Two events have opened my eyes to the idea that online communities can take your content marketing and put it on steroids.

First, I spoke with Todd Wheatland, VP of Thought Leadership for Kelly Services. Todd showed me how critical building an online community has been for Kelly Services, and how it is a “must-have” not a “nice-to-have” part of their content marketing strategy.

Second, I had a discussion with Michael Silverman. Michael, CEO of Duo Consulting and a friend of mine for years now, convinced me that the education on how to build and manage an online community was significantly underrepresented. Michael was adamant that CMI should publish a book on the concept; that our readers needed a resource on how to correctly build an online community into the marketing program using our content marketing philosophy.

Well, Michael was right.

Capturing Community [the book]

After months of watching the process in action, I had a chance to sit down and read Michael’s book “Capturing Community: How to Build, Manage and Market Your Online Community”. I am both proud and honored that Content Marketing Institute is the publisher of Michael’s book.

Capturing Community is literally THE how-to manual for building an online community. Michael started building online communities years before most marketers knew what an online community was. He’s taken his years of experience and dozens of in-depth examples from small and large online communities that clearly explain how any marketer or business owner can make this happen.

Specifically, here is what I like:

• Why?: Michael gives specifics on why you may want to consider developing an online community, and how marketers can convince the C-Level that it’s business critical.
• Software?: Choosing a software platform is made easy in Chapter 6.
• Personality?: There are many different types of online communities. Michael lays out all the details for the type of community that fits your business objectives and matches that with the personality of your target customer.
• Marketing?: Many online communities start, wither and die. No worries here. Michael details how to test and market your community so that members both join and elect to stay and get involved.
• Execution?: Michael details the resources needed and daily steps to creating a vibrant community.

If you are at all considering launching a community, or if you have a community that simply is not performing to expectations, buy this book [and yes, big disclaimer here, we are the publisher]. Still, buy it.  Not sure?  Get your free chapter here.

Congratulations Michael on a job well done!

The original post is titled An Essential Resource for Building and Managing an Online Community [NEW BOOK] , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

In our new social media world, email assets are more important than ever before. As content marketers, it is critical that we develop our audiences and build our channels, with a primary emphasis on email in conjunction with social channels like Facebook and Twitter. Why? Theoretically (and legally) the customer names that sign up to our social channels do not belong to us (they belong to Facebook and Twitter). Since it’s public information, that will most likely continue to be the case. Your email database, on the other hand, is a significant business asset.

Here are 10 steps you can take now to optimize your enewsletter landing page to get more customers and prospects to sign up for your content.

1. Spell Out the Benefits: On the landing page, clearly list why someone should sign up for your enewsletter.
2. Show Them a Picture: Show a sample picture of what they will be receiving (what does the email newsletter look like?).
3. Link to a Sample: Link to a sample enewsletter and have that sample open up in a daughter window (don’t take them away from the landing page).
4. Sign Up is Above the Fold: If prospects have to scroll down to get to your signup area, there is a problem. Bring the signup above the fold.
5. No More than Five to Seven Fields: Less fields = more likely prospects will sign up. Only ask for the fields you truly need.
6. Clear Link to Privacy Statement (Below the Fold): Although no one will ever click on it, be sure to have a privacy statement available that has been checked by your legal team.
7. Tell Them What You Will and Won’t Do with Their Information: At the bottom of the page, be very clear about how you will use the information they’ll be giving to you.
8. Button Says “Subscribe” or “Sign Up” (Not Submit): Words like submit and phrases like “click here” don’t accurately spell out the positive action you want prospects to take. Use “subscribe” or “sign up”.
9. Get Rid of Needless Distractions: The landing page for your enewsletter has one goal…to get people to sign up for the enewsletter. Get rid of all the distractions that may take them away from the signup page, such as the general navigation, third-party advertising, house ads or other calls to action.
10. Testimonials and Awards Are a Must: Put at least one good testimonial about what a user thinks about your enewsletter. Get permission to use their name and title. Have you won any awards? List those as credibility points as well.

Remember, you want a simple form that shows at least as much value as the information they are giving you (you are trading your content for their name). Don’t overcomplicate the process.

As always, test your changes. The behavior of buyers is not consistent across industries, to be sure to test what works and what doesn’t for you.

The original post is titled 10 Ways to Optimize Your Enewsletter Landing Page , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

In many content marketing programs, the core brand stories have to deal with transforming an employee’s, customer’s or stakeholder’s passion and expertise into one or multiple brand stories or story elements.  How many times have you heard the following that have stopped you in your tracks?:

• Our [CEO, EXECUTIVE OR ENGINEER] doesn’t write – in fact, no one in our organization writes (almost certainly not true).
• Our [CEO, EXECUTIVE OR ENGINEER] can’t write (okay, maybe this one’s true).
• How are we going to get all this content created? – I just don’t have the resources (almost always true to an extent).

Now, before we look at some of the ideas below, we all need to realize that almost NO COMPANY has a shortage of raw material for content marketing (this piece on content audits may help).  What’s usually missing is that the content is not in storytelling form or that a process has not been created to extract the information in a way that works with the content marketing plan.

Capture the Content in Their Format of Choice

Some CEOs love to write, but most CEOs like to talk. If it’s a challenge to get your C-level executive to produce thought leadership content, capture their thoughts in a different format. Interview them using Skype, and record the conversation. Your managing editors can turn that into other content marketing pieces (e.g., blog posts, white papers, etc.). Or, if the content is good enough quality, you can use it in the captured format. Or, if they can’t really write — but they’re willing to just type an email — tell them to just write a long email to you.

In other words, don’t block the process by forcing them into something they aren’t comfortable with.

When you’re at industry events, be sure to capture photos and video. Mix and match them with pieces of content that you may or may not produce. Maybe the video gets used in a customer interview.

Another thing you can do is just sit down with the person. If there’s a product manager who is shy, or doesn’t feel like he can write 500 words on a particular topic, interview him. Take them to lunch and record the conversation. Again, re-use that content in multiple formats.

Help Them Tell Stories

Many times when you’re talking with executives about writing and creating content, you have to begin by simply teaching them what “writing” is. The act of writing is just transferring what’s in your head to words. As the famed sportswriter Red Smith used to delicately put it — all you have to do is “sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

Of course the real magic in turning writing into a story or something worth reading happens in the editing process. Relieve your team of their worries, and assure them that the copy will be “polished up” during editing. Then get them rolling, by offering the following tips:

1. Write it out. Just write blind — get it out. Writers are usually surprised by how much structure and genuine goodness comes out by just opening up and not letting their mental “editor” get in the way. Tell your prospective contributor to just spend half an hour typing out his or her thoughts (this post on free writing might help).
2. Storyboard it out. If they’re having trouble getting anything going or opening up, tell them to just visualize what they want to say and write down key phrases, or concepts, onto sticky notes. They can even draw what they’re thinking onto sticky notes. This is an especially great way to organize thoughts for a longer piece (mind mapping may help as well).

Help Them Become Aware of Content Opportunities

In one technology company we worked with in the past, much of the customer service happened through back and forth email. When we did an initial content analysis, we realized that a large portion of blog and article content was happening through direct customer email. It took only one customer service rep to notice this, and now the entire organization looks at the content they create every day as part of their business. Now, customer service reps, as well as sales reps, are more routinely aware if one of their emails should be used as an FAQ on the Web site or expanded upon in a blog post.

I have to say, in my experience, that sometimes getting an outside perspective on this process can really help the marketing department get pointed in the right direction…or sometimes, it takes someone from the outside to side with an employee to get the C-Level to open their eyes to the power of brand storytelling and content marketing.

For more on managing the content marketing process, take a look at Managing Content Marketing – the book.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The original post is titled 3 Ways to Extract Brand Stories from Inside the Company , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

…and, if you have some you’d like to share, please add them to the comments below.

Lifetime Fitness – Experience Life

Experience Life is the lifestyle print and online magazine developed by Lifetime Fitness, the billion dollar health and fitness company with over 100 centers around the US.  Experience Life is now published 10 times per year and has a circulation of more than 600,000 subscribers (as well as newsstand distribution).  Here is a great article on the evolution of the magazine and how it serves both members and readers to grow the Lifetime Fitness brand.

Zappos – ZN Magazine

ZN is Zappos’ digital magazine dedicated to sharing the latest fashion trends. Over the past few years, Zappos has been moving toward selling more than shoes (as this magazine clearly shows). Kudos to Zappos for integrating compelling stories with reviews, and the ability to purchase directly from the iPad (a great example of content to commerce).

Starbucks – My Starbucks Idea

My favorite example from Starbucks is My Starbucks Idea. Since inception, seemingly hundreds of ideas have been reviewed and implemented on the community site.

LCBO – Food & Drink Magazine

The LCBO, located in Ontario, Canada, is one of the world’s largest buyers of beverage alcohol, with more than 600 retail locations in Canada. Vintages is the LCBO’s member-driven publication specifically targeting wine enthusiasts. The magazine is distributed both through the post and is available online in digital book format.

Patagonia – The Footprint Chronicles

Patagonia, the high-end retailer dedicated to doing no harm to the environment, developed The Footprint Chronicles to show an environmental friendliness report of every textile factory and supplier they work with.  What is great about the blogs and reports is that they detail both the good and bad with each of the suppliers, and what they need to improve upon.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams – At Home Book

Jeni’s, located in Columbus, Ohio (home of Content Marketing World 2012) is one of the fastest growing ice cream brands. Jeni’s developed Jeni’s Splended Ice Creams At Home as a print book in June of 2011. The book has been incredibly successful, garnering reviews from such publications as the Wall Street Journal, helping to accelerate Jeni’s growth internationally. My favorite part?  The book truly does give away Jeni’s secrets to making the best ice cream on the planet…another example of how giving away your secret sauce almost always helps sales.

Want more content marketing examples?  Here are 100 different B2B and B2C content marketing examples from around the world in one handy-dandy ebook.

The original post is titled 6 Amazing Retail Content Marketing Examples , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

I’ve had the distinct pleasure of knowing Lee Odden for more than four years now.  I first started following his blog back in 2007/2008 when we launched the Junta42 Top Content Marketing blogs.  During the 11 times we released the top content marketing blogs from around the world, Lee’s blog ranked #1 three times.  Quite an accomplishment and a testament to Lee’s expertise around content marketing.

Better yet, I’ve had the opportunity to run into Lee at dozens of events around the country (Lee will also be speaking at Content Marketing World).  He is truly one of the stand-up guys in our industry.  When I found out he was writing a book, and on content marketing no less, I knew this book would be a keeper.

Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing is must reading for any marketer (joining these content marketing must reads).

Lee was kind enough to engage in a Q&A on content marketing, social media, search and the future of online marketing.  Here we go…

In the first part of your book, you discuss how SEO strategies have significantly evolved with the addition of content marketing and social media. Is the SEO-only agency dead?

Traditional SEO consultants that focus solely on keyword rankings and links that do not adapt to the changing nature of the social web will become less and less effective. In fact, I’ve seen a number of agencies remove SEO from their name. Some conferences too.

But adapting to change within the SEO world is no different than what’s been true in the 14 years I’ve been optimizing websites. The only constant with search engines is that they will change. Professional SEOs adapt because that is the spirit of optimization: continual improvement. SEO wannabes will die out pretty quickly because they’re only parroting the current tactics du jour. They’re chasing loopholes and manipulations without focusing on overall trends or consumer behaviors.

As long as search engines are imperfect at crawling and indexing content, there will always be a need for technical SEO. At the same time, the role of SEO is an evolving one. The premise of Optimize is in part a recognition of the adaptability of SEO or an “optimized state of mind” to be useful as a marketing resource regardless of changes in the industry.

SEO was responsible for increasing relevant visibility, traffic and sales in 1997 with search engines like Alta Vista, Lycos and HotBot when I started and it will be effective at facilitating connections between people looking and brand content in the future – whatever form search takes.

SEO agencies and brand marketers that do not adapt are at risk of becoming impotent. But that’s true with or without the growth in importance of content and social media.

You make a great point that silos need to come down to effectively drive a content marketing program. What are you seeing as the biggest barrier for this happening on the brand side?

Politics Actually, lack of alignment towards common goals and the role each group can play in reaching those business objectives is something that can be a barrier. But when leadership in the organization supports alignment with clear individual, departmental and organizational goals, many of those barriers come down. It’s also important to support those common goals with resources, process, training and reporting so people know that the changes and (real or perceived) sacrifices in control they’ve made are having an impact.

Sometimes an outside perspective or insight can facilitate this kind of change. That’s why brands are hiring content marketing consultants: to discover opportunities and develop a plan or in many cases, reinforce what they know needs to be done.

You identify six steps for a better content marketing strategy in the book. For brands, which one is their biggest pain point and why?

I wish it were that easy! Each company brings it’s own situation and circumstances into the mix so the pain point can vary. One of the most common issues I see involves companies deciding to implement content marketing tactics as if more content is the solution vs. meaningful content.

A lack of thinking things through is pretty common too. Planning helps define goals or at least hypothesize what’s possible so marketers can dig into what kind of content would be most impactful at driving desired outcomes.

Another major issue I see is that companies create content to exclusively promote their agenda without considering what kind of information their target audience wants. To go a bit further is to map appropriate content across the buying cycle. Even further is to distinguish appropriate content between customer segments and to identify the difference in information needs between potential customers and those that influence them. Optimize addresses many of these issues, I’m happy to say.

I love how you talk about the idea that content marketing, SEO and social media all need to work together. But as we know, most organizations aren’t set up that way. If a senior marketer is reading this, and that is the current issue, what is step one?

I think Optimize does a great job of guiding executives through this important step. Understanding where an integrated approach fits within the organization and planning are key. Optimize outlines what kind of research, audits and goal setting steps to take as part of strategy development.

When marketing leaders see the synergistic opportunities from an integrated approach, the resource allocation, planning, training and implementation will follow. For some companies it might mean different groups will work together that haven’t before, like marketing and customer service or recruiting and public relations. But guided by a thoughtful approach, goals and plan – things come together.

After reading the section on SEO technical audits, I felt we needed one as well. Why are these so important?

Search engines are far from perfect at finding and copying content to show in search results. Search engines also continue to change the signals that affect how pages and media are ranked. SEO audits (Technical, Keywords, On-Page, Links, Social) provide a benchmark for performance improvement and when repeated quarterly or semi-annually, can be extremely beneficial as a proactive tool to identify major impacts of changes in search engine methodologies.

At the same time, SEO Audits identify the impact of changes made internally on web and social content such as code changes that can overwrite SEO implementations. Nothing is more frustrating than to see a company pay five figures for an audit and to then overwrite a substantial portion of the most effective SEO edits because IT updated how the site is managed or made a template change.

SEO Audits also give companies a blueprint they can use to guide their own ongoing SEO-friendly content and social media best practices. I use them for our own sites and for all clients sites. The most important elements of these audits you need to look for are outlined in Optimize.

I’ve been reading a lot about the intersection between keyword research and looking for upcoming keyword trends that brands can take advantage of if they are listening. Do you agree that is an opportunity, and if so, how can a brand look at a keyword trend and jump on a “hidden” opportunity for content marketing?

Yes, I definitely agree that an opportunistic approach to keyword optimization can be effective. Keyword Glossaries are fairly fixed lists of target keyword phrases relevant to customers and to the products or services being promoted and optimized. Dynamic keyword lists can be fueled by social media monitoring software, buzz tracking sites and news sites. When a meme emerges on the social web or a viral video, infographic or blog post explodes, people will search for it. They’ll search for more information or additional examples of the viral object. That’s an optimization opportunity.

Monitoring for search demand opportunities and then creating and promoting optimized content in response, can result in capturing a significant amount of relevant traffic from something started by another company – even a direct competitor. Public Relations professionals have been doing this for years and David Meerman Scott wrote an ebook about it called Newsjacking.

If in the future everyone’s search results are customized, how can you scale a content marketing program so that search works for the brand?

The first thing to consider is that the content needs to get into the search engine and indexed before it can be ranked and then personalized. Without those steps, personalization means nothing to a brand because their content isn’t eligible to appear in the first place. Or if it is included, the lack of optimization means it’s at a disadvantage to other content that is optimized.

The questions to ask are: How is the content included? How is it personalized? The answers to those questions are content creation, promotion and optimization opportunities. In other words, make sure content is created and included in a way that’s meaningful to search engines and users. Also make sure social sharing and content promotion follow optimization best practices to influence personalization. Make that part of the content creation process in the organization along with reporting and feedback – and it can scale.

Trick question: As an online marketing guy, do you believe in the integration of print and in-person content marketing strategies with online marketing?

Whatever influences consumer behavior is fair game in my book. If that means a brand creates online and offline content to guide prospects through a sales funnel, then so be it. I’m not as concerned about online or offline as much as understanding what will it take to attract and engage prospects to inspire them to share, buy and refer. If that means online to offline integration of content, then let’s roll.

What is the biggest online or social media channel opportunity that most marketers are ignoring?

Of course you’re talking about industrial engineering and Pinterest! Actually, image and video are probably under utilized according to the growth of their popularity. Mobile social media is even more neglected by marketers proportionate to growth in use by consumers.

If a brand wants to truly optimize their social, search and content marketing, how do you see the marketing group set up organizationally to scale this efficiently? Is their an in-source/out-source combination that you’d recommend?

I would start by reading a really good book called, Managing Content Marketing by these two smart guys, what are their names again?

I do think there needs to be content marketing leadership in place or at least buy-in to content strategy by marketing leadership. Marketing plans that incorporate customer segment and buying cycle information with editorial plans is a start. Adding social and SEO into the processes followed to plan, create, promote, manage and measure content enables scale.

As I mentioned above, bringing in outside expertise can help asses and recommend a plan that best uses a company’s resources. Then the company can evolve it’s own processes and internal collaboration accordingly with or without continued outside assistance.

Is their a content marketing measurement/ROI silver bullet? How hard is it to measure this stuff?

Business goals. It’s important to ask: Are business performance trend lines moving in the right direction in concert with content marketing initiatives or not? Revenue, retention, share of voice, and so on are all key business outcomes that can be affected by content marketing. The silver bullet is to set goals, create a plan and figure out the performance indicators that will allow you to adjust tactics to continually improve reaching business goals.

That’s optimization and a key principle in Optimize: continuously improve approach and tactics based on KPIs to reach objectives.

What is the most important question that I didn’t ask you?

What’s my favorite social app? Instagram. Let’s hope Facebook doesn’t do evil things to or with it.

Actually, a better question might be:  Where can you buy Optimize? Check it out on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or visit the book site: http://optimizebook.com.

Thanks to Lee for a great interview.  In closing, below is a fun video featuring Lee Odden from TopRank Online Marketing, Joe Pulizzi from the Content Marketing Institute, Rick Burnes from Hubspot and Aaron Kahlow from the Online Marketing Institute in a phone booth at the Online Marketing Summit Minneapolis event.  It’s almost two years old now, so don’t get mad if the answers are wrong.

The original post is titled Optimizing Social, Search and Content: A Q&A with Lee Odden , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you know that my favorite color is orange and my favorite number is 42 (hence our first company, Junta42).

Although most of the credit for using 42 is because of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from Douglas Adams, where the number 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything, there are other significant reasons as well…

• When I officially launched the business, my two sons were ages 4 and 2.
• It’s the angle at which a rainbow appears.
• Because of the band Level 42 (Lessons in Love was my favorite song to play the bass guitar with).
• and, of course, Jackie Robinson.

On an importance level, it’s hard to compare what Jackie Robinson, and players like Hank Aaron and Larry Doby accomplished, but (as usual) I’d like to put this in the context of content marketing.  Here goes.

5 Content Marketing Lessons from Jackie Robinson

1. Multi-dimensional – Most people don’t realize that Jackie Robinson was amazing athlete in a number of sports.  Yes, baseball, but he was dominant in football, basketball and track.  The same goes for content marketers today.  No longer can we be good at just blogging or just video.  We need to be adept at creating and curating content in all channels where are customers are at, including text, video, audio and (yes) even print and in-person events (see the Content Marketing Playbook for more).
2. Worst to First- Becoming an excellent content creator is much more about learning and growing than natural talent. Case in point, while Robinson was at UCLA, he lettered in basketball, football, track and baseball.  His “worst sport” according to many was baseball, where he hit .097 in his only season. Some organizations shy away from certain content types because they aren’t comfortable or proficient with them.  If that’s the case, work the process and make it work for your customers (or, outsource it until you are).
3. C-Level Support – When Robinson first broke into the majors with the Dodgers, there was significant racial tension in the clubhouse between players.  Many of the white players were contemplating sitting out ballgames in protest to Robinson being on the team.  This ended promptly, when Manager Leo Durocher stated, “I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a f_____’ zebra. I’m the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What’s more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded.” For content marketing to work in an organization, the silos and petty content ownership issues have to go.  This is a C-Level issue.  Senior managers that don’t set a mandate for content marketing to succeed could face an internal battle that will stifle the customer experience for the short and long-term.
4. What’s Your Content Mission? – I believe that for a brand to be truly successful with content marketing, their content not only needs to attract and retain customers, but needs to stand for something greater than the product or service. This is the content marketing mission statement.  Jackie Robinson possibly did this better than anyone, taking the issue of race to the next level by playing himself in The Jackie Robinson Story, serving as editor of Our Sports magazine (focusing on race issues), and becoming the de facto expert on African-American issues on television talk shows, newspapers and magazines. A rising tide raises all ships. 
5. It’s Not a Campaign- Possibly the greatest thing I admire about Jackie Robinson is that, even through all the negativity, hatred and obstacles, he never stopped fighting for what he believed was a better way. After baseball, he became the first black person to become vice president of a major American corporation and continually worked to advance the cause of black people in business.  He also became active in politics and used his notoriety to bring positive attention to issues he believed were important to his mission.  Simply put, after baseball, he never stopped trying to make a better world. So many brands think that marketing and advertising are all about the campaign.  Sometimes they are, but content marketing is all about developing valuable, compelling and relevant content on a consistent basis, not on a timetable. Whether it’s through an enewsletter, a video series, a blog, or an event series…content is a promise to your customers that must be kept, every minute of every day.

Would Jackie Robinson stop after a six-month campaign?

The original post is titled 5 Content Marketing Lessons from Jackie Robinson #42 , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

According to CMI/MarketingProfs B2B Content Marketing research, 56% of companies hold some kind of education-based customer or prospect event during the year. Events are a treasure trove of content marketing opportunities, but unfortunately, many companies don’t make the most of capturing content throughout the life of the event. Here’s some strategies and tactics (in no particular order) to help extract the most content from your customer or prospect event, giving you the ability to drive your content marketing efforts throughout the year.

1. Twitter and Hashtags – Be sure that all speaker presentations display both the speaker’s Twitter sign and the hashtag (i.e., #cmworld) for the event on as many slides as possible. This promotes customer and prospect sharing.
2. Wi-Fi Access – First, make sure Wi-Fi is free, available and fast.  Second, make sure you post the access code and directions in as many places as possible.  You’d be surprised the number of events that only discuss Wi-Fi access at the beginning of the event and then never mention it again.  You want people to share the event content, right?  If so, give them the tools to do so.
3. Report on Your Own Conference – Make sure you cover your own conference with your own reporters and journalists.  I’m shocked by the number of events I go to where a content creator from the sponsoring company is not in the room to help tell and shape the speaker’s story. Also, your event is PRIME TIME to get customer quotes, testimonials and feedback.  Have a roving reporter go around and get that on tape (and get their permission sign off in the process).
4. Scheduling Speaker Interviews at the Event – As part of all speaker deals, make sure they are aware that you wish to interview them immediately after their presentations.  After they finish with conversations following their talk, pull them aside for two conversations: first, have them share their take on the conference (for use as a testimonial) and second, have them share the core concept with a few examples from their presentation that you can use in a conference follow-up post.
5. Move Away from the Normal Event – Think about mixing up your format to gather better content assets and engagement.  Here are 20 different types of conference formats that may work.
6. Cater to the Blogger Community – SXSW did a fantastic job catering to the bloggers their with the Samsung Blogger Lounge, a place where bloggers could meet and, most importantly, charge their devices.  If you don’t have a blogger lounge, make sure you know who the bloggers are and give them access to pretty much whatever they need.
7. Market All Year Long – The biggest mistake I see corporate events make is that they don’t start marketing the event until just a few months before the event.  With Content Marketing World, we start marketing for the next event as soon as (or even before) the next one is complete.  If you can convince your staff that event marketing actually never starts or stops, but is in continual motion, you’ll be MUCH better off.
8. Develop a Content Platform – In the same spirit as #7, if your goal is truly to be a leading thought leader in your space, then you should be developing THE content platform for your event.  That means creating content EVERY day, just like we do at CMI or they do at SXSW (note that even though the event just finished, SXSW continues to create fresh, relevant content that is in line with their event EVERY day. They also send copies of SXSW – The Magazine to core attendees throughout the year.)
9. Record the Presentations – Make a decision whether you are going to live stream the content, or record and post after the event…but regardless, record them (all of them).  It saddens me that the majority (yes, majority) of conferences I attend still do not videotape their sessions.  Unbelievable.  Have a plan ahead of time for how you are going to use the assets.
10. Engage Your Speakers in Content Creation – Many of your speakers love to share with their audiences that they are speaking at your event, but they may need some prodding.  Make sure you continually reach out to them with exciting event news that will give them ammunition to blog or tweet.
11. Q&A with Speakers – For the most part, speakers will be happy to complete email Q&A’s or even podcast interviews with you for promotion on your site.  Prepare this in advance and make it a part of your editorial calendar for the event.
12. Slideshare Mashups – Why not take the content from the event and put a visual spin on it leveraging Slideshare.  One very successful piece of content (50,000+ downloads) came from this social media predictions package (many of the contributors were Content Marketing World speakers).
13. Create Conversations Online - Give people the tools to chat and schedule meetups before the event begins.  Leverage your Facebook and LinkedIn event pages, as well as post listings on Plancast and Lanyrd.
14. Leverage Live Event Tweeting - Rachel Foster details multiple ways to leverage twitter with live tweeting and wrap ups distributed via Twitter post-event.
15. Event Videos that People Want to Share – For Content Marketing World, our goal was to create a video that people would want to view and share beyond the event (see our 2011 event video below).  Exact Target also does a great job of this with conference videos that are humorous and beyond shareable (this video of Joel Book is priceless).

What additional ways have you used that work?

The original post is titled Content Marketing for In-Person Events: 15 Ways to Extend Your Reach , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

My youngest son Adam experiencing the Apple Store for the very first time.

After going on the road for a workshop or a presentation, I usually check out of the hotel and cab it to the airport, trying to make it home for some quality family time.

This Friday was a different story.  This time, the family drove down from Cleveland to Columbus so we could all spend the weekend together in CBUS.  It was a wonderful surprise.

As we strolled along together that evening at the Columbus Easton Town Center shops (which are excellent by the way), we stumbled upon the Apple Store. None of us had ever been into an Apple store before, so we simply couldn’t resist.

Honestly, we could have stayed in the Apple store the entire day. 

The Apple Store Experience

I had one of those “Dad” moments you’ll never forget when my oldest son, Joshua, tested out the iPhone Siri for the first time by asking, “Where is the closest LEGO store to my location?”

After repeating his question, Siri produced a map and directions to the nearest LEGO store (just down the street by the way) in about two seconds.  Joshua’s laugh upon seeing/hearing the results was intoxicating…pure joy from a 10-year-old.

I didn’t know this until doing some research for this post, but the Apple store averages about $4,000 USD in sales per square foot per year. In comparison, Best Buy does about $900 and Tiffany stores take in $2,500 (which is great, but not Apple great).

So, why are Apple retail stores the most successful on the planet? There are a lot of reasons, but I believe it’s because I can experience the store on my own terms.  I can go in and play (yes, play) with all the Apple products.  I can listen to music with Dr. Dre headphones. I can play Angry Birds on an iPad. I can test out the speed of the Mac Air while scrolling through some how-to videos on the iPad sitting right next to it. No dirty looks.  No “excuse me sir, do you want to buy that”‘s. I can also choose not to talk to any of the employees in the store, and use the Apple Store App to research and buy on the spot with no human intervention.

In addition, Apple spares no expense in putting together an insanely great store experience. While many other retailers look for the most efficient materials, Apple (ala Steve Jobs) will not settle until everything (and I mean everything) is perfect (if you do not know what I mean, read this book).

Whatever the reasons are, the truth is that I can experience the Apple store in so many different ways.  There may not be another brand on the face of the earth where the experience is so personal to the buyer.

Creating the Apple Store Experience through Content Marketing

But we are not Apple.  Our products may not be as cool, or our C-level as visionary as Apple. We may not even have products that can be experienced at all.  How do you create a brand experience without that?

It is possible…with content marketing.

Customers and prospects can…

• Experience your expertise by providing them with the most compelling information about your industry.
• Experience your culture by allowing your employees to develop content freely within your organization.
• Experience your attention to detail by investing in your content through amazing design and flawless execution.
• Experience your passion through your blog posts.
• Experience your credibility by writing the definitive book for your marketplace.
• Experience your humanity by reading your comments on other people’s blog posts.
• Experience your product or service by first experiencing your valuable, compelling and relevant content (in all its forms), and in the process simplifying the customer’s buying process.

Customers and prospects really can know you, love you, respect you, and refer you because of your publishing, not just your products or services.  The game has changed. And, although this road is extremely challenging, the payoff is huge.

Is there a better way?

The original post is titled How to Create the Apple Store Experience for Your Own Brand , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

According to the myriad of small business success studies, it seems that about 50% of startups fail after five years in business.

Well, it’s nice to be on the right side of that statistic!

It’s hard not a get at least a little romantic about celebrating our 5th year in business. We officially launched Junta42, now the Content Marketing Institute and SocialTract, on April 2, 2007. After 1,825 days in business, we are stronger than ever. 2011 was by far our best year, as we grew revenues over 300% and launched the largest content marketing event in the process.

To celebrate our anniversary, we are giving away copies of Robert Rose’s and my book, Managing Content Marketing, for 99 cents on Amazon.com (Kindle version).  This will only be available for 42 hours starting 4/2, so get the “how-to” manual for content marketing today for practically nothing (and spread the word!).

15 Critical Business Success Tips for Startups and Small Businesses

As we’ve grown CMI, I’ve leaned on many critical resources and keep them pinned to my office wall, such as Mark Fletcher’s 15 Startup Commandments, Dharmesh Shaw’s Startup Triplets, and Fast Company’s 10 Common Mistakes Startups Make. Although it’s hard to clearly identify what the most critical success factors have been during our “road less traveled”, here are the ones that I believe have made the most impact on me, on our company, our amazing employees, and most of all, our valued customers.

1. Be the Leading Informational Provider for Your Industry – Content marketing works.  We have tremendous flexibility in our business model simply because we deliver valuable and compelling industry information to our customers and prospects. Our daily updates, our weekly enewsletters, our quarterly magazine, and our annual research all helps to position us as the go-to resource for content marketing information. Without all this, I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to grow our business, not to mention the sheer cost of sales.
2. Invest in the Right People – Although our people are some of the leading experts in the entire industry, we hire first based on attitude and flexibility. People with great attitudes who are fun to work with can learn and do just about anything.
3. Give Employees Permission To Fail – We tell all our employees the following: “Do what you have to do to be successful.  Don’t wait for permission. Ask for forgiveness later.” Whether this is a solid policy or not, it helps our employees to take risks and become leaders.
4. If You Partner, Plan the Exit Strategy First – I cannot express how critical this is.  If you partner with anyone, plan that someday the divorce will happen.
5. …Or Just Don’t Partner – In my experience, most partnerships simply don’t work and hamper the creativity of the organization.  Just be careful.
6. Risk Everything, Everyday – One of our advantages is that we are willing to try anything if we believe in what it can provide for our customers or that we can gain a competitive advantage.  We reach decisions quickly, and change these decisions slowly if and when they are changed.
7. Success Is Impossible without Failure – I saw this statement on Kansas basketball player Thomas Robinson’s arm (tattoo) and I couldn’t agree more. There were moments when I didn’t believe the business was going to make it.  Looking back, it was those moments that have defined our organization.  I’m no longer afraid of failure, but keenly aware of what new opportunities arise because of it.
8. Don’t Fall in Love with Your Product or Service – This almost cost us the entire business.  Although our content marketing matching service, Junta42, was working and profitable, we weren’t growing the business at a rate that was acceptable.  But Junta42 was my baby and, although I knew it needed to evolve, it took everything I had to pivot the business in a new direction.  Discarding the product we began the business with was the best business decision, and hardest one, I ever made.
9. Get a Good Attorney and Accountant – Never do any of this yourself.
10. Rely on Your Instincts – If the numbers are right, but your gut feels different, go with your gut…every time.  This little piece of advice has served me well.
11. Don’t Listen to Your Friends – The majority of my friends thought I was crazy for leaving a high-paying executive job to start a business.  Again, go with your gut.
12. Write a Book – How can you be the leading expert in your industry without a book?  Honestly, I’m not sure.  Write the book for your industry and it will become the greatest business card you’ll ever have. It will also lead to amazing speaking opportunities that you would never get without the book in hand.
13. At First, Try Everything…then Focus – When you are a micro-sized business, you can afford to try a little bit of everything.  That’s perfectly okay.  But once you get to a point where the business model is flushing itself out, then you need laser focus.
14. Give Content Gifts to Industry Leaders – It is your responsibility to know who the influencers are in your industry that can help make or break your business.   Once you identify those people, you need to be sharing their content on a consistent basis, whether that is through Facebook, Twitter or building lists like we did with the Junta42 Top Content Marketing blogs. The more unsolicited gifts of content you can give, the more they will return the favor…helping to build your business into the future.
15. Have Fun! – If you wake up in the morning and you aren’t excited about going to work, something is wrong with your business. The last five years have been an amazing experience that only can happen to someone who has launched a business.  I find myself in the unique place of not wanting for anything in life.

A sincere (and I mean it) thank you to all those people (especially our employees) who have helped make our business successful.  A special thank you to my wife and family for their unwavering support every step of the way.

Here’s to the next five years and beyond…and if you made it this far in the post, don’t forget to get your anniversary copy of Managing Content Marketing to help celebrate with us.

The original post is titled 15 Critical Business Success Tips after Five Years in Business [with special giveaway] , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .

Since we have just a few days left until our early bird rate (saving $300) is gone (expires 3/31), I felt that now was the time to shoot everyone update and try to persuade you to come to Content Marketing World (if you are not already persuaded) – September 4-6 at the Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio USA.

I’m excited that we already have some amazing marketing executives signed up from companies like  Level 3, SAS, IBM, Majestic Steel, Deloite, UBM, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, CME Group, University of Phoenix and more.

In no particular order, here are 10 things I’m excited about when it comes to #cmworld 2012:

1. Amazing brands telling their stories – Last year, our attendees loved the fact that actual brand marketers spoke about how they were creating and distributing content to attract and retain customers.  So, how did we one-up 2011? This year’s event includes marketing executives from Google, Sears Holdings, Kraft, SAP, Intel, Dell, Kelly Services, SAS, Sybase, Openview Venture Partners, MasterControl, IBM and many, many more (we’re still working on a few more very exciting brands).
2. A literal “who’s who” of content marketing experts – You simply cannot make this stuff up.  Every one of these speakers have keynoted some of the largest events around the world…speakers like Jay Baer, Ann Handley, Mike Stelzner, Brian Clark, C.C. Chapman, Jason Falls, Andrew Davis, Ardath Albee, Robert Rose, Scott Abel, Lee Odden and more.  I am humbled by the fact that these amazing people have so willingly devoted their time to sharing their knowledge at Content Marketing World.
3. Amazing Keynotes – including an unforgettable presentation from Mitch Joel (often called Canada’s Seth Godin), Google’s Sam Sebastian, and our #1 rated speaker from last year, Marcus Sheridan.  If you’ve never seen Marcus in person, here is your chance.  (PS – We have a couple more keynote surprises on the way.)
4. Five unbelievable workshops – Last year, we sold out of our only workshop and had attendees asking for more.  This year, we’ve added an additional four workshops including Content Marketing 101, Content Marketing for Non-Profits/Associations, Growing Your Content Marketing Agency, Building Your Buyer Personas, and Managing the Webinar Lifecycle.
5. Rick Springfield – enough said.
6. CBUS – Columbus is a truly amazing city, now the 15th largest in the US (most people don’t know that). And considering that we are in The Ohio State University’s backyard (Final Four Finalist), that has to be good karma.
7. The Agenda – Over 40 sessions, 70 speakers and literally every content marketing challenge answered, from B2B, B2C, small business, social media, content discovery, content distribution, content marketing strategy, process and more.
8. Orange – If you thought you saw a lot of orange last year, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  We can’t get enough of the color orange (and to our wonderful surprise, orange is 2012′s color of the year).
9. The Sale – The last three marketing conferences I attended, the event hotel rate was an average of $315 USD per night.  Our rate is $129 USD per night.  Yes, you are seeing that right.  Take that to your approving manager (hey, if you need to justify your trip, here’s a helpful form).
10. 99%+ – In our exit surveys, there was only one person who attended CMW 2011 that said they would not return in 2012 (they just didn’t appreciate That Kevin Smith).  We were simply amazed by the awesome testimonials from last year’s conference.

For 2012, the CMW team is shooting for 100%.  I sincerely hope to see you there.  Register today!

The original post is titled 10 Things You Need to Know about Content Marketing World 2012 , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .