Content Marketing Today

Third Eye Management and Marketing must be blind to Internet realities.

Let's be visual. This week we critique a marketing company that has completely misunderstood online visitor behavior. It's all about misunderstanding the use of visuals. 

I can understand why an old-line manufacturing company might fall for some smooth talking Web design Company's advice. "We've got to show them some eye candy. This flash graphic is so compelling that your visitors will be willing to wait for as long as the 30 second Budweiser commercial to see what you've got cookin' on your site."  I can just hear 76 trombones playing in the background.

But this is a marketing company were talking about.  Surely they cannot afford to be this clueless.

Here's what goes wrong:

Astonishingly, Jay Conrad Levinson, of guerrilla marketing fame, seems to have forgotten everything he learned about the importance of content based on the latest eNewsletter I received from him.

I was particularly disappointed in the grizzled guerrilla marketer because I had recently attended a seminar he gave locally.  In that seminar he acknowledged the importance of content as a core component in any marketing strategy. That was gratifying to hear because we have been working very hard to promote the content marketing concept over the past year. 

Who stole the content?

So it came as quite a surprise that he left out most of the content in his eNewsletter.  Here are the three ways in which he really goofed up:

Richmond Public Relations may not be self absorbed in person.  But they are completely self-absorbed online.

If ever there were a profession where it should be all about the client and not about your company it would be public relations. While looking for great public relations sites, I fell upon yet another bad example of a self-absorbed company with an awful website.

I was amazed that a company that makes its living by providing relevant information for a variety of news outlets makes it so hard to get the same kind of information on its website.

Award-winning print marketing materials may fail completely when translated online.

Churchill Corporate Services provides a broad range of rental, relocation, and disaster housing services both for corporations and individuals. 

They have a corporate website and several micro-sites that are dedicated to specific business divisions.  Collectively, these sites provide a pretty comprehensive look at what the company does and how they can benefit their customers.

Before I had ever looked at their websites, I was alerted to an online brochure.  The print version of the eBrochure had actually won a second-place New Jersey award in 2005 for a direct marketing mail package.  Unfortunately, what worked well in print works poorly online.

The wrong name in the wrong campaign doomed Oldsmobile.  Let's hope it doesn't happen here.

Of course, this company can't help that it's name begins with 'old.'  Since it's been around since 1845, it is old.  But, in an effort to solve a somewhat Oldsmobile-like problem, Old Mutual's current advertising campaign attempts a very curious approach to turn old into new. 

Like many firms with really bad advertising, their television campaign distracts from what are probably excellent products and services.  You simply cannot figure out what they are selling or why we should care by watching their lamebrained commercials. 

For small to medium-sized businesses, it's essential to provide great content before wandering onto  social mediopolis venues like FaceBook and Twitter

A powerfully pithy post on the Conversion Rate blog alerted me to some must-read content by web usability guru, Jacob Nielsen. 

According blogger, Brett Gilbertson, online marketing success is all about mastering the basics of providing relevant and accessible content. Done right that will lead to great conversion rates and growing sales. He quotes Nielsen,

“Instead of adding Facebook-like features that let users “bite” other users and turn them into zombies, the B2B site would get more sales by offering clear prices, good product photos, detailed specs, convincing whitepapers, an easily navigable information architecture, and an email newsletter.”

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. 

Or maybe really relevant content had never been deposited in the first place.

As an entrepreneur, I've gotten to know a lot of bankers.  The vast majority don't fit the stereotype of button-downed and boring.  In fact, business bankers tend to be outgoing, smart, creative, and customer centric.  They are devoted to the well-being of their clients.  They offer sound, individualized advice when you're facing a challenging business situation.

Why then do so many banking websites look almost identical and offer a set of services that everyone else can match? 

We know that our bankers want us to be successful.  Why then don't they provide content on their websites that would help get us there? What do you get instead?  Clichés and same old same old.

By taking a look at the content marketing of one national giant and one small local company, you learn quickly that a big-budget has very little to do with great content marketing.  In fact, we can learn what not to do by looking at a Simon Property Mall site.  On the other hand, we can get a very good idea of what we should be doing by looking at the Blue Water Bistro site.

Bad online content marketing makes a beautiful mall bland and boring

You sure would think that a company as smart as Simon would do a brilliant job of showcasing its malls on the web.  You would especially think that a brand-new mall, like the Coconut point Mall in Estero Florida, would deserve special treatment.  But if that's what you thought,  you'd be wrong.  This is what you find when you look up the Coconut Point Mall on the Internet. Yikes!

They registered a slogan that's all about them.
It has nothing to do with how they benefit their clients.

If you watch any business-oriented TV, you've probably seen the Grant Thornton commercials.  They've spent millions to tell the world that they have 'a passion for the business of accounting.'  Are they suggesting that their fellow accounting firms lack a passion for the business of accounting?   That seems unlikely.  In fact, their slogan has essentially no customer value because it's all about Grant Thornton.  Apparently, they aren't passionate about content marketing.