Here’s another great guest post from JuntaJoe–that’s the legendary Joe Pulizzi as content marketing aficionados know!

Newt’s Note: Most of you probably know Seth Godin as the consummate 21st century marketer who coined the term ‘permission marketing’ which is a close cousin to our own content marketing concept.  He believes that you need to stop interrupting your prospects with irrelevant messaging.  Instead, provide them with information that is genuinely relevant to them either personally or professionally.

Joe reports that the term ‘content marketing’ was new to Seth Godin, but once Seth understood it, he enthusiastically endorsed the term as the ‘new marketing’. 

Here are some invaluable lessons from Seth Godin as reported by Joe:

Just sat through an hour teleseminar (Seth’s Meatball Sundae Book Tour) produced by Author Teleseminars and Elizabeth Marshall, that included Seth Godin, Michael Port and David Meerman Scott. I’m a regular reader of Seth’s and David’s blogs. If you are at all in the marketing game, get their RSS feeds.

The second last question on the call was from me, where I asked about the role of content marketing and its effect on traditional media. Seth was not familiar with the term content marketing, and fortunately David was there to define it as “the creation of valuable and relevant content yourself (instead of using traditional means).”

Okay, here’s the big answer by Seth…

“[Content Marketing] is all the marketing that’s left.”

Seth went on to say (I’m paraphrasing) that teaching your customers and giving your customers the resources to believe you is new marketing. They become a fan of yours because you teach them something that makes them feel better about the world.

For someone like me that lives and breathes content marketing, needless to say I was pretty excited about his response. If you are not creating your own content that gets people talking about you, what are you doing?

Here are a series of 10 other key points from the audio seminar:

1. The old way of marketing is where producers talked at customers with consistent interruption. New marketing is about connecting with customers.
2. Today’s new marketing is a bigger opportunity than any revolution that came along before (Factory, Industrial revolution) because people only need access to ideas, not access to large amounts of capital.
3. Instead of spending $5 million on advertising, spend $5 million on a great product that people want to talk about.
4. There is a difference between how many and who. Old marketing was about how many. New marketing is about who. If 12 people are coming to your blog, but they are the right 12 people with large amounts of buying power, that’s what matters.
5. Permission transferred is permission lost.
6. Your content: Who is listening? Make something for them. If you make something that solves their problems, they’ll talk about it and tell others.
7. The gatekeepers have changed. Today’s technology has enabled the destruction of old gatekeepers (have a message to tell and can’t get it out… create a blog then) and the creation of new gatekeepers (those that have 1,000 friends on Facebook).
8. Figure out why the target needs to pay attention to you? Find information they desperately need (books, blog, research, surveys, etc.) and give it to them. This is the heart of new marketing.
9. Telling an authentic story means living an authentic life (i.e., Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO really does love coffee). In the new marketing world, you can’t fake it, so you have no choice but to be real.
10. All one has to do to understand new marketing is to start a blog. Write stuff that people want to read instead of dictating to them. You learn the lesson quickly!

Content marketing is not easy because you actually have to listen to your customers and know what their challenges are. You cannot solve your marketing woes through buying advertising space. You must make a connection to your customers, and get new customers, by focusing on their true pain points and healing them with information (okay, a bit over the top, but true none the less).
To subscribe to more quality content like this post, receive the email update or get the RSS feed!

Learn how to create great content that makes a difference to your customers at Junta42.

(A terrific guest post from JuntaJoe–that’s content marketing guru, Joe Pulizzi in real life)

When Content Marketing Goes Good (and Bad)

For those of you not familiar with Webkinz, they are very similar to what Cabbage Patch dolls were in the 80′s except for the integration of the Internet.  Webkinz, owned by Toronto-based Ganz, are small stuffed animals that come in dogs, pandas, cats, ducks and more. Once the owner “adopts” their pet, they can go to the Webkinz website to register their pet, create a name, and bring their pet to life online.

The Webkinz concept is so simple, it boggles your mind it wasn’t thought of earlier. Simple, and truly powerful. To experience just a bit of this power, just watch a four-year-old navigate their way through the site. You have to see it to believe it.

Here are a couple of points specific to the website and content marketing…

1. The Webkinz site may be one of the greatest examples of a successful content marketing website in the world.
2. If Webkinz doesn’t realize that their website actually IS content marketing, it may destroy their brand.

The Webkinz Business Model

According to this BusinessWeek article, Webkinz annual sales are north of $100 million. The revenues come strictly from the sale of their stuffed toys and accessories such as charms and clothes. Frankly, the stuffed animals are no different than what you’d find at any toy shop in the world. The difference is its “Webkinz World” online community.

The image to the right is my six-year-old son Joshua’s Webkinz, a polar bear named (fittingly) Polar. Joshua (as well as his younger brother Adam) have spent a good chuck of time on the Webkinz site fitting their animals with clothes, toys, carpet and wallpaper for the bedroom, and more. Joshua takes Polar to the doctor, to the exercise room, and to other “social” rooms where Polar can play with other Webkinz pets. Joshua needs to go to the store to buy food for Polar that will keep him healthy, and also has to play Webkinz games as a “job” in order to make money to buy more food, clothes and toys for Polar.

It truly is a wonderfully educational and “sticky” site, and, perhaps the best example I can think of for online content marketing. Webkinz World is NOT the product, it’s the retention and growth mechanism. But it ultimately is the reason the brand is what it is today. The online component includes FREE content that educates its customer base and incentivizes their buyers to buy more Webkinz products. Having more pets means your pets can play with each other, and also opens up exclusive items for multiple pet owners.

Webkinz has done what every business in the world seeks to do with their online content, yet they have so integrated the product and the content that it seems indistinguishable. What actually is the product? The toys or the online experience? That is where Webkinz has perfected the art of content marketing. When the content you produce for your customers is perceived as so crucial to the success of the product itself, you have perfect content marketing integration.

A Tragic Mistake

Webkinz recently received a slew of hate mail from parents around the world when they decided to open up a small amount of advertising on their site. This created a virtual PR nightmare for Ganz. Although they have taken the advertising down (such as ads for the recent Seinfeld release “Bee Movie”), they are still considering advertising on the site for “kid-friendly” products.

I can see the storm coming now.

Even in this BusinessWeek quote, it seems that Ganz as well as financial experts just don’t get the true nature of the Webkinz World site.

“Ganz, which doesn’t disclose its financials, must now strike a delicate balance: maximizing profit from the fad without alienating parents and kids. Visitors to Webkinz.com spent more than a million hours there in November, but the site is free. As a result, “they haven’t made anywhere near as much money as you’d think,” says Sean McGowan, an analyst at Needham, who guesses Webkinz sales are north of $100 million. He adds that none of the nascent competitors has figured out how to capitalize on kids’ Web time, either.”

The sales are north of $100 million because Ganz created a safe and educational website that parents can leave their kids on without having to worry. Webkinz has grown because they are delivering high-quality FREE content, with the expectation that the website will drive more Webkinz sales, not that the website will produce revenue itself. Opening up web advertising, no matter how kid-friendly, will kill the brand and the site. Playhouse Disney opened up their website to advertising a few years ago. That was the same time we stopped allowing our kids to go to that site. My kids clicked on those ads like crazy and ended up God knows where. Disney forgot that the website was not there to make money, but to deepen the brand relationship they have with their customers (getting them to watch more playhouse Disney and buy more Disney toys). And from a quick look back at the Disney site, they have removed the advertising.  They figured it out!!!  Webkinz better as well – or they will destroy the safe environment they’ve created for children.

Key Takeaways

1. All businesses need to create their own content channels, as Webkinz has. Most businesses don’t realize that they can create their own online resource centers for their customers that will ultimately drive loyalty and sales. P&G has done it with Home Made Simple, Miller Electric has done it with MillerWelds.com, LEGO has nearly perfected it. Consumer or B2B…doesn’t matter. Just create content that meets the informational needs of your buyer, treat it for what it is, and watch what it can do.
2. When content marketing products succeed, such as online content websites or custom publishing print magazines, brands almost instinctively want to open those channels up to advertising. This is almost always a bad idea. Opening up other messages dilutes what you are trying to communicate to your customer. You also lose more control, as Playhouse Disney did when their customers clicked on other websites, alienating parents in the process.
3. The best content marketing doesn’t have to be online. In Webkinz case, it clearly is.  Others might be print, or in-person. It’s most likely a combination of the three. Successful content programs meet the customers where they are. If you can do all three, it makes the content come alive that much more.

Find more great content on content marketing at Junta Joe’s blog !

Last week I received a special issue of myFORD (myFordmag.com), Ford Motor’s owner magazine, entitled “New Directions”. First off, I’ve owned a variety of Fords over the past few decades, and they’ve all treated me well. But frankly, I’m not really sure what they are trying to do with the latest issue of their custom magazine. If the goal is “sell, sell, sell…feature, feature, feature” then they are doing a good job. myFORD has never been an elite lifestyle magazine (actually, it’s always been pretty poor), but this one may take the cake.

There is no need to go into great detail on what’s wrong with myFord magazine. It takes just a simple bit of analysis.

There are 17 separate content sections in the magazine (mini-features, sidebars, etc.). Of the 17 areas, Ford is mentioned in the title or first sentence of 14 of them. What this means is that the magazine has nothing to do with customers…it’s all about Ford. 

Just take a look:

“…Ford Focus is a sporty car with serious smarts…”
“…at Ford, hydrogen fuels are starting to hit full speed…”
“…Ford has received more 5-star crash ratings than any other…”
“…the Ford Personal Safety System responds in milliseconds…”
“…Ford is continually improving its vehicles…”

I’ll stop there. I’m sure you are wondering what they did in the other three sections that did not mention Ford in the title or first line? One mentions the Focus (a Ford Brand), one mentions the Escape (another Ford Brand), and the last one is a short sidebar on “What Five Star Means”. Wow, no mention of Ford…until the 4th sentence (and the big Ford Taurus Trophy next to it).

This is not content marketing…it may not even be marketing. I can’t even start at recommendations or changes because there is no place to start. If I were Ford, I’d start over. Does anyone read this thing? (besides me, that is.)

It doesn’t get better with the myFord website
While I was looking for the myFord website a couple things happened. First, I typed in myford.com into the browser. I was directed to a UK machine shop in Nottingham (which by the way is celebrating 74 years of service). I wonder how many Ford owners end up on that site. If Ford was smart, they’d do whatever it takes to get that URL (or should have picked a different magazine name).

Second, I came across an article on the Motley Fool called “myFord Makes Me Cringe” by Seth Jayson (I didn’t realize there was a hate club against the magazine). You can read this for yourself, but here is a taste of what Seth writes:

“Yes, myFord is just a tiny bit of a vast company, but I also believe that sometimes we can diagnose the body’s disease by examining a single digit. If this plug-per-paragraph magazine is any indication of the sophistication of Ford’s marketing people, they need to take a break from laying off assembly-line workers and start hunting bigger game.”

Ouch!

Finally, when coming to the myFordmag.com website, I found a collection of covers that direct you to digital magazines for each issue. Not a lot of thought went into this one. No user experience, no searching for articles, no finding answers to questions through magazine archives, no interactivity (I’ll stop there). It could be so much more…

To Ford Marketing: As a Ford owner and someone who has and had many family members work at Ford, please, I beg you, do something…quickly.

Submitted by JuntaJoe (In real life, that’s content marketing expert, Joe Pulizzi, of Junta42.com)

Connecting with Customers is Now Their Top Priority

This New York Times article on Nike’s new marketing investments into their consumer base should be a wake-up call for those companies not investing in content marketing. Nike, along with other huge brands such as P&G, Johnson & Johnson, and General Motors are all moving away from the basic advertising and sponsorship strategies that helped make them the well-known brands they are today (The article discusses Nike investments such as their Nike Running blog site that create original content for customers). Just look at the variety of quotes from Nike’s marketing management team in their response to this relatively new marketing direction:

“We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.”

“We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go.”

“How can we provide a service that the consumer goes, ‘Wow, you really made this easier for me’?”

Lee Doyle, chief executive for North America at Mediaedge:cia goes on to state, “…consumers have been trained to skip all advertising…That’s the world we’re all afraid of.”

Now, go back and read these quotes again. What these people are saying is that traditional advertising:

1. Does NOT connect with consumers.
2. Interrupts people away from what they really want.
3. Does NOT provide a wanted experience.
4. Does NOT help the buyer solve a problem.
5. Is ignored.

Now, traditional advertising still has its place, but, in general, this is what’s coming out of the best and brightest marketing organizations in the world.

Content Drives Revenues

Okay, okay…you might have heard all this before. Statements such as:

“It’s the end of interruption marketing.”

“It’s about engagement and the customer experience.”

“Technology has created a new consumer buying behavior.”

All these are true, but rarely do I see articles get down to the heart of what is going on for businesses. Simply put, content drives revenues. Valuable and relevant content created by companies and delivered to target users:

1. Makes a connection with buyers.
2. Gives buyers the information they really want, need.
3. Provides a wanted (even needed) experience.
4. Helps the buyer solve a problem.
5. Is given attention.

Businesses today have the opportunity to be the content, to be the media. Are you targeting a specific type of customer? If so, stop looking at the available media as a first option. Identify the buyer persona(s) involved, find the informational needs of that buyer, and deliver consistent and valuable content to them based on those informational needs.

The answer seems so easy that it’s often dismissed by business marketers. I’ve been in more than one meeting where the chief marketer nearly laughed me out of the room when I said they could be the dominant media source for a particular industry. Why can’t you have a website that delivers the best industry content available? Why can’t you deliver in-person roadshows across the country on a key industry topic? Why can’t you create a print custom magazine that is anticipated by thousand of target buyers each month?

You can! And why would you actually do such things? Because great content – content that delivers on the informational needs of buyers – drives revenues. If the goal of a business is to make a reasonable profit, there is no other reason to create great content than to drive corporate revenues and profits. That’s it!

Still not sure…just ask Nike, P&G, J&J and General Motors.

To subscribe to more quality content like this post, receive the email update or get the RSS feed! Read more of Joe Pulizzi’s posts at his blog, or check out the Junta42 content marketing search community.

Just because you are a small business doesn’t mean you have to market like one. Today’s technology allows businesses of all sizes to market directly to customers through custom publishing initiatives without costing an arm and a leg.

Here is a very simple, yet strategic plan to get and keep more customers through the use of valuable, relevant content. This will form the basis for your custom publishing/content marketing media plan.

1. Simple Market Research

You’ve come this far because you understand your customer and prospect base. By conducting some simple, online market research, you can not only create a competitive advantage, but use the data to construct and develop relevant messaging to your customers.

• Questions – create mostly "multiple-choice" questions that deal directly with the challenges you think your customers are facing in the industry. Once the questionnaire is complete, run it by some of your best customers. Make sure that it takes 10 minutes or less to complete the survey. Include at least one open-ended question that asks them what their biggest challenge is. You can use this for white paper topics (to be discussed later).
• Database – leverage the customer names you have email addresses for. The idea would be to get at least 100 responses. At an average 3% complete rate (which could be much higher depending on how you position the survey), you’d need a universe of about 3,000 names. If that seems impossible, survey tools such as Zoomerang offer services to get you a number of defined completes of your target functions and titles for a set price.
• Survey Tool – Tools like Zoomerang or SurveyMonkey are very reasonable and have enough functionality to give you the results you need. Each also gives a free trial membership for lower survey quantities.
• Incentive – Starbucks cards or Amazon gift certificates seem to be the flavor of the day. Set up the survey so that the first 50 or 100 to complete the survey get a $5 or $10 certificate. Amazon’s gift certificate tool makes it easy to upload multiple emails and send out to winners. Takes about 5 minutes.

Once the research is complete, you’ll have the information you need to create a content marketing plan that makes sense. As a bonus, you can construct a research report that can be used as a free download to draw prospects to your Web site, or deliver the custom report as a special gift to customers.

2. Web site

Is your Web site all about products and services? If so, you’ve got a problem. Today’s savvy buyer yearns for great content, and they will look just about anywhere for content that helps them do their job better.

Instead of relying on media outlets, or worse, your competitors, to give them the content, create the mindset of a publisher. With a publisher’s mindset, your goal is to give your readers content that is valuable, relevant and timely.

If you are not already doing so, here are the adjustments to make on your Web site:

• At least 50% of the content on your home page should be NOT be product or service related. Fill your home page with content that makes the prospect/customer more intelligent. We’ll talk more about how to do that in a second.
• Create a blog. Starting a blog may be the key to your custom publishing/content marketing program. TypePad or WordPress are virtually free, and both are easy to use. Tie it in with your Web page, or even make it your home page. If you tie it in to your home page, be sure that blog posts are clearly visible. Post at least twice a week and talk about what is going on in your industry. Writing consistently will be challenging at first, but once you get started, you’ll enjoy seeing the additional traffic coming to your site from all over the globe.If you have any questions about setting up the blog, check out Patrick Schaber’s post on "The Beginner’s Guide To Setting Up A First Blog Site".
• Use Feedburner to create automatic email feeds to those subscribed to your blog. You can also add "email this" functionality within each blog post.

3. White Papers

A white paper is a 3,000 to 5,000 word document that centers around a key issue. I recommend creating a quarterly white paper series around your industry issues. Be sure to use the research from your online survey to generate the white paper topics.

If you can’t write it yourself, hire a freelancer that is close to your industry to write one for you. Depending on the industry, you can probably get someone to do it for 50 cents to $1 per word. If possible, try a bartering arrangement to cut down on your costs.

Create an abstract on your home page promoting a white paper download. This will be a free download to prospects/customers…but they do need to give you their name, company and email address. You can also add a few other qualifying questions, but know that you’ll get 20% or more drop off with each question. Might be better to get the name first and qualify later.

4. Search Engine Marketing

To drive people to download your white paper, create a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign using Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing. Target key words that you uncovered with your research survey to drive people to download your white paper.

Be sure to test first and start out with just a few dollars in budget per day. Once you see the conversion results (which you can set up in AdWords), you can decide if you want to budget more per day.

5. Develop a Print Newsletter

Print is still very important to the overall marketing mix. The difference today is that you need to use the content from your print initiative throughout your marketing vehicles.

A short four-to-eight page custom publishing newsletter should do. Work with a local designer to create a clean, fresh look for your newsletter. B2B Marketing Trends, produced by Penton Custom Media, does a nice job with their 16-page newsletter (click here for a link to the media kit to see the design).

Remember, this is not a sales update, it’s an initiative to help make your customers and prospects smarter. Start with a quarterly frequency, or even bi-annual if it’s too much to bear. Do the following:

• Create a name that positions the content of your newsletter within your industry. Be sure to check for any trademark issues before you move forward.
• Develop an editorial outline. Short, quick-hitting editorial should be the focus in the print version. All stories should drive the reader back to their online location for the "complete" story.
• Promote your quarterly white paper within each issue. This could possibly be your feature story. Create a shorter 500 to 750 word article that ends with a link back to the download URL to the white paper.
• Content is content. Ads are Ads. Keep all content areas informative and valuable. If you want to promote your services individually, outside of the context of a case study or feature article, separate those messages out so it is clearly marked.

An Integrated Custom Publishing Program

By doing the above five steps, you’ve just created a simple, yet effective content marketing/custom publishing program. Be sure to track your ROI/measurement of the program through:

• Blog Feeds
• Blog Subscriptions
• White Paper Downloads
• SEM conversions
• URLs from Print Newsletter

Ultimately, you can set this up to directly tie back to your sales. Use unique URLs and Toll-Free numbers on each initiative so you can track what leads are coming from where.

The best part of all – you are taking a true leadership position in your industry. You are developing relevant and valuable information on a consistent basis for your customers. They will begin to look to you for your industry knowledge and will ask you for your help to be their solutions provider.

Not a bad place to be when customers actually want to read your branded content!

For more on Joe’s commentary, check out the Junta42 blog or find content articles from around the web at Junta42.