Is Content Marketing Making Us Dumb?

Writing on his rethinc.k, blog last week, Jason Wilson posted “Content Marketing Will Kill the Law.” Not a question, mind you, a declaration.

Wilson, vice president of Jones McClure publishing in Houston, likens much of today’s “content” in the legal field to a golf course, “overrun by trees, grasses, and weeds clumped together in patches.”

Wilson is describing what he perceives as a dearth of those “weighty tomes” that, traditionally, feature a substantial body of analytical material. “Now, thanks to the Internet,” he says, “lawyers spend their time writing SEO pieces. Lawyers are no longer scholars organizing and explaining the law, but brand developers and managers.”

I can’t disagree, but I am compelled to point out the competitive jungle out there. What’s an ESQ to do?

Wilson acknowledges that his detractors say lawyers are producing more content than ever. He remains skeptical. “Where is the insight, how far does it extend?” he wonders. “You use terms like content, curation, and real-time as if these are the Three Kings that will lead us to a new era of knowledge and understanding. But I’ve actually tried to understand areas of the law using only the content marketing I could find, and it has failed me up to now. Have you tried to practice law from it?”

I wouldn’t argue with Wilson. Not a bit. In fact, I applaud him. But I do need to underscore  that content market is just that: marketing. It’s a way for people “in the know” to connect with and influence prospective and currentcustomers.

Let’s say it again. Content marketing is, indeed, “information,” but it need not be “analysis.” It can be statistics and definitions, case studies, and opinion. It can provoke thought and even probe, but its purpose is to offer the reader an overview, a synopsis, a round-up, and a quick look. In short, content marketing is a lot closer to public relations that it is to education. Those of us who do content marketing know that.

To his credit, as Wilson moves through his blog, he acknowledges this point. But he makes another poignant observation that actually scares me. “The end result of the shift from weighty tomes to content marketing is this: the disparity between the haves and the have nots is going to grow. Large law will compensate for the dearth of comprehensive analytical content by creating its own and using it in-house, or selling it to others at a steep cost.”

I fear that as much as Wilson does. Sadly, I think we’re already seeing this trend in areas both inside and outside the law. The deepest research – the most detailed, investigative, and diagnostic – is saved for those who can afford it. For-profit outfits like Gartner, Forrester and even MarketingSherpa (to name only a few), give away information in executive summary or teaser form, but reserve the complete deal for folks who can pay $499 and (way) up. That’s not a criticism at all. It’s the reality of economic survival in a capitalist society.

Besides, hasn’t this always been true? Haven’t the best educational resources always been primarily for those who have money – the elite schools, the brainiest professors, the costliest books, the in-depth research, and the pricey trade associations?

We experienced a bright shining moment there for a while, when the middle class was finally gaining access to some of the educational perks traditionally reserved for the rich folks. But the economy has exploded that populist notion. Meanwhile, the volume and speed of information – thrown at everybody, all at once – has nurtured the trend to shallow. Filling in the gap, at least partially, is the Internet, with its free “content.”

The legal field may have some peculiarities, but I think Wilson’s concern about content marketing is a scapegoat for more serious issues – namely, society’s move from a growing to a shrinking middle class, along with a decline in thinking, analysis, and self-examination replaced by the quick fix. That worries me, too.

Nobody so far seems to have a solution for the dumbing down of society, but it’s probably a blessing that content marketers are available to help overwhelmed attorneys – and the rest of us — stay in the race.

It’s All About the Database. It’s All About the Marketing.

Everybody is raving about Groupon’s speedy domination of the old-fashioned coupon business. Some consumers are wondering what the fuss is all about. Marketers know. The fuss is the same brouhaha that’s accelerated Facebook’s valuation to $75 billion and rising. It’s the database.

This morning I received an email from my credit card company offering me 15% off my next purchase at a local department store. Last week, I spent $200 at that department store. My credit card company knows that. I’m sure the department store is a partner in this joint promotion. They may have paid for it. The point is that my credit card company knows where I shop and what I buy. I’m in their database.

Groupon knows what my credit card company knows… except they know even more. Groupon knows what Idon’t buy. They know who bought what I bought on a given day (my consumer cohort). And every time I buy or don’t buy, they know even more. Investors are drooling.

Groupon offers a range of products and services – and the range is growing. On Saturday, I saw a local business show featuring a real estate broker from Chicago who has partnered with Groupon to offer a $1,000 rebate on closing costs for $25. The catch? The deal has to close with either the buyer or the seller working with the real estate firm. For now, it seems as though Groupon is getting it on with anybody who sells anything.

And then there’s the reality TV show, Georgetown Cupcake, which features a couple of cute sisters from Canada who have customers lining the street to scarf down little treats with big calories. Somehow these two women have become an overnight sensation in a superficial city known more for its wonkiness than its cuisine. Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis are now baking 5,000 cupcakes a day. At $3.00 apiece (guesstimate, probably low knowing Georgetown prices), that’s $15,000/day gross. Working 365 days a year (and why wouldn’t they?), these entrepreneurs are grossing $5,475,000 a year. Are their cupcakes to die for? I’m sure they’re tasty. They say the cupcakes are baked on site, using Valrhona chocolate, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, European sweet cream butter, gourmet chocolate sprinkles (yeah, like we know what any ofthat means, but, hey; it sounds exclusive … I’ll take a half dozen).

But, really, that’s not the point. Wait! Actually that IS the point. These business owners market themselves brilliantly. They have an aristocratic location, a darling logo, personality, accessibility, a friendly attitude, and singular pink rubber boots. They knew zilch about professional baking when they started the business, but they have terrific branding experience tailor made for the label-conscious D.C. market segment. Katherine Kallinis, 29, was an event planner for Gucci, and Sophie worked in private equity. These sisters know their status-desperate market and they speak to it just right.

Certainly, these tales are no-brainers for smart marketers, but there’s a lovely reminder here for our profession.

The Mad Men of 2011 can sell snow to an Eskimo because they know their Eskimos. That’s why investors love Groupon and Facebook — and anybody else who’s got a rich database. And that’s why the DC cognoscenti (who absolutely must be in the know about absolutely everything) shop at Georgetown Cupcakes. It’s all about the marketing.

Which Content Works At Which Stage of Marketing? Tips for B2B-ers.

April Brown, president/CEO, Rubicon Group, presented at the April 6 Marketing Automation 101 webcast sponsored by DM News with Eloqua.

The webcast focused on automated lead management systems (technology) designed to boost prospect conversion and loyalty/retention.

Brown says that automating the marketing process improves results. She cites statistics achieved in key marketing/sales efforts, including: sales forecast accuracy up 17%; lead conversions up 107%; revenue per sales rep up 20%; increase in “deal size” up 40%.

One dimension of the marketing process involves using content (fresh or repurposed) to pull a given prospect into the buying cycle, and then track the stages that prospect goes through in becoming a loyal customer. “What matters is that you are delivering content at the right point in the buying cycle to match with the stages of decision making,” she says.

Brown identifies ten types of content that can be delivered, as well as the various stages of decision-making most affected by each type, in her experience. “In general, here is [the type of content] we have found to work in the various buckets [buyer awareness, comprehension, consideration, preference, loyalty],” she says.

• Industry trends – awareness/comprehension
• Data sheets — comprehension
• Case studies – consideration, preference
• White paper—comprehension, consideration
• Analyst reports – awareness, preference, loyalty
• Demos/pilots – comprehension, consideration
• F2F meetings – preference, loyalty
• Newsletters — loyalty
• Promotions – preference, loyalty
• Social media – awareness, consideration

Brown also discussed lead scoring, the process that helps marketers rank one prospect against another and identify where a given prospect sits within the buying cycle. For example is the prospect: a) the right customer, but not interested; b) not the ideal customer, but very interested; c) a good fit and very interested; etc.?

Lead scoring fuses explicit and implicit scoring.

Explicit Scoring relates to the “profile fit” and stems from what prospects say, for example:

• job role
• industry
• pain/need identified
• lead source

As defined, content plays a key role in implicit scoring. Implicit Scoring relates to a prospect’s behavioral characteristics or what they do, for example:

• attend industry events
• download a high-value asset with last 30 days
• visit high-value content
• click through from an email campaign.

The Faceless Interview Pens A New Chapter in Content Aggregation

I follow Laura Dodd on Twitter, but I don’t know her personally. Still her simple Tweet caught my eye. It read, “My new book is in stores tomorrow!”

I clicked through, of course, and found a video featuring a twenty-something (her description, not mine) telling how she had aggregated content for her new book, Dig This Gig. The self-help manual is designed to show first-timers evaluate what’s actually going on in the job market they’re entering: what do titles really mean, what are employers really looking for, etc. etc.

Dodd says the process that culminated in her “book” grew organically, beginning in conversations to her twenty-something friends already in the marketplace. As such online conversations tend to do, the process webbed outward via social media to an ever larger group from whom she drew material. In other words, she gathered empirical evidence — commentary, opnion, and “sharing” — from friends and friends-of-friends online.

This is quite a contemporary approach to expertise, but one that the twenty-somethings reportedly trust more than information from distant “experts.” To this cohort, somebody you don’t know personally definitely needs to know somebody you do know or somebody you know who knows somebody else.

The empirical road to book publishing isn’t anything new, or course. Helen Gurley Brown took this approach all the way to the bank when she wrote Sex and the Single Girl in 1962. Still, Laura Dodd’s book – which may or may not be successful – exemplifies a growing (and likely permanent) trend in content aggregation: the faceless, joined-at-the-web interview.

So, business execs everywhere: Add social media aggregation to your content development strategy. Perhaps, over time, we’ll have less respect for this “friends” approach to expertise. But for now, I give kudos to Laura Dodd. Like all success stories she’s got the first step down – she’s early to market. I wish her the best.

Buried In Work? A Trusted Content Manager Can Dig You Out.

January’s newsletter from McKinsey Quarterly included an article to help senior executives cope with information overload. The advice boils down to four must-dos:

1. Stop multi-tasking. It’s addictive, makes us anxious, slows us down, and impairs creative problem solving. Acknowledge, reevaluate, and adjust the mindset that glues us to futile work patterns.

2. Focus. Resist intellectual over-consumption. Create and protect “alone time.” According to article authors Derek Dean and Caroline Webb, each day senior executives should shut down email, close web browsers, send phone calls to voice mail and – if they must – leave the BlackBerry or smart phone where they can’t check it.

3. Filter. Look only at matters needing a decision. Confine emails to those addressed directly (ignore cc’s) and ask the sender to include recommendations where appropriate. Delegate.

4. Forget. In short, regularly do something that puts work out of your mind.

Sounds good, but how? That’s where an Executive Content Manager fits into the contemporary corporate structure.

What are the characteristics of a 21^st Century Executive Content Manager?

1. Absolute integrity… a person you can trust … a person to whom you grant open access to your email accounts, who can capably sift through, route, and abstract what you need to know, turning a useless mountain into a focused molehill.

2. Intelligence … somebody smart, intuitive, and curious, who has a nose for trends … who can navigate the swift political waters … who understands what is important to the organization, both intellectually and functionally.

3. Superior communications and interpersonal skills… somebody who can read, write, condense, perceive, and abstract.

With this level of executive support, senior management can now focus on the business of visioning and strategic planning.

Webinars Have Touched A Content Marketing Sweet Spot: Short, Free, and Friendly

Webinars were hot about two years ago when users first caught up with the technology. Then webinars went quiet. I suspect that’s the time promoters found out people weren’t rushing to pay $199 (or more) for webinar information that’s readily available from a lot of other sources. We can all buy a book for $14, download a free white paper, read an eNewsletter, follow a group of informed bloggers, or even – with effort – Google search any topic.

Now, webinar sponsors have embraced content marketing.

In the past two months, content marketing webinars are eating up the landscape. The new model is free, short, and friendly. Since mid-March, I’ve had offers to attend six free webinars. Not only were these webinars complimentary, they aired for only an hour. Short is good and we’ll likely start seeing the ½-hour “blinkety-blink-blink” version soon.

I listened in on two of the six and would have indulged in two more had time been available. One of these (Anne Holland’s “Winning with Better Landing Pages”) taught me a lot and I spread the wealth via my blog post. I did something similar in December when I blogged about Chris Brogan and Pawan Desphande’s “Content Curation” webinar. Maybe that was a pay-off for the sponsors. I hope so.

I also missed a webinar I’d registered to attend. I certainly meant to attend, so I was happy when the sponsors acknowledged my empty seat. The follow-up email came a couple hours after the webinar finished, telling me I’d receive a link as soon the webinar was posted online. That’s a classy move (thank you, Marketing Experiments) and should count among webinar “best practices.”

Sponsors appear to have realized that webinars are a poor substitute for in-person meetings/seminars. Moreover, the early promise of webinars as a money-making scheme flopped. Webinars are, however, a superb approach to PR, branding, customer service, and community building — otherwise known as “content marketing.”

Ifixit.com – One of the Ultimate BrandsThatShare™

The BrandsThatShare™ concept is simple. Evolving from the traditional “brands that promise” (whose purpose is to sell stuff), brands that share give stuff away – important stuff.

A case in point: ifixit.com. As the founders, Luke and Kyle, explain in the “background” part of their website, “We started out fixing an old iBook together. There were no instructions on how to do it, so we started the way everyone does: the hard way. We tinkered. We fiddled. We broke some tabs and lost a few screws. But we fixed it!”

Today the mission has grown bigger, but remains every bit as simple: “We want to fix the world.”

In the process of growing and helping, ifixit does a great deal of the latter. They start by providing information, information, information – repair manuals, user forums, articles, videos, interviews – just about everything a person might need in the process of fixing and repairing. For example, they could charge for the repair, but instead they show users how to fix an ipod. How cool is that?

They also sell stuff, but when they do it, they provide information as a bonus (like this 10 Favorite Gifts list).

Ifixit informs further by remaining open to the media explaining and being available.

Sharing doesn’t stop at information, though. It also involves building community.

Commitment to larger issues (in ifixit's case, the environment) comprises another facet of activity common to brands that share.

One of ifixit’s most likeable attributes is the companies willingness to eat its own dogfood – meaning that it both uses and sells recycled products.

The company commits to being part of – and, where possible – building networks  with other like-minded BrandsThatShare. (Activism is one hallmark of brands that share).

Finally, there’s my personal favorite, “The Self-Repair Manifesto.” It’s actually free for the cost of shipping (and we’re not talking about that $8.99 shipping charge that makes us choke, just that $3.19 shipping, in my case). 

So if you wondered what BrandsThatShare look like, take a look at ifixit.com.

--  a gift from BrandsThatShare, with gratitude to ifixit.com.