Content Marketing: a not-so-new way of thinking

Ask 100 people in the marketing world today about Content Marketing and you’ll get 101 different answers. It’s one of the most popular and, at the same time, ill-defined terms around. Why?

I believe Content Marketing is more of a philosophy than a specific tactic or strategy and I’ll tell you why — it’s because of how we got here. What created Content Marketing was a confluence of three different but related technological advances:

1.     The advent of technology that allows consumers to avoid marketing messages like never before, such as DVR technology, satellite radio and streaming video

2.     Other technology that allows a brand to become a publisher of its own messages without the need for traditional media; this includes web technology and Social Media

3.     And, finally, technology that connects consumers more than ever, including smartphones, blogging and the increasing importance of consumer reviews

The first change probably seems obvious, but we can’t underestimate how this has changed the ways brands are spending their marketing dollars. While the TV commercial isn’t dead yet, except for things that have to be seen live (like concerts and sporting events) it may be on life support. Individual consumers are now in charge of their own TV programming schedules and can — and do — skip commercials at will.

The second point may be less obvious, simply because it’s been a more gradual change. Companies have operated websites for more than a decade and Social Media, while newer, has been around a while, too. But companies are now turning to these new(er) media as a way of directly and efficiently communicating with their target audiences without the need of an intermediary like television or newspapers.

The third change is less about technology and more about what people are doing with it. Today’s mobile-enabled consumers are ever-connected; with each other, with the brands they prefer and with the world at large. With blogging, anyone who wants to can at least try to be an expert about something...essentially for free. And nearly all of us have the world’s information right in the palm of our hands. Brands have to deal with these new dynamics everyday.

Enter Content Marketing.

As brands look for ways to deal with all of these changes, they have an opportunity to think differently about how they send messages to consumers. Quickly leaving are the days when a brand pushed its messages at consumers. They must now talk with them. This is the essence of Content Marketing. It doesn’t have to be digital (although most communication today is) and it doesn’t have to be high production value like traditional TV spots (although video will continue to be prominent).

In fact, Content Marketing as a philosophy has been around for hundreds of years. The idea of giving consumers the information they want in exchange for loyalty existed in the 18^th century when Benjamin Franklin promoted his print shop — not by offering discounts on printing or even talking about printing at all, but by giving people the information they wanted, like astrology and weather predictions…in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Content Marketing isn’t a specific tactic like blogging or email. And it isn’t some esoteric strategy only the experts can understand. It’s the idea that people will listen to you and may — may — do business with you if you help them.

Now, isn’t that something worth doing…and doing well?

Three things to remember when creating content

Let’s call them the content triumvirate. Not just because it sounds good (which it does) but also because — if you include all three of these things — I believe you will almost always be creating great content.

If you make sure your content is relevant, connects emotionally with a targeted audience and is within your brand’s authority, you’re well on your way to content greatness.

Let’s take a quick look at what each of these mean:

Make it relevant

Seems obvious. But the important part here is relevant to whom? When creating a message of any kind, whether it’s a TV spot or a postcard, you must make sure it’s relevant to your target audience…otherwise, why should they care? But here’s the thing: this means you must have a target audience in the first place.

Ensure that it connects emotionally

Truly good content must make an emotional connection with your aforementioned audience. Anything else is just content, not Content Marketing.

Stay within your brand’s authority

This is the least intuitive of the three but, perhaps, the most important. Your audience will listen to you if your message is relevant and connects with them emotionally. But the message also has to be on a topic in which you have some authority. For example, if you make shoes (like Converse) anything shoe related will make sense coming from you. But what if you send a message about how to fix a leaky sink (Converse Liquid Drain Opener)? Not so much.

As you may have noticed in the graphic version of this concept, the spot where all three things converge is quite small…and that’s by design. Make no mistake, this is not an easy task.

But, if you’re able to do these three things simultaneously — creating relevant content that connects with a targeted audience emotionally while staying within the space of your brand’s authority — you’ll be creating great content indeed.

Good luck!

Both sides of the Facebook argument

Early in 2015, Facebook is changing its algorithm yet again and there are two sides to the argument for why they’re doing it this time.

On one side of the argument are the advertisers/brands, who say its extortion. They have been reaching people through Facebook at no cost all along, the brands say, so why will it now cost them to do so?

On the other side of the argument is Facebook itself. They say they have surveyed their customers and are hearing loud and clear: “Too many ads.” So, in order to give its customers a better experience, they are doing something about it.

Of course, things may not be this simple. But one thing is certain: Facebook is clearly the most powerful Social Media channel on the planet:

• With more than 1.1 billion active monthly users, Facebook is simply dominant

• And it's not just its users; research shows that nearly one in four visits to a brand’s website (22%) comes directly from Facebook

• That same research shows that is more than four times the referrals of its nearest SoMe competitor, Pinterest, and it’s on the rise — it was just 10% in 2013

So a change in the Facebook algorithm is critically important. Is being able to charge for these messages simply too tempting to pass up? Or, perhaps from the Facebook perspective, is it not in the best interest of Facebook shareholders not to make this change.

What will be interesting to see is the number of brands willing to shell out the dollars required, as of the January 2015 change, to continue to reach people using Facebook.

Some smaller brands simply won't be able to afford it and others may go elsewhere, either out of principle or because they believe the other ’free’ social channels can deliver enough traffic to make it worthwhile.

Either way, there are several things that could happen in January:

• Pinterest could stand to gain from this and may grow substantially

• Other SoMe channels may follow Facebook and start monetizing their networks, as well (some, like LinkedIn, already do)

• Another social network could benefit even more than Pinterest, but that’s a long shot; even though it lags Facebook, Pinterest still refers five times the web traffic of any of the other SoMe channels

• Facebook could offer to buy Pinterest, seemingly closing the door on its other SoMe competitors

• Of course, someone else could offer to buy Pinterest, as well

• And who knows what new network could pop up

One thing's for sure: early 2015 will be an interesting time in social media.

How content is like a used car

Okay, follow me here.

Great content is like a great used car, everyone recognizes it when they see it. Greatness inspires ooohs and ahhhs and stirs conversation, whether it’s a restored 1969 Chevy Camaro (photo credit: imagejuicy.com) or a hilarious, well-executed video.

But things have changed.

In the old days, if you had a great used car you were ready to sell, all you had to do was put a sign in the window and wait. Chances are, most people where you lived knew about your car because, well, it was awesome. The word would quickly get around and someone — maybe several someones — would come and make an offer.

Content is much the same. Not so long ago, great content would be easy to find and, if it truly was awesome, people knew about it and would share it without being asked.

Today, there’s so much content (and so many used cars) that even the best can’t be found without some promotion.

Let me put that another way. If you had a used car today, do you think you could sell it simply by putting a sign in the window? Perhaps eventually. But if you really wanted to sell it now, you’d probably promote it on a website somewhere to get the word out, right?

It’s the same with your content. We know it’s awesome. But other people don’t know it’s awesome if they haven’t seen it.

I read recently where one firm recommends spending 60% of your budget on creating great content, but reserving 40% for promoting that content to the right audience at the right time where they prefer to get their information. That sounds about right to me.

So, go out there and create great, compelling, targeted content that solves a problem in the lives of your target audience. Then, don’t forget to promote it so they have the chance to see how awesome you are!

I wish I had my minivan back.

I know. It’s not often you hear someone wishing for a minivan. Least of all an old one. But, when I read the ‘I had to have it’ challenge on Medium, I knew this would be my story. So I’m sticking to it.

It was 2010 and we had owned two minivans back-to-back. Almost 10 years of driving in an oversized toaster had taken its toll. The understanding nods from other toaster-on-wheels owners, the disappointed looks when soccer moms mistakenly thought I was one of them. I was ready for a change.

Then GM introduced what they now call a crossover SUV — not huge, but certainly not a minivan — and I was smitten. The Chevy version of the crossover is called the Traverse, and it was my way out. But was it the responsible thing to do?

Of course not.

There was nothing wrong with our minivan, at least mechanically. It ran well and gave us no trouble (knock on the dash). And we had three kids at home with school and sports and friends, so we needed something big.

But the kids were getting older and college was coming. Times three. Would now be the best time to buy a car? We had paid off the ‘toaster’ as well as our other car, so we didn’t have a monthly payment. Ah, the days without a monthly car payment.

But I was not to be denied. $30,000? That’s not so much. Heck, they won’t even charge us interest and we can pay for it over five years — 60 long months — so it won’t be so bad. Right?

I talked my wife into it. And, to be fair, she was dragging her feet all the way. Smart lady that she is, she gave it her best shot. She’d say things like, “If that’s what you really want” and “If you really think that’s smart.” Of course it wasn’t smart. She knew it wasn’t smart.

But she could see it in my eyes. We may as well start talking about which color we want, ‘cause this thing was happening.

So we did it. The Traverse was just becoming popular, so there were very few discounts to be had. But did I care about getting a deal? No way. This was my car, why haggle a bunch over the price, right?

Wrong. In retrospect, I’m sure the dealer was very happy to see me. “Here are the keys, just sign here and leave your firstborn at the door. Thanks for stopping by.”

And off I drove! The first month was great. New car smell. People other than soccer moms actually making eye contact with me. This will be great!

Then month two came. And the payment book showed up (okay, they really don’t make payment books anymore, but you get that it’s a metaphor for that huge new monthly payment, right?). And I realized I was stopping by the gas station. A lot. Like, they knew my name. My MIDDLE name.

So I did the math. 17 miles to the gallon, that’s what we were averaging. Seventeen. How many more months are we doing this?

So, let’s review. We’ve got a new monthly payment. Another weekly payment over at the gas station. And, to add insult to injury, the thing was just a dog off the line. I mean a D-O-G (for those who may not know, in car talk, that means it had no acceleration. I could have just said that, I guess).

Anyway, the soccer moms in their vans, who had summarily kicked me out of their club, were now routinely blowing me off the line at traffic lights all over town. Their soccer-playing kids laughing it up in the back and pointing at the old guy with the fancy crossover SUV. “Nice car, buddy,” they would yell. “Does your wife have the van?”

Ouch.

How many months are left, 58? Great.

Then the recalls started. First the power steering (which still isn’t quite right), then the air conditioning — in August, of course. Then the seat belts. It’s as if the car gods were trying to tell me something. But was I listening?

How could I? This was my idea. It was the best thing we could have done. Or, maybe not.

So here I stand, four-plus years later with nine monthly payments to go. Still on a first name basis with every gas station attendant in the tri-state area. And I’m longing for my minivan back.

I just had to have that crossover SUV.

Boy, did I learn a lesson with that one.


(If you enjoyed this story, please head over to Medium and recommend it. Thanks!)

Content strategy aint what it used to be

Back in the day (say, 10 years ago), the term content strategy was a web-specific thing. And, while it continues to be both necessary and worthwhile for the web, we’ve reached a point where we’re going to have to ask for some flexibility here.

Web content strategists: we’re going to need to use your term more broadly.

Now that brands are embracing Content Marketing, they’re publishing content on their own behalf (not just on the web) to attract people to their brand. This action needs to have some planning around it and, because it’s about content (again, not just on the web), we’re going to need to call that planning something.

That something is content strategy

Don’t get me wrong. I understand that the web is critically important. I hear that people use the web almost every day (sorry, that was snarky). It’s true that the web will only continue to get more and more critical, but it’s not the only way people get information. And — here’s the important thing — it’s not always the way they prefer to receive information.

Sometimes it’s where they start, sometimes it’s where they finish, but it’s not everything.

Because, after all, we should be creating and distributing content the way the people we’re trying to attract would prefer. So we need to talk about content strategy more holistically.

I completely understand that our web-based content strategy brothers and sisters invented this term long ago and have been using it for a long time. But, for the good of the industry (nay, the world), ladies and gentlemen of the web, we’re going to need to borrow your term.

Permanently.

So, in summary:

Web: very important.

Content: not just on the web

Content strategy: important for everyone (not just the web)

Web content strategists: thanks for being cool about this.

A Content Manifesto

We believe in content.

We believe in big content and small content.

We believe in creating, curating and sharing worthwhile content.

We believe in thoughtfully managing content.

Making it available, consistent.

We believe in putting our best foot forward.

We believe in having content standards — and following them.

We believe in making people look good.

We believe it’s the best way for us to look good.

We believe in breaking through the clutter.

We believe content without a plan is clutter.

We don’t believe in clutter.

We believe in the power of a human story.

We believe in finding the true story and telling it well.

We believe people will listen when the story helps them.

We believe in relationships.

We believe in growing them, not leveraging them.

We believe in nurturing relationships, not leads.

We believe in being useful.

We believe in being consistent.

We believe in being clear.

We believe the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.

We believe content is the future of marketing.

And we believe in leading the way.