Content Marketing Today

The #1 Content Marketing Lesson from Seth Godin’s New Book

Believe it or not, it is all about the Meatball Sundae: marketers can’t add brand-new marketing methods that are a complete mismatch with all of the products and processes that have worked in a very different world.  That is, if they really want to achieve measurable results, they will need to completely rethink what they are selling and how they sell it.

I was inspired to go out and buy Meatball Sundae because of Joe Palazzi’s post from last week that reported on a conference call that Seth Godin gave about the new book.  Joe reported on 10 very important insights that he gleaned on the call.  Happily, he noted that Seth embraced the concept of content marketing once Joe via a question related it to Godin’s own ‘new marketing.’

But, I believe the most important lesson you can learn relates to the title of the book and to the laughably inappropriate combination of whipped cream, a cherry, and a meatball.  Godin’s point is that you can’t simply bolt on new marketing to an organization that is operating as if nothing has changed in the past 10 years and that traditional marketing still works the way it always has.

This concept matches up very closely with one of the chapters in our upcoming book, Get Content. Get customers.  In the book, we will be talking about the need to develop a content marketing mindset throughout your organization.  The reason this is essential is that content marketing differs significantly from the ways in which most companies and most marketers have been operating for decades and decades. Successful content marketing strategies depend on a thorough understanding of your customers and their problems–and your subsequent willingness to provide relevant content and meaningful solutions based on that understanding.

As Godin puts it:

At the same time is that there are whole new ways to market, the tactics of building a business haven’t caught up yet.  Marketers are trying to play a new game, but their coworkers are still busy playing the old one.

He goes on to say:

The problem is that almost everyone affected by the death of the Old Marketing is busy playing with the top of the ice cream sundae that is the New Marketing.  The art of marketing has changed, but in too many cases, the base of the organization has not.  The efforts put into online shopping, blogging, search engine optimization, voicemail systems, and the like tend to be about rearranging the top of the sundae–making more noise and being a little flashier.

Most of us have seen this phenomenon in our own organizations or in client organizations.  We take a look at what’s going on and see that a website has been created based primarily on the fact that everybody said that a website was important to have. Today, many companies are taking things a step further and deciding that they need to do Web 2.0 marketing–both before they’ve mastered Web 1.0 and before they have been able to align their entire organization behind a content marketing strategy.

There really is a need to change what we are doing because marketing realities have changed.  Godin uses McDonald’s as an example. This quintessentially American restaurant chain succeeded by being everywhere with a limited menu that was designed to appeal to everyone.  He notes, “the ubiquity of the stores is not just a real estate investment–it’s a marketing one.”  By way of explanation, he says “organizations used to be built around very expensive marketing tactics–things like real state or TV commercials… organizations used to have to embrace slow cycle times and difficult and expensive marketing rollouts.”

Of course, McDonald’s still thrives today because of its ubiquity and because a lot of us like big Macs.  But the unbelievable investment that was required to become ubiquitous and to establish their brand initially on national television commercials is no longer necessary for many smart new–or transformed–businesses. 

As one example he provides Threadless, which is a T-shirt business that does $20 million in revenue per year and was created by two guys who don’t even have a staff artist.  Their only presence is on the Internet.  They don’t advertise.  Their customers do their own T-shirt designs and become a walking, talking billboards for Threadless.  Essentially, their entire business has been built upon the new marketing. 

By all means, run out and buy Meatball Sundae.  But be prepared to think about how you will need to restructure many of the ways that you operate in order to take advantage of the’ new marketing.’ or, as Joe and I would say’ content marketing.’ that is unless you actually do want to put a cherry and whipped cream on top of your marketing meatballs.