Content Marketing Today

Marketing experts shared invaluable insights about how to market in turbulent times through the effective use of content online, in print, and in person.

Custom publishing has gone from being an ancillary, add on component of marketing strategies to becoming a vital ingredient.  Why?  Because content marketing is so important to an increasing number of marketers and companies of all sizes.  Therefore, creating custom content is no longer a nice to-do, if you have the money.  Rather, it has become an absolute must-do as part of an integrated content marketing strategy.

The strategic importance of content marketing, and of its first cousin, social media, was front and center at this year's Custom Content Conference. 

Here are 8 great takeaways that I brought home with me from the conference:

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If you really show the love to your current customers, you won't have to beg shamelessly to try to get them back.

Just like the Swiffer, "Baby, come back" TV ads, once you've lost your long-time customers, you may have to forget about getting them back--even if you send them flowers or sing under their window.

EMBARQ basically failed the in person content marketing test. They completely forgot the vital importance of your people to people relationships.

For many years in our part of the world, Southwest Florida, EMBARQ offered solid reliable phone service that originally ran under the Sprint banner.  But, over the past six months or so, we ran into lots of annoying problems. 

When we called them, rather than taking a proactive approach to figuring out what was wrong and fixing it, they suggested that we must be doing something wrong.  They insisted that we go through all kinds of gyrations to test it out and warned us that--although they could send out a service person--they would have to charge us if it turned out that the fault was ours.

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Nick Morgan's great book, Give Your Speech, Change the World, not only teaches what it takes to become a great speaker. His lessons apply equally to effective content marketing.

Poor presenters and mediocre marketers share certain traits.

• They cannot explain concisely why their audience should care about the information and services they provide.
• They lack focus.
• They do not understand their audience.
• They are more focused on themselves then on their audience.
• They fail to engage in dialogue with their audience.
• They don't urge their audience at the end of their presentation to take specific next-step actions.

It might seem obvious that speakers who exhibit the traits above would do poorly and probably bore their listeners to tears.  But, as marketers, we too often exhibit the same bad behaviors.

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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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Are they tossing authenticity right out the window just like Coca Cola tried to do to its much loved 'classic' version?

I may be all wrong.  After all, the folks at Starbucks have undoubtedly spent a bazillion dollars in research to show that there is a need for a new kind of instant coffee. I simply have a gut reaction that their new Via Ready Brew, misses on three counts:

1. Starbucks is all about freshly brewed, freshly ground coffee served up in an authentic Starbucks environment.  Instant coffee, by any other name, is a throwback to a time when we needed a very low-cost solution to having a single cup at home or in the office.
2. Starbucks has a hard won image as an environmentally sensitive company that understands issues of sustainability and conservation.  How do individually plastic wrapped portions of instant coffee square with that company image? How many of those plastic wrappers will wind up in landfills around the US?
3. Starbucks is already bucking a new cost-conscious trend among American consumers.  Now are they are asking us to shell out 80 cents for a cup of instant coffee(if you buy the 12 pack).  Of course, that's cheaper than what we would pay for a small cup in a Starbucks retail store. But it's 10 times more expensive than if we brew Starbucks coffee at home from a bag we can buy at the supermarket.

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Essential content marketing advice from the Red VW Bus blog

Blogger, Tim Moore, wrote recently about the need to give up old school marketing and replace it with a new approach is based on understanding buyers as "prosumers."

A prosumer is actively involved in researching and interacting with the companies from whom they will buy.  They expect to find accurate, objective, and trustworthy information from every vendor.  If they don't find it, they will head off to evaluate someone else. Worse, they will probably never return.

Old-school marketers are uncomfortable with this concept.  They are used to one-way marketing communication and a sales approach that talks at the customer rather than with the customer. That just doesn't work anymore.

According to Tim, the Apple store is a perfect example of an environment in which prosumers are welcomed with open arms.  This matches my own experience in which I was able to get honest and earnest answers to every question I had about a new iPhone. I had absolute trust in Apple and its people throughout the buying transaction. We probably all wish that the Apple store experience was replicated throughout the retail industry.

I think Tim is right on the money with his emphasis on the need to establish trust.

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You Don’t Have to be the Ritz to Deliver Superb In Person Content Marketing

My recent stay at the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota reminded me of all that's wonderful about every one of their hotels. In fact, this Sarasota gem just won the 2008 Florida Governor's Sterling Award for quality.

On the rare occasion when I have the opportunity to enjoy a stay at a Ritz Carlton, I grab it. Why? Although the quality of their facilities is suberb, it's the  quality of their legendary  service that creates such a talkable experience for me and for their fortunate guests. That makes for great in-person content marketing. It's the final element that makes all the rest of your content marketing completely authentic. That's what your customers will share with the world.  In fact, here I am talking about that very experience with you.

The Ritz-Carlton folks have determined that its sumptuous facilities are necessary but not sufficient to make their hotels so highly rated. Rather, it is the lofty level of customer service that makes the difference.

If you emulate their approach to hiring and looking after the right people and to developing a quality customer process, you can become the customer service Ritz-Carlton of your industry.

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It is so hard, but so important to explain what it is that you do and how it will benefit the person to whom you are communicating. Not at length.  But so concisely that it can be communicated in less time than it takes an elevator to go up a few floors. And, so compellingly that your listener will remember and repeat it to others. Actually, Nick Morgan is even more precise than this.  He says your elevator speech must be a single sentence. I have just begun to read his wonderful book, Give Your Speech, Change the World. It is absolutely must reading, even if the only speeches you give are internal presentations within your organization. Nick is the founder of Public Words, a communications coaching company. So he gives speeches--and teaches people how to give speeches--for a living. It's obvious from reading his book that he is a very, very good at it. Listen to what he has to say about that all-important elevator speech. Read More

A creative mindset enhances what are certainly limited marketing dollars in a tough economic climate.

The Bell Tower Shops is a relatively small but charming shopping center in South Fort Myers, Florida. 

It is anchored by a Saks Fifth Avenue on the north and a Fresh Market on the South. Shoppers can stroll in the shade as they traverse the nice blend of stores and restaurants.

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Charmin goes right to the bottom with its big and bold Times Square campaign.

Thanks to Neil Davidson in a guest post at Avangate's blog for reminding us that interruption marketing is not dead. 

Sure, we are bombarded by way too many messages in way too many places.  We are practically numb from the information and advertising onslaught.

But, that doesn't mean we can't be influenced by genuinely creative interruption marketing.  See if you can apply this kind of creativity in your own marketing efforts, so that you are generating a different kind of relevant and compelling content. So awesome and outside the box that it just can't be ignored! 

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