Just two years after the launch of Social Media Examiner, founder Michael Stelzner has plenty to be proud of. He runs one of the world’s top business blogs, with an email list of more than 124,000 and growing, plus over 450,000 visitors per day.
He also recently published his latest book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, that details his strategy for developing new business initiatives. This got us curious. We wanted to learn more about his approach, and share ways that you can apply it, so we spoke with Stelzner about his book, the success of his site and the importance of email in an effective content marketing strategy.
Via www.aweber.com

Get content. Get customers.,has now sold more than 10,000 copies in its hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions.

Even though Joe Pulizzi and I wrote and updated it in the early stages of the content marketing revolution, our book’s vital lessons and detailed case studies are just as valid and valuable today. The range of organizations that we analyzed extended from huge multibillion dollar public companies to midsize companies with a few hundred employees and even to very small single owner organizations.

If you haven’t yet read Get Content Get Customers, we know that you will want to run out and buy the book because it is chock-full of content marketing knowledge that you can put to work immediately.

But, just to wet your content marketing whistle, here are the top 10 takeaways we gleaned from some brilliant content marketing practitioners. These represent the themes that we recognized again and again as we examined how organizations are putting content marketing to work.

1. Only content that is intrinsically valuable to your customers will work as a core component of your content marketing strategy.

2. You must have a thorough understanding of your customers and what is most important to them. If you do not understand the problems and challenges they face, you cannot hope to create content that is truly relevant to them. Without understanding their problems, you cannot provide solutions.

3. A comprehensive content marketing strategy may provide a complete or partial replacement of traditional advertising and marketing. Such a strategy can be both more effective and less expensive than doing things the old-fashioned way.

4. Print magazines can be a powerful weapon within your content marketing arsenal. They enable you to reach out with precision to your customers with carefully targeted messaging that is totally under your control.

5. Great design adds significant value to content marketing by making it more accessible, more appealing, and more actionable for your customers.

6. Your best content marketing investment may be in the creation of a dedicated internal or external team who understand how to produce great content and who live and die by the success of your content marketing program.

7. Drink your own Kool-Aid. Whenever possible, use your own company’s products or services to prove their worth to your customers.

8. Get your customers to participate actively with the content you create in print and online. Begin a conversation and keep it going in order to earn their loyalty and trust.

9. Relevant and valuable content is just the first step in turning a prospect or visitor into a customer. You must then make it easy for them to buy.

10. Most of the best practices from the larger companies we profiled can be emulated in whole or in part even by very small organizations. It’s not the money. It’s the content marketing mindset that counts. Big ideas can trump big bucks.

These lessons are fairly simple to express but much harder to put into practice. That’s why we know you will want to buy the book.

Get the paperback edition for overnight delivery. Perfectly priced at $13.74!

Or get the Kindle edition for instant gratification. Only $9.71 with the Amazon discount!!

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.

Sure They’re on the Web, But They’re Also Out and About on the Streets of Naples, Florida

Imagine my surprise when I pulled up behind this small van on a Naples street.

I started to get hungry just looking at the back of the van. This is mobile marketing that quite literally whets my appetite.

First Watch is a small chain of daytime cafes with numerous outlets in the Naples/Fort Myers area and in many other parts of the country. They are famous for great breakfasts and friendly servers. It’s a pleasure to tuck into one of their omelets or other creative egg dishes.

I think they get 3 things just right on the back of this van:

1. Their tagline in bright green letters fully captures the spirit of First Watch—it’s all about fresh food and mostly about big bountiful breakfasts.
2. Their web address, HowDoYouWantYourEggs.com is long, but memorable. Even better, it’s eminently sharable.
3. Their license plate, EGGS4, completes the message and reinforces their devotion to eggs.

I’m pretty sure that an awful lot of Naples drivers wound up going online to HowDoYourWantYourEggs.com and then pretty quickly header over to their nearest First Watch for a sumptuous breakfast.

Mobile marketing works even when its mostly on wheels.

Solopreneur Firm Understands How to Engage, Educate, and Entertain

There are dozens of electrical firms in Southwest Florida. Many of them have lots of employees. But, one of those firms stands out on Facebook: Martin McMurtrie’s Grace Electric with 601 Facebook friends.

Making Vivid Visual Points to Engage Facebook Fans

This photograph from his Facebook page shows the kind of scary electrical fixes customers often attempt , sometimes with disastrous results. It typifies the kind of engaging content he provides regularly and that has enabled him to accumulate those hundreds of Facebook friends.

By contrast, the only local competitors I could find on Facebook provided very little useful information and managed to accumulate fewer than 10 Facebook friends.

For example, one well-known national franchise with numerous Florida locations manages a Facebook page for its Southwest Florida franchisee. But, it has only 9 fans. And, the only content on its Wall is spam from a provider of Acai berry services. 

Grace Electric: Lots of Real Content from a Real Person

Martin proves that you don’t need an MBA from Harvard to create an effective presence on Facebook. What comes through on the Grace Electric Facebook page is Martin’s natural friendliness and sense of humor, as well as his obvious knowledge of his profession.

His Facebook posts vary from helpful advice (often shared with great good humor), reminders of the need to fix electrical problems before disaster strikes, special offers, mentions of worthwhile local charities, and sometimes just goofy stuff. Amazingly, he manages to post something almost every day. For a busy Solopreneur, that’s pretty darned impressive.

Below he uses a pretty scary photograph of a customer’s improvised, but dangerous, electrical fix to point out how risky it can be to do electrical work yourself.

If you are intrigued and engaged by his Facebook Wall, you’re likely to take a look at his info page. There you will find a nice, personalized description of himself and his company and the services that they offer.

My name is Martin McMurtrie and I own Grace Electric, Inc. in sunny Naples, FL.
I am originally from Syracuse, NY and I proudly served in the US Marine Corps.
I have been an electrician in Naples for over 20 years and I am fully licensed as a Master Electrician. I specialize in helping homeowners with everything from ceiling fan installation to landscape lighting to troubleshooting. I work mainly in the Greater Naples/South Lee County area.
I pride myself on being on time, every time and I never charge extra for evenings and weekends. To reach me, call (239) 248-0000…I look forward to hearing from you!

Martin sure sounds like somebody I would trust doing electrical work in our home.  And, I suspect that the same is true for hundreds of his Facebook friends. Take a look at what’s he’s up to on Facebook.

Who says that great electricians can’t be great marketers, too?

George Bowers Grocery Makes a  Fun 1 to 1 Connection That’s Impossible for the Big Chain to Match

The right niche and the right approach enable a two-person company to outshine a retailing giant on Facebook. That’s true of George Bowers Grocery in Staunton Virginia where owners Katie McCaskey and Brian Weidman have created a delightful grocery store that focuses on high-quality foods and other specialty products.

The couple knew they could not compete head-to-head with the local Kroger supermarket in their community. Instead they have captured the spirit of the original 19th-century owner as a provider of "staple goods & fancy groceries."

They offer wonderful local meats, cheeses, wines, and craft beers as well as a variety of specialty items. They target the diverse mix of neighborhood residents, local food enthusiasts, and culinary tourists each with their own distinctive interests and needs. The atmosphere of the store itself is an eclectic blend of the old-fashioned and the modern.

And, they have a lot of fun with their marketing, in person and online.

Meeting The Marketing Challenge: Content Marketing, Social Media, and Live Events

Newspaper, TV, radio, and Yellow Pages advertising were out of the question given their tiny marketing budget. Instead, online content marketing and the judicious use of social media became the obvious marketing solution.  In particular, their use of live events and of Facebook demonstrates how small can be beautiful when it comes to 21st-century marketing.

Live events are the one traditional marketing tactic they employ successfully. They feature plenty of free goodies for foodies to entice them into the store week after week.  Each event is tightly integrated with their online content marketing efforts.

Facebook is particularly effective because it gives Katie and Brian the chance to interact with their local customers and to alert them of the latest fun, free events.

The grocery has hundreds of fans drawn primarily from their small town of just 25,000 residents. There is a consistent level of interaction between the company and its customers. In fact, they estimate that 75% of their customers connect with them on Facebook or read their blog.

Best of all, on Facebook they can battle local giant Kroger toe-to-toe. That would’ve been impossible in the local newspaper, radio or TV station. They can’t out spend Kroger with traditional advertising, but they certainly can outmaneuver them on Facebook.

Although Kroger has thousands of Facebook fans across the United States, they average only 10 fans per store–while George Bowers has 429 at their single location. And, Katie manages to stay just as current on the George Bowers Facebook page as their billion-dollar competitor. At the same time, this micro marketer’s Facebook page has a much stronger visual appeal on a daily basis than does Kroger.

George Bowers Grocery has achieved outsized results by leveraging content marketing and social media components that are either free or very inexpensive. Facebook is a cornerstone of that strategy. .

Great food and great Facebook have proven to be a winning combination.

B Squared Marketing Shares Its Wisdom While Making It Short and Sweet

I might be getting carried away. But, I loved this very brief bit of marketing advice when it showed up on my iPhone this afternoon.  I think it proves how brevity can be the soul of content marketing brilliance in a social media milieu.

B Squared is an established SW Florida Advertising that does great work and has won a ton of awards. I knew that, but I hadn’t thought of them for ages until I saw their Facebook post this afternoon.  I was so struck that I had to write something right now.

Advertising Tip of the Week: Want to drive more traffic? Consider condensing a 3 to 4 month advertising budget to just 6 weeks and build a promotion around it.

Six Reasons Why This Makes for Fabulous Content Marketing

1. It is short. Just 24 words and less than the 140 characters allowed by Twitter if you exclude ‘advertising tip the week.’ In fact, it would make a terrific tweet.

2. It is authentic. Clearly, B Squared is offering solid advice without a sneaky ulterior motive. It’s a device you could even act on yourself without outside help.
3. It is creative. They are suggesting something outside the box that might generate fast and measurable results.
4. It is repeatable. Because their advice is so short and so easy to understand, business owners and professionals are likely to share the information and to give credit to B Squared. (Well, it sure worked for me.)
5. It is unique. Although other advertising professionals might have thought of this, I have never seen it suggested before. And, it hints to me that this company might have a lot of other unique ideas worth learning about.
6. It is action-oriented. As a small business advertiser, it would certainly inspire me to take action either on my own–or, best of all, to contact B Squared to talk to them about how they might be able to help me market more effectively.

Not only is this a great example of content marketing, but B Squared also makes great use of Facebook where you can easily share this information inside Facebook or beyond.

My only advice: Shorten these distinct words of wisdom down to 140 characters so that you can tweet them after which they will be pulled into Facebook automatically.

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.

Marketing Campaign Trashes Worst Suspected  Big Brokerage Firm Traits

One of the great things about funny advertising campaigns is that they tend to be particularly memorable.

Even better, we’re more likely to talk about them with our friends.  And in the viral age, we can even share commercials via YouTube and other social media. 

Best of all, funny commercials that also embed a simple and compelling message, make it unavoidable for us to remember both the commercial and the message.

In their latest TV advertising campaign, Scottrade invented the character, Chad A. Ridgeway, who represents all of the worst traits we ever experienced or imagined about the folks who tried to get us to invest big bucks with them. 

Chad is slick and just this side of sleazy. He plays racquetball, travels in a limo, and owns his own medium-size yacht. What we know for sure is he managed to get where he is by charging us a lot of money to buy and sell stocks.  But, as we learn from the commercials, all  that easy money and easy living may vanish because of the compelling value offered by Scottrade.

The use of Chad’s over-the-top character and the element of humor enable Scottrade to dismantle the competition without having to name names or offend anyone. What the commercials make obvious is that Chad and his "big brokerage" company represent everything that Scottrade is not. 

But, the TV ads are not just funny, they are affective. As we had written earlier about the Progressive Insurance long-running Flo advertising campaign, the humor integrates a consistent message that conveys a few key customer-centric points that pervade the campaign.

In the case of Progressive it has to do with saving lots of money on your insurance.  In the case of Scottrade, it focuses on seven dollar trades and easy online access. Thus we remember the commercials because they’re funny, but we also remember the key benefit points that Scottrade is so careful to convey consistently.

The bottom line: When you do it right, funny is fabulous.  Getting it right means integrating both what’s amusing and what’s beneficial to your customers. In that way, your customers will remember your company, your commercial, and your message. In their minds, you become both trustworthy and likable so that they will want to do business with you willingly.  I think Scottrade gets it exactly right with the ‘Chadster.’

Catch Chad Ridgeway at his best (or worst) below:

Even in good economic times, you may face tough competition. During our brutal lingering economic slowdown, it really is a jungle out there.

When it comes to making your way safely through that jungle, who better to turn to than the ultimate content marketing warrior, Amazon.com?  After all, they are not only brilliant e-commerce players but they are just about the best at connecting with their customers.

Arguably, Amazon.com changed the rules for all online retailing but is a certainly changed the rules for bookselling. Since Amazon’s founding in 1995, the brick-and-mortar Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association has dropped from 365 stores to just 188. Even the venerable Seattle-based Elliott Bay was forced to leave its 40 year location in Pioneer Square or cheaper quarters elsewhere.

Amazon.com leverages the long tail phenomenon of selling zillions of product units all the way from best-sellers to books and other products that would never make it into a brick-and-mortar establishment. they do a brilliant job of logistics and supply-chain management, stacking just what they need, organizing print on demand where appropriate, and enabling overnight delivery for the vast majority of the products they sell.

All of that is exceptional and essential, but I believe they really shine by doing a superb job of connecting with their customers so that those customers want to keep doing business with Amazon.com year in and year out.

In fact, Amazon.com is a superb content marketer.  You probably don’t have their size and scale but you can certainly emulate their approach to their customers in the following ways:

Six Ways to Put  Amazon.Com’s Approach to Content Marketing to Work for Your Company

1. Offer free samples. Even before the advent of the Kindle, you could sample books online before you actually ordered. Whether you’re selling products are offering services, you can certainly take advantage of this time-tested approach to getting customers to begin using you on a regular basis. Your free samples will prove the quality of your merchandise or the value of your services. Afterward, it becomes a no-brainer for your prospects to begin buying from you.
2. Know your customers.  Amazon.com tracks your browsing and buying behavior. They know what you like and are delighted to help you get more of it. If you are a regular user of Amazon.com, you have your own individual page with lots of recommendations that become more relevant as you buy more products over time. they are now even recommending MP3 music which you can sample, of course.
   It is vital to have the same kind of understanding of your customers so that you know what they really value. Armed with that knowledge, you can position your products and services perfectly for their needs.
3. Stay in touch with relevant information. Amazon doesn’t just wait for you to show up at their website. With your permission, they send out regular e-mails informing you of what’s hot and happening within the product areas that are of interest to you. They don’t waste your time sharing the latest hip-hop selections, if you are a classical music lover.
   In the same way, it’s critical for you to maintain a targeted outreach to your customers sending them information that you know to be relevant to their information needs.
4. Make it easy to buy…more.  Amazon is a genius at exposing you to more relevant choices once you have made a purchasing decision. They know that once we are in a buying mode, it will be easy to sell us more as long as they can provide an easy path to purchasing products that they know we will like.
   Similarly, on your website, you can make suggestions for related products and services once it’s clear that your visitors a right to make their initial positive buying decision.
5. Create communities of interest to energize and engage users. When you browse the pages of Amazon.com, you will find a wealth of user participation with product ratings, reviews, and Listmania. This last item consists of book or other product lists created by enthusiasts who love a subject or product area and are willing to share their knowledgeable enthusiasm with other Amazon customers.
   You can easily open your site or your blog to participation by your prospects and customers. And, any air of social media, you can certainly establish groups of enthusiasts on Facebook or twitter who’ll pay careful attention to the goings-on of your organization , your products and your services.  This is a great way to keep your customers engagedso that they are much more likely to remain loyal and long term buyers of your products.
6. Help your vendors connect with your customers.  Amazon makes it very easy for authors to establish a presence on the Amazon site or blog posts and other timely information can be added easily.
   If you are selling other people’s products and services as part of your business, make it easy for your customers to connect with those vendors. For example, you could pull in RSS feeds from vendor blogs that are relevant to your customers. In tough times, maintaining close vendor relationships may make the difference over time in your survival. So it only makes sense to help them look good in the eyes of your customers.

As it is so often with content marketing, you can emulate the best practices of the really big players with a fraction of their budget. Most of the time, big ideas don’t require big budgets. 

In the case of Amazon.com, they began in 1994 with a tiny initial investment of $250,000.  In the end, it was big ideas not big bucks that put them over the top. Many of those ideas are all about brilliant content marketing. And so it can be with your company, too.