Content Marketing Today

Jump Start Your Online Public Relations for Free

They call it public relations for a reason.  Although PR methodology has focused primarily on getting the traditional media to write about your company or your client’s company, the goal has always been to influence ‘the public', that is those members of the population that you want to impact positively.

Thanks to the infinite reach of the Internet, you have the capability to extend that influence dramatically.  But, you need to change your approach and your toolkit as part of a 21st century PR strategy.

If your primary public relations strategy still amounts to sending press releases to a finite number of media contacts, you fail to take advantage of the Internet.  You are not reaching the new influencers, to use Paul Gillen’s term.

You need to do do more than reach those influencers. You need to take advantage of the emerging power of social media by creating a new kind of release to reach a much broader audience.  We have written previously about Shift Communications’ template that offers a useful template on which to create your news content: Social Media Release Template Makes It Easier to Get Social.

Now, another powerful tool has emerged: PitchEngine, which lets you create and share social media releases for free.

Phillywordsmith, Emily Sheetz, puts Google Docs to work with a simple, but engaging online slide show for her small business.

There’s plenty that I love about the web. Discovering new people from whom I can learn is one of the most rewarding.

Recently, I lucked onto the PhillyWordsmith blog and wrote about her powerful conceptual construct for drilling down to your brand’s core promise: And Then What? The Question to Ask, Ask, and Ask Again to Get to Your Product’s Soul

Now, I found something else that’s pretty cool on her site. Emily shares representative samples of her creative stuff with a simple slide show built with the basic Google Docs application.  She doesn’t even bother with the Google presentation application.  The link sits right up top on her blog so you don’t have to hunt for it.  Here's why it's so effective for a microbusiness like Emily’s.

Their first effort tried to play the cute, sympathy card with an actual card. Now they imply its my fault that I bailed on them and trash the company they wrongly assume got my business. 

I wrote recently that Embarq could have saved a lot of marketing moola by providing great customer service in the first place: The Huge Marketing Reality That EMBARQ Forgot. I, along with a likely heard of horses had already left the Embarq barn so it was too late to whistle us back.  But, did they give up? No, now they are starting to sound irritatingly desperate.

If you don't get good answers, keep looking.

If you are a big corporation, you may have plenty of in-house talent or can afford to spend a lot of money to outsource the rebuilding of your website.  Even if you are a small organization with a limited budget,  there are lengthy of technically and graphically talented folks who would love to work with you. Even so, you may not get what you need: A website chock-full of relevant and compelling content.

Before you choose the organization based on their technical competence or creative genius, be sure to ask of these five questions because, in the end, it's all about your content:

Think of yourself as the ultimate knowledge resource like those concierges serving fine hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton or the Four Seasons—But Available 24/7.

When you find yourself in a new town but are blessed to be staying in a hotel with a knowledgeable and caring concierge, you've got it made.  Any reasonable request you make for help--and perhaps even some not so reasonable or a bit off the wall requests --will be greeted with prompt and enthusiastic action by the concierge.  The very best of the breed combine encyclopedic knowledge, extensive connections, and an innate desire to look after their customers.

Those hotels whose concierges solve their guests’ problems successfully time after time will be rewarded not only with return stays but with unbeatable word-of-mouth as stories are told about the unbelievable lengths to which the concierge went to solve a problem.

When your customers come to your website, they are similarly looking to you to solve their problems.  If you can succeed at providing plenty of substantive information that addresses their biggest problems, you are beginning to play the role of content concierge in their lives.  You have an advantage over a typical hotel.  Your content is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  And, like a hotel, you can provide round-the-clock telephone or chat support that takes your problem-solving to the next level.

Just Like Toyota’s Famous 5 Whys, Here’s a Way to Drill Down to Pay Dirt

It's not enough just to ask questions.  We need to ask questions that will get us to the root of a problem or that will deliver an in-depth understanding of the soul of our product.  In a wonderful recent article by Philly Wordsmith, we are treated to a unique approach to understanding the essence of our customers’ concerns and of how our products should meet them.

It boils down to asking the same question, "And then what?," iteratively until we get to that fundamental understanding.

Your customers really need your help.  Now is the time to deliver content and solutions that provide that help.

Smart, sales focused companies have long known the importance of uncovering the thorniest problems that their customers face.  Why?  So that they can deliver meaningful solutions to those problems.  In fact, the most sophisticated sales approaches go even farther by seeking out challenges their customers may not know they have.

In our current, grim economic climate, your customers face what may be the toughest challenges of their business careers. More than ever, we have the opportunity to help them solve those challenges by providing solution-oriented content.

Out with Seinfeld and Gates and in with a real computer buyer.

There were lots of problems with the short-lived Bill Gates Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign.  In fact, we had a lot of fun trashing it last year.  Fundamentally, they did nothing to address the concerns of Microsoft customers or to solve their problems.  Basically, they featured two wealthy guys engaged in a meaningless dialogue that appeared to be complete self-indulgence on the part of Microsoft and its agency.  Fortunately, that ad campaign was put out of its misery quickly.

Their new campaign couldn't be more authentic or more effective.  The campaign is designed to counter the very effective Apple Mac versus PC commercials which positioned Microsoft as uncool and Apple as hip and happening. I think it works like gangbusters.

Marketing experts shared invaluable insights about how to market in turbulent times through the effective use of content online, in print, and in person.

Custom publishing has gone from being an ancillary, add on component of marketing strategies to becoming a vital ingredient.  Why?  Because content marketing is so important to an increasing number of marketers and companies of all sizes.  Therefore, creating custom content is no longer a nice to-do, if you have the money.  Rather, it has become an absolute must-do as part of an integrated content marketing strategy.

The strategic importance of content marketing, and of its first cousin, social media, was front and center at this year's Custom Content Conference. 

Here are 8 great takeaways that I brought home with me from the conference: