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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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4 Steps to Evolve from Marketer to Publisher

The definition of "marketer" from dictionary.com is as follows:

"someone who promotes or exchanges goods or services for money"

This definition is simple and straightforward. The role of the marketer has always to communicate a sales-oriented message in order to sell a product or service. Today, this couldn't be further from the truth.

The evolution of the marketer has sped faster than Moore's Law over the last decade. Most of this is a direct result of the change in buyer behavior and the role that technology has played into that. Buyers, inundated with thousands of marketing messages per day and equipped with TiVo, are generally unaffected by the vasts amounts of messages sent from marketers. Technology (like TiVo and pop-up blockers, for example) has enabled consumers to block out a marketer's message that surrounds the content that is really wanted by the buyer. Those messages that cannot be blocked by technology are served up to the conscious mind as irrelevant and are ignored.

So, what is a marketer to do?

A marketer's responsibility is no longer to communicate sales features and benefits about the products and services they offer. They must now do the following:

1. Define the critical group of buyers.
2. With a clear understanding of the buyer, find out what that buyer's informational NEEDS are.
3. Create the information that is NEEDED by the buyer, and do so on a consistent basis.
4. Track success through conversion measures and adjust as you go.

Only then can a relationship between a buyer and a seller take place. The buyer must allow us into their personal space first before any secondary product and service messages can get through. Since the content generated by the marketer is NEEDED (not just wanted), the buyer won't mind an occasional sales message. Even more, they will probably welcome one since the marketer's product or service will speak directly to the communication and workplace challenges of the buyer (since the marketer knows the buyer so well).

In order for a marketer to succeed, particularly in the business-to-business marketplace, the marketer must evolve into the publisher. A traditional publisher might be defined as "one that connects buyers and sellers together through a content exchange." The definition of a marketer-publisher is very similar. The difference is that a traditional publisher has a goal of making money on the content itself (through the sale of advertising, sponsorships, or paid content), while a marketer/publisher's goal is to attract and retain customers and make money from their own products and services.

The marketer's role as evolved into the teacher/the thought leader. The marketer's job is to make the buyer more intelligent, and by doing so, will reap the rewards of more goods and services sold. It is now, in the marketing department, that an organization can truly differentiate themselves from the competition and become a valuable customer asset. Now this is something the marketing department can be excited about!

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Related Articles:

• 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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Key Questions when Launching a Content Marketing Initiative

Launching a custom magazine, newsletter, eNewsletter or web content portal is becoming more a challenge each day. It requires a true understanding of the target reader - their needs, wants, desires and current actions.

This chart below, which I blogged about a few days ago, provides a visual overview for a successful content marketing or custom publishing initiative.

But before you proceed with any actual work on the publication, there is a series of simple questions to ask that will successfully position your communication program for both success and measurement.

• How do we want the end user to feel?
• What effect must we achieve with them?
• What action do we want them to take?
  If you have a clear understanding of the target, and have agreed on your underlying marketing objectives for the content marketing initiative, these answers should be apparent.
• What is the "one-sentence" benefit?
  Can you create a vision statement for the piece through this one sentence? Can you simply sum up what the goal is?
  
  "plantfloor.biz is an online resource targeted to manufacturing plant managers that gives them daily expert information on creating a high-performance plant floor."
  
  
• What is the appropriate tone for the piece?
  Is it entertaining, professional, technical, emotional? Deciding on the tone will set the correct direction for both the content and the design.
• What are our expectations for the campaign?
  This is the time to be realistic, but to also challenge the organization. Here is where you want to visualize what the campaign has accomplished in the first year. If you can visualize what you intend the campaign to do, you can create expectations that will lead to a measurement program.
• What are the mandatory elements?
  Here is where you think of things that absolutely must be a part of the campaign. Senior management should play a significant role at this point. Many times, assumptions are made by the marketing organization that don't necessarily agree with the overall direction of the company. Get agreement and get it on paper.
• What is the most appropriate media approach?
  This should always be the final question. More mistakes are made with custom publishing and content marketing projects because a marketing executive "wants to do a magazine" or "thinks an enewsletter is a fantastic idea." Go back to the beginning first. Answer all the above questions, and then you have enough information to choose the correct media.

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Related Articles:

• Content is King, But What Is It Really?
• Media Companies Are Waiting to Make You a Publisher
• Stop Shouting Features: 5 Tips To Create a Knowledge Marketing Program
• Want Customer Loyalty? Create Customer Wins With Content
• Corporate Content Will Take Over Media As We Know It

>>If you liked this article, try Junta42 for more.

 

The Five Pillars of Content Marketing - The Ultimate Definition

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I probably define what content marketing is at least twice a day. Try telling your parents that you are a content marketer - very challenging indeed. Even worse, try talking to your neighbor. Most of my friends have given up (and that's okay).

One major challenge is that there are so many different words and phrases used when discussing the same thing. Okay, here goes...

Content marketing, custom publishing, custom media, customer media, customer publishing, member media, private media, branded content, corporate media, corporate publishing, corporate journalism and branded media.

There's probably more...but those are the biggies.

Another point of confusion is that people (and marketers) in general have so many different perceptions of what marketing is and should be. So, when you say marketing, they are already a bit confused. Add content marketing and you've lost them.

We at Junta42 are backing content marketing as the preferred term. Why? We believe that term resonates the most with marketers two reasons:

1) Content marketing has marketing in the term. Marketing, according to dictionary.com, is "the act of buying or selling in a market." We believe that any term has to involve the process of a sale.

2) Content. The creation of great, story-form content (through any channel) is what ultimately influences someone to buy your product or generates a wanted behavior.

OK, before I take a shot at the Ultimate Content Marketing Definition, here is an excerpt of the definition of custom media (publishing) on Wikipedia:

"Custom media is a marketing term referring broadly to the development, production and delivery of media (print, digital, audio, video, events) designed to strengthen the relationship between the sponsor of the medium and the medium's audience. ...Custom media is different from traditional media in very subtle, yet significant ways: Typically, custom media is sponsored by a single marketer (a company, association or institution) and is designed to reach a tightly focused audience of customers, members, alumni or other constituency."

Had enough yet...here is the formal definition of custom publishing from the Custom Publishing Council:

"Custom publishing marries the marketing ambitions of a company with the information needs of its target audience. This occurs through the delivery of editorial content – via print, Internet, and other media – so intrinsically valuable that it moves the recipient’s behavior in a desired direction."

Both excellent definitions...but can we do better with content marketing? Since sentence definitions don't do it for me (and frankly, most men), here is a different spin on how to define content marketing:

Content Marketing is:

• Editorial-based (or long-form) content. It must tell a relevant, valuable story. Must be informative, educational or entertaining.
• Marketing-backed. The content has underlying marketing and sales objectives that a corporation, association or institution is trying to accomplish.
• Behavior-driven. Seeks out to maintain or alter the recipient's behavior.
• Multi-platform (print, digital, audio, video, events). It can be, does not have to be, integrated.
• Targeted toward a specific audience. If you can't name the audience, it's not content marketing.

Yes, somewhat the same, but hopefully more concise. We leave out the creation and production of the content from the definition. We feel that's too obvious (yes, it has to be created).

This definition is very close to the CPC one. We added associations and institutions, since some people may not associate them with the word 'company.'

But overall, I believe the key is that there are five main components (or phrases) that make content marketing what it is: editorial-based, marketing-backed, behavior-driven, multi-platform and targeted.

And we dub thee the "Five Pillars of Content Marketing."  May you live long and prosper.

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