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Posts Tagged ‘ content ’

Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth (a Word About Email Newsletters)

I don’t usually like to make sweeping statements, but I can’t resist this time: any business or organization that won’t let you sign up for their email list for free is behind the times.

A few businesses and nonprofits I know of still offer email newsletters as a paid membership benefit. I’m not against that at all … as long as there’s a free version of the newsletter too. Sure, maybe don’t give away the specialized info or the special deals paying members get, but – why would you turn down the opportunity to get an interested consumer’s email?!

Email is one of the most personal ways to stay in touch with a customer (other than face-to-face interaction or calling them on the phone). Despite all the great ways businesses can now connect with customers through social media, email still is king in that regard. Someone can Like your Facebook page and never see a single thing you post (because of Facebook’s ever-annoying Edgerank algorithm). I don’t know about most people, but I check my email probably 50 to 100 times a day.

I understand if a business wants to share “premium” content via email to paid members, but, in not capturing a potential customer’s email, they miss a chance to try to sell that membership … along with whatever other product they are pushing … to that customer on a weekly basis. And on the flip side – customers deserve a bit of a trial sample of what you are going to offer through email. Will you provide me with interesting, relevant information and good resources? If so, I may just sign up for one of your paid memberships. But I’m not going to pay you to send me emails right out of the blocks. And I don’t think many other people would either.

This comes back to the most essential tenet of successful digital marketing: give good content away for free. A great example of a local business that does this right is Tattered Cover Bookstore. They send me monthly emails with interesting news about the latest books that are out, in-store author readings and all sorts of other events. I’ve ended up back at that bookstore more times than I can count because of something I saw in an email they sent out.

They send me emails for free, and in return draw in my business time and time again. And that’s how it should be. Because the goal is not to sell people emails but to sell them your product.

2013: 04/30
CATEGORY: Digital Marketing
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The Problem With Social Media

TheProblemWithSocialMedia

Instagram now says it can republish and sell the photos users post on the platform without paying them or even notifying them, and this re-introduces the perennial problem of social media: you do not own your own channels. So you created a Facebook page for your business or organization and have spent years building up thousands of fans and populated that page with tons of fantastic content? Well, it could all disappear in a moment…on a whim of Facebook. But it’s not just Facebook. Whether you’re on Twitter or Tumblr or Pinterest or Pheed or whatever hot new social platform – a change in terms of service or a glitch or outage or a perceived violation in user agreement and you’re thrown out in the cold, content-less, identity-less.

The author/software developer Reginald Braithwaite, in translating Instagram’s new terms of service, pretty much perfectly explained social media as a whole: “You are not our customers, you are the cattle we drive to market and auction off to the highest bidder. Enjoy your feed and keep producing the milk.” I’ve talked about this before, but every instance like this is a reminder of just exactly how little control we have over what might happen to channels that we work so hard to develop and engage customers through.

But there is an easy solution: use social media as channels to engage your audience, yes, but, more importantly, use it to direct them back to your actual property: your website or blog. Those are the only places where you have control over what gets seen and how it’s presented. Almost all the content you post or share on social media should have a home on your actual website. I’m in a band, so I’ll use that metaphor: Think of social media platforms as venues where your band performs. You travel to the venue, play your show, hang out with your fans, but that’s all. You don’t store your instruments and equipment there, you don’t live in the basement of the venue. You may go play the same venue a number of times – but, if it closes down, it’s really no substantial loss to you because the venue is only a means through which you send your message. The band still has their albums, their merchandise, their band image that they can then go share (sell) at any other venue.

So, in this (only semi-applicable) metaphor, here’s what’s important: Be a rock star. Wait, no, that’s not it. The point is to have the hub for your content, your reputation, your online brand image somewhere you can control it, where you own it. Use Facebook, Twitter, etc. to go play your rock show, hang out with your fans, tell them about cool stuff – but always send them back to the hub: your website or blog.

2012: 12/18
CATEGORY: Social Media
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The Power of Presence

That’s the name of the new ad campaign for the Range Rover Evoque. The first commercial I saw for it (below) really does illustrate that power – both in the original context (physically in NYC) and in the secondary context (the commercial seen on the web).

Though I wouldn’t quite call this a PR stunt, it is a clever, though simplistic, approach to launching a product. One of the best things about the marketing strategy here is that there is no attempt to control or influence the message. It’s just a “here it is” approach that displays a “and we’re know you’re gonna like it” kind of confidence in the product.

Their method also works well to translate word-of-mouth buzz generation to online buzz generation. I like that (except in the time-lapse shots) the focus is as much on the people and their reactions as it is on the SUV. And, the commercial as film has some nice touches – some tilt-shift, some nice cinematography and some great shots of NYC. All around, this one is a win. I just wish they would only use this one instead of some of the other edited-down versions of this commercial that just don’t do it justice.

And all this got me thinking about this concept, the power of presence, in relation to social media. ‘Cause it’s sorta the same thing: you’re giving people something to “look at” that represents your brand or organization. And what you’re giving better be 1) interesting and engaging and 2) less about you and more about them. The same way that many of the shots in this commercial focus on the people walking up to check out the car, the focus of any good social media campaign should be on the customer. Listen to them, watch their reactions, highlight them…all to the end of giving them what they want. And, it sure won’t hurt if you’re a bit flashy (but tasteful) with the content you’re putting out there.

2012: 04/02
CATEGORY: Advertising
Social Media
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The Price of “Free” News

I went to denverpost.com this morning to see what’s going on in this fine city, and I was immediately greeted by a pre-homepage advertisement page. I quickly found the “X Close” button and proceeded to the main page…where I was greeted by one of those massive banner ads that rolls out to cover a quarter of the page until you again click the “X Close” button, which was strategically placed to be more difficult to find on this one.

Whew, ok, let’s read some news. But what’s this double-sidebar ad action? And which of all these things I can click on are news and which ones are ads? At an initial glance, it’s not easy to tell. (See photo – click to enlarge).

I don’t blame The Denver Post for this. After all, every other major news provider online does similar advertising – from ABCNews.com to The Wall Street Journal online. It just makes me realize that – dare I even say it – I would pay for news again if it meant I could read it without pop-up, roll-out or banner ads. I like the The Denver Post because I know the content is reliable and, more importantly, that it is edited. The writing is guaranteed to be better than most of the other “free” web news services I read (with the exception of AlJazeera.com, which also has very high-quality content and no advertisements).

Lucky for me, The Denver Post does offer a digital replica edition, which looks just like the real thing and gets delivered right to your inbox. So I guess the question is if I’ll put my money where my mouth is and actually pay for this. That’s just a really difficult thing to do for a guy who, since I’ve been old enough to be interested in reading the news, has never had to pay for it. But if these seemingly un-blockable pop-up ads keep getting more an more aggressive, I don’t see that I’ll have any other option.

2011: 11/28
CATEGORY: Technology
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Creating content that matters

I’m not much one for clichés, but all the recent discussion on how companies can generate content to drive people to their websites and social media is, as they say, putting the cart before the horse. Shouldn’t one have information or opinions he wants to share and therefore use the medium of the web to do so rather than try to create content just to fill up that medium? This new backwards approach to inbound marketing, I’m afraid, is not only clogging up the internet with useless information but is also cluttering our brains with content that has been generated to the end of selling crap.

That’s one area where I know both the nonprofit I work for and the company I’m launching with a friend excel. The reason we have websites and blogs and social media is because we have lots of content that helps people, and we need ways to distribute it. Is inbound marketing an added benefit of that? Yes. But that’s not the motive behind our efforts.

The fact that the sum of my efforts might make someone’s day better – or, on the rare occasion, even change someone’s life – makes me feel very good about what I do. And I like that I can laugh at the problems greedy corporations face in their effort to find something to say that’s worth saying.