Article
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
1. The Content Marketing Industry is Young, and the Opportunity is Now.
I met so many marketers whose companies were just venturing into the content marketing space and creating their first blogs. The next few years hold a great deal of growth and a lot of opporuntity for the companies who execute now instead of three years from now. Great examples are Old Spice's "Smell Like a Man, Man" and Blentec's "Will it Blend?" campaigns. This content stands out today, and it will pay dividends for Old Spice and Blendtec for years down the road. Get started now, because it will be increasingly difficult in the coming years to gain attention over those who started from Day 1.
2. Employee and Customer Content are Key
Over and over, speakers at CMI promoted authenticity as the key to content marketing success. Authentic content almost always comes from internal bloggers and external customers. The people who are selling the product or service know it better than anyone else. The people who are buying the product or service can attest to its quality, efficiency, and dependability better than anyone else. Don't ignore these great outlets for content, because they are your key to authenticity. Attendees of CMW will attest to the fact that virtually nobody harped on the benefits of agency-created content over user-generated content (UGC) in terms of its ability to drive social engagement. UGC wins.
3. Don't Ignore the Power of a Story
Along the same lines, a lot of speakers, including Sally Hogshead and Jeff Rohrs, discussed stories as great sources of content. They found stories compelling for two reasons. First, stories are often the easiest content to capture from third parties and individual customers. Secondly, when you capture and publish a story from a customer, they are more likely to share it with their friends and followers, extending your brand's social reach in the process.
4. Compendium Clients are on the Cutting Edge of Content Marketing
As self-serving as it sounds, this was honestly my largest takeaway from CMW. I gained new perspective on just how advanced our clients content marketing strategies are in comparison to the status quo. For example, Cvent uses their blog to power all of their content marketing. All their content flows into the blog and they use their social networks and paid advertising channels to promote their content. This allows them to shape the conversation on their terms, and it allows them to build authority on their own domain, not Facebook's or Twitter's. Another client, Gybmoree, captures stories through Facebook and then publishes the stories on the blog. I know, a lot of brands are capturing stories on their Facebook pages, but very few are taking the next step by funneling these stories into their blog, where they can be found and interacted with for years instead of days or minutes.
Overall, Content Marketing World was a tremendous conference and I'd highly recommend attending next year. If you attended CMW and think I missed any takeaways, let me know in the comments.
Image by FindandConvert.com
Content Marketing World: The State of the Industry
Joe Pulizzi kicks off Content Marketing World.
Last week, Compendium headed to Cleveland, Ohio to attend the first Content Marketing World (CMW) conference, an event hosted by Joe Pulizzi and the Content Marketing Institute. If you weren't able to attend CMW, make sure you don't miss it next year. This event brought the entire content marketing industry together for the first time, and it was very exciting to see the energy that this field has behind it. Here are a few of my takeaways:1. The Content Marketing Industry is Young, and the Opportunity is Now.
I met so many marketers whose companies were just venturing into the content marketing space and creating their first blogs. The next few years hold a great deal of growth and a lot of opporuntity for the companies who execute now instead of three years from now. Great examples are Old Spice's "Smell Like a Man, Man" and Blentec's "Will it Blend?" campaigns. This content stands out today, and it will pay dividends for Old Spice and Blendtec for years down the road. Get started now, because it will be increasingly difficult in the coming years to gain attention over those who started from Day 1.
2. Employee and Customer Content are Key
Over and over, speakers at CMI promoted authenticity as the key to content marketing success. Authentic content almost always comes from internal bloggers and external customers. The people who are selling the product or service know it better than anyone else. The people who are buying the product or service can attest to its quality, efficiency, and dependability better than anyone else. Don't ignore these great outlets for content, because they are your key to authenticity. Attendees of CMW will attest to the fact that virtually nobody harped on the benefits of agency-created content over user-generated content (UGC) in terms of its ability to drive social engagement. UGC wins.
3. Don't Ignore the Power of a Story
Along the same lines, a lot of speakers, including Sally Hogshead and Jeff Rohrs, discussed stories as great sources of content. They found stories compelling for two reasons. First, stories are often the easiest content to capture from third parties and individual customers. Secondly, when you capture and publish a story from a customer, they are more likely to share it with their friends and followers, extending your brand's social reach in the process.
4. Compendium Clients are on the Cutting Edge of Content Marketing
As self-serving as it sounds, this was honestly my largest takeaway from CMW. I gained new perspective on just how advanced our clients content marketing strategies are in comparison to the status quo. For example, Cvent uses their blog to power all of their content marketing. All their content flows into the blog and they use their social networks and paid advertising channels to promote their content. This allows them to shape the conversation on their terms, and it allows them to build authority on their own domain, not Facebook's or Twitter's. Another client, Gybmoree, captures stories through Facebook and then publishes the stories on the blog. I know, a lot of brands are capturing stories on their Facebook pages, but very few are taking the next step by funneling these stories into their blog, where they can be found and interacted with for years instead of days or minutes.
Overall, Content Marketing World was a tremendous conference and I'd highly recommend attending next year. If you attended CMW and think I missed any takeaways, let me know in the comments.
Image by FindandConvert.com
