Content Marketing Today

Kathy Saenz of Neighborhood America Shares What It Takes to Make Video an Effective Content Marketing Tool

Even a micro business can use video effectively to communicate with its customers online. But, as we amateur carpenters know, you can wind up with a mess instead of a masterpiece unless you understand how to use a potentially powerful tool well.   In that spirit we’re happy to can share with you six terrific tips for using video successfully from talented Southwest Florida professional, Kathy Saenz. We recently caught up with Kathy, who is Neighborhood America's corporate communications manager, for a brief interview on the best ways to communicate with video. Kathy's unique background as a university trained former TV producer and reporter taught her what it takes to tell great stories in our short attention span world.  She has been able to help Neighborhood America add  video communications to their core marketing capabilities. When it comes to using video effectively, Kathy and her company really get it.

Here Are Kathy's 6 Secrets to Video Success for Small Business:

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You must be clear on what you do and how your customers will benefit

I became aware of the Metwell website as a result of a promotion they had sent me via Twitter. Their website is full of unintended ironies as they offer online marketing advice which the website appears to ignore.

It's also a good example of a website with a pretty good layout that is undercut by a lack of focus and a serious shortage of relevant and compelling content.

I found it hard to understand exactly what Metwell does or how they could help me after a quick--and then a more in depth--visit to their website The company seems to know content is important because their site attempts to provide a lot of content, at least on the surface. But they misunderstand the essence of content marketing by failing to make their content relevant and compelling to prospective buyers.

Here's what I find to be most problematic:

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Inspiration from ‘Visual Blogger’ Mark Smiciklas of Intersection Marketing

It's hard to make things easy. And, it's even harder to be amusing at the same time.

But the very best visuals take a complex idea or series of connected ideas and make them instantly understandable. Just the right visuals make those ideas even more memorable when they are funny as well. In the case of the Intersection Marketing blog from Mark Smiciklas, he manages to do both consistently. Read More

Lady Liberty Symbolizes All That’s Right about the United States in a Uniquely Powerful Way

This may be more about loving the Statue of Liberty than about marketing.  So I might be slightly off-topic. Even so, you don't have to look any farther than the Statue of Liberty to understand the potential power of a brand promise with deep, authentic roots.

This year, in the weeks before 9/11, I started to think about what I believe is the most powerful symbol of all that is right about the United States, not just for Americans but for people around the world. I also began to think that the only thing worse than losing the Twin Towers in 2001 would have been losing the Statue of Liberty, too.

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Use the B.E.S.T Plan to Plot Your Content Course

My colleague and co-author, Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 fame, just posted an article that will make it easier for content marketing newcomers to build a solid, workable content strategy.

The shift in mindset to a content-based strategy from a traditional marketing approach requires some pretty heavy lifting.  But, with the B.E.S.T.content strategy, you’ll be able to go from content marketing neophyte to professional with minimum aggravation and maximum effectiveness. There are just four basic components to master as you work on your organization’s marketing transformation.

Here’s how Joe makes the case for the 4 easy pieces of the B.E.S.T. approach:

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Just because you put a cute dog in a commercial, you won't automatically communicate effectively with your customers.

Storytelling is a key component of effective marketing and often of the very best advertising. But, you have to be really careful in the use of storytelling for a brief TV commercial that addresses millions of viewers who are not giving you their full attention from the get-go. That's why the State Street SPDR commercial featuring a cute Jack Russell Fox Terrier misses the mark. Read More

The Paradigm is Shifting. Remodel Your Marketing Now.

Marketing rules are changing all around us. The winners in this new world will be the early adopters who understand the new breed of buyer, take advantage of better and cheaper technology, and deliver problem-solving content.

It's time for marketers to replace traditional publishers. Make sure you aren’t the last one on your block to make the transformation.

Here’s what you need to do and why:

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Why a talkative canine was able to put a family-owned business in our collective consciousness

One can only imagine the original ad agency pitch to the company when they suggested having the company president and a talking golden retriever be the centerpiece of a national marketing campaign.  It must've seemed just as crazy as the idea of the AFLAC duck.

But, in fact, it has proved to be just as successful. Just as AFLAC went from complete obscurity to pervasive brand recognition, so too have Bush’s Baked Beans become a successful national brand. This family-owned company from Tennessee now has the best-selling baked bean brand in the United States.  Even for a talking dog, that's an extraordinary accomplishment.

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How to go from clueless to compelling to transform prospects into buyers

In 2007, the mention of content marketing brought as many blank stares from small business owners as the mention of a website did 10 years before. In fact, in 1997 when we started our small business magazine in Southwest Florida, few owners had websites, let alone an online marketing strategy. In 2009, most small businesses do have websites and the term, ‘content marketing,' has gone from obscure to fashionable. When I say fashionable, I mean that the usage of the phrase has skyrocketed in the past two years. For example, the number of visitors to our website who arrived because they had done a search for 'content marketing,' has increased by a factor of 10. I'm delighted that content marketing has come out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Even so, for most small businesses, developing a content marketing mindset and a strategy to follow just does not come naturally. Fortunately, the fundamentals of a successful small business content marketing strategy are much more commonsensical than you might think.  In fact, they build on what have long been best marketing practices.  Even those content marketing elements that require a new mindset have a simple and compelling logic that even the smallest business can grasp and adopt.

Here are the six steps that can put you on the path to an effective content marketing strategy:

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