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FREE is Recession Proof

November 2, 2008 By 2 Comments

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In times of economic uncertainty are internet users less likely to trade a permission asset i.e. name. phone number, email address, etc. for content?

In a recent study conducted by Marketing Sherpa, 64% of paid content web publishers were either experiencing or expecting to feel the effects of the recent downturn in the economy.

Trends and user attitudes affecting paid content may also be applicable to gated content. I think we all know that cash flow starts to tighten in a negative
economy, but how about information flow?

When the economy is slumping and people are less interested in being “sold to”, will users presented with gated content
be even more reluctant to give up their permission asset? Will more and more organizations adopt The New Rules of Marketing and PR as best practices and start offering free content?

What do you think?

Filed Under: Free Content, HR, Marketing, Organizational Culture, Public Relations Tagged With: , , ,

The New Marketing

October 5, 2008 By 7 Comments

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I took some time recently to listen to a great social media marketing podcast by David Meerman Scott, Paul Gillin and Mike Lewis. The idea that I found really intriguing, particularly from a small business marketing perspective, was “brand journalism”.

Brand Journalism and The Dynamics of New Marketing

Before the web, companies had to either buy advertising or convince journalists to write about their products or services (many organizations still use this approach). One component of New Marketing focuses on brand journalism – the idea that creating great content will help your small business publish it’s way to brand awareness.

The dynamics of New Marketing are based on web search and social networks. The argument for creating great content is based on the fact that the first place most people turn to solve a problem is the search engine community i.e. Google, Yahoo!, etc. Paul Gillin discusses an informal poll taken during one of his speaking events – the results highlight the importance of search in solving consumers’ problems:

The approximate number of people that use the following forms of marketing to help research or solve a problem they have:

  • Direct Mail (find a solution by reading a flyer or postcard) – 10%
  • Mainstream Media (find a solution via a TV, Radio, Print ad) – 20%
  • Tradeshows (going to a tradeshow to solve a specific problem) – 5%
  • Google (use Google to research a solution to a problem) – 100%

Companies Turning into Publishers

Scott and Gillin talk about the fact that your target market doesn’t analyze the source of content – as long as your organization has the right content to solve your audience’s problem, they won’t distinguish the difference between you and any other major media outlet. The ability for an individual or any sized organization to develop and distribute great content online has virtually eliminated the distinction between your small business and major information sources such as the Globe and Mail or The Wall Street Journal.

Social Networks

The other key ingredient in the New Marketing are social networks – Meerman Scott states the fact that “people love to share cool FREE stuff”. His latest free e-book has been downloaded over 300,000 times and he has repeatedly shared the amazing story of how Cindy Gordon, VP of New Media and Marketing Partnerships at Universal Orlando Resort, spread the news of the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” theme park to over 350 million people (virtually for free) by telling 7 bloggers!

On a (MUCH) smaller scale, I can also attest to the power of how free content can spread over social networks. Using a group discussion thread on LinkedIn, I recently posted a request asking for feedback and reviews on my new e-book…over the next two days my website experienced a 400% increase in traffic!

The New Marketing works…take some some time to think about what kind of free content your small business could create to solve your target audience’s problems (e-book, white paper, research metrics, etc.) and start spreading the word. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, if your content can help solve a problem, your customers and prospects will use it and talk about it. As Paul Gillin says…”There are very few industries where word of mouth doesn’t work”.

Filed Under: Branding, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Using “FREE” to Build Your Small Business Brand

August 12, 2008 By 2 Comments

By Mark Smiciklas

I ended a recent post with the suggestion that all of your website content should be offered for free. I thought it would be a good idea to follow that statement up with some ideas and rationale on why free content helps create awareness and build brand equity.

“Free” content is becoming more and more prevalent and is being embraced as a way to build sales by many companies, particularly in the software sector. It’s not uncommon for many software applications to have a free version available – the idea being that offering free content will build brand awareness and result in upgrades and sales of more robust products. Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, is leading the way in establishing the business case for free content and plans to release a new book dedicated to the subject sometime in 2009.

From a marketing and PR perspective, well known blogger/author David Meerman Scott has preached the benefits of free content as a way to share your ideas, assume a thought leadership position, and build your brand. Scott’s most recent post on the the topic is about hot dogs and a Canadian indie band in New York…check out what they have in common.

Free or Gated

There are two opposing viewpoints regarding the accessibility of free content:

  1. Free content should be totally “free”. Users should not have to provide personal information or have to register in order to be able to access your free content.
  2. Free content should be “gated”. User should have to perform some call to action in order to access free content i.e. provide contact information such as an email address, etc.

This post will focus on the totally free model, but the debate rages on – for some insight on the gated argument check out “Opposing Philosophies on eBook Marketing” by well noted copywriter, Bob Bly.

Types of Free Content

There are many different ways to offer free content on your website including:

eBooks – Are you passionate about a topic or idea? Write an e-book and use it to:

  • provide prospects/customers with useful information
  • assist in solving your clients problems
  • helps your target market learn something new about their business

I’m in the process of writing my first e-book. You can too – check out page 14 of “The New Rules of Viral Marketing” for some great tips on how to get started (of course, this e-book by David Meerman Scott is free).

Articles – Create an articles section on your website. It’s best if the articles provide useful information for your target audience and add value to a visitor’s experience on your website.

Documents – Become a resource provider to your target market. One of my clients, a business lawyer, recognizes that her value is in the service she provides and not the documents that are used in the process. As a result, she provides document templates such as non-disclosure agreement, contracts, etc for free. Her goal is to create a resource tool that will attract a target audience to her website, expose her brand and create word of mouth.

Some other forms of free content include:

  • Whitepapers
  • Blogs
  • Case studies
  • Research findings

Benefits of Offering “FREE” Content

  • Creates brand awareness
  • Builds word of mouth marketing
  • Engagement – facilitates a connection with your audience and helps build relationships
  • Helps develop trust with your target audience – visitors accessing your content without having to register won’t need to worry about whether they will start receiving spam from your small business
  • Creates a great opportunity to expose your ideas
  • Removes any barrier to your content and results in more downloads.
  • Viral – free content is more likely to spread online through linking on other websites, mentions on blogs and forums, etc than gated content.
  • Empowerment – gives your target audience control in deciding for themselves if your content is valuable without having to give up their permission asset i.e. an email address, etc. With gated content, people that do register may not actually be interested in future communication from your small business – they simply want to access your content to see if it of value to them. As a result, any email you send after they are forced to register will likely annoy them and be treated as spam.
  • Free content helps generate sales leads. As your content gains exposure it helps build brand awareness – if your target audience likes what they see, it will lead to relationship building and new business opportunities.
  • Search Engine Optimization – the more pages you have on your site, the better the chance that your small business website will be found by potential customers. More free content helps build search engine rankings.
  • Becomes a business card/brochure for your small business and provides your target market with an insight into who you are.
  • Your target audience has a reason to repeat visits to your website (and will usually stay longer when they are there).
Filed Under: Communication, Marketing, Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

5 Ways to Create Effective Website Content

August 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

By Mark Smiciklas

In order to retain the attention of prospects and clients visiting your small business website, the content  you present needs to be organized, easy to read and search engine compatible. Writing for the web is different – online reading is not the same as reading from print. Web users, particularly those performing website searches, have limited attention spans – they tend to scan pages for specific information rather than reading every single word of content. 

1. “Clean” Information Layout

Research indicates that the average web user only reads 20% of the content on any given web page. Here are a few ways to design your content so it captures the attention of your visitors:

  • Descriptive headings – Let the reader know exactly what’s on the web page by using headings that provide accurate descriptions of the content
  • Short paragraphs – present one topic or idea per paragraph to make it easier to scan through a web page
  • Bullet points – if some of your web pages present multiple facts within a single section, lay out the content in point form to make it easier for your visitors to “digest” the information
  • Bold text – use bolding or capitalization to draw attention to important words/phrases

2. Concise Copy

Avoid the urge to present every detail about your company, product or service. Approach your content from the perspective of your website visitor and (briefly) describe how you can help provide a solution to a problem they might have. When it comes to editing, a good rule of thumb is to take what you’ve written and cut the word count in half!

3. Simple Language

One of the biggest problems with many websites is the amount of gobbledygook that is used. Please try to avoid the use of technical language, industry specific lingo and acronyms. Your visitors will appreciate (and pay attention to) straightforward descriptions of your company, products, services and solutions.

4. Keywords

Take some time to research the keywords that are applicable to your product/service before writing or editing you website content. Keywords are the words or phrases web users type into search engines i.e Google, Yahoo!, etc to find information on the internet. Having the right keywords throughout your site’s content will increase the likelihood of potential customers finding you online.

Google offers a great tool that will help you come up with keywords and provide you with search statistics (how many times the keyword was used in Google searches over a period of time).

5. Great Content

Offering great content will make your website better – An obvious statement, but based on the content on many websites, easier said than done. It’s important to understand the meaning of great content – it’s not content you think is great, it’s content your visitors will find exciting and useful. 

  • Write an article that solves a client’s problem
  • Write an e-book that helps visitors learn something new
  • Start a blog to share your ideas – and invite people to comment
  • Publish a white-paper on a topic or trend that is important to your clients/prospects

One last note – offer your content for FREE…making people jump through hoops and exchanging content for email addresses is not the best way to build your brand online. If you offer good content and goodwill, it will pay off in the long run.

Check out a post by David Meerman Scott for more interesting thoughts on the importance of great content.


Filed Under: Communication, Website Strategy Tagged With: , , , ,