This week I attended American Business Media’s Spring Meeting 2007, which had a large focus on digital media (surprise, surprise). The first discussion of the event revolved around social networking and how publishers can launch and monetize social networking sites.

Much of the conversation revolved around vertical search. For those who are unfamiliar with what vertical search is, Wikipedia has a wonderful definition. The quick definition?  Take Google and focus it on a particular industry or topic.  For example, mash up Google with a 60+ year-old, and you get Cranky.com.Continue Reading

Today’s USA Today focused on American Eagle’s try in the land of entertainment marketing. The outfitter plans to create a 12-episode series entitled, “Mall World,” a comedy where the main characters will wear AE clothing. Shows will be aired on MTV and at AE.com.

Obviously, this is one of many organizations that have tried their hand at entertainment marketing, from the groundbreaking BMW Films, to the wildly popular “Tea Partay” from Smirnoff.

Who knows if this will be successful, but AE is on the right track. Good content, targeted to a particular audience, is today’s brand driver. Success will be purely on the shoulders of how engaging the content will be to this 12- to 25-year-old audience. Too much selling in the episodes and these will die a short death. It’s an easy concept, but hard to implement.

The more companies I work with, the more I find that an organization’s communication strategy revolves around selling a very specific product or service. Is this necessarily horrible? No, not at all. Of course we want our customers to know about our products, services, specials, and talents. But revolving all communications around a sell can be detrimental to the long-term relationship you are trying to create with your customers.Continue Reading

I’ve been working with a client on their communication and marketing strategies. Just finished reading a 30-page draft of target audience, markets, goals, and measurement points. Overall, the 30 pages were an excellent description and strategy of their customers and how to solve their problems through products, services, and educational communication initiatives.

There was one problem though. Not once was anything mentioned about the company’s “internal” marketing strategy. Since I became a follower of Don Schultz, it has become clear that internal marketing is essential, if not MORE important than external marketing.Continue Reading

Over the last week, I’ve talked to four business-to-business media executives, including two CEOs. I asked each of them the same question, “How easy or difficult would it be to add $1 million in revenue to a magazine brand over a year’s time?” Almost as if rehearsed, they all said the same thing: “Like pulling teeth…”

Driving revenues (beyond low single-digit percentages) is extremely difficult for publishers in today’s environment. Marketers continue to spend more and more time, resources, and budgets on their own content efforts. This is becoming crystal clear to publishers. Even with eMedia growing substantially, it’s challenging for media companies to add large chunks of revenue through eMedia products and services alone.

I believe publishers have accepted custom media, custom publishing, content marketing (whatever term you like) as one of the best, if not the best way, to grow revenues over the next three to five years. Successful ones will get on board…before it’s too late.

I came across Larry Chase’s “Content Marketing Manifesto” today. Larry provides an excellent overview regarding the opportunities available if you create and market valuable content effectively.

I really like Larry’s last point: “The currency you seek at the beginning of a commercial relationship is first time, and the money comes later.” Today’s marketing is all about building relationships. Don’t move so fast to the sell that you lose them…provide them great content…and the money will come.

I had a conversation yesterday with an executive that works with marketers to help them with leadership development and networking. We started on the conversation about the disconnect between what marketers call content marketing, and what publishers call custom publishing or custom media.

The ongoing issue for publishers and media companies to realize here is that custom publishing/custom media are truly publishing terms, and do not focus on the end-user of these services, the marketer. Nor do they focus on the key aspect of this marketing function, valuable content.

At some point, the two sides will need to come together…simply to be able to work with each other and get on the same page.

Take this definition for content marketing –

“Relevant and valuable information delivered by a company to a targeted audience with the purpose of changing or fostering a behavior.”

Now go back and read it one more time, this time, remove the relevant and valuable. Then go back again and remove targeted.  This is what you get –

“Information delivered by a company to a(n) audience with the purpose of changing or fostering a behavior.”

Now, that is a definition of how most companies market.  See the difference.  There is room for growth here.