Junta42 Content Marketing blog

How Much Should Brands Pay for Content Marketing?

This cost of content marketing post was inspired by Kate Headen Waddell's post entitled Pay Peanuts Get Monkeys.

At least one time per day, every day for three years, someone emails us at Junta42 or submits a project looking for a content vendor wondering how much content marketing (both print and web content) should cost them.  And who wouldn't want to know? 

Before now, we've never put all our thoughts and answers together into one post, but here it is, quite lengthy, but important enough to discuss in detail.

The Short Answer

Question: How much should I pay for my content?

Answer: It depends.

Unfortunately, it always depends, but there are ways to determine a fair price for content.

Old Spice Man Makes a Social Media Impact with YouTube Responses

My friend Mike Balzano shot me a note this morning that I had to check out what Old Spice was doing on its Twitter account. 

Then, thirty minutes and about 20 videos later, I started writing this post.   And, I actually feel like buying some Old Spice now (okay, I'm now officially my dad).

That's how amazing Old Spice's social media is.  Here's some background. Playing off the popular TV commercials, muscular Old Spice man is responding personally to comments on Facebook, YouTube and mostly those on Twitter.  As of writing this post, the Old Spice YouTube channel is #1 in the US for total views.  Pretty powerful stuff.

TechCrunch reported yesterday about Old Spice man's response to Digg founder Kevin Rose, who tweeted out that he was sick.  Here's the response:

Kevin then responded to his over 1 million followers:

HOLY SH*T, best get well video EVER from the old spice man!:http://bit.ly/dpSeOs

How about this hysterical reply to Alysa Milano?  And, it's not just celebs that are getting the more than 100 personalized video responses.  Check out this response to Mason Vail:

It needs to be noted that the writing is utter genius.  I'm literally cracking up after each one of these.

What do we know so far?

• Thousands of online mentions, including big wigs like The Huffington Post, Starbucks and The Ellen Show.
• Over 60,000 tweets and 600 blog mentions on July 13th alone.
• 1000% increase in Twitter followers.

But three main questions keep coming up:

• How long can Old Spice man keep this up?
• How about the writing team?
• Will this, in the end, sell more Old Spice?

If Old Spice can show an impact, ultimately, in sales, you can bet we'll see a flood of brands move even more into this area.  Hats off to Old Spice for trying something new, especially the smart integration between traditional and social media.

Hey Old Spice man, if you're listening, here's my question - "Does wearing the color orange AND Old Spice make you even more of a man?"

Below is a sample of the original TV commercial.

Engage and Inspire Employees First, Customers Second

The recent Business Marketing Association conference in Chicago was focused on engagement.  The leading marketers from around the world came together to talk about it...and how engagement is the key to success for your brand and your customers.

The overwhelming takeaway was this...while customer engagement is critical, employee engagement must come first.

We always talk about the content that we develop to attract and retain customers. What type of content and platforms are you developing to engage and inspire your employees? 

Brands cannot get marketing to a strategic level without both customer engagement AND employee engagement - Eduardo Conrado, Mototola

Inspire employees first, customers second - Jim Stengel, former CMO, P&G

GE believed in this so much that they created MarkNet, and internal community of General Electric marketers. MarkNet is a social network inside the company solely for GE marketers.  Over 2,000 marketers regularly use MarkNet, with each one sharing (and tagging) their expertise. MarkNet is being used for ongoing training, information sharing across the organization and, according to CMO Beth Comstock, has "put a focus on it's people." A combination of Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin and Twitter, MarkNet was specifically built so that marketers could learn from each other and network. Today, they are inspiring each other.

Did you know that even in a company like GE, over 60% of their 5,000 marketers have no formal training and 66% have less than five years experience? If this is what's going on in a company like GE, what are the numbers in your company?

GE is not alone.

A few years back, Xerox developed Competipedia, a wiki-based social networking tool specifically for the Xerox marketing team to share competitive intelligence.  Competipedia is now a critical part of the Xerox sales and marketing process, being used for intelligence, proposal planning, training and networking.

Can you be the best in your industry without first inspiring your employees? Companies like Motorola, GE and Xerox don't think so. What do you think?

Lay's Happiness Exhibit Makes Me Sad

I was sent a link to the Lay's chips Happiness Exhibit today.  After the experience, I'm sad.

Before I review, I do want to give Lay's credit for experimenting with this.  It's easy for me to be critical of them from my office chair.  They put themselves out there, and I like that.

That said, I have a couple concerns/questions.

First, I'm having trouble with the brand connection.  What is the connection between eating chips and displaying photos around happiness?  "Wow, look at all the great pictures of brothers hugging and puppy dogs. I'm hungry for some chips now."

I came away with wondering why this was a Lay's project and not a Nikon or Kodak project. If you are going to develop a social media campaign, shouldn't the product, or relation to the brand experience, be involved.  Ford is a good example of this. Or Travelpod's Traveler IQ test. Or even BK's Subservient Chicken.  At least they were trying to sell chicken.

That aside, I'm willing to give this a try.  But before I get started, they ask me to link up with my Flickr account.  Okay, I'm used to that. STOP. The message below startles me.

Powerful Content Marketing Steps to Take Now

I attended a powerful presentation from Andrew Davis, Tippingpoint Labs at the American Business Media annual meeting yesterday.  Although the presentation was geared toward publishers, it's amazing how many of Andrew's points need to be executed by non-publishing brands.  Here are four key takeaways you can implement now:

1. Find the hidden players. Search and find those independent bloggers and thought leaders in the industry and get them involved in your brand. It's possible that you have assets to offer that would be useful to them. Likewise, it's probable you can offer a platform to give that blogger additional exposure. Find them, partner with them, and enlist them to help tell your story.
2. Make rock stars out of your rock stars.  You know who your experts are.  Help them set up their blogs and social media sites. Teach them how to tell their story (which will, in turn, tell your company's story). Take a page from Indium.  Look at how they are showcasing their stars.  Very powerful.
3. Where's your editor? Yes, your company experts have the knowledge, but it's likely not all of them can write well or communicate clearly.  Hire an outside editor work with them and their content to position them like the pros they are. If you are asking your company experts to share content, you need to give them the tools to be successful...editor included.
4. More is better (as long as it's great and relevant to your customers and business).  No matter how much online content you create, it's probably not enough.  More content pages lead to more Google indexed pages equals more ways that buyers and prospects can find you.  It's not rocket science. And, the more content you have being shared by more people will drive more interest in your products, as long as the content is relevant to your business (don't forget this last point).

Make doing the above a budget priority for this year and into 2011.

Your Customers Don't Care About You - Take the Content Marketing Test

"We just launched this exciting new..."

"We have the best customer service in..."

"Our reps are the leading experts in..."

blah, blah, blah

It continues to bother me about the number of articles and blogs from brands and even individual bloggers that constantly talk about how great they are.

The first rule of content marketing is to understand that your customers only care about themselves.  Once we realize that as content marketers, we can effectively develop a content plan to talk about valuable, relevant and compelling content that the customer would be interested in (focused on their pain points).

7 Content Marketing Tips from Five Guys Burgers and Fries

I just read an outstanding article in the April issue of Inc. Magazine on Jerry Murrell and Five Guys Burgers and Fries (I'll be going to my first Five Guys this week, so I'll keep you posted). As of this post, the electronic version was not available.

Beside the fact that this is a must-read article for anyone in business today, I thought that Jerry's take on business has too many similarities when it comes to thinking about your content marketing (yes, I know, of course I made this link).  Here are my key takeaways:

1. Keep it simple. Jerry took his restaurant launch advice from JW Marriott - "Anyone can make money in the food business as long as you have a good product, reasonable price, and a clean place." So many times in editorial content we make it harder than it should be.  "Keep a focus, make it relevant, make it actionable" for example is the simple way to go.
2. Spend the money on the product and let the customer do the marketing for you.  In today's social media world, this is possible.  Great research, insight and compelling content gets shared...IF the information is truly helpful, unique and relevant in some way. 
3. Never cut corners on content.  Your customers will notice. Jerry and Five Guys gets potatoes north of the 42nd parallel because they grow slower and are more solid. They soak all their fries in water so they won't absorb any oil when they are fried.  The beef is never frozen and all burgers ordered are fresh. My favorite: always two slices of tomatoes...no matter what and even in the current tomato crisis. That's Five Guys secret sauce.  Your content marketing must be different in some way.  I'm getting tired of all the sites I go to that simply just aggregate content all day or say the same thing as everyone else.  How does that help your brand story?  
4. Great content marketing doesn't need a PR manager.  Five Guys has never solicited a review because their product is that good.  Just look at this Twitter Stream on Five Guys. This one says it all. With valuable and compelling content comes mentions, interviews, word-of-mouth and more. 
5. Set parameters to your content - what you will and will not do or say. Take a stand.  This might be my favorite.  Your content marketing MUST have a point-of-view that you stick with through think and thin.  Five Guys doesn't deliver...ever.  When the Pentagon called up and wanted delivery, they said no, and then proceeded to put a 22-foot-long banner in front of their store that said "Absolutely No Delivery." Today their business with the Pentagon has never been better.  Take a stand with your content. Chances are you'll get rewarded for your point-of-view.
6. Pay more for quality.  I have this discussion all the time with marketers that want cheaper.  Cheaper is usually a bad decision.  Pay for quality content marketing and it will pay for you.  Five Guys has been using some of their vendors for over 20 years, even though some are more expensive.  (btw, paying can also mean dedicating quality internal resources as well.)
7. Get your employees involved in your content marketing. Five Guys creates incentive programs for everyone in the company to perform better.  The same goes for your content marketing. Don't wall off your content in marketing or pr.  Figure out a way to get the entire company to create content that helps your customers.

For more on developing your content marketing strategy based on these tips, check out this content marketing white paper from Junta42.

What's Your Brand Story? - Moleskine Endures through Storytelling

My content marketing friends, Igor Savic and Primoz Inkret from Poslovni Mediji (Business Media) in Slovenia, were nice enough to give me a branded Moleskine notebook on my arrival to their beautiful country.

I've heard of Moleskine before, but now I know their story.

Included inside the legendary notebook is a detailed history of the product (see picture below).

 

"Moleskine is the legendary notebook used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. This trusty, pocket-size travel companion held sketches, notes, stories and ideas before they were turned into famous images or pages of beloved books."

It means something to write in a Moleskine. To be an owner of a Moleskine says something about who you are. In the video (produced by Moleskine), it says something about who Bruce Chatwin was. 

Moleskine has endured all these years because they tell stories as well as the people who used their product. Brand stories don't just happen.  They are told...and spread.

Losing Out on Turning Customers into Fans - A Cleveland Browns Story

My soon to be seven year old son would like to go on a tour of the Cleveland Browns stadium for his birthday.  This is a great idea for a number of reasons.  First, we don’t have to clean the house. Second, the house won’t get trashed from all the kids coming over. And finally, it is a pretty unique idea and the kids will flat-out love it.

A very quick Google search revealed that they do have tours lasting about 40 minutes (perfect) for $5.00 per person (again perfect) but only Monday to Friday from 10-3.  Not so perfect since we don’t home school, and even if we did, his friends would all still be in school those hours.  There was a tiny clause at the bottom stating that they NEVER do tours on Sundays and occasionally on Saturdays.

 

So we emailed none-the-less.  I asked for the Saturday closest to his birthday.  Rejected.  So I ask for any Saturday that month.  Rejected.  So I ask for Good Friday since the kids are off school that day.  Rejected.  I said I would have 40 people, trying to make it worth their time, I am flexible….but still REJECTED.

 

What is the value of having 40 kids fall in love with the Cleveland Browns and becoming life-long fans (in most cases, that's exactly what would happen)? Priceless. But the Browns don't see it that way.

The Carolina Panthers do offer full birthday parties with tours.  It's no wonder this young franchise has grown its fan base so quickly.

Do you have any regulations or rules that are keeping customers from becoming true fanatics for your brand?

UPDATE: 2/19/10
We were able to secure a tour at 3pm on a Wednesday since the kid's have early dismissal from school that day.  Not what we wanted, but at least it's something.   

Goodwill Develops Video Series with Miss DC: The Fashionista Drives Sales

Who knew you could find the latest and greatest fashions at....Goodwill?

District of Columbia Goodwill and my friends at Stella Pop teamed up for a three-part video series on DC Goodwill Fashionista (DC Goodwill's blog). The concept: Redecorate Miss DC 2009's apartment with only things she could find at Goodwill. The three parts of the video series consist of 1) before Goodwill, 2) shopping at Goodwill and 3) the results.

Along with the video storyline, Miss DC sang an original theme song for the series with local Grammy-nominated rapper Kokayi (the song was sold for $2 on iTunes with proceeds going to Goodwill).

The results are amazing:

• Retail sales up 7%
• Retail traffic up 13%
• Donations increase of 18%
• 450% increase in online traffic from before series launch; traffic continues to grow
• $150,000 in earned media coverage

Goodwill is working to tell a story of extremely affordable fashion.  What a great start with this video series.

How are you telling your story?