Content is Key

Content is the key that can unlock value from your Internet marketing activity, making a real contribution throughout the customer life-cycle. It can help you to :

○ Generate qualified traffic to your site

○ Improve conversion

○ Generate value from your customer base

Is it time you put content at the centre of your Internet marketing strategy?

Understanding content

The Internet is all about connecting people with what they are looking for. They might be looking for information, relationships, fun or things to buy, which might be consumed online, or bought for delivery offline. But whatever it is users find at the end of their search, in the online world it is a piece of content.

This brings us to the conclusion that success online depends on providing the content that people are looking for. We'll call this "good" content.

A new purpose for content

Traditional marketing is about creating desire

Traditional marketing is about working out who might like your content, finding those people and then convincing them that they do actually want it. You do this by defining your target audience, buying advertising in media that they will see and pushing messages that will persuade them to buy.

New marketing is about giving you what you want

The new marketing is about people finding your content because it is what they are looking for.

The people looking are not defined by any existing marketing segment (the traditional marketers approach), they are defined by the fact that they are looking for it. Taken to it's logical conclusion, this makes each person a niche market of one.

Making it pay

How can you service a niche market of one profitably? The answer is that you can't. This new marketing works online because the audience on the web is :

1. huge, compared to any other defined audience, which means that no matter how individual your tastes, there are other people out there who share them.

2. actively looking for your content, so you don't have to pay to catch their attention.

Which leaves you with a self-selecting, niche of people (possibly small, but not insignificant) who really want your content. People who will go out of their way to find it and who will, if they like what they find, tell all the other members of that self-selecting niche that they know about your content. And if they are part of an active online community, that may be a lot of people.

Creating real value

Just as importantly, if someone is looking for a particular piece of content, then it has a real value for them. And if it has real value, then they will happily pay for it. If you can produce something that has real value to a sufficient number of people, then you are in business.

And that is why content is key.

What's the catch?

Providing the content is part of the catch, it takes time and money to produce good content, content that people want. It will take a leap of faith to stop spending your time, effort and money on traditional marketing activity and to invest it in generating content instead. To believe that the quality of your content will sell itself.

The other part of the catch is that you will probably have to give some of it away for something other than money. What you get in exchange is permission to have a dialogue, which gives you the opportunity to have a relationship with your visitors.

A return on your investment

Once you have a relationship, you build that relationship by continuing to provide what the person is looking for, good content which they value. And it is that relationship that provides the value.

Everyone knows that it is easier and more profitable to sell to your existing customers. Why? Because you already have a relationship with them. Even if you have not yet sold something to one of your customers, they are still your customer because you have a relationship with them. They are still much more likely to buy from you in the future than someone with whom you have no relationship. And they can still be your advocate.

If that relationship continues, then you will get value back from a proportion of your customers.

Conclusion

So if the "old marketing" was create content that you think people want, then work hard to sell it to them. The "new marketing" is invest in the content to build a relationship with people and they will pay you for it.

This means that content sits at the middle of everything. Whether that content is your thoughts or a pair of shoes, if it is what people are looking and they can find it*, then you are on to a winner.

Your comments

I realise that this paints a rather one-sided picture of marketing, but hopefully it will get you thinking. I'd love to have your comments, pro or con.

Recommendation

This thinking comes from Seth Godin's Meatball Sundae. If you find it interesting, I can strongly recommend that you get a copy.

A new opportunity for SMEs

Does Google's recent move to allow keyword bidding on all terms typed into its search I think it does.

Whilst entering a brand name into a search engines is very likely to indicate a strong predeliction for that brand's products, it also makes a good starting point for research online. You are saying, "I'd like something like that brand's product, but I'm open to suggestions". If the alternative doesn't match up, then the keyword sponsor is wasting their money; if it does, then the consumer gets what they want, probably for less.

But before you get too excited, a word of warning; it will be expensive to compete, especially as you will lose out on the brands to relevancy (you can't use the brand name in your advert) and you will be working hard to pry away loyal customers. So you'd better make sure your offering is well targeted to that brand's customers and is compelling enough to make them make the switch. Otherwise you could face a large bill for unprofitable clicks.

Levy: "All we must do is adapt"

Maurice Levy said at an industry conference that the business model for the advertising industry is outdated and needs to change (full story). And that the basis of the ad industry needed to be looked at.

He said: "The very model of our industry is being called into question. The model today is no longer valid, no longer relevant.

You might have thought that this would represent a significant challenge for a multi-billion pound industry based on this out-moded and irrelevant model. But apparently not, he goes on to say,"Our role will remain strong, firm, indispensable. All we must do is adapt."

Well, I'm glad it's that simple!

Customer service (a moral tale)

Once open a time, I had 2 items of clothing that I considered sub-standard. A sweater from Timberland (bought in a shop) and a pair of trousers from Boden (bought online). Both are premium brands.

I went back to the Timberland shop where I was told that I couldn't have a refund there and then, but I could send the item back to their HQ in Holland where my complaint would be assessed. They would pay for everything, but I would have to arrrange for the package to be collected by DHL. Hassle and effort required. Why couldn't they sort it out in the shop? I was not impressed. Big black mark. I swore never to shop at Timberland again and to write a blog about it and tell everyone how bad their customer service is!

I emailed Boden with my complaint. They phoned back later that day, immediately credited my account with the full cost of the trousers and posted a return envelop (which arrived with a hand-written apology) so that I could send the trousers back so their quality control people could understand the problem. Big gold star. I am a big fan and decided to write a blog about how great Boden are!.

Customers have high expectations. If you meet them, you will have a loyal customer who will sing your praises. If you don't, they will publically critise you.

The moral of the story is those small insignificant people who are your customers, aren't always as small and insignificant as you think. The Internet age has made their voice is much louder and you ignore it at your peril. Don't believe me? Do you think you would have heard this tale without the Internet?

PS - my next challenge is to see if I can get a review of Timberland to the top of google!

This morning I saved the rainforest

and gave my opinion to a key decision maker (my MP) on an aspect of genetic policy (whether or not to allow the creation of "saviour siblings").

Not bad for 20 minutes.

OK, so maybe I'm over stating it, but thanks to the Internet I am now actively involved in promoting the Green cause and in a political dialogue with my MP. Both things that I have been meaning to do (we all know that we should do less taking and take more action) and that I now do. It wasn't a big decision, I have drifted into it in small steps.

It goes like this. You read an article. You follow a link to a website. You register for a newsletter. You read it a few times. You follow a call to action. And you're off.

This is the power of the web. It facilitates opinion leaders in focusing and amplifying the voice of those individuals who agree with them. And makes their combined voice much harder for the decision makers to ignore.

The examples for me today were political. But this effect can work just as well in the marketing environment. The voice of those who want to comment is louder, but in support and in criticism. This means that more than ever you need to garner your supporters and manage your critics, which does not mean quelling the criticism, it means addressing their issues and removing their cause for concern.

Internet leads TV

They say the day is coming when people spend more time using the Internet than they do watching TV, but that's not what this is about. It's about a video programme developed to run on a social network being bought by Five to run on TV.

The 3-minute webisodes of Sophie's Choice will be shown on day-time TV with a fortnightly 30 minutes omnibus. So it looks like the web is beating TV at its core game of programming now, no wonder advertisers are backing it (Online adspend set to overtake TV in 2009).

The rules have changed

Read UK Buyers Research Online First for more stats supporting the ever more certain conclusion that the Internet is the growth channel to market. Why? The sellers are using it more, because it's where the consumers are. So the consumers are using it because it's where you can buy what you want when you want it, usually for less. And we get a virtuous circle.

The key to anything is to understand how to use it effectively. Too many businesses are using the Internet simply as a extra route to market; the ones who are making serious money doing it are the ones who understand that it has changed all the rules.

The key change is in the balance of power between the consumer and the producer. This is because as long as someone is selling what you want somewhere, you can buy it through the Internet. This gives the consumer complete choice.

Which means that companies / brands can no longer dictate what consumers buy. And companies who give their customers what they want will win.

Bristol marketing

I've been working in Bristol as an Internet marketing for 3 years now and have met some excellent people. I am a great believer in associating with people in aligned businesses - they are not your competition, they are your greatest opportunity.

I have active relationships with experts in communications and marketing strategy, as well as with one of the best Internet marketing strategy guys around.

If your based in the Bristol area and would like to catch up, please get in touch. Need to know a bit more first, have a look at www.barnesgraham.com.