As content marketing becomes a continually popular strategy to connect, engage, and hopefully provide value, there is no doubt that the question of return on investment will rear its head.

As you can imagine, content marketing takes time, planning, and effort. It is hard work. How then will content marketing find its rightful and respected place in our short-term, short-patience, short-strategy marketing world?

There is evidence revealing that shortsighted interests— just like with social media—are driving marketers to dive into content marketing with a tool first mindset. Cool tools are fun, sexy, and popular. Who wouldn’t want to be seen as all of that? There is just one little thing to consider, tools are worthless without objectives and strategies dictating which tools are required to meet a set goal.

The tools first philosophy is akin to buying a money pit with the intention to flip in it a down real estate market and then asking what went wrong when it does not sell.

What is the answer? Can content marketing able to deliver a return on investment? Of course, it can. However, the investment will not show a return if marketers do not figure out first what problem they are solving. Once that is settled, then careful planning, creating, and tracking must happen. That sounds like a lot of hard work that takes time to pay off, doesn’t it? What is a marketer short on time and a lead generation beast to feed to do?

And what about what customers want? We know customers have grown allergic to corporate content, as it always seems to carry a sales pitch, call to action or some other hidden cost. What then is the best way to approach content marketing from a true customer perspective?

That might just be a bigger challenge than figuring out Return on Investment.

Copyblogger: Is Content Marketing Worth The Effort?

“Attract the right kind of traffic by creating exceptional content.

Engage your audience so they know, like, and trust you. Let them know you’re the likable expert who’s going to give them the information (and eventually the products and services) that won’t let them down.

Then use smart copywriting and conversion techniques to turn those raving fans into customers.”

Conversation Agent: Top Ten Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails

“The definition - content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

It’s the opposite of interruption marketing. You create great content that attracts customers and prospects, educates them, and potentially engages them in a conversation with you.

(8) You want too much, too soon – there’s no relationship and you’re already asking your customers and prospects to give you something substantial.”

Digital B2B Marketing: Stop Advertising and Give Them Content! [The Numbers Prove It]

“Content and social outposts, compared to advertising, are performing very well. If you aspire to move your marketing to a media and publishing model, the results are impressive. Even a small audience can drive significantly more engagement than a large advertising program. Just how much more engaging is editorial content?

Content Curation Marketing: Content Marketing ROI: 3 Ways Content Curation Optimizes the B2B Content Supply Chain Featuring @McKQuarterly

“As digital marketers continue to expand and build their current content marketing strategies around professional publishing, it is critical that these organizations continue to identify and optimize their content marketing return on investment, both as marketers and as publishers. Unfortunately, the means of measurement for marketers are still evolving, while business must execute in the online channel, today. Without complex ROI measurement tools, marketers can leverage content curation to deliver immediate, digital marketing optimization opportunities in the B2B content marketing process.”

Content Marketing Institute: 5 Steps to Using Data to Maximize Content Marketing ROI

“One of the biggest challenges for content marketers is tying their activities to return on investment (ROI). Numerous case studies show that content developed using insights from customers, also known as data-driven customer insights, produce increased customer engagement and generate significantly higher return on investment. Properly leveraging data analytics to deliver data-driven communications is the key to successful content marketing development.”

MarketingProfs: Three Steps to Generating Higher ROI From Content Marketing

“Where does content marketing contribution show up from a financial perspective? The following three primary metrics, which indicate the contribution from better-educated and engaged contacts, must be measured and managed:

1. Higher sales-conversion rates indicate those more likely to buy.
2. Higher customer value indicates those more likely to upgrade to higher-tier products/services; buy more, and more often (greater share of customer); and engage in more profitable and loyal relationships.
3. Faster conversion velocity indicates shorter sales cycles, which tend to both increase conversion rates and decrease the resource cost of internal sales staff.

Without insight into these profit-driver metrics, marketers tend to rely on quantities of short-term behaviors: counting engagement, views, or leads. That is a big disconnect between content strengths and measured impact.”

Happy reading!

It’s 2011, do you know where your social media strategy is?

As a marketer who has been in the social media game for a while now, I understand why companies struggle with social media. There is much misunderstanding between the concept and the tools—and the benefits of either. There is confusion as to why social media tools can’t be used just like e-mail, direct mail and advertising. There are also power struggles internally for who should own social media and who has control over what is for public consumption.

What’s a Marketer To Do?

That’s the question author and social media expert Paul Chaney discusses in his latest book, “The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media.” (Paul’s first book is “Realty Blogging: Build Your Brand and Out-Smart Your Competition.”)

The answer? Start a conversation. However, the smart thing to do before diving into any conversation is to understand the new rules of communication, why they matter, and the five trends turning the business world upside down.

• Consumer Skepticism
• Fragmented Media
• Loss of Control
• Niche Marketing
• Customers are in Control

Trust me. Your customers will thank you for taking the time to understand these tectonic shifts.

I get it, things have changed. Now what?

Great attitude! Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Lucky for you, Paul provides seven proven strategies to help you become successful with your social media strategy. Now, I know what you are thinking… Why can’t I just share my press release on Twitter and Facebook and call it a day? Well, I suppose you could, but I am not sure how much ROI you’ll get from it. And isn’t that what management is demanding from social media? (Psst! We all know that asking for ROI is secret code for “We don’t get this, so we’re going to challenge it.” Be smart and prove them wrong!) Ready?

• Business Blogging
• Social Networks
• Niche Online Communities
• Microblogging
• Video
• Podcasting
• PR 2.0
• RSS, Tagging, Bookmarking and more!

The Digital Handshake

All of these strategies mean nothing without a plan of action that includes listening, engaging and measuring. In that order, too.

I love that Paul positions listening as the new marketing. I couldn’t agree more! And marketers, I am sorry to say, but you aren’t very good at listening…only talking. Now is your chance to understand why listening before engaging will determine whether your social media plan will be successful or not.

You’ve met customers offline, right? What is the first thing you do? You shake their hand. Now you can do that digitally. We call it engaging. Paul offers tips for how to best engage in online conversation and his “table” metaphor is spot on and so are the tactics he shares for getting a seat at someone else’s table or setting a table of your own.

Finally, here’s where you get to show your management team just how smart you are. All of those digital handshakes are measureable. Paul shares a whole bunch of tools to help you along the way. Some are free and some are paid, but either way you’ll have more than enough to select from.

About Paul Chaney

I would be remiss if I did not share with you that Paul is a friend of mine and when reading his book, I heard his voice in my head. The topics he covers in this book have provided the two of us with hours of conversation and debate over the years whether it’s been face-to-face, on the phone or, yes, even digitally. What’s that mean for you? Well, my hope is that you will believe Paul is extremely passionate about social media. I hope you will become so as well once you finish The Digital Handshake.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of The Digital Handshake from Paul Chaney. This review is based on the contents of the book and my belief that marketers (and their management teams!) could really benefit from reading it.

[Image Source: odesk.com]

As traditional marketers, we have years of experience understanding our markets, what products and services they need/want, how to communicate best with them, and how they regard our brands, right?

Well, maybe not…

We have often relied on marketing research (primary or secondary), sales team feedback, customer satisfaction surveys, etc. to provide insights into those areas. The issue with most of those forms of feedback is that they tend to provide the answers we want to hear or find necessary to meet our internal business goals (either as an organization or a professional).

Audience research, on the other hand, uncovers specifically how markets use products and services, speak about them, form communities, etc. It’s like watching a pride of lions in their natural habitat. Regardless if it’s a B2B or B2C market, when we take the time to watch people in their natural – or comfortable – habitat, we will see their true behavior and opinions surface. If you haven’t done audience research, it can be quite eye-opening. But more importantly, it can’t be fabricated. As an organization it’s your choice to ignore it (at your peril, potentially) or to embrace what’s really going on in the market.

So how can audience research help traditional marketing efforts?

Product and Service Development: If we build it, they will come… Not always. And more often “not” is the outcome (unless, of course, you are Apple). Many times startup companies fail or new products or services fail because they are built from the internal premise that people actually want to buy your product or service. And throwing your marketing communications budget at it isn’t going to help move the buying needle. Why not start with your customers and prospects and identify what their needs/wants actually are? If you aren’t a ‘social’ company, audience research is one way to tap into what’s being said online while standing on the sidelines. If you are a social company, why not just simply ask and then collect the data that the audience shares?

Communication: There is large misperception in marketing that people respond specifically to tactics (i.e.  ads, direct mail, messaging, emails, etc.). That is not the case. People respond only when they have a brand relationship (see below). When there is a brand relationship, people are open and receptive to receiving your message. Your task is to make sure you send the right message, at the right time, in the right format. Audience research can help you to determine receptivity levels.

Branding: While organizations do control their brand identity and messaging, what they don’t control are the relationships that people form with brands. Are you aware of how people (customers, prospects, clients, employees, stakeholders, shareholders, etc.) see and talk about your brand? Do you know what the sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) levels are for your brand? You might just be surprised! The  goal of using audience research is to understand how people perceive your brand(s), to take that feedback internally and to adjust your branding efforts accordingly.

What would you add to the list? How have you used audience research in your marketing efforts?

[Image Source: BG-Hotel International]

*NOTE: This post was originally posted on Endless Plain, the Serengeti Communications blog.

This weekend I was reading an article in the Fall Harvard Business Review OnPoint magazine (How to Get Your Message Across edition) called “Five Ways to Sharpen Your Communication Skills” by John Baldoni. The article was interesting, but what was more interesting was the comment they selected to share in the Reader Comment section after the article.

John shares these five tips:

1. Know the fundamentals (Understand the written and spoken word.)
2. Think clearly about what you will say (Don’t use PowerPoint as short-hand for thinking)
3. Prepare for meetings (Take the time to think about what to say before you say it.)
4. Engage in discussion (Debate. Hear all viewpoints. Don’t engage in group think.)
5. Listen to others (Discussion is meaningless if no one is listening. “Measure what you treasure.”)

Sounds like everything we learned in kindergarten, right? Still many marketing, public relations and communications pros struggle with these basic elements when it comes to communicating with customers, stakeholders and other employees.

The comment, from Gretchen Anthony, is indicative of this very situation businesses are challenged with:

“One of my favorite quotes on the subject of communication is attributed to George Bernard Shaw, ‘The problem with communication… is the illusion that it has been accomplished.’

To Baldoni’s final point about the need to measure and demonstrate effective communication, we as leaders in our organizations miss this point time and again. How do we know if we’ve accomplished our intended communication goals (and realistically, are we even setting communication goals)?

Where formal measures are lacking, the gut-level measure of trust kicks in. A team, organization, business unit or organization leader who appears to have the trust of their team is most likely a leader who demonstrates a commitment to effective communication. Look to the trusted leaders within an organization and you’ll often see demonstrated the communication skills that work within that organization.”

I’d like to focus on the measurement part of the article and comment. As smart communications pros, we can and absolutely should measure if our message is being communicated properly, but more importantly we should measure if it is being understood.

Five Quick Steps to Make Sure Your Message is Being Understood

1. Analyze Current Data (Collected data about market segments, stakeholders, employees, etc.)
2. Benchmark Current Levels of Message Understanding
3. Develop a Plan that includes an Outtake Objective (For the message you’d like to be understood)
4. Implement the Plan (Be sure it includes measurement. Note: This slide deck is for social media measurement, but the principles can be used for traditional communications as well.)
5. Test to Make Sure The Outtake Objective Was Achieved (or Not)

If this seems too simple, then I’ve done my job here. The point is we tend to overly complicate what is a basic process that works. Where it does get complicated, of course, is when people come into the equation. Corporate politics always have a tricky way of rearing their ugly head, don’t they?

Some additional challenges include not understanding customers enough to know if they fall into the “I’ve tuned you out” category or the “I like what you have to say, it’s relevant to me” category. This is where step one is crucial.

There is also often a communication failure internally. Communicators and management fail to honestly try to understand how employees feel about their position within the organization. Sure, employees are given options to receive internal communications, but are you sure it’s what they need to hear? Are they comfortable and secure enough to tell you the truth?

Is there a communication gap between organizations and the stakeholders that can help spread our messages to others? Benchmarking can help you to understand if there is and what the plan needs to include to close the gap.

What would you offer when it comes to understanding if messaging is being understood? What has worked for your organization? What examples (successes and failures!) would you share?

[Image Source]

It is with great pleasure that I kick off October with a post from my friend Valerie Simon.

Valerie is a Senior Vice President at BurrellesLuce;  a public relations columnist; a writer; a co-founder of the #PRStudChat (a Twitter chat focused on creating conversations between PR students and professionals);  and a co-founder of Help A PR Pro Out (HAPPO). And if that isn’t enough, she’s also smart, creative, engaging, funny, a mentor to many and remarkably patient. If you don’t know Valerie, follow her on Twitter…you won’t be disappointed.

by Valerie Simon (@ValerieSimon)

In 2004, I wrote an article for Brandweek discussing a future in which the speed of commerce and the availability of “real time information” would lead to a decrease in price discrepancies for competitive products and increase the commercial importance of intangibles such as service, brand loyalty, prestige and celebrity. 6 years later, I’d encourage those in marketing to completely reevaluate all of the traditional “4 P’s”

• It’s no longer about PRODUCT, but SERVICE: Great customer service is an investment that yields quantifiable business results. As the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer indicated, 61% of 1,000 American consumers surveyed think good customer service is more important amid economic instability and are willing to spend an average of 9% more at a retailer that provides great customer service. Service is a key differentiator in a competitive marketplace.

• Not PRICE, but SOLUTION: With pricing information readily available and easier than ever to research and aggregate, competitive pricing is essential to survival but in a crowded marketplace, understanding the needs of the consumer and offering the best solution will ultimately win. Go to Google Shopping and enter a search for Adidas Mens Samba Shoes and you will get more than 1,000 options, a new pair ranging in price from $39.99 at Sears to  upwards of $70 on the Adidas official site. While the same classic white/black shoe sells for more than $50 at Zappos.com, for Zappos customers, the shoes are simply part of the full experience and a customer centered culture.

• Not PLACE, but SIMPLICITY: While the old saying “location, location, location…” may not be nearly as important in a virtual world, the point of purchase must be easy to navigate, and efficient. It is no longer a hassle to go to another store if your experience is not satisfactory. And customers won’t stay if they believe you are wasting their time. Barnes and Noble understands that well and while they boast to have the largest stock of online titles, they have also identified easy ways to provide the customer the precise books they are looking for–quickly and easily. A search engine enables customers to locate books by title, author, or keyword; browse pages to sift through hundreds of categories to find exactly the right book. Descriptions, reviews, and a “see inside” option, allow readers to make more informed decisions, without having to leave he site to do additional research. Simple check out, shipping options and even a quick order status button, keep it simple to do business at barnesandnoble.com

• Not PROMOTION, but SHARING: Promoting your product worked well with traditional media, but effective communications today focuses on engaging the customer and uses opportunities to share information, opportunities and solutions in a manner that will encourage them to become brand evangelists. Starbucks, for example, makes customer engagement is a top priority, soliciting customer ideas through channels such as Facebook and Twitter and even offering discounts to Foursquare Mayors and using social media to spread the word about more promotional events like the recent Starbuck’s Happy Hour promotion.

While the “4 P’s” still have a place in the marketing mix, I believe that new technology and methods for communicating with customers have changed sufficiently enough to warrant a review of how you are making your marketing decisions.

How has 2.0 impacted the execution, and even substance of, your marketing decisions?

[Image: Joe-KS.com]