Category: Examples of Bad Content
Why Fifth Third Bank Flunked Press Release Test from HubSpot
Learn from their mistakes so you can score an 'A' on your news communications
You don't have to be a billion dollar bank to send out an effective news release. But you can learn from their mistakes without having to spend a nickel.
The folks at HubSpot have created another useful--and free--tool to assess whether your press releases deserve a passing grade within the all important web environment. We had previously written about their awesome website grader. Click here to read that article.
Unfortunately, Fifth Third Bank scores a dismal 29 out of 100 based on HubSpot's analysis. Their tool evaluates Internet press releases by examining the elements that make it easy to read and respond to the release.
Read More10 Most Popular Content Marketing Today Posts of 2008
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.
Read MoreContent Marketing Goof Up: Why Isn’t the iTunes eNewsletter Showing Me the Love?
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.
Read MoreDirect Marketing Lessons to Learn from a Really Bad Postcard Mailing
You can learn exactly what you should be doing by avoiding some of these colossal mistakes.
You probably receive a lot of direct mail marketing materials both at work and at home. Certainly, some of it is terrific and much of it not so terrific. But, I would be willing to bet that none of it is quite as bad is something I received recently.
It is a postcard sent jointly from a real estate agent and a bank mortgage specialist. To create an effective direct marketing piece, I suggest you do the opposite of each of the marketing missteps listed below:
Read More8 Vital Lessons to Learn from This Expensive Marketing Misstep!
Big bucks squandered to insert content free DVD in magazine
You can be sure that an advertising sales rep did a great job convincing the Harding Poorman Group to insert a DVD in the October 2008 issue of Book Business.
While conceding that they do show off their packaging technology, they blew the opportunity to demonstrate to their prospects the kind of rich content that DVD could and should contain. In other words, it all boils down to a missed content marketing opportunity. Prospects are likely to say, "I loved your packaging, but you don't show me why I should invest big bucks to put a DVD in a magazine."
Read More5 Secrets to Transforming a Seriously Outdated Law Firm Site Into a Powerful Content Marketing Rainmaker
First-generation website in desperate need of an essential but easy overhaul.
Based on copyright information displayed on their website, this law firm was probably an online pioneer back in the mid-1990s. Moreover, it's obvious that they understood the need to put meaningful content on the site that would be relevant to prospective clients. It even has a short and cool website address, WWLaw.com.
The bad news is that the site is as dated as a flower power Volkswagen minibus. The good news is that it would be very easy to fix so that it reinforces the strengths and skills of the law firm in question.
Here's my advice on what they need to do:
Read MoreBill Gates & Jerry Seinfeld: Could It Be the Worst Big Bucks Ad Campaign Ever?
1990s icons talk about nothing in a meaningless way.
If you're old enough, you may remember the deeply flawed introduction of the Infinity luxury car from Nissan which was all about flowers and trees and nothing about a high performance high-end car. Since the new brand entered the market at the same time as Toyota's Lexus, goofing up at the beginning was pretty unfortunate.
The Bill Gates--Jerry Seinfeld adver-tale is equally oblique. The first in the series also misfires in its effort to lay the groundwork for positioning Microsoft as a leader once more. The campaign launch pairs a retired Microsoft CEO and a rarely seen Seinfeld both of whom flourished in the 90s and have floundered in more recent years (apologies to fans of Windows Vista and the lamentable Bee Movie).
Read MoreHow Not to Prove You’re an Expert in Your Field: Put up a Website Almost Bereft of Content
Ironically, Morris Rosenthal's website led me to the content-challenged online home of an intellectual property lawyer who specializes in publishing issues. It's ironic because Morris is a genuine king of content. [this is a correction; I initially made the wrong attribution to Aaron Shepard who is also a fabulous content marketer.]
He has written extensively on the nuts and bolts issue that neophyte publishers like me need to know to succeed. He has written an excellent book on self-publishing: Print-on-Demand Book Publishing. In addition, he provides a wealth of articles on his site about specific issues such as how to deal with a big-time publisher if you are an author. At the conclusion of that particular article he refers his readers to zickrubin.com. Based on Morris' ability to deliver so much great content, I expected to find something similar on the website of the law firm he recommended.
Read MoreFinally, a Great Way to Evaluate Your Website–and Your Competitors’!
Websitegrader.com from HubSpot might make you humble, but it will also make you a lot smarter about how you present yourself on the web.
Since I'm in the content marketing business, I spent a lot of time looking at websites to assess what kind of job they do in presenting content that is relevant and valuable for their likely target customers. Of course, the success of a website depends both on the quality of content and on the quality of its visitor friendly design. Moreover, it's important that visitors can find it in the first place.
Now, a great new tool, websitegrader.com, delivers a meaningful score from zero to 100 --with 100 being perfect--for the marketing effectiveness any website on the net.
Read More
