10 Ways That Humanities Advance Content Marketing
What does writing b2b content and studying Ancient Greek have in common? Maybe more than you’d think.
In an age where many technical tasks are increasingly automated, quality writing frequently proves an important way for companies to differentiate themselves. While A.I. text generators such as ChatGPT can generate content, their weak grasp of context (and iffy copyright status) mean that humans are still very much in the driver’s seat.
A humanities degree requires students to understand, synthesize, and creatively reflect upon a wide range of sources. This makes them well suited to produce quality content marketing material. By attending to the human element in writing, humanities graduates often have a knack for creating well-presented and impactful content.
You can think of a humanities graduate like a Swiss army knife for content marketing. It’s extremely handy to have an employee with a wide and adaptable range of research and writing capabilities.
Humanities In Business
Whether it’s an M.B.A. or postgraduate study, the humanities sometimes get a bad rap in the business world. This is reflected in the fact that those with a humanities degree aren’t well represented in business circles: an S&P survey of 2,262 corporate leaders showed that just 1.5% of them graduated from a humanities or liberal arts field.
Looking at current representation of humanities majors in the business community tells only part of the story, however. While underrepresented, many go on to thrive in the corporate world. Just look to the examples of Howard Schulz (former Starbucks CEO, communications degree), John McKay (former Whole Foods CEO, philosophy & religion degree), and the late Susan Wojcicki (former YouTube CEO, history & literature degree).
According to payscale.com, “Business & I.T.” and “Business & Economics” were the 85th and 88th most profitable degrees, with the top spots taken by degrees in specialized forms of engineering.
In addition, particular areas of business may prove more suitable than others for those with a humanities background. While investing, accounting, or product design may be best accomplished by those with a background studying business, finance, design, or engineering, those with a background in the humanities may find themselves surprisingly well prepared for content creation and strategy.
10 Ways Humanities Prepares Content Creators
Clarity of Writing. Whether it’s sociology, philosophy, or classics, humanities degrees tend to involve a considerable amount of essay writing. While the best student essays contain original points, graders often focus on a student’s ability to accurately summarize and rearticulate a large volume of material in an easily digestible form. The glut of information in the business world means that a scholar’s ability to pick out the relevant details in long reports, interviews, and white papers comes in very handy.
Structured Argument. Part of clear writing is clear structure. To effectively make a point, a student needs to know precisely where a piece is going, and what sort of evidence best supports a given conclusion. This means that those with a humanities background may have a knack for taking data from colleagues and insights from management, and molding them in a way which can maximize their impact on consumers and investors alike.
Drawing From Unique Sources. In a crowded market, it pays to stand out. One of the difficulties in b2b content marketing is that if your examples, analogies, and anecdotes are all concerned with business, there’s a high chance that you’ll be preaching to the choir by presenting familiar material. A humanities degree helps you draw on unusual sources to make novel points. For example, one of our team cited the development of 19th century mathematics as an example of the importance of clarity.
Sense Of History. Everyone likes a good story. And like any area of human activity, business has a very colorful history. Whether it’s using data about the industrial revolution to put contemporary advances in perspective or doing some research to figure out how a given industry got to where it is today, a little scholarly effort goes a long way. Knowing a bit about hype cycles of yesteryear can provide a reality check for overzealous predictions.
Seeing The Big Picture. At its best, humanities is all about putting complex topics like history, society, and psychology in perspective. This requires having a nose for what’s relevant and useful within huge swaths of information. Accordingly, those with a humanities background can prevent colleagues from missing the forest for the trees by asking big picture questions about the nature and purpose of specific tasks. Stepping back and asking such big business questions helps businesses work smarter.
Navigating New Vocabulary. To be a successful student of the humanities, you need to speedily grasp and master new ways of speaking. Whether a student is learning uncommon jargon to understand a historic text, becoming fluent in terminology surrounding a specific subgenre of philosophy or psychology, or studying a language in order to understand untranslated material, humanities students have a way with words. Given the sheer amount of industry-specific terms in business and engineering, humanities students have an opportunity to use their skills to help navigate and explain inconsistent usage.
Understanding Other Points Of View. At its core, the humanities are about understanding the perspectives of people in diverse times, places, and circumstances. Students of the humanities tend to be exposed to many different ways of thinking by reading primary texts of widely different groups. They’re then challenged to rearticulate the material in more familiar terms, forming a crucial bridge between different perspectives. In a global business environment, this sort of bridging activity is increasingly important.
Synthesizing Material. Much of content creation involves creative editorial work, synthesizing and contextualizing diverse sources into reports, profiles, explainer articles, and so on. Those with a strong background in the humanities tend to be adept at just this sort of synthesis, since it’s necessary to draw upon a wide range of sources to paint an accurate picture of a society, event, or epoch.
Handling Sources. Part of synthesizing material involves carefully tracking sources. This is done not only to avoid plagiarism and to encourage original content, but also to ensure accuracy by vetting sources used. The rising tide of misinformation is likely to become even more of a challenge due to misuse of AI text generators, so having someone on board who can keep a blog’s ducks in a row by carefully tracking resources is a timely requirement.
Broad Range of Skills. The skeptical reader will note that none of these skills are unique to those with a humanities background. Engineers can be great at writing clearly, managers can have a solid sense of history, and your accountant might have a secret creative flair. The point is not that the humanities imparts unique skills: it’s that humanities education gives one enough general knowledge to be both flexible and effective in deploying the above skills in diverse contexts. Again, think of a humanities student like a Swiss army knife for business: while no capability is absolutely unique to such a student, it can be extremely handy to have a broad range of widely applicable abilities in a single person.
