Content Marketing Today

And, just as with successful advertising, frequency is also fundamental to success.

A critical mass of content reflected in lots of pages is the secret to successful magazine.  Skin and bones may work for runway models, but it does not work in the publishing business.  It's okay for you to look like a triathlete, but your magazine should render up a little more closely to Henry VIII.

In a recent research study, Forbes.com and Gartner revealed more data that is bound to be disconcerting for the newspaper industry. 

Already battered by dramatic readership declines among younger people, this research about C-level executive behavior continues to paint a very bleak picture for the industry.  As detailed in a MediaPost blog post, the research shows that "the Internet continues to be the most influential and important source of business information for C-level executives around the world."

Time was when business executives combined their java in the morning with cover to cover readership of the local paper--especially to catch up on local, regional, and national business information.  Virtually every local daily newspaper combined its own coverage of business with wire stories from AP or UPI.  Of course, as recently as 15 years ago, the only other alternative would have been local TV news, which provides little to no business coverage.

Unfortunately, as local newspaper business sections shrink or disappear entirely, online business information is much richer and more compelling.

More than 10,000 visitors voted with their mouse clicks to make these the 6 hottest articles out of 126 that we have posted in the virtual pages of ContentMarketingToday.com from January through June 2008.

They range from transforming an old-fashioned brochure site into a killer sales machine...to why you need to unlearn traditional PR in the 21st century...to why you must publish an eNewsletter. 

Read on to find out why these articles were so popular with so many marketers.

Joe wins "Custom Media Innovator of the Year" from ABM

Custom Publishing is the progenitor of content marketing.  Think of all those airline magazines, for example.  They are produced by custom publishing companies and represent both a marketing and a revenue enhancer. But they, and most of their custom publishing brethren, are basically add-ons within much larger advertising and marketing campaigns.  Joe took it to the next level.

Joe Pulizzi, who was a long-time custom publishing veteran at Penton media, was one of the first to recognize that content creation should be a core component within every company's marketing arsenal.  As he and I put it in our book, Get Content. Get Customers., marketers must begin to think of themselves as publishers by creating content that is relevant and valuable for their customers.

Why? Because connecting with the media is important but connecting with the public is vital! In the Internet era, this distinction is crucial.

It's easy to confuse the two concepts.  When most of us think of public relations, we think of the PR professionals who are skilled at getting coverage for our organizations in print, on the radio or on TV. Traditionally, that was the most effective way to put our companies and our message in front of the public.  That is no longer true. And, that is why understanding the difference between media relations and public relations becomes even more important.

Is the rest of trade publishing also at death's door?

I am sad to report on my observations of the state of the market because technology publishing and I go back 25 years.  But, it's important to understand what has happened because this market segment represents a microcosm of what is happening to print publishing overall.

I have been around technology publishing long enough to remember the introduction of the IBM PC in August 1981.  Not only did this launch represent the birth of a new era in computing, which created thousands of millionaires in Silicon Valley.  It also created a new generation of publications that were dedicated to personal computers. 

Just two years after the arrival of the IBM PC, I arrived at Ziff Davis to take charge of a recently launched magazine called PC Tech Journal. It was the runt of the litter in a company which featured PC Magazine and PC Week.  We were able to take it from a bimonthly publication to a monthly and to revenues of $8 million per year.  Today, that revenue would look pretty darn good, but back then it was almost a rounding error.  At the time, the joke around Ziff Davis was that PC Magazine had become so large (400 page issues were not unusual) that the company was going to introduce a portable version.  In fact, there was so much advertising that what began as a monthly was soon publishing 24 times per year.

Those days are long gone.  I just received the July 2008 issue of PC Magazine which is positively anorexic. Understanding how it got to this precarious state provides critical lessons on why content marketing has become the essential alternative to traditional advertising for so many companies.

And the experts like it.  They really, really like it.

Yes, it's true. Get Content. Get Customers. has completed its surprisingly long gestation period.  Joe and I are very proud parents.  We just hope that everyone else thinks our baby is as beautiful as we do.

Actually, we're genuinely encouraged because some very smart marketing and publishing experts have read the prerelease version of the book and they have been pretty complimentary about what we had to say.  This is encouraging, because when you're writing a book, you are totally immersed in the project and in what you are attempting to communicate. So, it is difficult to be objective about your literary bundle of joy.

Here are the mini-reviews that tell us that we are very much on the right track in evangelizing the need to develop and deploy content marketing strategies pervasively. Once again, Joe and I want to express our thanks to each of the marketing experts who invested a significant chunk of their valuable time to read and comment on Get Content. Get Customers.

You may be surprised at how willing they are to help you.

Despite the troubles many media companies are experiencing, their best publications can still put your advertising message in front of your buyers.  For many small business marketers, traditional advertising should still play a role in an overall content marketing strategy.  But, like many of your peers,you will be devoting more and more financial resources to content marketing in the months and years to come. 

To succeed as a content marketer, you will need to learn fundamental publishing skills in order to communicate effectively with your customers.

This is important in the analog universe, but it is vital in the digital universe.

What's the difference between 2-D marketing and 3-D marketing you might ask? Plenty!

Think of all the junk mail you receive at home or at the office.  Tons of envelopes and a few postcards.  Virtually everything but the bills will be tossed--and much of that without anyone looking at the individual pieces. 

But what if you receive a well-designed magazine that clearly matches your interests, even if you haven't requested it?  What's the likelihood that you will spend at least a few minutes leafing through the magazine.  Thus, the 3-D marketer will have made a memorable and positive impact on you and/or your business. The 2-D marketer will wind up in the wastebasket.

My friend, colleague, and co-author, Joe Pulizzi, recently wrote a great post about achieving the impossible. 

That is, he reveals the 10 secrets to writing a book when you already have a full-time job.  Well, perhaps more than a full-time job since we are both entrepreneurs in the demanding early stages of growing our businesses.

He was inspired by the arrival of the proof copy of our hardcover book.  That was a wonderful moment for both of us. It said that no matter what, we've done something amazing.  We've written a book. 

Here are my three favorite of his 10 secrets with my take on what he wrote: