Junta42 blog

When BBC (Bad Branded Content) Strikes

I was on a Continental Airlines flight yesterday and starting leafing through their in-flight magazine, Continental. I may be the one person out there that actually seeks out and reads advertorials (ad placement in the form of content).

That's when I came to an advertorial from Valenti International, the upscale professional matchmaking service. First off, I have nothing against Valenti, but this was one of the best examples I've seen in a while of bad branded content.

Here is the first two sentences of the Valenti's advertorial story Ending the Endless Search.

Irene Valenti, the founder of professional matchmaking service Valenti International, is overflowing with insight about the ways of the world. A visionary and creative thinker, she is blessed with an amazing intuition that led her to found Valenti International nearly two decades ago.

To be honest, I stopped reading at that point. Unless the reader was Valenti's parents or husband, I'm not sure why you would read much further. This is the kind of branded content that gives branded content a bad name.

The lesson: all content, even paid advertorial, needs to focus on the needs and wants of the reader in order to be effective. It's that simple.

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10 Content Marketing Tips to Start Now for 2009

One of the reasons I love my job is the different kinds of people I have the opportunity to interact with. Over the past year, I've met with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, agency executives, top marketers, social media gurus, publishing veterans, authors and others - all with particular insights and challenges about how to sell more, do more and be more.

If 2008 was the year social media went mainstream, 2009 should be the year of content marketing, the corporation as media company, the brand as publisher and broadcaster. Why? Because everyone of those incredibly intelligent people I met with, in some way or another, told me that the difference for brands who make it versus those that don't will be relevance. How can we, as brands, be relevant to our customers? How can we create and develop real relationships with them? How do we engage?

As my friend and colleague Kirk Cheyfitz has said over and over - brands can do only two things to create the goal of 100% engagement - we can inform our customers - or give them a good time.

To help, I've put together 10 tactics that I believe you need to seriously consider NOW as part of your 2009 content plan (not in any particular order).

1. Tell the Story Differently through Different Media - It's frustrating to watch the sheer number of marketers tell a great story, but repurpose that story the same way in all their media. Ian Alexander over at Eat Media constantly harps (and rightfully so) on the concept that the story you tell in print versus mobile versus website versus video must be told in a very different manner. Seems obvious, but it's not done. Most commonly, this mistake is made from taking a print custom program and just putting it online. Do you engage with content in the same way in print as you do the web? Most likely, you don't. Do not expect more of your customers than yourself.
2. Raid Traditional Media Outlets - As traditional media continues to lay off the best journalists in the world and layoffs and bankruptcies abound, your opportunity to acquire talent has never been greater. Of course, I'm biased a bit that I believe most marketers should outsource their content and find great providers through our service, but this opportunity is too good to be true. First, the talent is available now. Second, expert journalists are very open to working with corporations today. Third, you need great content to survive as a marketer. To do this, you need talent that understands how to tell a story. Go get that talent today while there is still time (and before they all start up their own content marketing businesses).
3. Why Partner with Media Companies, Just Buy Them - Granted, this is for the larger marketers among us, but a great strategy nonetheless. Paul Conley just posted an excellent read on the shape of the media industry, and his #1 prediction was that content marketers may start to buy b-to-b media companies. I've agreed with this strategy ever since I was at Penton (when I thought Penton should be purchased by eBay Business - and still think it's a great idea for both). Remember, a media company is all about connecting buyers and sellers. Corporations need to do that as well, they only want to limit the number of sellers (to one).
4. Time to Start Using Twitter - I will agree with you...I thought Twitter was stupid when I first tried it. Now, it is an indispensable tool, where I've increased my network, formed partnerships, and led to new business opportunities. To understand the true power you need to use a tool like TweetDeck, which is the ultimately reputation management tool if you can't afford a real reputation management tool. Check out this article by Ann Smarty on using Twitter for Business, as well as Shama Hyder's 101 Ways to Rock Twitter. And finally, if you are distributing relevant content, try sending your RSS feeds through Twitter by using TwitterFeed.
5. Get Serious about a Content Audit - In all honesty, this is a huge task and very challenging to look for all the pieces of content in an organization from the inside.  If you are serious about performing a content audit, look to an outside expert to execute it.  For example, they will look at all your forms of communication and the information you are sending out in order to make recommendations on how to create and fine tune a consistent and relevant message to your customers and prospects.  This includes all the content you have on the web and what's circulating around your company.  Just think about your website…is it consistent?  Does it communicate your vision? If you are serious, we have a number of providers in the Junta42 Match system.
   
   The results of the content audit will help define the purpose, context, types, topics, voice and style for your content marketing plan.  With this information, you’ll have a good handle on where you are currently, and where you need to be in relation to your customers. Hat's off to Kristina Halvorson at Brain Traffic for showing me the light on content strategy.
6. No Reputation Management System? - Work on Your Google Alerts: Of all the listening tools out there, Google Alerts is probably the one I use the most (even more than Twitter).  The way Google Alerts works is that I can monitor keywords and brand names, and whenever anyone mentions them on the Internet, I’ll get a notification.  As a rule, when anyone blogs about me, my company, or my book, I want to know about it and comment to them.  Google Alerts helps me find most of this.
   
   But where this is really of value is to find out what people are saying around they topics that are important to you and your customers.  For example, by monitoring the term “content marketing” over the past couple years, I’ve really gained insight into how the definition has broadened and how more people are using the term in general. It also introduced me to thought leaders like Chris Brogan, who regularly posts and advocates the use of content marketing.
   
   We can help shape the conversation through our own content because we know what’s being talked about on other sites.
   
   So, how do you do it?  Google Alerts is a free tool.  The first thing you need to do is create a Gmail (or Google mail account), which is also free.  Once you have a Gmail account, just type in your keywords into Alerts and set your notifications. To use exact phrases (recommended), try using parentheses like so - "content marketing".
7. Assign a Chief Conversation Officer - Whatever you call it, make sure someone is in charge of listening to customer conversations through blogs, Google Alerts, and Twitter.  Have that person be the personality for your brand.  Customers want to talk to other people, so it’s very important that you put a human face on this.
   
   Remember, a successful content marketing strategy is dependent on how well you know the customer's informational needs. Listening is required.
   
   Here’s an example why you need ownership.  Type in "Kodak" into Twitter Search and you'll find that there are hundreds of people just in the last day that are talking about Kodak in one way or another.  This takes someone’s full time attention to monitor what customers and prospects are saying (which is why Kodak has Jennifer Cisney @KodakCB as their Chief Blogger).  If done right, and with transparency and honesty, there may not be a better way to gain loyal customers than to interact with them in a personal way through social media.  So, I encourage you to take a very serious look at assigning an owner to your social conversation management.
8. Are you BtoB? If so, choose to "Be the Media": Heck, BtoC can do this as well (it's just more challenging). Most brands don’t look at themselves as publishers or media companies right now.  This is starting to change.  Over the next five to ten years, content marketing – or whatever the phrase is – will be the engine behind most of the marketing that happens around the globe.  That’s because buying behavior has changed, and will never go back to the days of mass marketing.  I believe the early movers in providing best of breed industry and educational content will have a clear advantage and be able to position themselves as trusted content providers – which in the long run – will position them for sales and profit growth.  It’s not easy, and right now it takes work to measure, but, as Seth Godin has said, Content Marketing is the only marketing left.
   
   Point is, don't wait for your industry's trade publication or online resource to cover an important topic - important to you and your customers. Go out and develop that information yourselves. Become the trusted content provider in your industry. Not only a good thing to do for your customers and industry, but believe me, it will be good for your bottom line.
9. Find Someone to Be Your Publisher/Media Company - Yes, even though I believe you should grab the journalistic talent when you can, partnering with an organization that focuses on content 24/7 is just a smart move.
   
   You need someone to own your content process.  Select someone to be your turnkey publisher. In my experience, marcom people are not necessarily the most qualified to create story-driven content.  So, if you are serious about growing your business through content marketing, find the expertise now. 
   
   Once you select your publisher or journalist as part of your content team, you should expect them to assist you with the following:
   
   • You can count on this group to help you develop the content plan.  This means that they need to have the best understanding of your customer’s informational needs, and make sure that you have a plan to communicate to each of your customer segments – valuable, relevant and compelling information.  This will involve surveys and discussions with your customers and prospects, and from that you can create a buyer persona for your customer, which is a detailed representation of who your buyer is.
   • Now, Once the content plan is created, you may be asking what types of programs you may need to execute. This will ultimately be dependent on your content plan and the kinds of information that you need them to receive. 
     
     So, you need case studies, interviews with customers about challenges solved. Industry white papers or ebooks that cover a key topic that your customers need to be educated on.  White papers are generally done quarterly by even smaller organizations. For webcasts, you can produce webcasts for resellers, educating them on what’s going on in the industry so they can sell better, or communicate with webcasts/webinars directly to customers.  Key for webcasts is to do it consistently.  Many brands partner with media companies to use webcasts as lead generators.  When done right, there may not be a better lead generator than webcasts.
     
     Believe it or not, custom magazines are still growing, and yes, in print.  Most consumers still enjoy reading print magazines, and even with all the Internet hype, readership in magazines hasn’t gone down.  For distributing in depth information and positioning yourself as a true solutions provider, custom magazines or even online digital magazines are a good choice.  With custom magazines, think retention for your very best customers.
     
     eNewsletters are the most popular content vehicle, and unfortunately most are pretty bad.  You have an opportunity to really position yourself as an expert if you deliver consistently valuable content instead of news release/press release type information. I've always loved what the folks at IMN do with their Pro&Content eNewsletter.
     
     And finally, social media community sites/blogs and content-focused microsites are all growing in popularity.  The key to any successful blog or social media site is this: If you can’t handle customer comments that may be negative in nature, don't go in this direction.  Some companies mask the openness of a blog but don’t allow comments.  My question to that is, what’s the point?  Also, the content needs to be good, and it needs to be personal.  Ghost writing a blog is possible but tough…to make this successful you really need a company personality…but your content provider/publisher can help you get the direction right.
     
   
   Those are just a few…remember, every communication challenge is different, and may require a different content initiative - which is why an expert publisher is so important.  Also, for the most part, none of these initiatives work independently.  For example, there is no such thing as just a custom magazine.  There is always an online component, which may be a microsite, additional web content, white papers and more - and in each of those media channels, the story needs to be told differently for maximum engagement.
10. All this is Meaningless Unless You Measure: Yes, content marketing is a good idea for any size company, but without measurement, how do you have any idea what is working? My former boss at Penton Media, Bill Donahue, used to preach to me all the time that "Hope is not a strategy". Even hope, without an idea of a preferred end result, may actually be defined as insanity.
    
    Before you launch any content initiative, create the content strategy around your marketing program, and be very specific with how you will measure success. Use numbers whenever you can to quantify your plan. Then, have your management buy off on those numbers to support your content plan. Although we finish with this strategy as our last, it probably should be the first. Successful content marketing plans need at least six months just to get any traction at all - so plan for a minimum of 12 to 18 months and continually modify your plan as you gain customer intelligence.

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Is Your Marketing Like hhgregg?

I had the opportunity for the third year in a row to escape in the early morning hours of Black Friday to go shopping with my wife.  This year, we woke up at 3:30 am to make the 4am opening at Kohl's. There aren't many things more exciting to my wife than doorbusters at Kohl's the Friday after Thanksgiving (and I truly enjoy seeing her so happy).

Thanksgiving night, after all the eating is done, is time to lay all the Black Friday offers from the newspaper and see which one has the best deals. This year was the usually suspects - Kohl's, Wal-mart and Toys R Us (Best Buy was a little off on deals this year).

Although I've only shopped there once, I pulled out the hhgregg flyer.  Interesting...some good deals.

"How about hhgregg?" I said to my wife.

"Never," she said. "I can't stand the salespeople there".

"What about them specifically?" I followed.

And in a wise and generous manner, my wife stated the following (I'm paraphrasing here, but I'm sure won't do it justice):

"Shopping has to be on my terms. If I'm just browsing, I don't want to be bothered.  If I know what I want, I don't need to be bothered. If I have a question, I can ask someone. At hhgregg, the salespeople watch every move you make. It's uncomfortable and not an enjoyable experience. It would be better if they weren't there at all."

Since Friday, I asked a few more people about hhgregg who had similar thoughts and experiences. Not to single out hhgregg (I checked out their blog, which isn't too bad), but many stores are like this (try buying a car, especially in this economic climate).

There may have been a time for this type of selling and marketing, but I believe that day has gone away.  Unfortunately, many of us market with this "in your face" type of selling, even on the Internet.

Online, you have three seconds to make the right impression or your prospect will leave. Is this happening with your electronic communications?  Here are a couple ways to combat this:

1. Although I recommend an equal blend of educational/relevant content versus sales messaging, you should have at least one message on your home page that educates and informs. Perform an audit of your website. If you have all sales messaging and are not "giving back" to your customers with valuable information, you are too focused on selling and not focused enough on helping your customers. Focus on content marketing instead of just direct selling.
2. Do you have an Enewsletter? If the open rates aren't at least 25% (30%+ is better), you've got some problems.  Low open rates either mean your list is not opt-in (specifically requested) or the content is not perceived as valuable enough to open.  If the latter is the case, it most likely means the content is too product-centric and not customer-centric. Enewsletters should be almost exclusively about giving the gift of information, not ongoing sales pitches.

Just like the Thanksgiving flyers, there is nothing wrong with selling, if it's in the right context. Consumers today are expecting valuable information to come from you, from your website, from your communications. Buyer's expectations have changed, and now our marketing must change with it.

If you want to give your customers a gift this holiday season, then focus on giving them some good old-fashioned relevant information instead of the same, tired sales pitches. Once you do, check your stats. The difference will show.

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Seven Content Strategies to Build Trust with Today's Savvy Consumers - A Complimentary eBook

At the heart of all sales transactions is trust.

The greater the trust, the more likely the sale. Without trust, there is no sale. In today’s business world, where more and more relationships are being developed and maintained over the Internet—the need for establishing trust and building confidence with buyers may be stronger and more powerful than ever. One of the resulting challenges for marketers is to find ways to quickly establish rapport, and then build upon it. How can you best do that? By listening to your customers and prospects and giving them information they need—information that will build their trust in your company as a solutions provider, and lead to the ultimate goal—sales.

That's exactly the reason why have developed this complimentary eBook/white paper entitled "Seven Content Strategies to Build Trust with Today's Savvy Consumers." Big thanks to our sponsors McMurry and ContentWise for supporting this important project.

This comprehensive eBook will:

• Give you seven strategies to enact right now that can tip the trust scale in your favor.
• Provide clear examples of how leading brands are creating trust through content marketing.
• Identify factors that erode trust and how to avoid them.
• Show you simple and free online tools to help monitor what customers are saying about you.

Download your complimentary eBook now!

If you like this one, you may also be interested in our complimentary white paper, "How to Attract and Retain Customers with Content Now." If you are a custom publisher/content provider, check out The New Rules of Custom Publishing and How to Become a World-Class Content Provider.

If you are signed in as a Junta42 member, you'll go straight to the eBook.  If not, your name and email address will direct you to the white paper download.

Enjoy!

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Attract and Retain Customers with Content NOW - A Complimentary White Paper

Today’s Internet-savvy buyers are hungry for content. And not just any content...valuable, relevant content that offers solutions to their problems and helps them lead successful, productive, enjoyable jobs and lives. However, they are also inundated by thousands of marketing messages every day, most of which they ignore. To get through, you need to communicate differently—you need to do more than just sell products and services. You need to provide information. Smart marketers know this and are creating strong brand relationships by providing good, authoritative, even leadership-type content.

For that very reason, Junta42 is offering this complimentary white paper entitled, "How to Attract and Retain Customers with Content NOW."

The majority of companies are set up to sell products and services, not to create valuable, relevant and compelling content on a consistent basis. To deliver content that has a chance to create long-term relationships with customers and prospects, businesses need to develop a new content mindset.  This free white paper will help you get there.

Here are just a few of the content marketing issues that are covered in this white paper:

• Content marketing defined
• Why companies have to "Be the Media"
• Six reasons why you need to begin today
• How to develop a content strategy
• Putting the plan in motion
• How to measure your success
• Content + Marketing = Customers

We also include a few case studies from leading brands that are making it work today.

If you are signed in as a Junta42 member, you'll go straight to the white paper.  If not, your name and email address will direct you to the white paper download.

Download your complimentary white paper now! For all you media types and publishers out there, make sure you check out the sister-white paper to this document - "The New Rules of Custom Publishing: Nine Strategies to Create a World-Class Content Marketing Organization." Enjoy.

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5 Important, Yet Often Overlooked, Content and Conversation Marketing Questions

In working with our clients, as well as dealing with our own content and custom publishing practices, here are some key questions that businesses need to continually remind themselves of in order to grow.  Often, these are overlooked, but are extremely important.

1. Are you and your executives easily reachable by phone or email? Many businesses make it extremely difficult for their executives to be contacted directly. Consumers now expect that they can reach anyone at any time. This is the new reality we live in. Make sure that your contact information is current and that your employees can be easily contacted by customers and prospective buyers. Email addresses and direct contact information is a must.
2. Are you keeping your content promises? If you deliver consistent information to your customers via email or print, are you staying on schedule? You have made a commitment as an organization and a business partner to keep set dates, whether daily, weekly or monthly. Be sure to adhere to your editorial calendars. By missing dates, you fall off the radar screen, which makes it difficult to continue long-term relationships.
3. Are you honest with yourself about your content expertise? Most businesses are set up to create and distribute products and services, not consistent, valuable and relevant content. Most marketing departments are not equipped with the journalistic talent to make sure that the content you are creating is as good or better than anything else out there. Is your content first rate? If not, look into hiring a journalist or content team to manage your content projects (which is why we created Junta42 Match).
4. Are you expecting the media companies in your industry to keep your customers and prospects educated on the information that is important to your business? If you are, don't rely on outside sources. Shouldn't you be providing this type of information? Shouldn't you be the expert resource that your customer and prospects turn to?
5. Are you on the cutting edge of your customers' behavioral patterns? How are they making their decisions? What information are they using to make those decisions? Are they starting with the web first, as most seem to be (IBM notes that 95% of buying decisions in their sectors start on the web)? To find this out, you need to be talking with your customers on a consistent basis (talk to them, don't just sell them). What are their challenges and pain points? How can you solve their problems, not just with services, but the content and information you create on a consistent basis?

By answering and continually monitoring these questions, you WILL grow and be successful. Simple, yet complicated, at the same time. The information you create and distribute as a corporation is what fosters the customer conversation. If you don't consistently create valuable, relevant and compelling content, why would anyone want to have a conversation with you?

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Marketing Around Products or Customers

I just finished speaking at the sold-out Web Content 2008 conference in Chicago where quite a few questions revolved around organizing content (and thus businesses) around product groups vs. customer groups/segments.

Here are some key takeaways.

What do you mean? Product groups versus customer groups?

Motorola is a good example of an organization that is in the process of switching to a focus on customer segments versus product groups. A few years back, everything on Motorola's b2b side was set up with the product being the center of the strategy.  Customers were targeted by what product they purchased, or what Motorola "thought" they would purchase. The sales force was set up by the products they sold.

What happened?  By focusing on products, Motorola didn't have a good grasp on customer needs. The sales force was pushing product, and not listening to the informational needs and challenges of its customers. It happens in every industry, and is natural for salespeople to do when organized in such a way.

Take the Razr - I sat in on a presentation by Motorola's consumer-side CMO at the Association of National Advertisers meeting a few years back.  At that time, the Razr was the hottest thing going.  He talked about innovation and design and the "big idea" of the Razr.

Motorola focused on the product and not the needs of the customer. Over the next few years, the "idea" of the Razr became old and customer needs went in a different direction.  Motorola is still trying to catch up on the consumer side.

By focusing on customer groupings or segments, everything the company does must follow the needs of the customer. Constant research and "talking" with customers must happen in order for processes to work. "Listening posts" are set up and the Internet is used first and foremost as a research and learning tool (via social networks, blogs, forums, etc.). The sales force is set up by different "types" of customers or buyer persona. It's a solutions mindset vs. a product mindset. Listen to the customer, listen again, and look at what you can offer or create out of your portfolio of products and assets to solve the problem. Then listen some more. This is the service mindset - and where most of the leading brands are going.

What happens in the content marketing process if our strategy revolves around our products and not our customers?

It's challenging for a company centered around their products to create relevant and valuable content. Why? Since the product is the center of their universe, the information coming from the business always revolves around the product. It becomes difficult to keep product and sales messaging out of educational information.  Spin is everywhere. Even customer research, that may have the best intentions, is manipulated in the marketing process in order to "position" the product - instead of using that information to solve customer needs and challenges.

It's a fine line, and not an easy process, but the mindset of a product-run organization limits how much you can truly get involved in the customers' lives.

****
 

Hats off to Michael Silverman of Duo Consulting and Scott Abel from The Content Wrangler for holding an outstanding conference.  Truly enjoyed it. First-class audience.

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Why It's Bad to Be a Large Brand: Opportunity Abounds for Small Business

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The March, 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review has a very interesting article entitled "When Growth Stalls," by Matthew S. Olson, Derek van Bever, and Seth Verry.

The article’s research focuses on top organizations, which they refer to as “premium position” companies.  Premium position companies hold leadership positions in their markets, records of past success, etc.  But the fact that they have held these premium positions is what attributed to their downfall, or plain old revenue drop.  Examples included are Levi Strauss, Kodak and Caterpillar.

While the concepts do not specifically refer to marketing and communications, the reasons for decline that they discuss could easily be applied to marketing concepts.

Below are some interesting quotes with commentary:

"Premium position captivity is the inability of a firm to respond effectively to new, low-cost competitive challenges or to a significant shift in customer valuation of product feature."

This should sound eerily familiar to CMOs in large organizations. It is the successful, large businesses that are having difficulty grasping new media formats. As it relates to this article, premium position companies have a long track record of success, so it is inherently more challenging to divert from what previously worked. Advantage: small and mid-sized companies.

"We use the term 'captivity' because it suggests how management teams can be hemmed in by a long history of success.  A company that solidly occupies a premium market position remains insulated longer than its competitors against evolution in the external environment.  It has less reason to doubt its business model, which has historically provided a competitive advantage…..when the towering strengths of a firm are transformed into towering weaknesses, it’s a cruel reversal." 

Translation: "We're really smart so don't try to tell us how to do it." Arrogance, with a dash of bureaucracy, will hamper, or even destroy, the longest running, most dependable brands over the next five years.   

"We saw a cycle of disdain, denial, and rationalization that kept many management teams from responding meaningfully to market changes." 

Have you ever had a conversation with a marketing executive from a large company about the new rules of media and marketing? For the most part, those people are relying on a set of believes and practices that may not apply in the future (In doubt? Read IBM's "The End of Advertising as We Know It.").

"Organizations simply don’t recognize the importance of an emerging behavior or customer preference in their core markets.  They continue to place their bets on product or service attributes that are in decline, while disruptive entrants emphasizing different, under recognized features gain ground."

Companies need to be particularly attuned to the new forms of communications demanded by the customer, and recognize the many options consumers now have to seek out information on their terms. A great example of this is in traditional media. The great media companies in the world grew to powerhouses as the distributors of content throughout the world. Why? Because they (and only they) had the ability to connect customers with valuable information. Today, anyone can do that. The business model that was once so profitable, is today obsolete.

"Levi Strauss…illustrates how difficult it is to respond to a threat in the absence of a burning platform.  If your sales are continuing to rise, how do you focus concern?"

Think about this one. Many firms don’t realize the bridge they are standing on is burning down, and by the time they find out, it may be too late.

One of the things that strikes me about these concepts is how they apply to communications.  If companies have been very successful in the past with dominating their markets, they probably assume that the forms of communications they use will continue to serve them well in the future. 

Communications get blind sided along with rest of firm’s strategies.

As we have discussed many times, disruptive technology in communications is the ability of smaller, less well-funded firms to develop great communications at a fraction of past costs.  They can now compete toe-to-toe in the communications arena, making decisions faster and being inherently more flexible due to the lack of management layers. That is why companies who are only a decade old like Google can become the most dominant brand in the world.

I wonder what will happen in the next 10 years?

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Top 10 B2B Product Launch Factors - The Case of the Missing Content

Schneider Associates recently surveyed 98 business-to-business marketers on their product launch practices. The results are included in this executive summary and this press release. Out of the findings, here are the ten suggestions from Schneider on how to improve your product launch success:

1. Create a documented launch process.
2. Set a separate launch budget and make sure it is adequate to meet the launch challenges you face.
3. Establish your launch budget as early in the product development phase as possible.
4. Keep your launch budget stable throughout the implementation phase.
5. Determine your launch performance measures before the launch begins.
6. Measure the “right” success metrics.
7. Include the “right” external launch professionals on your team.
8. Fight for bigger budgets.
9. Educate your sales force and other internal audiences about your new product or service. Also focus on distributor, retailer or dealer education.
10. Spend money on word-of-mouth campaigns rather than on advertising.

I'm not sure there is anything earth-shattering here (outside of #10 on WOM campaigns. For more on that, check out CK's blog reaction about this survey.). But, I must say I'm very surprised by a few things:

• I've seen many a product launch die because of a lack of communication with not only the sales team, but the entire employee base. I'm glad to see this make the list, but this is #1 or #2 in my opinion. Internal marketing is more important than external marketing - ALL THE TIME. This is especially true for a product launch. What's the use of creating the perfect external launch plan if customer service isn't clear on the vision. Say goodbye sale. Customer touch points are still as important as ever (maybe more important). Invest first internally, prepare the troops, then create demand generation.
• Lots of focus on budget here (and rightfully so), but very little focus on the customer (which is scary). At the very top of the list should be in-depth research on the buyer. What are the buyer personas we are dealing with? Have we set up listening posts (feedback channels) to properly get the feedback we need? With the new product launch, have we focused entirely on what the customer wants (not necessarily what we have)?
• In the summary, it was noted that those that prepare earlier for the launch were more successful. This obviously makes sense. I guess I'm interested in what the preparation entails. We've all seen (and maybe done) the marketing launch that floods the product message through print, web, in-person without the upfront "nurturing" that is needed. What do I mean by nurturing? Before the product is ever mentioned, we better be targeting the core buyer with content that meets their informational needs. That means starting early with blogs, white papers, eBooks, a print magazine, an eNewsletter, an in-person roundtable, etc., discussing key industry issues with customers and prospects and developing a dialogue with them. Yes, this kind of effort takes time, but it should be the second or third issue on the table (after internal communication) when you are discussing your product launch plans. Product launches become much easier if you already have built-in communication channels with your customers and prospects.

Here is a short list of what I would like to see as the results of the next survey:

1. Invest in buyer research to understand the buyer persona and decision-making cycle for your product. Set up feedback channels throughout current communications, as well as launching new research initiatives. Flowchart the buying process for the product (often times six or seven people in a business-to-business organization).
2. Clearly educate all internal employees on the new product, how it affects them, and how the new product aligns with the needs of the customer and the culture of the organization.
3. Set up a documented launch process as early as possible in the process.
4. Determine the ultimate success of the program. What are the conversions that need to happen throughout the buying cycle that define success?
5. Define the budget for the program at 25% higher than anticipated.
6. Develop a highly-targeted content plan to deliver consistently valuable information to the target buyer (this should be integrated with your current plan if you have one). Through your buyer research, you should have the data to know how your buyers interact with content. Once you have that information, deliver consistent and ongoing content through the channels they use the most. Be sure to integrate the communication effort within all channels.
7. Find "outsource" professionals to assist in both your content creation/execution and your product messaging execution (might be the same or different).

Final note: The more a company pushes a product, the more sales information tends to flow from the company to the buyer. Be sure your communications don't become constant solicitations. Continue to deliver quality content to them, and they will open their eyes to your product offerings. Better yet, if you clearly understand your buyer, your product will be a true solution.

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A Corporate Media Checklist...Content Marketing On the Rise

Jeremiah Owyang, Sr. Analyst and Forrester Research, provides this excellent starter checklist for launching a corporate media strategy. Jeremiah hits on a few of the key points that we've been preaching for a while, including:

• All companies are media companies. He uses a quote from Dan Scheinman, a VP at Cisco, who stated, "All companies are media companies, they just don’t know it yet."
• Outsourcing is Key. Man, I love this post by Jeremiah. I've always been a huge believer in outsourcing content initiatives. Why? For the most part, organizations are set up to sell products and services, not to communicate and publish a consistent message. That's where the experts come in. Also, internal pipelines and resources (communications and eMedia) are often challenging to deal with (or nonexistent). Work with an outside provider who adheres to your production schedule.
• Media is not channel specific. When you are considering launching a content marketing initiative, you can not be limited by a certain set of channels (no matter what you think about your audience). Key here is, don't think, know your audience. Then, meet that audience with valuable information where they are at.

I made a few additional comments to Jeremiah's post, which I'm including here.  For the most part, he hit the nail on the head...but I felt the need to add a few key items.

• Pinpoint the buyer persona you are after. This could be done by setting up listening posts (feedback loops) throughout your current media, or by conducting some research. Before any content marketing initiative launches, the business must have a very good idea of the informational needs of the buyer (If not, wait or don't do it).
• The content must be consistently delivered and not a one off. So many companies are looking for that big viral hit, but what works most often is delivering consistently valuable information to buyers, which is available through a variety of channels.
• There is a distinct difference between what I call sales collateral and content marketing (corporate media). Product demos and feature-driven content should be considered sales collateral. Content marketing is information that makes your buyer more intelligent. If that’s done, then you have a content formula for success that will drive business growth.

Of course, those of you that have been reading this blog know that this industry is huge, but recognition and organization of these activities are still in the early adopter state. What has been really interesting over the past couple months is to see the growing amount of blog and keyword activity around content marketing. Just take a look at this three-month trend line for "content marketing" in IceRocket. Definitely seeing this catching on in the marketing community. Exciting stuff!

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• 42 Content-Building Ways to Attract and Retain Buyers
• 16 Questions to Ask Before Launching a Content Marketing Project
• Content is King, But What Is It Really?
• Stop Shouting Features: 5 Tips To Create a Knowledge Marketing Program
• 4 Content Marketing Essentials for Every Business

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