Junta42 blog

Outsourced Custom Publishing Second-Fastest Industry Segment

According to the latest research from private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), outsourced custom publishing is the second-fastest growing area of marketing spend, behind only word-of-mouth marketing. The full research states that outsourced custom publishing grew an average of 16.5% from 2002-2007 to an estimated $5.46 billion.

The combination of outsourced custom publishing and branded entertainment is valued at $27.76 billion according to VSS, which is substantially less than recent studies from the Custom Publishing Council and ContentWise, which estimates the total spending of custom content in the range of $48 to $55 billion.

Frankly, determining an accurate number for the custom content/content marketing industry is almost impossible, since organizational budgets usually do not break out custom as a separate line item.  Nonetheless, VSS takes an apples-to-apples comparison each year, and the growth rate number should be trusted.

What does this mean?  This means one of two things - either companies are spending more on custom publishing as a whole (which they are) or they are outsourcing more and doing less internally.  My take is that both are happening simultaneously.

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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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We're Going to LEGOLAND! How Custom Print Magazines Drive Behavior

We have decided to take a family vacation this year to LEGOLAND in San Diego (Carlsbad, CA actually) and it has everything to do with LEGO's custom magazine. I've discussed LEGO magazine before, and it never ceases to amaze me how they are a clear leader in content marketing and custom publishing.

I'd just like to spend a bit of time on some of the behaviors that we, as a family, have initiated directly because of receiving LEGO magazine every two months.

• We first learned about LEGOLAND from the magazine (we've been receiving LEGO magazine for about a year and a half now). The pre-Christmas issue had a story on all the happenings at LEGOLAND around Christmas time, and our two sons talked about this constantly. LEGO reinforces the theme park in every issue. The most recent issue featured a ride called "Land of Adventure" that my youngest, Adam, can't stop talking about. Behavior - we purchased passes to LEGOLAND.
• LEGO has their own social network as well.  A few months back, LEGO featured MyLEGO Network in one of the LEGO magazine issues. Not long after, our oldest son (Joshua) was finishing off his MyLEGO personal page and showing it to us, and with a self-created music theme to boot. Behavior - the magazine motivates my sons to spend more time on the LEGO website and the MyLEGO network.
• LEGO magazine's "cool creations" section includes winning models from photos kids upload to the LEGO website. Joshua uploads images frequently to the site and always checks the cool creations page to see if he made the cut that issue. Although he hasn't made it yet, he continues to try. Behavior - more time on the website, more time reading the issue - an integrated marketing dream!
• The value of co-branded partnerships is unbelievable, especially with children. My kids love Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Spongebob Squarepants, etc., for the simple reason that they were featured in LEGO magazine, bought the LEGOs, and then became fans of the shows (Note that the LEGOs came first). The only reason they haven't seen the new Indiana Jones movie is because it's PG-13 and we won't let them. Behavior - we have purchased both LEGO Star Wars video games, have the LEGO Indiana Jones game on pre-order, and have too many of the actual LEGOs to even count. It's sickening.

Custom print magazines can be an extremely powerful tool - maybe more so than ever before because of the integration of the web. It's amazing to watch my son read the print magazine and then jump up and head to the Internet to go to LEGO.com. Their blend of user-generated content, comic story lines (with branded characters), and magalog-type promotion is genius. It's also why the magazine has been around since I was a kid - because it works.

Two other important points: 1) At least four of our friends/family have requested a free LEGO magazine subscription from our recommendation, and 2) print will not die anytime soon because when kids can't bring their Playstation Portables, iPods or Nintendo DS systems into a quiet place, they can still bring their LEGO magazines. The same rule goes for many other business areas where technology isn't as portable as we would like (airplanes for one).

It's not often a company can show direct proof that sales happen from a custom magazine. In this case, our family is living proof that LEGO magazine is a profit generator and has helped LEGO become and stay the leading building-toy brand around.

Related Articles:

• Content Marketing Lessons from LEGO
• Webkinz - When Content Marketing Goes Good (and Bad)
• A Content Marketing Lesson from the Transformers

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BtoB Leaders In Branded Content Coming to NYC

American Business Media and Junta42 are proud to announce a "breakfast in July" about how the leading brands in business-to-business are creating and executing their own content initiatives. I'll be moderating the July 16th breakfast event "BtoB Leaders in Content" at the Scandinavia House in New York City.

We are currently in the process of securing our expert marketing panel, but have already signed up Paul Dunay, global director of integrated marketing at BearingPoint, and author of one of my favorite blogs, Buzz Marketing for Technology. We'll be signing up an additional three marketing heavyweights from brands that are creating their own content and making an impact on behavior.

Each marketer will give a brief presentation about how they are using content to drive their businesses. Then we will have a lengthly Q&A discussion with plenty of time for questions from the audience.

Here is the event overview:

More and more of the leading business-to-business brands are driving sales and customer growth through the use of valuable and compelling content. This means web content, magazines, blogs, social communities, eNewsletters, web events and more that are changing or maintaining behavior as part of the integrated marketing strategy.

In this limited attendance breakfast event, hear how some of the best-known brands in b2b are creating, executing and measuring their own content strategies that you can use in your own markets.

For more information or to sign up, click here. Note that this is a limited attendance event, so if it looks interesting to you, sign up soon!

Why are we doing this?
Even though the creation and execution of custom content is a full 30% of btob marketing budgets, marketing professionals still struggle with the best ways to create valuable, relevant and compelling content that gets them involved in the right types of customer conversations.

There has also been quite a bit of talk from btob marketers and publishers I work with about an event like this, focused on business-to-business content marketing best practices.  If this goes well, we'll be doing more of these types of events.

If you have any questions at all about the event, feel free to contact me at joe[at]junta42.com.

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Why Lease When You Can Buy? - A Case for Content Marketing

We are in the middle of working on a video about content marketing and one of the key phrases we are using is "Why lease when you can buy?"

If you are looking at a car or at a house, their are pros and cons to buying versus leasing (or renting).  To make a decision, first you have to understand the differences between buying and leasing:

"When you buy, you pay for the entire cost of the [asset] regardless of how [much you use it or what you get out of it.] When you lease, you pay for only a portion of [the real asset's cost], which is the part that you 'use up' [while you are occupying it]."

Buying is Creating Your Own Content
Think about that for a second in relation to the creation of content. By creating your own content, publishing it, then distributing it through print and online mechanisms, you've bought yourself an asset. Once you buy it, you could do nothing with it, or distribute the heck out of it.  Regardless, you still pay the same for that asset. Getting ROI out of it is ultimately up to you.

If executed correctly, you can leverage and re-leverage that asset to continually communicate with customers and prospects. The majority of top tier content does not depreciate either (what publishing folks call "evergreen" content), unlike a car. Great content works more like buying a house or property. If it's good and can be found (location), it goes up in value.

Traditional Advertising is Leasing
Although more and more companies are "buying" content, a good portion of marketing budgets are still spent on leasing or renting activities such as print advertising or online banners and buttons. Like in the definition above, you, the marketer, pay a small portion of the true asset cost or value (owned by the publisher or content distributor) for the area that you are "using up" during that particular time.

Since the publisher owns the asset, which is essential the community they bring to the table for your benefit, they have the right to charge you for the space you are taking up.

Now, advertising has its place. We at Junta42 use traditional advertising all the time. But understand that once it's gone, it's gone.  You have paid for renting the space and there is no asset created, in and of itself. The activity generated from the advertising may ultimately create an asset, but the space you occupied with your brief message is essentially worthless after the period of "occupation" is over. Poof...gone.

Why Are More Marketers Buying/Creating Content Today?
It's quite simple if you think about it. As we see more technological advances, the consumer of content has more and more control over what they engage in. In the past, there were limited options (television, radio, newspapers, consumer and trade magazines). Today, a buyer can go to a search engine and find exactly what they are looking for in a second. And, since Google has democratized content, ANY company with good content and a little search engine savvy can distribute it to that targeted buyer. (Here's a good white paper that spells it out from A to Z.)

Content is also worth more today since it is constantly "alive" on the web and available for consumption, even years after it was first distributed.

So, as the value of traditional marketing vehicles declines with the number of media choices increasing, the lower technological barriers for content creation, and greater content accessibility, corporate content marketing becomes more valuable for the same reasons.

Some "To-Do's" for the Traditional Marketer
Don't worry if you still spend a boat-load on traditional marketing.  If you are, you also realize that the tide is moving away from traditional media and you may not be sure what to do next.  Here are a couple easy steps to take:

• Don't go canceling all your traditional print and online advertising (I'm sure you won't). But do leverage those communities to distribute valuable, relevant and compelling content that can entice a behavior. Microsites, white papers, webinars, video shorts are all good ways to engage with a target buyer. IBM, Seimens, and Unilever are all leveraging traditional media outlets with big investments to drive consumers to their own content. Unilever's DegreeRookie content campaign was promoted all over DirecTV this weekend (on channel 116 I believe). Note that they are also leveraging a traditional media outlet (Fox) to get the job done.
• Get serious about content in your organization. The title of Chief Content Officer is starting to pop up in more and more businesses.  Why?  Because content is a strategic marketing device that can drive substantial revenues, so it must be taken seriously. Content is the asset you create that becomes the foundation for your customer relationships. Give ownership to someone that can help guide your content ship. The future of marketing is in the content you create and distribute. Be prepared.

Buy and Build Your House
A great content strategy does not happen overnight, but it's very similar to buying and building your house. The more investment in skilled builders (journalists, content experts, custom publishers), the better your house will look (customer relationships, loyalty and increased sales).

There are always situations where leasing works, but if you can buy the asset of content, and you know that, if done correctly, the asset will grow in value, why would you ever miss out on that opportunity?

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New Rules of Custom Publishing - New Complimentary White Paper: Nine Strategies to Create a World-Class Content Marketing Company

Find Expert Custom Publishers at Junta42 Match

The web and a continuing modification of buyer behavior (among other things) have changed the rules of what most people call the "custom publishing" industry. Traditional custom publishers, who profit from the creation and execution of customized content solutions for clients, must understand the new rules of custom publishing in order to survive. To help, I put together this complimentary white paper titled: The New Rules of Custom Publishing: Nine Key Strategies for Creating a World-Class Content Marketing Company.

Although this white paper is clearly targeted for publishers, or the providers of content services for marketing professionals, there is tremendous value for both marketers and publishers. This is especially true, since it doesn't matter if you make your money off of publishing or not. We are all publishers...so we all need to understand what is going on in the marketing/publishing world in order to compete in it (with content).

Unfortunately, most custom publishers are still hanging on to older business models  and, as such, are getting plowed down by those abiding by the new rules of custom publishing. That said, there is a huge opportunity for those organizations that do choose to adopt the new rules as part of their overall business strategy.

The nine strategies highlighted in "The New Rules of Custom Publishing" are:                   

1. Understand the Changes That Are Leading the Content Marketing Future - A comprehensive overview of the changes in technology, publishing and marketing that are driving the custom content revolution.
2. Be Active in Social Media:  It's Mandatory for the Future of Custom Publishing - From blogs to LinkedIn to Facebook, the new landscape of social media is an essential part of any strategy.
3. Acquire Expertise in All Forms of Content - Forget about focusing on one custom product; these days publishers need to be masters (or access to expertise) of everything from print magazines to Webcasts.
4. Walk the Talk - Don't expect a client to have confidence in your expertise if your company is not its own best content marketer.
5. Position Yourself as Both a Marketing and a Publishing Expert - Only companies that understand - and work with - both sides of the business are going to thrive.
6. Have a Clear Value Proposition - At some point the custom publishing field will become glutted.  What's going to differentiate your company from the masses?
7. Price Your Services According to What the Customer Values - From industry standards to client specifics, everything a company could need to know about pricing.
8. Value the Role of the Project Manager - No project is going to manage itself.  Don't underestimate the importance of good oversight.
9. Use Questions, Not Answers:  Five Steps to Closing the Deal - How to make the client knock on your door...

Download this complimentary white paper The New Rules of Custom Publishing: Nine Key Strategies for Creating a World-Class Content Marketing Company and take your content company into the new world of publishing.  I hope you enjoy it!

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New Research: Business Marketers Spending Big on Custom Publishing/Media

We are proud to release research regarding how business-to-business marketers are spending and thinking about customized content (custom publishing, custom media, content marketing - you pick the term).

Junta42, in association with BtoB Magazine, surveyed 150 marketing professionals focused in btob markets. The findings were pretty clear: content marketing is alive and growing within the business-to-business sales cycle.

Here are some key findings:

• Business marketers are allocating almost 30% (29.42% to be exact) of their marketing budgets toward the creation and execution of customized content.
• Even in a depressed economy, 42% of marketers increased their content marketing budget in 2008, with only 12% decreasing budget.  The rest held budget.
• Seven out of 10 business marketers produce an eNewsletter for their customer base. Half the marketers produce white paper or case studies as part of their marketing mix. 
• 28% produce a blog for customers. 

Here is the formal release - but you can check out the results overview here on the Junta42 site.  More to come.

Enjoy!

Custom Magazines Can Save a Dying Print Industry

In reading Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni's most notable magazine launch of 2007 (Condé Nast Portfolio), I couldn't help to think that there is a huge opportunity for marketers in, yes, print.

Work with me here for a second...

Mr. Magazine states that "Condé Nast felt so sure of the current desire for good content that they fed over $125 million into the launch of CN Portfolio, our Most Notable Launch of the Year. So far I haven’t heard one whisper of disappointment concerning that investment, except of course from the prophets of doom and gloom."

He's right (and so is Portfolio), relevant and valuable content can live anywhere, even in print.  And though Mr. Magazine states that 2007 had 200 fewer traditional print launches than in 2006, the 2007 number is still substantially higher than that of 1991.

Couple thoughts...first, I believe that the number of traditional magazine launches will continue to go down (yes I know, big leap). More investment is going into online and print will continue to be challenging for marketers to measure results. So, publishers will continue to go online.

Second, less print means more opportunities for those still in the game - publishers as well as marketers.

Third, almost everyone I talk to or work with still LOVES print.  As much as I believe in the growth of online and mobile (and I do), people interact and engage with print in ways that are difficult to replicate online. I still take about 10 magazines with me on every trip.

If you, as a marketer, buy into this, than you should consider some form of print custom communications as part of your content marketing plan.

Here's some equations -

Less Traditional Print = Greater Share of Customer Attention (easier to cut through the print clutter)

More Attention + Continued Customer Print Behavior = Key Channel to Build Your Customer Relationships

Print, by itself, is ignorant and wasteful. Print, integrated with online media, can be extremely powerful.

The Focus on Web May Have Blinded Your Competition

Traditional marketers are moving money in barrels over to the online space. At a recent BtoB conference, it was stated that Microsoft and Intel are putting 50% of their marketing money into the online space. I'm sure your competitors are starting to move in this fashion as well.  And they are all right to do so.

But an integrated online strategy works best with a marketing mix that includes print.   Our sponsorship drive for the 2007 Junta42 Golf for Autism showed us this last year. Even though we sent multiple emails to sponsors regarding donation opportunities, most sponsors took action when they received the print piece in the mail (over 60% used the print mail form). All of the marketing we did had impact individually, but used together we saw results.

Also, look at the USPS launch of Deliver magazine. They've been investing more and more into this magazine for marketing professionals - and have been pouring on the online marketing in conjunction. I found this banner ad promoting subscriptions on BtoB magazine today. (btw, they've also been investing many more resources into their website, which was pretty much non-existent just a few years ago.)

Look at your content marketing.  How can you integrate print into your plan?  Is there an opportunity in your industry to cut through the clutter?

There will most likely be less traditional magazine launches in 2008. Could custom magazines like Deliver save the print industry?  Possibly...

But, before you do anything, test it out.  The worst thing you could do is just spam your customers and mail out to your full list.  Get their permission first.  Focus on the 80/20 customers that mean the most to you. If successful, expand from there.

If you mail it, will they read it? Great Health Magazine from CVS

- by guest blogger Michael Buller

This is Michael's second guest blog post. We received such a great response from the first one, we asked him to post again.  Thanks Michael. - Joe Pulizzi

CVS made news recently with the announcement of a new custom publication Great Health Magazine, which they aim to launch this spring. The publication, which will also have a “sister web site” and eventually an enewsletter, will be centered around health issues. On the surface, there’s no doubting the numbers that make a compelling case for the relevance:

• Women influence 80% of healthcare decisions in their households, wielding buying power of about $1.2 trillion.
• The initial mail list will be 500,000, picked from the 75 million people who have signed up for the CVS ExtraCare card. That list will double to 1,000,000 in 2009.
• The average reader will be a mid-50s college educated woman, who owns her own home and still works to support her family.

So there’s little doubt that the women who receive this publication are predisposed to care about the subject matter. And there’s little doubt that with demographics like this, advertisers would love to talk to this target audience. But here’s the catch: there’s no truth to the saying, “if you mail it, they will read it.”

Reaching a desired demographic is one thing; getting them to engage in the publication is another.

Based on that reasoning, I’m skeptical. More than just about any other family-friendly topic, healthcare content is pervasive – online, in print, you name it. A Google search on women’s health returns 36,500,000 results. You don’t need SRDS to see how saturated the category is ‑ just visit any newsstand and look at the women’s magazine section; you’ll be inundated with cover lines selling health stories. Cutting through that clutter to get readers to not only pick up the publication, but actually spend time with it – that’s a tall order.

I hope CVS succeeds – a successful custom magazine by anyone helps all of us in the industry – but I’m worried that the content will be so generic and/or brand-centric that it will fail to capture anyone’s attention.

Even if it does, there’s another major hurdle to battle. There’s nothing in the press release or news that indicates that CVS is funding the endeavor – but it does say that the company hopes to attract ad revenue from pharmaceutical and OTC advertisers. It’s likely that they’re counting on advertisers to flock to their alluring demographics. But what if cautious advertisers wait until the magazine proves that it is engaging readers – will CVS have the financial fortitude to invest in the publication during that time? Or will they impatiently demand a return on their investment from the start? Or worse, have they convinced a small custom publisher that the publisher should take all the risk in launching this venture, with the promise of big ad revenue returns down the line?

I hope not – that happens too often where marketers want both a content marketing program that engages their customers, and the luxury of someone else paying for that program.

Basic Media Group is the company that’s signed on for the CVS magazine. On March 18, their one-page website said: “Updated website coming soon.”  Hmm. 

Michael Buller is Vice President/General Manager of Custom Publishing for The Pohly Company, a diversified marketing and publishing services company specializing in engagement marketing and customer communications.

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