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Content Marketing in the Digital Age
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Tajdar O. Chaudry
I’ll bet there’re a lot of times that you’ve been sitting, staring at those bills and wondered if you could ever earn money by just being yourself for once rather than end up doing what you don’t like for a living when it just basically makes ends meet. You tried a couple of times to check out data-processing work-from-home jobs but only came across $59.99 worth of unreliable information and dodgy spam-tactics. The ones that were worth it just weren’t compelling enough for you to part with your cash. If this has happened to either of you, keep reading.
I’ve been a member of a rather entertaining pick-up artist’s mailing list for some time now. I got an email from him today that centered around a topic that really piqued my interest and you know I read that bad boy through right to the email signature. The thing is that I’ve read many of his emails which usually involve one topic or the other and entertain questions from his readers which he then answers via the mailing list to serve as an example of his skills to all. The stuff is quite interesting and even features an oddball hate mail from time to time to lend towards authenticity purposes. All emails end up with him pushing one of his “specialized skill” products and I never felt the need to click through as I did today and “buy that program for a one-time special price of $29.99”.
What you just witnessed was a fine example of content marketing systems being implemented from the simplicity of mere nothingness. I realize a lot of you reading this might already be aware of what I’m talking about, but this is more for those who are alien to the concept or unaware of its potential.
Content Marketing systems rely primarily on the individual and how well you market the brand that is “you”. Find a topic that you’re passionate about, lets say you’re great at relationship advice or a self-professed poker champion. Write down the methodology and stories of your experiences; make it relative, so you can pass your talent and expertise onto others. Become a mentor of sorts, don’t call yourself a guru though, that’s so 2008! Make sure you compartmentalize everything so you don’t sell everything all in one go, have to stretch that paycheck as much as you can. Have a friend or hire someone to package it nicely with some graphic work. Great branding is half the sell and even great packaging can leave a good image of you even if you don’t end up making a sale on that visit, think recall. Convert all your documented work into Adobe Acrobat files to save you the taxing overheads of manual print besides showing your respect for the environment and being eco-friendly.
Next, we’ll need a website (that’s somewhere you might want to invest a little, image commands perception as previously stated) with a fancy email marketing solution that you can use to build your list of followers. Bravenet has a pretty great free service going on, you might want to start there. The methods by which you choose to attract people to the website all depends on your capabilities at being an able marketer. You’re the CMO, CEO & CFO of “Me” Corporation and your talent is your key to success, with credibility being your cash. Those two attributes will determine your success in this venture.
For starters, start sharing your information on the social mediums that you’re signed on to. They act as great marketing tools. Blog side by side also if you can afford to, get people coming onto your website by answering queries in special interest forums and divert all answers to your blog post. LinkedIn is a great place to do so if you’re trying to network with people alongside. Notice in that last sentence how “LinkedIn” wasn’t a hyperlink, now THATS what your aim should be with all of this; so vastly known that people know how to get to you without needing an address. Back to the topic though, What you’re sitting on by now hopefully is a decent sized subscriber base. Start sending them teasers of your work, take questions that people ask you and answer them in front of your crowd, build credibility and leadership. Push your product as the footer to those emails and entice people with incentives that you can bundle with your product, a little like icing on the cake.
All this should work if you’ve successfully appealed to the crowd and the questions start pouring in. If it isn’t the outpour you imagined then perhaps have another look at your methodology, see where you could entice more and leave something for the imagination. Revisit your marketing tactics and get a friend to jump in as your consumer and get their perspective. Content Marketing used in the digital age can save you ton’s on costly overheads that previously existed in the “physical age” and the best part about them is that they rely on the only person you trust to steer them right, you! I realize after having finished this one that I sound like a content marketer myself! Oh well, there might just be hope for me too.
If you’ve found this post to be useful to you in any way, all I request is that you share that knowledge and this post alongside.
Author: Tajdar O. Chaudry
The author is a Public Relations practioner who blogs about Social Media, Public Relations, Badvertising & Music from all over the world. He also tweets at @TajdarOC
It’s not that i am alien to this concept, I did believed when i first heard the term “Content is King” and “If You’re Not Content Marketing, You’re Not Marketing” back in 2007 or early 2008.
All i needed was a little bit of inspiration and some kind of a quick start guide like you just provided and i would like to thank you for that.
Also I think the term content marketing in not clear to me when you said “Write down the methodology and stories ….”,
I think of this phenomena of a person sharing an authentic and real story about a product or service to be testimonial marketing. The person is giving testimony which is far more powerful and accurate a term than just content. Content really tells us nothing of what the information is, while testimonial shares with you the fact that it is the strongly held opinion of this person’s content.
It's not that i am alien to this concept, I did believed when i first heard the term “Content is King” and “If You're Not Content Marketing, You're Not Marketing” back in 2007 or early 2008.
All i needed was a little bit of inspiration and some kind of a quick start guide like you just provided and i would like to thank you for that.
Also I think the term content marketing in not clear to me when you said “Write down the methodology and stories ….”,
I think of this phenomena of a person sharing an authentic and real story about a product or service to be testimonial marketing. The person is giving testimony which is far more powerful and accurate a term than just content. Content really tells us nothing of what the information is, while testimonial shares with you the fact that it is the strongly held opinion of this person's content.
For great information on Content Marketing, head over to Junta42. Joe Pulizzi is a leader in pushing this concept and there is always great content on his site. Good stuff, Tajdar.
Content Marketing systems rely primarily on the individual and how well you market the brand that is “you”. So true, since it ain’t the systems that does it for you, it’s just you. Although the word ‘you’ can easily be replaced by brand X since brands nowadays must be more personal to reach their (potential) costumers and act personal also. Interesting article
I feel so lucky to have such great comments passed on my first blog post. I believe experience is a sum of collective insights and each one of you have contributed to my own knowledge and growth in your own individual ways. Thank you for adding “juice” to the post with your detailed insights.
If you’ve got a moment, check out my 2nd blog post titled “The Currency of Branding” at http://bit.ly/329RjH
Thanks again, you guys are absolutely great!
Best,
Tajdar
I like the buddy approach to your post. The content makes sense as smart-marketing is a dynamic tool and can be used as an extremely potent catalyst to sell your product – even if that is yourself.
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Loved the post for its easily approachable and personalized style. With lots of handy tips, its an excellent 101 for all those blogger and marketing wannabes who want to get started in the online world.
Choosing something that you’re passionate about is the key because if you have a passion for something you’ll never run out of ideas, inspiration, and motivation. Plus you’ll have so much fun during the process too.
Good luck with this blog!
@Salma: I had no problems signing up with aweber so I never knew there was a service problem for Pakistan. I guess payment via a credit card with Pakistani address may be an issue for you, but my Pakistani credit card goes through every month.
Saw your Elance profile. Interested in seeing some sample work. A few clients ask for content help so perhaps I can slide them your way.
@Talal: very nice point about keeping customers first. Any decent online business should perform the following five functions:
1) Acquisition (get traffic)
2) Activation (happy 1st visit)
3) Retention (multiple revisits)
4) Referral (users refer others)
5) Revenue (some transaction occurs)
Measuring and monitoring each of these metrics allows for performance tuning of campaigns, landing page and transaction workflow.
Quite a good article and I guess there is nothing more that I can add to it. One thing that I would like to say is, “If you want to earn money online, Stop thinking about earning”
Yes that’s the trick. Your concentration must be fully on the people, your visitors. You have to attract your visitors while marketing yourself. Once you have an audience believe me you will see a huge change in your graph.
Most of the people here just try to put up a website or something to earn. Yes fine, you will adopt some rapid ways to earn money, but in the long run, you will lose your visitors. “Customer’s satisfaction should be your primary goal”. If your customer is not happy with you, believe me, you will not just lose 1 customer, rather you lost a huge chain of customers from just one of them.
I wonder if people still go for $59.99 crap because it’s so dead…. Great article, loved reading it.
@adnan: really? I tried to sign up some months ago and got a notice saying they dont offer services in pak just yet.
On the other hand I use PayPal, and they dont offer Pak services either, so i know there are ways around it. So are you talking about an indirect method or have aweber started pak services?
Btw the rest of your post is kick-ass (but I’m sure you already knew that). Converting content to different formats is a really good way to get it indexed across platforms. I’m still new to the game and looking for all the start-up ideas I can get–thanks!
@Salma: I use aweber in Pakistan.
@Tajdar: Excellent post. One point I always focus on is testing of the message. The same message can be delivered in several ways. For example the subject line of the list may start with the receiver’s first name, or not. Testing these things help you fine tune your message over time and helps in increasing conversion rates without much investment.
Also, since Google is now adding more and more kind of content to it’s results page, the competition for the top 10 spots is getting harder. I encourage content marketers to take part of their content and publish it free in different formats. One can create a video based upon the content and publish it to numerous video hosting sites. Also convert the salient points to PowerPoint slides and upload to Slideshare.net. A PDF can be uploaded to Scribd.com. This allows for multi-format distribution and increases the chances of appearing in the search results. Remember, this is how you are going to find new people to join your list. So this is the investment side.
Once there is a list, one can market own products, affiliate products and products that are adjacent to the market.
Content is king. Credibility is easily seen. No one is silly enough to fall for the lame tactics as they once were. That is why the new age with Social Media will serve the everyday person well and those wishing to check someone out. Most products like you say, hold salt if the person is straight up.
This line made me laugh out loud:
“don’t call yourself a guru though, that’s so 2008!”
I’m going to use it for my next twitter update, crediting you, of course.
On a side note though, I wouldn’t recommend using a free service to manage email lists: a better option would be aweber but they dont offer services in Pak. second best option is constantcontact.
If you are at all serious about email mktg, free is not the way to go: if the list gets spammed or doesn’t function properly, your subscribers are going to unsubscribe faster than you can say “click here”.
I think what I personally enjoyed the most has to be that you stress on picking something that we “enjoy” the most, or are good at. Unless you don’t feel passionately about something, the words won’t come, and your knowledge on the subject will be rather thinly spread.
Well said.
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Great post. Personal branding often involves “teasers”. I offer my potential PR clients teasers all the time, in the form of free interviews/placements and such, until I get them as real clients on retainer. The crudest professional analogy (forgive me) would be a drug pusher who gives you a “taste” before getting you hooked (in this case on PR/marketing) .
Passion, focus, shared experience, discipline, drive and determination alongside a GREAT parable of share the wealth…. of what you know.
I love the humanistic approach to this post as well. And what is so great about the “content is king” comment is that, we are the content. When we find people who relate to what we also feel so strongly about that instant bond is made. Keep nurturing it with good information. Mr. Matsumoto’s comment was also wonderful, yes humbling indeed and thrilling. Fantastic – the power of positive marketing & oh yes I pass this along!
Very well written and very true. I hope all Pakistani businesses and start-ups read this! It would be extremely useful for them.
Tajdar,
You have hit the nail on the head with this blog. Everything is about personal branding and content in this era of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Used effectively these tools can propel once common, everyday folks just going about their lives into industry thought leaders. Even if that industry is outside of their normal day-to-day employment as we all have skills and interests outside or our day jobs.
I can cite myself as an example of this very thing. Three years ago I was a Parts Manager at a Chrysler Dealership, and prior to that I was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps. Now you may be asking yourself how did you end up in luxury marketing. The answer is easy, I’m a natural marketer, its what allowed me to have 15% year-over-year growth in an industry where 5% is the bench mark. I also enjoy dressing well, and many of the other finer things in life.
To your point I turned my passion into a business. Now there have been many trials and tribulations along the way, but through proving value first and not hard selling I have done just what you have outlined above. I am amazed everyday by the number of followers I have aquired on Twitter, and the off line relationships and resources that has given me. It is incredibly humbling to know that so many value your perspective.
We are all told from a very young age to just, “be yourself,” and no where is that more important than in Social Media and Content Marketing. Be genuine, be passionate, and most of all BE YOURSELF! The dividends will come to you in the form of relationships and finances.
Cheers,
Steven Paul Matsumoto
CEO
Stigmare, Inc. Couture Marketing & Product Development
Nicely done and very thorough. Just remember content is king. It’s why it’s called “content” marketing. There’s nothing more powerful than sharing excellent content. From a brand standpoint, I’d rather be known for what I share than what I know.