An ad is a great way to encapsulate information into a tiny bite. Think of it as a tiny cracker with a piece of cheese. It leaves us wanting more. I think the main meal is content marketing: creating useful information for prospective buyers.
Content marketing is about providing something useful. A how to video on hanging up a picture sponsored by Black & Decker is content marketing. A blog post about five things we often forget when staying at a hotel sponsored by Priceline.com is content marketing.
Infomercials aren't always content marketing. They often swing a little too far into the fake-smiles-and-bobbing-head department of gee whiz testimonials. Instead, we're talking about useful information presented in a way that makes the receiver of that information feel they've been given a value.
There are lots of ways to do it for free or cheap. Blogs, video sites, podcasts and social networks are great places to share information and build interest about a product. These can be a great way to measure sentiment, drive awareness, and encourage conversation. Tie this to a marketing funnel and you've got the opportunity to convert people who respond to the information into more qualified leads.
Take a break, have a laugh!
In building your content marketing, think about these traits:
- It's brief.
- It's easy to share.
- It's about the buyer, not our product.
- It's useful.
- It isn't the sale offer. It's the lead into a marketing funnel.
With this in mind, you have an opportunity to deliver value to your organization for little expense, and with a greater potential positive impression on your marketplace.
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| Mark Nagurski (Ireland) |
on 17 Sep 2008 at 9:15 am |
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Ideally the result should be content that people seek out - precisely because it is useful - more inbound than outbound, more pull than push.
If it educates or entertains it's good content. If that content leads someone to take a desired action or change their perception of a brand, business or even an industry; then it's good marketing too. |
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| Ray Schiel (Los Angeles) |
on 10 Sep 2008 at 12:40 am |
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Having said that, content marketing is smart and resourceful.
A marketer's dream! We'll be sitting through commercials. |
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| Nancy (Delaware) |
on 09 Sep 2008 at 4:13 pm |
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| I couldn't agree more with the importance of content marketing. Done well and with tact, it could make the seller more personable and appealing to his prospective audience. That said, I think the relevance of content marketing to sales is more to providing services than products. At the end of the day, people are still motivated by promotion and discounts, even in the (accessible) luxury category, and especially in today's economy. Ex: I just completed a summer-long wine discount promotion at a fine dining establishment where the clientele are probably not very affected by the current economy, and it was surprisingly very successful. However, I would like to try more content marketing in the mix. Thanks for the tips! |
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| David Brazeal (Missouri) |
on 09 Sep 2008 at 3:28 pm |
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I totally agree. The trouble with calling it "content marketing," of course, is that darn word, "marketing." And once you include that word, most marketers begin to salivate at the marketing opportunities. And they forget all about the word "content."
Not saying there's much you can do about it. It's like getting a salesperson to stop trying to SELL, SELL, SELL all the time. Marketers just wanna market. |
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| Lewis Green (Northeast) |
on 09 Sep 2008 at 3:16 pm |
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| Nice content Chris. But in much of the mid- to large-sized company world, multi-channel marketing is the next thing. It may include some of what you suggest, but the focus is on inbound marketing, not outbound. |
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| Ingrid (Edison, NJ) |
on 09 Sep 2008 at 12:33 pm |
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| Thanks for this, Chris! I'm happy to see that content marketing is the latest conversation among marketers. I really think that it has the potential for fantastic results. |
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| Debbie Schrodt (Atlanta, GA) |
on 09 Sep 2008 at 7:59 am |
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| Thanks for the easy to understand description of content marketing. Useful tidbits to entice! I think most people are attracted to this method of marketing. Everyone wants something to actually enhance their lives! Ah, look what I can do with that product/service. |
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About the Author
Chris Brogan |
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Chris Brogan is a ten year veteran of using social media and technology to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles, and makes media of all kinds at [chrisbrogan.com], a blog in the top 20 of the Advertising Age Power150, and in the top 200 on Technorati.
blog at chrisbrogan.com
http://www.chrisbrogan.com
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