Junta42 Content Marketing blog

Sales Is the Reason Your Content Exists - Content Marketing ROI

Before I launched my business, I read the Bootstrapper's Bible by Seth Godin.  It was and is invaluable.

Every year or so, I dig it out of the file folders and re-read it.  I always find something new...something I didn't realize the last time through.

But every time, this is the statement that resonates the most.

Sales is the reason for your business to exist.

Nothing more true can be said about running a business.  With sales, all things are possible.

Don and Heidi Shultz, in their book IMC, the Next Generation, state, "For all the complexity of marketing and communication plans, firms want only four outcomes from them." Those outcomes are:

• To acquire new customers
• To retain and maintain present customers
• To retain and grow sales volume or profit from existing customers
• To migrate existing customers through the firm's product or service portfolio

The same thinking needs to be applied to your content marketing.

No marketer should be developing new content or curating content unless:

1. The content drives direct sales of a new customer (customer acquisition). 
2. The content leads a current customer to an additional sale (cross selling).
3. The content attracts someone that looks like a customer (lead generation).
4. The content ultimately helps lead to a sale (lead nurturing).
5. The content keeps sales in the house (customer retention and loyalty).

This is the very essence of content marketing.  In the formal definition of content marketing, the ultimate objective of content marketing is driving profitable action. That's content marketing ROI.

Do yourself a favor with these two actions:

1. If your content is not doing the above, stop doing it.
2. If you are not sure if it is or not, invest enough to find out.

Are you developing the best content in your industry?

This is just a one minute interview completed when I spoke at the Business Marketing Association conference, but it contains some important points.

• Facebook, Twitter...yes, they are important.  But they are just channels and may be gone tomorrow.  What is the substance behind those channels?  
• How are you creating meaning for your customers every day?  Are you?
• Are you developing the very best information, the best content in your industry?  Don't leave that to the media companies.  If you want to be the expert in your industry to drive your business, you must be the expert.  How do you do that?  Hmmm...let me think.

What say you?

More here in my last post on creating your own content marketing category.

3 Lessons from LeBron James, the Media Company

Everyone here in Cleveland is waiting with bated breath for the news that will come at 9 PM ET tonight - will LeBron James come back to the Cleveland Cavaliers or go to Miami, Chicago, New York or New Jersey? (UPDATE 7/9 - Yes, he chose Miami. And in the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all there is to say about that.")

Since being named "The Chosen One" by Sports Illustrated while he was still in high school (age 17), LeBron James is, perhaps, the most popular sports figure on the planet who hasn't (yet) won a major sports championship. He is, for sure, the highest paid player (including endorsements) in the National Basketball Association.

Over the past few years as this moment has culminated into one great event, two things are crystal clear:

1. LeBron James will sign a large contract with some NBA team tonight, and
2. LeBron James is developing one of the most powerful media companies in the world.

It's this second point that gets overlooked. Let's review:

Content is to marketing like ...

Junta42 ran a contest this week via Twitter and Facebook asking for the best, most creative answer to this statement:

Content is to marketing like [blank] is to [blank].

The idea was to have a bit of fun and try to show the importance of content within the marketing process. The winner with the best answer gets a $15 Amazon gift certificate.

Problem is, the entries were so good, we're having trouble picking a winner...so we're going to defer it to the community.  Please review the entries below and then tell us which one you liked the best on the Junta42 Facebook page.  Thanks for your help and thanks to all those who entered.

• Content is to marketing like Valerie Bertinelli is to the Lifetime Network. via @rickuldricks 
• Content is to marketing like iPhone 4 is to Apple. via @arun4 
• Content is to marketing like the chewy center is to Tootsie Pops. via @juntajoe
• Content is to marketing like conversation is to courtship. via @knowledgebishop 
• Content is to marketing like determination is to success. via @iamlucid
• Content is to marketing like gas is to a car. It's a must to turn the vehicle on and to move forward. via @SummerH
• Content is to marketing as customers are to business. via @CBWhittemore
• Content is to marketing as magic is to bewitched. via @CBWhittemore
• Content is to marketing as a mother is to her child. via @CBWhittemore
• Content is to marketing as wheels are to an automobile. More people like to talk about cars, but take away the wheels and what have you got? via @JoshGordon  
• Content is to marketing like olives are to tapenade. via @TinaCassler
• Content is to marketing as air is to tires. You can try to drive without it, but you sure wont get far :o) via @socialcity
• Content is to marketing like salt is to sea-water. via Fahed Bizzari
• Content is to marketing like mac is to cheese. via Joe Kapitan
• Content is to marketing like blood is to a vampire. via Ann Sullivan Myers 
• Content is to marketing like (love) is to (marriage). The perfect match makes all the difference! (And hey, insert your own joke here: bad content is like a bad relationship, because...you can't wait for it to be over!) via Katie McCaskey 
• Content is to marketing is like Ying to Yang. Bad content to marketing is like Floridians with no AC! ;) via Dianna Kersey 
• Content is to marketing like peanut butter is to jelly. via Kristen Nelson Bohn 
• Content is to marketing like Arnie (Palmer) is to golf. via Nick Green 
• Content is to marketing like white fluff is to a Twinkie. via Morgan Hurley 

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE HERE or in the comments below!

We'll keep voting open until end of day Friday eastern time.  Thanks again!

Think Like Your Customers Think

There's a very important line at the beginning of the movie The Godfather II.

Just after Michael Corleone, The Godfather (played by Al Pacino) gets shot at, he sits down his brother Tom Hagan and talks about an important lesson from his father.

One thing I learned from my father is to try to think as the people around you think...and on that basis, anything is possible.

If marketers only lived by just this one lesson.

Do you truly understand the pain points of your customers?

Do you understand what kind of information they need to solve those pain points?

Are you hanging out where you customers are hanging out online, so that you are in a position to help?

These things are not easy, but when executed, all things are possible.

A blog post is like a miniskirt

A blog post is like a miniskirt.

It has to be short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover the subject.

courtesy my friend Henry

Why Small Content Wins Almost Every Time

I've been all over the world over the past year talking with marketers about their content projects.  In most companies, there is a focus on big content.

What's big content you say? Big content means large content projects such as custom magazines, lengthy newsletters, virtual events, large customer events, etc. These are content initiatives that are complex, take lots of time, planning and review and are dependent on many people for success.

There is nothing wrong with big content.  They are essential for most brands.  We need custom magazines to develop long-term relationships with customers and provide real solutions to our customers' needs.  We need in-person events to meet with customers face-to-face and show them we appreciate their business. There is certainly a place for big content, but not at the expense of small content.

Let me give you an example.  Men often save up for large presents for their significant others over critical dates.  Birthday. How about some jewelry? Mother's Day.  How about a spa day? Anniversary. Maybe a trip or cruise is in order. 

Content Marketing - Motivation and 19 Lessons Learned

A few members of the Junta42 staff had some free time on their hands and emailed this to me. They preferred to remain anonymous. 

I actually thought this was quite helpful.  Maybe you will as well.

The things we learn from Joe Pulizzi:

• It is okay to talk with your hands (even if you are on the phone)
• It is all about the customer.
• If you are not having fun, you are doing something wrong.
• Content marketing is king.  No content, no throne.
• There is no such thing as too much social media, if you have a compelling story.
• SEO (search engine optimization) is a pain to figure out – but you can’t survive without it, so either figure it out or pay someone else to do it.
• When in doubt, outsource.
• When you don't have the expertise, outsource.
• You’ve got to spend money to make money.
• You would be surprised what you can learn from your children.
• Everyone should have a vice.
• Writing a book is a lot of work – but worth it 10 times over.
• Diversify – retirement yes, but in content marketing as well – whitepapers, video, print, podcast, Tweet, Facebook etc. Be where your customers are at.  Figure out how they like to receive information.
• Just because someone says so doesn’t mean it is true.
• Blog as often as you can but be consistent. Consistency comes first.
• Take a shot.
• Content Content Content.
• You can never own too many URL’s.
• There is no such thing as starting too many businesses at once.

Marketing Shoelaces

No one seems exactly sure when, but shoelaces became popular sometime in the 20th century to better tighten shoes, replacing buckles and buttons (which were slow and cumbersome). 

Shoelaces are odd to me.  The technology exists today that we can manufacture any type of shoe, dress, casual or sport, without the need for shoelaces.  There is no need to tighten shoes, because the shoe itself can loosen or tighten, depending upon the need.  Take a shoe like this I just purchased from Sketchers.  I could wear this shoe for literally any situation. And no shoelaces.

But, millions of us still purchase and wear shoes with shoelaces. This is partly because of what our personal preferences are and partly because of what is available (and at the right price).

But mostly, we purchase shoes based on what we had before.  We like shoes we are used to.  We can handle a little change, but not too much. 

The same goes for our marketing plans.

Do you know what the single biggest indicator of what will be in our marketing plans for 2010 or the next year or the year after?  What you did the previous year.

And, you have a lot working to make sure things stay the same:

• Your agency and marketing partners don't like change very much.  They will convince you to tweak, but not radically change.
• A new plan means new convincing to higher ups.  Very challenging.
• Finding new experts and partners takes time and resources.
• The eternal thinking that buying IBM (insert tactic) never gets you fired (but in today's world, I wouldn't be so sure).

I Was in this Meeting

I've been in four companies in the last month where we were doing a mini-content audit (going through what was working and what isn't working in their content strategies). At every company, we came to a marketing tactic - an enewsletter, a white paper program, a pr schedule, etc., where I asked what it was and why they were doing it.

The answer: because we did it last year, but not sure exactly what it's doing.

Make the Promise

What are your marketing shoelaces?  What are those things that you are doing because you did them last year, or because that's what your company is used to doing?

Make the promise to start fresh this year.  Focus on what's working and what you can measure.  Focus on listening to your customers and stop listening to those people in your company that want to keep things exactly as they are.

Try some new shoes...you'll be surprised at the outcome.

Why Print isn't going anywhere for a long, long time...

We'll be here someday with electronic, but this makes the case for why print is still an essential tool for most of us.  Enjoy!