Content Marketing Today

Joe Pulizzi reports from the B2B NetMarketing breakfast in the Big Apple.

Marketing pros in small companies can and must learn important lessons from the emerging strategies of the smartest large company marketers.  Increasingly, those strategies revolve around content marketing that enables genuine conversations with their customers.

Thanks to Joe Pulizzi, we didn't have to attend the BtoB NetMarketing breakfast to feast on the content marketing lessons even small companies can learn from IBM, CIT, Siemens, and Information Builders.

Joe highlighted the good stuff while eliminating the carbs from the buffet table.

The first lesson comes from his first post, "Is the Main Job of Marketing Today Publishing?", he pointed to the irreversible marketing trend that makes content creation a top priority:

Leading marketing organizations such as IBM and Siemens are focusing the majority of their time, attention and resources on the creation and distribution of their own content to customers and prospects.

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You might not know that until recently tourism had been declining significantly in the Bahamas. For a country that derives 60% of its GDP from tourism, that was a disastrous trend.

With the help of branding gurus, Duffy & Partners, the Bahamas has reversed its tourism slide. The company took a hard look at the marketing campaigns that they and their competitive destinations were conducting.

What stood out was that nothing stood out. 

Everything looked pretty much the same. Even though the Bahamas were outspending their competitors, the results were clearly disappointing.  The lack of a comprehensive branding and marketing campaign led to a disappointing ROI on all the money being spent.

The challenge then was obvious: how to reinvent the Bahamas as a unique and compelling destination that would lure tourists back again and again thus reversing the slide in visitors.

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Cathe Olson, a young California mother, figured out how to stay home with her kids and still make an excellent living by becoming a self published author.  The power of the Internet combined with a persistent content marketing campaign has enabled her to sell more than 35,000 books over the past seven years.

That might not sound like she's entered the ranks of bestsellers.  However it probably puts her in the top five to 10% of all published authors in the United States.  And, because she self publishes, 35,000 books translates into a very nice annual income.  Between her two books, she is still selling about 8000 copies per year.

If you have ever thought about writing a book, you can learn a lot from Cathe about how to do so profitably over many years.  Clearly, writing the book is just the beginning.  Conducting an effective content marketing campaign is essential to actually selling a lot of copies.  Here are some of the key lessons she has to teach about turning a book into a long-lasting income stream:

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Learn what some of the smartest people in the business had to say about 21st-century marketing.

When you invite leading edge content, marketing, and technology pros to address 150 professionals who spend all their time thinking about content, you are at risk of sensory overload. Particularly when it takes place in New Orleans. So, we will cover the highlights today. In the days to come we will add detailed articles to provide in-depth coverage of individual presentations. If you're not familiar with custom publishing, what's important to know is that it provides targeted and relevant content to carefully selected customers. Content marketing flows directly from custom publishing roots.

Here are the essential 11 content marketing insights to guide your thinking, strategy, and tactics in the months and years to come:

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There is a fundamental reason that Barack Obama is beating Hillary Clinton's brains out. It boils down to who is using content marketing most effectively. Content marketing works only when you have a thorough understanding of your target customers. Once you have this understanding, you must learn to communicate appropriately in order to connect with them at the deepest level. Content marketing is not about reciting a laundry list of features to your customers--or in Clinton's case policy positions to voters. It's about building a level of trust so that your customers or the voting public believe that you are best suited to take them to a better place. Read More

(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.

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Canadian single mom may beat the odds to become the next JK Rowling.

Creating a successful business book is difficult.  Creating a best-selling work of fiction is even more challenging.  Creating a blockbuster children's fantasy novel is probably most difficult of all. 

But, thanks to equal doses of determination, creativity, and showmanship, Kamilla Reid of Edmonton Alberta, may replicate the Harry Potter phenomenon. 

Her fantasy novel, The Questory of Root Karbunkulus, is the first in a series of six.  It involves the ultimate scavenger hunt by a 14-year-old Root, whose very life may be at stake in the adventure.  The mystical quest involves a cast of fantastical characters, beasties, and scary situations.  Oh my!

Kamilla's eclectic background ranges from banking to theater and now to the writing of children's fiction.  For the very first time in her life, Kamilla believes that she's doing exactly the right thing.  Although she's up against some very steep odds, the early results of her content marketing efforts look very promising indeed.

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Even though the growth of online shopping is outpacing brick-and-mortar shopping, we can still learn a lot from in person retail environments. Mall owners and retail store operators are very good at what they do--which is to get lots and lots of people to come to the mall and to buy a lot of stuff. They have perfected an environment which prompts visitors to spend a lot of time walking around window shopping and then spending time in individual stores whose products match their interests,whose display captures their attention,and who make buying an easy and pleasurable experience. Whether we are selling to other businesses or to consumers, here are the 6 most important things we can learn from best and worst retail practices. Read More

Customers don't experience much content in Maxwell House marketing.
While at Starbucks it's all about the content of customer experience.

"Our consumers are optimists. They see the cup as half full," says Jerry Densk, director of marketing for Kraft's mainstream coffee category. "We're offering them the best cup of Maxwell House ever made." (MediaPost, November 21, 2007)

This, of course, begs the question: what kind of swine swill were you serving your customers before you reformulated your coffee? "Our consumers are optimists.They see the cup is half full."   What the heck does that mean?  As a marketing message, that's just piling cliché upon cliché. It conveys absolutely no meaning whatsoever.

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Give your prospects a free education that will solve a problem. That's the way to turn a cold call into a warm call--and accelerate your sales curve. We may think of it as content marketing rather than 'educational' marketing by the intent is the same: To become a trusted advisor to your clients by delivering content that provides benefit to them first--and to your company only later. Read More