December 2007

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The Content Marketing Revolution

Forrester Research and Junta 42 blog.

The Gentle Rain process automates the execution of your promotional plan. It deploys effective
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	"Content that delivers relevant and valuable information builds trust. And trust sells."

Hello Bob,

Three things happened to me over the past month that really drove home the changes occurring in the advertising industry.

1. The new Verizon Yellow Pages book was delivered to my front porch.
I picked it up, walked through the house to the back porch, and dropped it into the recycling bin.

2. A young lady called me to inquire about a job. She said, "I've always been in sales. I've enjoyed it and I've been successful... until now. I just don't believe in this product." The product? Print advertising.

3. A buddy of mine wanted to meet about his 2008 marketing plan. He owns an IT services company. When we met he told me that they had been tracking incoming calls, asking new clients how they heard about his business. Not one call had come in as a result of the $20,000 they spent on advertising in 2007. BTW - if he had asked me a year ago, I would have recommended alternatives to the advertising spend.

Is traditional advertising dead? No. It's still a good way to sell Coca-Cola. It just isn't a good way to sell complex business-to-business products and services. It can help, as one facet of a promotional mix, if carefully placed in the appropriate media.

Bill Gates Wants to Give You Money - Let Him

In the course of the conversation with my friend, I asked if he had any co-op funds available. He said he thought so but wasn't sure how much or what the terms of the agreements were. If you don't know, vendors often allocate funds to help their resellers market their products. These are called co-op funds and each vendor has different stipulations around qualifying for the money, and how it's to be spent. It's a bit of a bother to comply with these stipulations, but it's not that big a deal. And it's money for free!

I was surprised that he had left these funds on the table. He's a successful business man and certainly wouldn't neglect to send out invoices just because it's a bother. I called a series of other companies who resell hardware, software and other items. I was astounded to learn that almost all of these people were in the same boat as my friend. How could this be? Determined to get to the bottom of this, I dug until I got the answer.

In most cases these manufacturers want to know how you're going to spend the money before they give it to you. I think that's reasonable. The problem is you have to plan what you're going to do. You have to have a marketing or promotional plan. Many companies let the Yellow Pages and advertising media sales people do their planning for them. Great deal for those sales people. Not so much for the companies.

So What Do You Do?

Plan!. By building a promotional plan and having a little discipline around execution, you can exponentially increase the return on your marketing investment.

Start with narrowly defining your target market. Look at your current customers. Who are the most profitable? Who are the most fun to work with? Select a handful of your best clients and deconstruct their demographics. What size companies are they? Where are they located? What industries are they in? Get a clear picture of exactly who they are so you can go out and get a bunch more just like them.

Next, determine your content. That's right. Content. Not sales messaging. We're all bombarded with thousands of sales messages every day. We've become inured to them. You want to deliver content that will help your prospects make an intelligent decision when they purchase your products and services. You want to develop content that will position you as a trusted advisor.

B2B products and services are typically complex. You must build relationships and trust before a buying decision is made. That's always been the case, but how you build trust has changed. Business relationships used to be built over three martini lunches and on the golf course. Sadly, this is no longer the case.

We live in a world of infinite choice You are competing on a global level. Buyers are sophisticated professionals. Give them what the other guy isn't. Give them valuable and relevant content designed specifically for them.

Once you've determined what the content should be, it needs to be written in a way that makes it easy, even fun, to read. After all, if people don't read it (or watch it, or listen to it), what's the point?

Then select the vehicles and media. It might be an advertorial in a favorite trade publication of theirs. Or a blog. Or podcasts, white papers, case studies or newsletters.

Use the content to inform your keyword choices for your website, your Search Engine Optimization and your Pay Per Click campaigns.

Mix it up. Studies consistently show that a combination of online and offline media is much more effective than just one or the other.

Bolen ensures that your content is relevant and valuable to your target audiences. If you need help building your promotional plan, deciphering your co-op agreements, or creating custom content that'll be read and appreciated, please contact us. We're specialists in developing valuable content that gently persuades.

Thanks for your time and attention,

Bob Leonard