovering review bottlenecks
60% of respondents said their process for reviewing and approving content delays other work and those at the managerial level were 26% more likely to say this than at the associate level.
In Australia, on average five employees were involved in the content review process with on average five revisions made to external-facing content.
Despite being considerably lower than the USA, Australian businesses are still rated high for inefficiency in content production by not having a strong content infrastructure in place.
Content accuracy and policing content has become a daily job for the 80% of employees with 66% noting that reviewing and policing content is a vital component of their job.
|
Region |
Average number of employees involved in reviews |
Average number of revisions to external-facing content |
“Reviewing content is an essential part of my day-to-day routine.” |
“Reviewing and policing content is the most important component of my job.” |
|
United States |
10 |
10 |
83% |
68% |
|
United Kingdom |
4 |
4 |
76% |
44% |
|
Australia |
5 |
5 |
80% |
66% |
|
Germany |
3 |
4 |
73% |
44% |
Lack of compliance can damage brand integrity
A healthy brand is one that is constantly evolving, which includes changing and updating guidelines for external-facing content. However, the research shows that without a strong content infrastructure in place, tracking down up-to-date materials is impacting productivity.
62% are frequently wasting time creating content that already exists somewhere in their firm.
47% of global respondents said they choose to save over previous versions of their own content instead of seeking out the latest company-approved version, and over a quarter (26%) say they start from scratch every time but pull information from wherever is easiest.
Using the wrong versions of company content and content review fatigue can lead to errors in materials as 94% found mistakes and errors in content after it’s already been approved.
Australian companies were the worst culprits in terms of often issuing approved content with mistakes at 25% compared to the 17% of United States of America counterparts.
|
Region |
Often |
Sometimes |
Never |
|
Australia |
25% |
72% |
3% |
|
Germany |
17% |
75% |
8% |
|
United Kingdom |
14% |
78% |
8% |
|
United States |
17% |
79% |
4% |
Brand integrity makes or breaks a business and the research found that even small errors like typos or out-of-date messaging can be a detriment to brand trust internally and externally.
The results show that 93% of United States of America and 91% of Australian respondents believe that the smallest errors in final content can damage client trust. Additionally, four in five (81%) Australian respondents agree that even small errors can damage employee trust.
|
Region |
“Even small errors in final content can damage client trust.” |
“Even small errors in final content can damage employee trust.” |
|
Australia |
91% |
79% |
|
Germany |
86% |
62% |
|
United Kingdom |
88% |
76% |
|
United States |
93% |
76% |
Rebranding is vital but lack of resources halts plans
The research also revealed 50% Australian employees believe their organisation has put off a company rebrand due to the lack of tools and resources available, as Australian businesses continue to endure a talent shortage throughout the latest wave of COVID-19.
Employee resources are key to a brand overhaul as workers expect a rebrand to take 8 months to fulfil with updating the content being the most challenging aspect of a rebrand.
This shows that having a content infrastructure in place is vital to ensure content is compliant and aligns with brand guidelines. And the majority of respondents across all regions also recognised how daunting a complete overhaul of company content would be:
|
Region |
“Updating all of the company content would be one of the most challenging aspects of rebranding.” |
|
Australia |
71% |
|
Germany |
59% |
|
United Kingdom |
72% |
|
United States |
75% |
“Content is a vital part of a brand’s identity and many businesses lack the correct tools to help employees find or create content, which in turn could damage a brand’s integrity.”
“Maintaining quality control is important to ensure firms are not tarnishing their brand.”
“With the right content infrastructure, businesses are setting their employees up for success as content will become unified, centralised and most importantly compliant across the board, taking the grunt work and the guesswork out of content creation,” said David Nemes.
