Content Development

See that guy down there?

He’s everywhere. I think he might be following me.

Really. I’ve done quite a bit of sales and business development work in the past few years and that involves brief visits to a lot of websites. That guy is everywhere. He is the core of all business decision-making throughout the world.

Obviously the guy is actually a cheap or low-cost photo in someone’s royalty-free gallery. He shows up on so many websites because he’s a cheap date.

What does that say about your company?

I am a mirror upon which you may reflect your life dreams! Now go click the "Contact Us" link and buy something.

A brand is a critical element to separate your firm from all your competitors. What do you do better? What skills, services and experience do you bring to a project that no one else can boast?

How does a cheap website filled with smiling, robot-like people say something positive about you or your firm?

I get it. Smaller firms and start-ups tend to be cash poor. There’s no budget for original photography or true design on the website.

I’ll grant you that there’s no budget, but that doesn’t mean there are no resources. If you’re an entrepreneur bootstrapping your way to success, get creative. Take a few pictures yourself – it may help your creativity to get out of that basement office once in a while.

Find a cousin or neighbor looking to break into a photography career and barter. You’ll offer a professional credit for published work, they’ll create interesting photos and visuals. No cash lost, and you both get what you want.

This is your business. This is your baby. Don’t skimp on the most publicly visible part of your firm.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just write an email knowing that the reader would simply interpret the direct message and respond accordingly?

All this reading between the lines and subtext is a pain.

Too bad.

Communications is about far more than just sending a message. Matter of fact, the overt message is almost the least important element of communication. While you’re struggling to be as clear as possible with your message, your prospect is evaluating your body language and picking out sub-text from your word choices.

Lose focus on your whole message and it can kill a deal.

My son is finally at the age where we’re ready to graduate from Cub Scouts (crafts, hand puppets and games) and move up to Boy Scouts (camping, fire and knives!). As we happen to live in a bizarre area with multiple overlapping Boy Scout Troops we actually have to put some time into touring and selecting the best-fit Troop.

I'm not sure your knot tying is up to our standards.

In most cases, it means scheduling a time to visit the Troop during one of their meetings to give your son a chance to interact with current members and get a sense for how the Troop operates.

In almost all cases, this has been a positive, if slightly bumpy process. Boy Scout Troops are run by volunteer parents. They have the best of intentions but may not respond to an email on a business timeframe. No big deal.

One Troop, however,  knocked itself out of contention because of the attitude conveyed in the response.

This is one of the bigger Troops in the area. I sent an email asking about setting up a Troop visit in the next few weeks and awaited a reply.

From a technical perspective, the reply was everything it should be. It shared the dates for upcoming meetings, talked a little about the Troop and let me know what I needed to do to schedule a visit. So far, so good.

However, through word choice and presentation, the primary message that came through on the email was pure arrogance.

It was a form letter email with no greeting. It didn’t even open with a “Thank you for considering our Troop, we’re excited to meet you!”

If I could paraphrase, this is what the message really said:

Dear Prospective Scout,

We’re a very large Boy Scout Troop and lots of people want to join. You can join if you want. The following procedures will let you do that with the least inconvenience to me.

Thanks,
Membership Chair

Now because I’m a classy communications professional I didn’t actually respond to the email, but here’s what was in my head:

Screw you.

It’s a large Troop. Recruiting and on-boarding prospective members is a daunting task. I get it. I’ve been there. But their “invitation” email told me all I needed to know. Being big is important to that Troop’s identity, and having my son join was only interesting if it was in pursuit of that goal and it wasn’t inconvenient.

I wish them the best. We’ll be looking elsewhere.

B2C marketers do some amazing work – particularly in efforts over the past decade to establish one-on-one connections with consumers by leveraging database technology in marketing campaigns.

Some of those ideas are appropriate for a B2B space. However, we need to remember that the “one-on-one” communications over on the B2C side are a simulation of close, personal interaction, not the real thing.

Often, B2B marketing involves communication to a much, much smaller, more targeted audience than consumer marketing. The term “smaller” can still include hundreds of thousands of prospects, so even on the B2B side its often not possible to have a genuine individual connection. Attempts to simulate that via B2C-style personalization techniques can fall flat in such an environment.

B2C tactics are about reaching large audiences efficiently. That’s the temptation when planning out a B2B marketing approach. Adopt some B2C personalization tactics and in no time you’ll be neck deep in happy new clients.

If your marketing plan calls for one of these, you're in trouble.

The kind of high volume marketing that works in the B2C world often only does because the intended customers are content with a simulation of one-on-one interaction. It’s nice if Coca-Cola sends an email with my first name in the greeting, but I don’t really care.

That’s not true when we’re talking about a service provider that offers to fill a critical function in my company. That person need to actually know and understand me and my business. That’s about much more than inserting my name at the top of an email blast.

I’ve seen this dilemma quite a bit when it comes to producing articles, newsletters and other content. People can tell when a newsletter is build from semi-personalized generic content. Such things are ignored.

Take the time to produce something original and unique for your audience.

Publishing articles is an excellent way to establish expertise in your field. Everyone knows that and in this case it’s one of the things that everyone knows that also happens to be correct.

However, submitting, editing and writing articles takes a considerable amount of time. Even if you are an excellent writer and the copy just flows out of you, we’re still talking about a substantial investment of time.

Therefore, be as selective in the publications you target as you would be about the employees you hire or even the kinds of clients you pursue.

When you’re preparing that prospect list for some sales efforts, you have to make these value judgments about the companies listed so you can focus your time pursuing clients that are most likely to say yes and be profitable afterwards. It’s not a perfect targeting system and you know you’ll eliminate some that would have been fantastic clients. Time is limited – you have to make some decisions and get going.

Go through that same process when you’re building a prospect list for a content-based marketing effort. Start out by brainstorming for every conceivable publication that your intended prospects would be likely to read. Reach out to the editorial staff to determine if they even consider articles from third parties. Then look at what you have left and make some decisions.

Clearly sir, my antlers are not worthy of one of your caliber!

In most cases, the first round could have as many as 30-40 potential publications – both online and offline. That first-pass where you eliminate those that don’t accept third-party articles will eliminate half to 2/3 of them. At the end of the process, you really want to select a group of 7-10 publications that you get to know well and focus your efforts there.

Publishing business articles is a sales process, but there are many kinds of sales processes. Some salesmen are in high-volume fields where the winner is the one who makes the most phone calls and shakes the most hands at a trade show. Others work in a field where there are far fewer active prospects out there and the key to winning is in making a connection and building a relationship of trust and respect.

Placing articles more resembles the latter strategy. There are only a few publications in your field that accept articles and have enough readership respect to be worth the effort.

Therefore, you have a small list of real decision-makers – usually the managing editor. Treat them with professionalism, courtesy and respect. Build a relationship over time through the quality of your work and your don’t-even-worry-about-it reliability.

One article per year published in a highly respected trade magazine is more valuable than 30 published in a “we’ll take whatever we can get” publication.

Pick your targets. Be selective.

I’ve been doing a lot of work in the past year to introduce online video as a marketing tool.

Video is a compelling, easily digested form of content that is rapidly becoming the dominant messaging medium on the Internet. We’re not just talking about Diet Coke and Mentos fountains on YouTube. Businesses use them to showcase products or present thought-leadership pieces.

Individuals use them to discuss anything from politics to car repair or cooking techniques.

Video killed the radio star

Ultimately, the Internet is a visual medium. The written word is a powerful thing, but when given a choice between reading a white paper or watching a video – most users will go for the video.

I decided to practice what I preach so I put together what is intended to be the first in a running video series of “Two Minute Teachings.” These will be short, one-topic videos that cover specific marketing topics, ideas and observations. I’ll record some, and I’d like to bring some other voices into the mix as well.

Businesses should avoid the swamp that is YouTube. I posted this on a video player platform called VP Factory that I’ve been quite impressed with. At the moment this in on the free platform, but I’ll likely switch to the paid packages in the near future. It offers quite a bit of customization and analytics.

Let me know what you think.

On a semi-regular basis I work with clients to develop content-based, thought leadership marketing programs. That’s a really fancy way of saying that I help them regularly write articles, deliver presentations and share their ideas.

You know what I tell them?

Consistency beats perfection every time.

I declare a Do Over!

You are much better off producing something of acceptable quality once per week than you are producing something of unparalleled perfection once in a blue moon. Write out an editorial calendar. Keep your publishing commitments.

As you may notice, I’ve written nothing in this blog for over a month.

So here’s the other half of that lesson that I teach my clients:

You can always declare a Do Over.

Coincidentally, that’s what I tell salespeople as well. They’re supposed to set goals – calls, meetings, close deals, etc. Sometimes, they miss those goals and sometimes, they miss those goals for unacceptable reasons like just being lazy.

The choice at that point is to deliver a regular round of self beatings … or simply declare a Do Over and begin fresh.

One of those options is productive. The other is not.

I declare a Do Over!