What if? (questions posed to a marketing professional)
What if your customers saw your company as the industry thought leader?
What if they signed up for your enewsletters and white papers because they were interested in what you had to say, and thought it could positively impact their businesses?
What if traditional media called you for interviews, or bloggers wanted Q&As from people in your organization...not just a few times, but consistently?
What if you didn't need salespeople to make cold calls anymore?
What if your customers spread your content to prospects for you - essentially becoming your marketing distribution arm?
No, this is not fantasy land. This can happen. Maybe it's already happening.
How you ask?
By consistently delivering the most important, most valuable, most necessary information to your customers.
No one cares about your products, your services, your blog, or your website. They care about themselves...how to be happier, more successful, how to sleep better, how to get a raise, a job or some peace of mind.
What are those things for your customers? What do they really care about?
Once you get around the idea that they really don't want to hear about you, what will you tell them?
The marketing fantasy is happening for those that take on this task. I've seen it happen to Brian Clark, Shama Kabani, Hubspot and countless others.
They are true publishers. Sure, they have products and services, and are very successful. But they are first and foremost publishing machines that focus on their readers' (customers') needs and wants. They are building marketing assets (not advertising).
Most marketing professionals know this is possible, and want to go this direction, but more than not stay true to the past for a variety of reasons.
The new media company is not a media company...it's you. The sooner you accept that and begin publishing, the sooner you can be part of the fantasy.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
David Meerman Scott wrote an excellent book called The New Rules of Marketing & PR that captures the same sentiments. It is a great read.
Posted by: Bruce Nunn | August 13, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Inspiring article. Another great example is Matt Cutts from Google. You know the guys is a millionare, but you can also tell that he has genuine passion for online marketing. That's why he set up his blog and created Google's first set of webinars. He posts practical, straight-forward, and useful information that almost everyone benefits from. That's why I think webinars are becoming so popular and are a necessary tool for establishing your brand name. They show that you enjoy taking the time to create videos and have a practical conversation with your customers that supplies them with valuable information.
Posted by: Kye Swenson | August 13, 2009 at 05:02 PM
Thank you for a great article. I think more people are starting to finally see the benefits of content marketing.
I can recommend Joe's book "Get Content - Get Customers" - read it and get your clients to read it too!
Posted by: Joanne Grey | August 13, 2009 at 10:39 PM
Bruce/Kye...great examples.
Joanne, you are too kind.
Posted by: Joe Pulizzi | August 13, 2009 at 10:42 PM