Recently, I had a great call with a prospective client. Quite frankly, it was my favorite kind of phone call. He soaked up our proposal and had so many fantastic questions. Like so many of our clients, this will be the first non-traditional marketing engagement his company dives into. Aside from talking about each anticipated phase and line item, he asked a question that was so straightforward I nearly stood up and cheered.
As we explored the Content Creation phase, he paused and asked, “But what if the content sucks?”
How awesome is that?!
This is actually a question that I’m sure so many companies have. Yet, it’s the one question nobody asks! After all, they don’t want to offend or imply that Well Planned Web would ever produce rotten content. But, when investing thousands of dollars each month in a Content Strategy, shouldn’t you feel confident in what you’re getting? Yes. Yes, you should. So ASK that very question of any content agency you interview (okay, first choose whether the word “sucks” is part of your personal voice or tone 
).
But here’s an important question for you to explore beforehand… [click to continue…]
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The Content Marketing Institute knocked it outta the park once again. Last year’s inaugural Content Marketing World event drew 600 of the world’s top content professionals. This year, the event compelled 1,000 of the top content brains to spend a week together — sharing content strategies, trends, challenges, success stories, case studies, awards and parties.
I have oodles of deep, “game-changing” takeaways that are sure to take our team and our client engagements to the next level. However, as with last year, I also relished many “simpler” moments that caused at least one of my eyebrows to take flight. These are in a “tossed salad” format — no particular order.
1. Print needs a second (or first) look.
In fact, Nenad Senic (@NenadSenic) reminded us that deriving a content marketing plan without considering print is downright silly. Particularly because print is still an extremely immersive medium.
68% of US consumers said customer magazines influence their purchase behavior. Nenad’s examples were compelling — and *not* limited to B2C. Even Google has its own *printed* magazine. Heck, I’d read it. Wouldn’t you?
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A sidebar Nenad eyebrow-raising moment: English is not Nenad’s first…or even second language. Yet, his speech and presentation was flawless. Way to make the rest of us look bad, Nenad 
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2. Email trumps social — hands-down. So there.
I’ve never jumped on the whole “email is dead” thing. But, the eyebrows really went up when ExactTarget’s Jeff Rohrs (@jkrohrs) pointed out that email is actually social media’s “secret weapon.” How do you get notified when your LinkedIn followers update their profiles? Email. How do you know when you have a new Twitter follower? Email. How do you know when someone comments on your YouTube video? You get the idea.
Email may not be “sexy” to Pinterest-obsessed marketers…but it’s still the most consistent, reliable digital messaging medium out there. Oh…speaking of Pinterest…how do you know when someone has repinned your pin? You guessed it. [click to continue…]
We are tickled orange!
The Content Marketing Institute announced this month that Well Planned Web has been chosen as a finalist for the 2012 Content Marketing Orange Awards!
The Orange Awards celebrate the best and brightest people, projects, and agencies from around the world that are dedicated to the practice and execution of content marketing.
This year’s awards garnered more than 600 total submissions. Entries for the content marketing agency side of the awards program were judged by leading brand marketers from around the globe such as Coca-Cola, Dell, Sears, SAP, Kelly Services, IBM, McDonald’s and Intel.
Each of the finalists will be honored at a gala event on September 6, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio at the conclusion of Content Marketing World — the largest Content Marketing Event on the planet.
Winners will also be featured in the November issue of Chief Content Officer Magazine.
As the marketing and online communication landscape whooshes by at the speed of light, one particular mantra seems to get louder and louder:
“Know Thy Audience.”
Listen up CEOs, CMOs and COOs: Audience Personas are not just a nice idea or a warm fuzzy. Locking eyes with your audience in every piece of communication is more essential than ever — especially when it comes to the complex sale that requires helping a prospect or customer make a complicated decision.
Yet, those of us here at Well Planned Web who facilitate the process of intense audience profiling are often met with resistance. We hear push-back like, “We already know our audience,” or “I’ll just send you the demographic report.”
Our favorite: “We know our customer. We just don’t know how to reach them.”
We’re proud to say that once clients see their customers through the new set of lenses, it creates a ripple effect across their organization. In fact, two clients have even made their Profiling documentation part of their new employee packets (yes…that’s the sound of us tooting our clients’ horns).
The fact is…when it comes to reaching your customer or prospects today, there is no such thing as knowing them “well enough.”
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There’s plenty of buzz about “Content Curation” in the marketing world right now. In a nutshell, the word “curation” is used among content professionals to describe the careful research, sifting, selecting and sharing of content with others.
But let’s take a look at what it’s really about…not from the side of the content curator — but of the reader.
Imagine this. You’re in your office. You’re finally ready to tackle the task of finding a solution to a meaty business problem your team’s been facing. You Google it. You read. You wade through some amateur blog posts. You sift past keyword-laden micro-sites and eventually get fed up with the overload of nonsense on the very topic you’re trying to master. Grrr…doesn’t anyone have any meaningful information out there? You’re not ready for a full-blown consultation or sales call. You need *actual* answers to some of your immediate questions so that you can get educated and begin drawing your own conclusions.
Then it dawns on you. The people at your buddy Carl’s company seem to know their stuff when it comes to the topic at hand. In fact, they blog and Tweet about it weekly. Better yet, they make it their business to keep up on the latest trends, risks and laws associated with this issue you’ve been tasked with — and they distribute recommended articles, videos, news and resources every day.
So why reinvent the research wheel when Carl’s people are sifting through and finding the relevant information for you? That’s the beauty of content curation. Carl’s company is on top of the latest information so you don’t have to dig. It’s kind of like that old tagline, “You have questions. We have answers.”
Content curation is an essential part of establishing thought leadership in a content-saturated online landscape. By continuously sharing articles, news and breakthroughs about your industry and expertise, you also establish trust and authority.
The ultimate payoff?
Let’s continue with our scenario. Because Carl’s team clearly makes it their business to solve the problem you’re facing, perhaps you’ll send him a note, check out his company website or download the “Getting Started” report they recently published. The company is low on sales pressure and heavy on information. Voilà! You’re now a potential lead for Carl. And a solid lead at that. You already know him, trust him and recognize his team’s expertise.
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