Content That Works

A recent Custom Content Council* study shows that 84 percent of CMOs strongly/somewhat agree that custom content “represents the future of marketing,” backed by the fact that 59 percent of them have moved marketing money away from traditional advertising methods and put it into custom content.

For years, we at Hammock have been tooting the custom content horn: How it drives lead generation, leads to direct sales, and aids in customer retention. So when we see results of studies that illustrate just how important other industry leaders consider it, too, we get excited.

The study surveyed CMOs in fields including healthcare, technology, finance, retail, communications and insurance. Eighty-three percent of CMOs surveyed indicated they are "receptive toward using custom content in their marketing plans," which is a 16 point increase since the previous study conducted in 2006.

The findings also indicate that nine out of 10 chief marketing officers see value in custom content and recognize its positive effect on customers, and 85 percent believe custom content leads to repeat customers.

Other highlights from the study include nine in 10 CMOs reporting their belief that “a majority of consumers find useful information in custom media,” and nearly half strongly agree (91 percent strongly/somewhat agree) that custom content “should be an integral part of the marketing mix for any business.”

*Hammock Inc. is one of six founding members of the Custom Content Council. Today, more than 75 companies -- including some of the world's largest media companies -- are members of the leading national association of content marketing and custom media providers.

This year Hammock once again hit the events trail for our client, the Marine Corps League, making 2010 a record year in event-related advertising and expo sales.

The old saying “you can’t tell the players without a program” holds for trade shows where strapped-for-time attendees want to know what’s on display and where.

Since 2006, in addition to relaunching its member magazine, Semper Fi, Hammock has produced directories for each of the three annual Marine Military Expos sponsored by our client, The Marine Corps League. In that time, both Semper Fi and the Expo directories have experienced significant growth in advertising sales and print quantity.

Managed by Nielsen Expositions, a part of the Nielsen Company, these shows bring defense industry suppliers together with the Marines for frank discussions and critiques of the products and services.

The Expos are held at the Marine Corps bases at Camp Pendleton, CA, Camp Lejeune, NC, and Quantico, VA, outside Washington, DC. The latter is by far the biggest, drawing as many as 450 vendors and thousands of attendees.

In 2006, the guide for the Quantico event was 24 pages long, contained only two paid ads and was printed as part of the magazine. Since then it has doubled in size to 48 pages this year, with more than 19 pages of paid advertising that generated significant revenue for our client. The other two guides have seen similar growth.

Robust ad sales efforts and opportunities for vendor listings to be highlighted have helped fuel this growth, but advertisers say a redesign of both magazine and guides in 2006 plus a strong—and very Marine—content strategy make them increasingly desirable media buys.

The great thing about Twitter is there is no wrong way to use it. Sure, you'll see missteps in etiquette and plenty of spammers, but for the most part it's like Thunderdome: There are no rules.

There are guidelines, however, and Proactive Report offers a handy tip sheet from Ogilvy 360 for advice on various strategies—and suggestions on who to follow, what kind of content to create and how to engage for each situation.

If you're a Twitter pro you will probably recognize the various suggestions, and perhaps have some of your own to add, but if you're going to be covering an event or handling crisis management for the first time with Twitter this is a great starting point.

The first step in successful content marketing is to ensure your website is set up properly. Good Plum has a list of several common mistakes businesses make with their websites, including:

• A bad domain name: Will you choose one that incorporates important keywords? Or will you go with one that's catchy? Or both? Spend time researching and testing your domain name, Good Plum says.
• Neglecting traffic generation strategies: Websites that ignore tie-ins to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, fail to research keywords and other Internet marketing tactics, and ignore their rank in organic and paid search will not be as easily discovered as those who utilize those services.
• An ugly website: It might sound harsh, but if your website is difficult to look at (blinking banner ads everywhere, 10 different fonts, 50 different colors, etc.), people won't stay long. Be kind to your visitors' eyes and invest time in developing a good design—both visual and navigational—for your website.

I won't lie: When the Associated Press announced they were changing the entry in their stylebook from "Web site" to "website," several of us here in the office danced a little happydance. Despite being users (and lovers) of AP style, that was one word we did not agree with them on.

Robert Niles of The Online Journalism Review explains the importance of the AP's change in this recent blog post, referencing a tweet he made regarding the change: "If you're publishing online, Google style (i.e. SEO) always trumps AP style."

I don't completely agree with Niles; I think it's still important for journalism students to learn AP style. But it's also important that they learn to write for the web.

People are using Google to look for your content, and if you're still writing like you're publishing a magazine or newspaper, by default you're making it more difficult for Google to find you and, therefore, connect a potential client, customer or reader with your content.

That's not to say that all AP style is Google offensive, because it's not. But if you're writing a piece for your website or blog, you can't ignore what search engines look for. SEO (or "Internet marketing," for those who think SEO is a negative term) isn't just making sure you have your title and alt tags in place. It also involves using words and phrases that accurately describe what your article or blog post is about in a web-friendly way to help Google connect the right searchers to you.

Read more from OJR: The Online Journalism Review.

Despite what some might think, simply setting up a few social media accounts isn't enough. You have to have a strategy of how to use them.

Once you've outlined your objectives, if you're having trouble deciding which social media platforms to use to best market yourself, check out this handy chart from Revenflo to get an idea of which social media platforms will help you achieve your goals. For example, Facebook and Twitter have ended up in the Most Effective Customer Communication and Most Effective Brand Exposure categories, while Digg and StumbleUpon are considered effective in driving traffic to your website.

When crafting your content marketing strategy, it's imperative that you know what your customers want (and simplifying it to "my product" isn't good enough). To better understand what your customers are searching for in an experience and a product, DesignDamage suggests researching your customers "natural behaviors," and asking several questions, including:

• Where does your customer go when searching for your products and services?


• When and how do customers gain access to your products and services?


• What does value mean to them?


• What are some of the potential barrier to purchase?


• Who are your competitors and how are they perceived in the customer’s eyes?

A recent Deloitte & Touche study found that 75 percent of consumers in the U.S. think of Internet ads as intrusive, and some estimates say that more than 90 percent of Internet advertising is totally ignored.

So what's a company to do to get their message out online?

Adotas says that a good content strategy may be the way to go:

"More and more marketers are re-allocating some of their interactive advertising budget to create articles, posts, tweets, videos, contests, social networking pages and other content to engage customers in an ongoing dialogue — informing and entertaining them instead of marketing 'at' them."

The kids are back in school. Halloween candy is stocked on store shelves. And before we know it, the ball will drop on the new year. Have you done everything that you wanted to this year: on your website, in your publications, with your money? If not, now is the time to get busy. Here are six things to do before 2008 is history:

We’ve found that organizations seek the help of a custom media partner like ours for lots of different reasons. Some have internal communications departments, but don’t have the editorial, design or production expertise to accomplish their goals. Others recognize the cost savings and predictability of working with a partner rather than keeping the resources necessary to produce media in-house; while others have expertise in one type of media, but look to us for help creating and integrating new media. Our relationships with our clients are all unique, but here are some of the more common reasons we have found for organizations to hire a custom media company:

Our client's magazines were being delayed once they entered the Bulk Mail Center. The magazines were entering a facility that served a large area of the heavily populated northeastern United States, but the magazines weren't making it to our client's members' homes for three or four weeks. They were being transported from postal facility to postal facility to postal facility until they reached the local post office for delivery.

While participating in a webinar on postal concerns, I learned about a company that co-mails magazines together. We worked out a plan where:

• Our client’s magazines would be picked up at our printer, who would have them sorted by zip codes


• The magazines would be shipped to a center where hundreds of other magazines would be pooled together into mail streams by ZIP codes


• These large bundles of magazines would be directly trucked to USPS distribution centers close the subscribers’ homes


• The magazines arrived at the local post offices quicker and were delivered within 7-10 days after leaving the printer’s dock.

Plus, the client paid less in postage or postal freight.

Our friend Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 has released a new white paper called "New Rules of Custom Publishing - New Complimentary White Paper: Nine Strategies to Create a World-Class Content Marketing Company." You can download the white paper in a digital format here.

After the jump, read Joe's list of Nine strategies to create a world-class content marketing company. As anyone who follows Hammock Inc., it's no surprise we agree with each one of them:

A common failure among organizations is to forget all of the touch points one's members or clients have with their brand, and the opportunity the organization has to capitalize on those engagement opportunities. What does that mean for today's marketing and communications professionals? As we continue to be bombarded with millions of competing marketing messages, it's important that your organization successfully breaks through the clutter. Here's how you can make your organization's marketing stand out:

Take inventory: Evaluate those communication vehicles already in place. Include magazines, newsletters, e-mail newsletters, annual reports, e-mails, Web site, direct mail, event promotions, advertising, telemarketing efforts and sales materials in your assessment—and be willing to discontinue those that aren’t working.

Revisit your logo: Is your logo representative of your organization's mission and culture? If not, it might be time to consider investing in a new logo to reflect your brand more effectively.

Be consistent with print and online products: Make sure that all of your print and digital media products share a common design template. This includes the use of fonts, sizes, headers and overall aesthetic.

Create a style guide: If your organization does not already have one in place, author a rulebook of standards for editorial and design work.

Police your communications: Assign a member of your team to be responsible for monitoring all outgoing company communications to ensure that your organization's guidelines are applied before the messaging goes out the door.

It's been a while since I've made an "audio post" to a blog (I'm more "video" these days). However, some recent blog posts and Twitter comments by Patrick Ruffini inspired me to dust-off the Skype account and Audio Hijack software and give him a call. In 2004 Ruffini had the very Web 1.0 title "webmaster" for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Despite the title, he ushered in some very Web 2.0 features and approaches to the site -- and the campaign. Over 30,000 off-line "meetup-like" volunteer gatherings were organized on the site and over 5,000 websites and weblogs hosted the badges and widgets (remember, this was in 2004) that Ruffini's team developed using RSS and XML. After the election, he ran the Inauguration website and later had a two-year stint as eCampaign Director for the GOP.

After the jump, read more and listen to the interview.