Content Marketing Today

A tips eNewsletter can work for a free trial or an actual purchase.

Whether or not you are actually sending out regular eNewsletters to customers and prospects, you should consider creating a special ‘tips’ eNewsletter for new users and/or testers.

As it frequently does, the Avongate blog inspired me with a post that was specific to software companies that need to convert free trial users into paying customers. Guest blogger, Jason Cohen, CEO of Smart Bear Software, emphasizes that you need to do something with your captured customer info, because you will be wasting data otherwise. But, he also suggested that the typical "thanks and hope you're enjoying our software " was not much better than doing nothing.

Instead, he recommends that you do a special-purpose series of three eNewsletters that are filled with tips about how to make best use of the product that prospects are testing. 

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How To Put the Brakes on Their Five Major Marketing Mistakes

[Please note that I have made a few changes to the initial post based on constructive feedback, particularly to clarify that this is a dealer enewsletter,not a BMW corporate effort ] If you were to imagine an eNewsletter from your local BMW dealer, you would probably expect it to lead off with a picture something like the one to the right. As a BMW owner, you tend to be a certain kind of person.  The folks at BMW have understood your persona well over decades in the United States.  That's why I'm mystified at the June 2009 eNewsletter from Germain BMW of Naples. I love my BMW.  I think Germain BMW is a terrific dealership. But, I hate their eNewsletter. Why? Because it has almost nothing to do with the BMW brand promise: BMW—The Ultimate Driving Machine. Call me crazy but when I get an eNewsletter that has something to do with BMW, I expect that it would deliver on that ‘ultimate driving machine’ brand promise.  Instead here's what the eNewsletter delivers by way of core content after stripping away the header and some dealer specific webpage links: Read More

Content marketing is now a strategic imperative for companies of all sizes.  Doing it well is challenging because it requires a new mindset for most marketers.  When you add in rapidly evolving digital technology and a plethora of social media choices, keeping up is very hard to do. 

That's why the March 22-24, 2009 Custom Content Conference in Miami is especially relevant to marketers.  Because content marketing will be playing an ever more important role within your company, effective execution becomes paramount. 

In today's, you will learn from some of the best content marketing thinkers in the business.  Best-selling otter, David Meerman Scott, kicks it off discussing how to create a worldwide rave.  You'll also hear from marketing gurus with Lego, Kraft, Nielsen, Leo Burnett, the Miami Dolphins, just to mention a few. Click here to see the awesome speaker lineup of and what they will be discussing.

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6 Lessons to Learn from a Young Mom Who Has Built a Successful Clothing Brand While Learning Business the Hard Way

Heather Nolte is a self-described 5' 1" Texas firecracker who launched her fun and fashionable  clothing company with tons of energy, but not a shred of entrepreneurial experience.

She targets moms and their very young kids who are desperate for clothing options that are not the same old same old "mommy and me" choices. Her tagline tells the story: "From the crib to the catwalk."

Although Heather was able to get her company up and running on just $2000, she has always had big dreams. Those dreams and her business naivety led her to make some expensive and damaging marketing mistakes very early on.

Instead of conceding defeat, she immediately set out to learn absolutely everything about building a successful business with a combination of creativity and frugality.  What she learned about marketing has made all the difference.

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eNewsletter expert, Michael Katz, puts it all in perspective for professional service providers.

Thanks to Patsi Krakoff of  Writing on the Web for leading me to Michael. He gets right to the heart of a major marketing challenge. How do we describe what we do in a way that will attract customers when they have a pressing need? 

For those of us who provide professional services, we often suffer from knowing a lot about a lot. Even worse, we want to share as much as we can about our skill set with prospective clients. Then we hope they can determine how that passel of capabilities might match what they need right now.

Basically, we're asking our prospects to work too hard to understand how we can help when all they want is a precise solution to an urgent problem.

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Attention & Emotion Grabbing Photo, Call to Action, and Two Paragraph Description Creates Great Response.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for kids and the medical professionals who look after them when they really need help, but this simple eNewsletter got me to click immediately to check out the 'Grape Fest' event photos that you'll find on the SW Florida Wine & Food Fest website.

One thing for sure, powerful imagery combined with an obvious call to action and compelling descriptive text can achieve wonders. When email boxes are overflowing, you won't likely get the attention you need, unless you can grab readers' interest immediately.  The Grape Fest eNewsletter does exactly that.

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Our readers flocked to a broad range of content marketing-related issues over the past 12 months. In fact, the breadth of topics surprised me. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of what you can find:

• Unlearn Traditional PR
• Transform website into sales machine
• The Secret to Online Marketing
• Authenticity at Starbucks
• Sexy Headline Secrets from Cosmo
• A Really Bad Website Concept
• 6 Reasons to Publish an eNewsletter
• 5 Reasons to Launch a Blog-powered Website
• 6 Ways to Survive the Recession with Content Marketing
• Is it Time to Abandon Yellow Pages Advertising

Read on for a quick take on the posts that readers like you made made most popular.

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Rare Apple Misstep Sends Weekly News about Music You May Hate

If you are one of the millions of iTunes fans, you appreciate the brilliant work they do in aggregating music creatively.  This includes pre-constructed sets of music from different eras, different artists or different styles in the iTunes store.  In November, it launched the 'Genius Bar' which enables you to create new playlists from your stored music or to discover new tunes that you're likely to love based on a song that you have chosen from your own iTunes collection.

The iTunes folks excel at enabling you to choose,to organize, and to discover all sorts of music that you love.  Of course, you've probably bought quite a few more iTunes selections than you should have thanks to their terrifically targeted musical content. iTunes is brilliant at offering you what you don't even know you want.

That's why I'm astonished at how far off the mark they are with their weekly new music eNewsletter.

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Crank up your communications now.  Don't dial back your efforts.

The knee-jerk reaction for most companies when faced with the recession is to reduce their marketing efforts. However, decades of research show that those who maintain or increase their marketing will blow past their peers once the recession is over. If you accept this reality, you still may be faced with a shortage of spare cash to invest in marketing--particularly in traditional advertising.  What to do? You can and should focus on a content marketing strategy that will require a whole lot of thought and effort, but will not require a lot of money. Read More

Attend an 11 a.m. Friday morning webcast hosted by content expert Roger Parker!

If you haven't yet bought our book, Get Content. Get Customers. you'll have the opportunity to learn a lot for free just by dialing in. You can get the specifics in Roger's website, PublishedandProfitable.com.

To attend the Friday 10/10 11am, eastern time event, call dial 1-218-486-1616 and use PIN #513391

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