When a potential customer reads your gear review, caliber breakdown, or strategy article about where to hang your bow stand this year, within a few sentences, they can tell if you know what you are talking about or not. If you tell them a BodyGuard 380 kicks less than a Glock 19, your serious readers are clicking off right away.
The vast majority of gear-related articles are written by people who have never held that product. We have known for years that these articles lose every time to a detailed article by someone who actually used the product, hunted the animal, or has had the experience.
Until Artificial Intelligence (AI) starts to walk and talk, all it can do is emulate these poor articles. Since they can never have real experiences, their outdoor content is no match for an author who has had the real experience in what they are writing about.
Where AI Writing is Killing The Competition
In common industries that are not overly complicated, like news, AI is just as good as your average writer that isn’t doing any primary research. In industries where you can combine the first five articles on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) into one and rank first on google, AI wipes the mat.
Although those times have come and gone in industries that require real insights (like the outdoors). Google has done a good (or bad depending on your point of view) job on filtering out “low quality” content with their core updates over the past couple of years. Now, you really have to have something unique to add to a discussion to be considered on the SERP.
Otherwise, you are in competition with hundreds of other AI-generated articles, and if you manage to beat all of them, you still have to compete with the AI summary that Google offers at the top of every search now. The fact is, so many people are using AI, if you try to use the same methods they are, you are going to be a very small needle in a giant AI haystack.
Why AI Just Can’t Cut it in The Outdoors
Even before Large Language Models (LLMs) were commonplace, if you wrote authentic content with primary research in the outdoor space, you won the SERP.
What it takes to win is no different today, but people and companies prefer the speed and ease of AI. They can use it to make a “good enough” article that is appealing on the surface, but when results fall stagnant, they start to push quantity over quality.
You can spend a lot of money throwing content at the wall and seeing what sticks, but you do better with authentic, purpose driven content.
To make the best article about “best bear defense cartridge", you need some experience bear hunting. Better yet, experience using a side arm in an emergency situation during a bear hunt. This is exactly what our C3 writer, Dalton, has and that's exactly why he was able to make a great article.
This authenticity (or the lack there of) is the main factor preventing many brands from reliably ranking. If you want to know more, check out this article: Why Most Outdoor Brand Content Fails to Rank [And How to Fix It]
How Authenticity Drives Revenue in This Industry
Authentic content results in more trust from your audience. As a result, your brand benefits greatly. The more your audience trusts you, the more they will be willing to listen to you when you eventually pitch your offer.
Written content is a great way to sell products, but the real gold is in the increased brand awareness and trust gained. Not every article has to be a product push. If a reader enjoys a niche conversational article on your website, they may come to you first when they are ready to buy the products you are known for.
Plus, everywhere customers turn now, there is AI content. Producing something better that differentiates your brand in their mind is the best way to stay relevant.
The C3 Solution: Expert Human-Driven Content
As writers, we have seen the rise of generic regurgitated SERP articles over the past decade in the outdoor industry.
In the last few years, AI has caused a prolific increase in this type of content across the web. Although any outdoor writer that puts in the time to perform real research, take real pictures, and tell real stories has no problem winning in the long run.
It can be difficult for a company to spend the time to produce this type of quality content. They should be more focused on running a business! This is exactly the problem that Crosshairs Content Co. solves.
If you’re ready to replace generic content with work that’s written by hunters, shooters, and real outdoor writers, the next step is simple: Visit our contact page and send us a message or schedule a discovery call.
