A Great Video Points the Way to Effective Use of RSS

Written by Paul Mosensen

An overview on Google Reader, and how to manage RSS feeds, folders, share buttons, and integrate with LinkedIn, Google Alerts, Google+, and Twitter……

Via www.youtube.com

Who Knew How Hard It Was to Be An Outbound Marketer?

Rebecca Shares Her Pain Musically for Our Amusement

This may go down with Old Man River as a classic song of pain and suffering.

The Outbound Marketer’s Lament

HubSpot’s Rebecca Corliss sings her heart out about the horrible life of an outbound marketer as she tells the tale of toting that virtual barge and lifting that virtual bale.

The Power of Storytelling for Content Marketers from Robert Rose

In this video post, Robert Rose, co-author with Joe Pullizzi of ‘Managing Content Marketing,’ discusses what brands can learn from big-screen storytelling, as well as from Joseph Campbell: creating ‘heroic’ content that speaks to your audience.
Via www.contentmarketinginstitute.com

This past September, I was honored to speak at Content Marketing World. My talk was called “Storytelling Secrets From Hollywood.” Since that time, I’ve had a few people ask me for the slides. Inspired by these requests, I’ve been having some fun learning about video-editing programs. So here, I thought I’d go one step further and develop a little video for CMI readers.

The video embedded below is the basis of my presentationat Content Marketing World 2011.  I’ve since added some more visual elements to the storytelling — including clips from some of the movies I reference. (Hopefully, I’ve made them a little more fun to watch). Of course, if you’re interested in viewing the on-demand version of my talk, it’s available here.

Watch Robert’s video below:

Read Robert’s complete article here: Content Marketing Storytelling: Secrets from the Big Screen 

Via Scoop.it – Content Marketing Now

Written by David Meerman Scott

One of my favorite videos is HP Invent, which was co-created by Tom Wrigglesworth. I’ve shown this video at many of my speaking gigs because it beautifully captures what HP Workstations are about. The video is not a product pitch. And it is entertaining as heck.

HP – invent from Films & Things on Vimeo.

This HP Invent video has nearly 600,000 views. Imagine that – a video about technology that people actually share!
Via www.webinknow.com

Via Scoop.it – Content Marketing Now

Sally Hogshead’s video explains the 9 second rule. Grab them fast or lose them. Keynote speaker Sally Hogshead is the author of FASCINATE, teaching audiences how to persuade and captivate in a world with a 9 second attention span.

Listen to Sally and You’ll Begin to Understand Why You Need to Buy Her Book: Fascinate.

More on this fun, fabulous, and yes, fascinating read:

Why are you captivated by some people but not by others? Why do you recall some brands yet forget the rest? In a distracted, overcrowded world, how do certain leaders, friends, and family members convince you to change your behavior? Fascination: the most powerful way to influence decision making. It’s more persuasive than marketing, advertising, or any other form of communication. And it all starts with seven universal triggers: Passion, Mystique, Prestige, Power, Rebellion, Alarm, and Trust.

Fascination plays a role in every type of decision making, from the brands you choose to the songs you remember, from the person you marry to the employees you hire. And by activating the right triggers, you can make anything become fascinating.

To explore and explain fascination’s irresistible influence, Sally Hogshead looks beyond marketing, delving into behavioral and social studies, historical precedents, neurobiology and evolutionary anthropology, as well as conducting in-depth interviews and a national study of a thousand consumers, to emerge with deeply rooted patterns for why, and how, we become captivated.

Hogshead reveals why the Salem witch trials began with the same fixations as those in Sex and the City. How Olympic athletes are subject to obsessions similar to those of fetishists. How a 1636 frenzy over Dutch tulip bulbs perfectly mirrors the 2006 real estate bubble. And why a billion-dollar “Just Say No” program actually increases drug use among teens, by activating the same “forbidden fruit” syndrome as a Victoria’s Secret catalog.

Whether you realize it or not, you’re already using the seven triggers. The question is, are you using the right triggers, in the right way, to get your desired result? This book will show you.

Via www.youtube.com

A Compelling  and Affordable Video Did the Trick

Normally in Hollywood, when you’re trying to get someone to join the cast of a picture, it involves actors and their agents, directors, studios, sending scripts back and forth, and lots of other rigmarole.

When you’re trying to attract a big star like Amy Adams, at best, this process is inefficient. At worst, it is completely ineffective.

The producer of the new Muppets movie, Jason Segel, decided to use content marketing to appeal to Amy Adams, who had lately been appearing in pretty serious dramas such as, The Fighter. Although he probably had no idea that his approach involved content marketing, his perfectly targeted video illustrates all the best of what content marketing can be—and can accomplish.

Jason, assisted by Kermit the Frog, begins with a sweet little song that was addressed to only one person: Amy Adams. They continue with a heartfelt appeal, telling her how much they love her and how much she would love being in the movie. Clearly, Jason understood the need to customize content for his target audience. The video is not an expensive production.  In fact, it consists of Jason and Kermit sitting, singing, and talking.

Obviously, this affordable content marketing video worked. Even in a world of multimillion dollar salaries for actors and movies with hundred million dollar budgets, this charming little video won over Amy Adams.

If it works for her, it can certainly work for you and your customers. Create a custom video that demonstrates how well you understand your customers and their needs. You will find it one of the most effective ways to break through layers of people and layers of resistance.

Watch the video below and start brainstorming what you can accomplish with your own video efforts:

I guess there might have been a lot more than this video that persuaded Amy to join the film. But, the video itself makes for a wonderful story about the magical Muppets movie.

Geico’s Drill Sergeant Therapist Gets It Just Right. Mayflower Marionette Gets It All Wrong.

Even though they spend plenty of money on television advertising, Geico doesn’t need to spend much money at all for this incredibly effective commercial which is one of a series that are similarly effective.

On the other hand, Mayflower has created an elaborate series of giant marionette television commercials which are certainly expensive but almost as certainly ineffective.

Geico Makes a Simple Point and Ties It to a Compelling Story

The commercial begins with an intro asking whether Geico can really save you 15% on automobile insurance and then segues into a little vignette that tells a story that virtually all of us would believe would be intuitively true. The connection is then simply made between the story and the saving of 15% on automobile insurance.

This commercial series is not about some highfalutin branding or image making. Rather, it’s about telling a simple story that is not only easy to remember but is also easy to retell. Even better, most of these Geico ads are also pretty darned funny. That makes them even more memorable.

The best content marketing should include compelling stories to which your customers and prospects can relate easily. This may be hard to do. But it does not have to be expensive.

The Geico drill sergeant commercial proves that point. Although they probably paid a lot of money to the actor playing the role of the brutal therapist, in principle, this commercial could’ve been made for almost nothing. It consists simply of the introductory announcer, two actors and a small, basic set representing a therapist’s office.

That’s the kind of video that you could re-create on your website to tell a compelling story. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be quite so funny, but it might be just as memorable if you make sure that the story is both relevant and compelling for your customers. And, that’s all about your mindset, not about the amount of money you spend.

If you haven’t seen my favorite drill sergeant therapist, here’s the video:

Mayflower movers get it all wrong with their slightly creepy series of giant marionette commercials.

I’m guessing that these were very expensive to produce.The special effects are pretty impressive.  But, the story that Mayflower tries to tell is not impressive at all.

In the long version of the commercial, there is no explanatory introduction about why we’re watching what we’re watching.  Apparently, the agency figured that we would be fascinated enough to follow the path of a giant female marionette as she travels on the highway and is eventually deposited at what we assume to be her new house.

All along the way, a bunch of guys manipulate the progress of this enormous marionette a bit like handlers of balloons at Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade. At the end of the commercial, when they plunk her into a chair, it’s not clear how she’s going to be able to get out of the chair–let alone fit into a house that is much too small for her gargantuan size.

The commercial concludes without explanation except for the insertion of a final tagline that somebody fell in love with: "Every step of the way." This, of course, is when our giant ah ha moment arrives and we are supposed to think: "Oh I get it–’every step of the way’ just like the giant marionette was stepping across the country."

Thus, Mayflower has spent lots of money and too much of our time metaphorically leading us to that final tagline cliché, "every step of the way," which doesn’t really tell us anything. We are simply left with the weird image of a giant marionette sitting in a lawn chair after a long, strange journey cross-country.

Bottom line: Effective content marketing should include storytelling that creates a clear, concise, and compelling narrative that your customers will both remember and repeat. If you tell a great story, as Geico does, you’ll be happy with the meme that you have created on TV or on the Web. On the other hand, if you tell a terrible story, as Mayflower has done, prospective customers may be talking about you, but you’re not likely to benefit from what they have to say.

Veteran Sailors, Steve and Doris Colgate, Make Sailing Come Alive on the Web

Sailing is a wonderful, exhilarating sport for those who have the training and experience to enjoy the ever-changing interplay of wind and water on a boat driven by its sails.

First, you have to learn how to sail.  Happily, like 100,000+ students before you, you can do just that at Fort Myers-based Offshore Sailing School.  Once, you have learned from their skilled instructors, sailing becomes a lifelong pleasure.

But, you can learn even more from the Offshore Sailing School  folks. You can learn a lot about content marketing online.

Bringing Modern Marketing to a Traditional Business

Steve and Doris have been running a sailing school for more than 40 years, building a successful business with multiple locations and a world-class repetition. Although they have been doing this for a long time,  there is nothing dated or old-fashioned about their approach to content marketing. They are fully engaged online with a website, a YouTube channel, a blog, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account. 

I particularly like what they are doing on their website and on YouTube as examples of how to take a traditional business and bring it successfully into the 21st century content marketing world–with a strong visual approach to everything that they do.

How Their Website Makes It Easy to Transform Site Visitors into Sailing Students

• They feature a big, beautiful slideshow at the top of the page that illustrates the beauty of the sailing experience. There is almost no need for words to introduce prospective students to the idea of a lifelong love of sailing. Their own eyes will make the sale about sailing.
• When it comes to home page copy, they get right to the point. In just two opening paragraphs, they make the case for sailing and for the  Offshore Sailing School:

Be Inspired by Sailing!
We know your time is valuable, so we’ll teach you everything you’ve always wanted to learn about sailing, fast. In just three days, our Learn to Sail Course gives you the confidence to sail mid-sized sailboats with ease. In one week you can gain skills to sail and live-aboard big cruising sailboats with our Fast Track to Cruising® course. Like to sail really fast? If you’re new to racing or currently race and would like hard-core hands-on coaching, you’ll benefit greatly from seven days of race training on our Colgate 26 fleet, with seminars and video recaps by North U. in Offshore’s racing courses.
Whichever sailing course you choose, you’ll be inspired, refreshed, amazed at how much you learn. Whether you want to get away for a day or go around the world, sailing is now within your reach. Offshore Sailing School is the leader in sailing lessons and sailing vacations – discover one of our seven locations today!

• They make it very easy to connect with a prominent "Quick Connect" box in the upper right-hand part of the page.
• They display the latest news prominently on the left sidebar, using complementary images as appropriate.
• They combine text and images frequently with sidebar items such as their featured course, their sailing specials, and their newsletter sign-up.
• They highlight their social media connections on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube  to make it easy to continue the connection.
• They integrate a timely and informative blog, which, in turn, includes numerous videos from YouTube as well as their latest Tweets.
• And, it may be a small thing,but the site’s background is an ocean panorama on what looks to be a perfect day for sailing. For many websites the sort of background would be superfluous. But, for Offshore Sailing School, this is perfect.

Offshore Has Their Own YouTube Channel with Plenty of Engaging Videos

The Offshore Sailing School YouTube page has been nicely designed to complement their website.They have 20 videos which provide sailing instruction, testimonials, and some examples of the sailing experience. Their "Learning to Sail" six minute video has had more than 3000 viewings.That’s pretty powerful when you compare towhat they might have expected from traditional magazine advertising in days gone by.

Does their approach to online content marketing work? Well, if you search for  "sailing school" on Google, you might not be totally surprised that they come up #1 in the organic results.

Not bad for a couple of old salts.

Plenty Has Changed from 1960 to 2010 but What Is Most Important Has Stayed the Same.

If you’re not already a fan of the TV classic in the making, Mad Men, it’s all about the Madison Avenue ad agency world of the early 1960s. There was plenty of drinking, smoking, and carrying on. But, there was plenty of great, and surprisingly timeless, marketing taking place, too.

Most of you probably are not old enough to remember when housewives really did wear shirtwaist dresses to do housework, when color TV was just beginning to take hold, when JFK  had just promised a man on the moon, and when a lot of famous brands were invented or enhanced by the ad agency Mad Men in the title.  That may have been a long time ago, but we can still learn some timeless content marketing truths from one wonderful segment.

In a Mad Men segment about the creation of the Kodak Carousel the roots of content marketing shine through when lead character, Don Draper, makes it clear that building a brand is all about storytelling and engaging the consumer–and not about technology or the company itself.

Way back in the 1960s, Kodak dominated the photography world in ways that seem almost unimaginable today. Their technology was leading edge. How to make it relevant to consumers was the hard part.

The ad agency’s challenge was to launch a new slide projector that enabled customers to load a bunch of slides into a wheel so that they could create a long-running slideshow that ran seamlessly.

Don Draper, the top creative guy, launched his presentation by saying of the still unnamed product, "It’s not a wheel. It’s a carousel." He went on to say, "This device isn’t a space ship. It’s a time machine."

Don then painted a picture of precious family moments captured forever and relived again and again thanks to the wonderful Kodak Carousel "time machine."

What struck me about the Kodak segment was that Don’s approach to marketing a product was essentially timeless. Marketing is still all about telling stories that connect with your customers. Even though we now tell those stories on websites, blogs, and social media, our need to build a bond with the folks who buy our products remains the same.

The best of traditional marketing lives on in today as ‘content marketing.’ To boil it down to basics, here are the timeless marketing commandments that were true for Kodak in 1960 and for all of us today as we focus on delivering content that is relevant and compelling for our customers.

Your job as a content marketer then and now:

• B to B: Make your customers successful
• B to C: Make your customers’ lives better
• 1st understand, then be understood
• Listen, really listen to your customers
• Engage your customers in dialogue
• Encourage word of mouth

Of course, a critically important difference between 1960 and today is the new, affordable, and  powerful tools we can use to pursue all of those content marketing activities. Kodak really understands what content marketing is all about. We might have anticipated that to be true from their eager acceptance of the heartfelt, storytelling approach taken for the launch of the Carousel.

Kodak Has Made the 21st Century Marketing Transition Brilliantly

The Kodak Carousel lives on virtually in an iPhone application that permits all of the capture and sharing of memories that meant so much back in 1960 and still mean so much to us today in 2010.

Kodak understands its customers in 2010 on an emotional level just they did 50 years ago. They now participate enthusiastically in a full range of content marketing activities that revolve around storytelling. And, today, the storytelling comes just as much from customers as it does from Kodak. Here is what they have going online:

• a website that is rich in video and visuals
• multiple blogs
• multiple Facebook pages and games
• a very cool iPhone application
• a presence on Twitter

Content marketing: Important in 1960.  Essential in 2010.   Game changer for small companies.

Today, content is both essential and easy to do. Fortunately, even solopreneurs with micro-resources can be effective content marketers. Content marketing really does level the playing field with with larger–even much larger–competitors.

You may not be able to replicate everything online that Kodak is doing. But you can come pretty darned close. Absolutely every tool they use online is available to you free or inexpensively. In fact, you can’t afford not to implement a content marketing strategy. It’s working for Kodak and it will work for you.

Bring Your Business Up to Speed with Timely Tips from SW Florida Experts

Although our Southwest Florida region comprises mostly small businesses, we are blessed with a surprising number of savvy local experts on content marketing and social media. I was delighted to take part in a recent Collier Business Industry Association (CBIA) Sales and Marketing Council session with just such a group:

• Marc Meyer, Principle at Digital Response Marketing Group
• Jim Cossetta, cofounder of 4what.com
• Paul Mussina, President, Business Technology insight

Attendees from the building industry and related companies struggle with two simultaneous challenges:

• They are suffering from our a especially steep downturn in building that limits both people and dollar resources.
• They need to transform from traditional marketing methods to content marketing and social media.

Fortunately, there is a new generation of affordable tools and techniques that can make that transformation inexpensive—and with a bit of outside help—almost painless.

Here are some practical lessons on content marketing and social media that I’d like to share from the St. Patrick’s Day session.

Top 10 takeaways from my speaker colleagues

1. Social media in general and Twitter in particular are as much about listening as they are about broadcasting. To make this easy, use one of the powerful software tools available. Social media guru, Marc Meyer, suggested TweetDeck as his favorite.
2. Marc noted that you won’t succeed by spending all your time pimping your products and services.  That’s exactly the kind of unwanted spam that content marketers need to avoid.
3. Don’t bother to tweet unless you have something worthwhile to contribute to a set of Twitter followers who share your interests.
4. With Twitter and any social media effort you must allow enough time for results that will slowly build over time. Consistency is critical to your success, as Marc stressed.
5. According to Marc, you are not engaging with content marketing and social media for fun, even though it might be enjoyable. You’re doing it either to make money, to save money or to build equity.
6. "Become a news anchor for your business." That was Jim Cossetta’s advice for thinking about how to use video effectively for content marketing.  In other words, put yourself out front as the most effective spokesperson to explain how your company can benefit its customers by leading them to your site with an introductory video tour.
7. Take advantage of incredibly inexpensive technology like the Sony flip cam to create your own television studio.
8. Consider using video in tandem with your promotional e-mails to create a ‘wow factor.’ He used the example of local contractor, Statewide Painting and their recent email effort which allowed video to tell the story.
9. Make an RFP much less boring by integrating video to demonstrate exactly how you can meet the requirements of the RFP and help your prospect achieve its objectives with your assistance. In effect, you are able to give an in person visual presentation without actually being there.
10. For those of us, who are still using spreadsheets or antiquated content management tools for customer relationship management (CRM), it’s time to step up our game by investing in affordable products that can improve sales results dramatically, according to Paul Messino.

Summing up:

It’s time to implement content marketing and social media as core components in your business strategy. But, there are now plenty of tools and techniques that make it pretty darned easy and inexpensive.