Content Marketing Today

You don't have to take sides in the current presidential race to notice fundamental differences between many of the candidates. Whether you plan to vote for John McCain or whether you disagree with most of his positions, research suggests that most Americans believe him to be authentic. One could argue that reason he has survived the political rough-and-tumble so far is that so many Americans hunger for authenticity from their candidates--just as they do from the companies that they are doing business with. So, when I stumbled upon a blog that Senator McCain's daughter, Meghan, is writing on the campaign trail, I was intrigued. Why? It all has to do with the contrast between the freedom that Senator McCain and his wife have allowed Meghan and the muzzle that has been placed on Chelsea Clinton during the campaign. Read More

My looming dermatologist visit resurrected the directory issue. Since I had written so critically about the Yellow Pages in a recent post, I thought it only fair that I try a real-world experiment to test their usefulness. Checking out a doctor's info was a great test. I am sorry to say that both the print and the online Yellow Pages did poorly. Here's what hit home after the experiment: For almost all of us, the Internet has changed our fundamental search processes so dramatically that most of us have moved away from the print Yellow Pages--and probably away from online Yellow Pages as well. Their old slogan, "Let your fingers do the walking," was all about how easy it was to use the print directory compared to wandering around downtown looking for a store, a lawyer or a doctor. Unfortunately, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and all the rest of the search engines are letting our fingers do the walking today. What also seems obvious is that an effective content marketing strategy will almost certainly produce better results dollar for dollar than a traditional Yellow Pages advertising campaign. Read More

Fundamental changes in buyer behavior suggests that, at a minimum, you should be reevaluating your print Yellow Pages advertising. You may very well want to apply those marketing dollars to creating outstanding online content on your website or on a related blog. I've been researching lately whether it makes sense today to invest marketing dollars in the Yellow Pages, particularly when you have a limited advertising budget. This decision is critical because a strong Internet presence is fundamental to successful marketing strategies for even small businesses. If you have limited dollars, you must choose wisely by understanding some powerful trends that are rearranging the Yellow Pages landscape. Read More

Why one small French restaurant should ignore their advice and blog their brains out!

In a December 27, 2007 article, blogging got the attention of the New York Times. According to an American Express survey referenced in the article only 5% of small businesses with less than 100 employees have a business blog. As far as I'm concerned, that's way too low. Although the NY Times headline, "Blogging's a Low-Cost, High Return Marketing Tool," seems to endorse the value of blogging, much of the article effectively limits the types of organizations who ought to be blogging. As far as I'm concerned, they're missing the point. Read More

Here's a website from Bolen Partners that really walks the walk when it comes to content marketing.

One of the things I love about the web is discovering great websites that are built by very small companies. I get really excited when they embrace key concepts of content marketing. Bob Leonard's BolenComm.com is a perfect example. In the upper right hand corner of the site he says how his company will help you succeed: "Bolen partners with you to enable your sales force. We help your sales stars shine." In this and so many other ways, Bob's site really makes it easier for visitors and prospects to buy from him. That's what content marketing is all about. Read More

Yes, you can also learn from marketers who get it wrong. Let them make the mistakes so you don't have to. Here are 5 standout examples of content marketing that went awry. The sad irony is that in each case we are dealing with companies with solid products and services who may well do a good job in terms of their traditional marketing. But in the all important arena of content marketing, but they are almost completely ineffective. Learn what not to do by avoiding what they have done.

1. Who Cares If Grant Thornton is Passionate about the Business of Accounting?

They registered a slogan that’s all about them. It has nothing to do with how they benefit their clients.

If you watch any business-oriented TV, you’ve probably seen the Grant Thornton commercials. They’ve spent millions to tell the world that they have ‘a passion for the business of accounting.’ Are they suggesting that their fellow accounting firms lack a passion for the business of accounting? That seems unlikely. In fact, their slogan has essentially no customer value because it’s all about Grant Thornton. Apparently, they aren’t passionate about content marketing. Couldn’t They Have Been Passionate about the Success of their Clients? Click here to learn from their mistakes. Read More

A very visual blog that keeps it simple delivers dollars for Maui Wowi franchisee!

Although he comes from a sophisticated billion dollar media company background, Mitch York has left that complex baggage behind. On the web, he keeps it simple. In fact, he delivers just the right amount of information--most of it visual--on his blog: Coffees and Smoothies Mitch learned from experience that two key factors were making it more difficult than necessary to sell his smoothie services:

• prospects weren't exactly sure what his company did
• prospects didn't feel comfortable working with an organization they didn't know or trust

His blog has solved those problems. He now has credibility and clarity for his offerings. He has gotten content marketing exactly right and for the right price--Free! Read More

Let's hope they didn't pay a lot of money for this disaster.

After waiting 15 seconds on a high-speed connection, this is the meaningless page that stares out at us. If you didn't already know what Universal McCann did, you would still be clueless after staring at this page. And, if you were in a hurry, you would have moved right on by. The good news is that this advertising giant proves once again that big budgets and big egos don't add up to an effective web presence. In fact, you can and should do a lot better even as very small company. Money doesn't generate customer-centric content marketing. Thoughtful concern for your customers and their problems are the key to successful marketing strategies. That concern, expressed creatively as compelling content will achieve measurable results. For that, you may need big ideas, but you don't need a big budget. The net effect of Universal McCann's website is to imply to prospective clients that your messaging should be hard to find, take a long time to display, contain huge segments of unbroken, cliche-ridden text, and be all about the client rather than their customers. In fact, it's so bad, that you almost think it was done as a parody of really, really bad websites. Sadly, we know that's not true. Yikes! Here's where they went very wrong and how you can avoid the same traps. Read More

Here are the most popular posts since the launch of Content Marketing Today in August 2007. See what you may have missed--and what thousands of marketers have learned over the past 5 months. You'll find everything from great newsletters to bad websites... great custom magazines for reluctant buyers... the 7 deadliest content marketing sins... 6 lessons to learn from a shopping mall...using content marketing to speed sales growth curve. Read on for a great refresher course in content marketing. Read More

Blogging has become a critical component in content marketing strategies for companies of all sizes--from solopreneurs to IBM and General Motors. Your blog will give you potential exposure to millions of prospects. Because you're on a very big stage with a very big audience, don't screw up! Be sure to avoid these 5 blogging bloopers so that you and your organization will be read, respected, and referred to. Read More