Many companies own the building they work in, or at the very least, they have a long-term lease that allows them to make the office part of their identity. But usually companies don't own their marketing. They lease it. They buy expensive television commercials, print ads and billboards that expire the minute the media buy stops running. If you can measure the success of your media investments, then great. But most don't. So why not invest into something that you can actually own. Content. Content that's part of your DNA and helps market your products or services.
Over time it's easy to measure the return of your investment, and unlike media buys, investments into your own content keep on paying out even you if stop or slow down your investment.
What kind of content should you build? The answer of this question fully depends on your business and customer. But here are some ideas that I've seen companies build and benefit from.
Blogs - The Treasury Funds of Marketing Content
A blog is probably the easiest way to create content for people interested in your products or services. Even a corporation can launch a blog in a matter of weeks and the learning and interaction is near instant.
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to help Bosley, the world's largest hair restoration surgery provider. They were struggling to explain to people how relatively easy a hair restoration procedure was nowadays. Television spurred lots of interest but the consequential consumer Google searches left people uninspired. Hence, we started a blog called BattleAgainstBald.com where we documented one of my co-worker's (a Creative Director in the agency at the time) hair restoration journey over the course of a year. The result - the blog quickly took off and now has many thousands of monthly readers. Anyone searching for authentic information on Bosley's hair restoration procedure, can now find it. Seth's journey was written up in the Boston Globe and he even ended up on Donny Deutsch's big idea. Oh and yes, of course, Seth has hair now.
Create your own video channel
Gary Vaynerchuk owned a 5 million per year on and off-line wine retailer. A few years ago, he recognized the importance of social media and got a head start on contributing valuable content to the wine community. Mind you, there was a risk. Before-hand people would have to come to his store to pick his brain about wine. Now he is giving that knowledge away for free in the form of a daily wine video on tv.winelibrary.com. Gary has built his reputation online (think Robert Parker meets Jim Kramer), has an audience of tens of thousands of wine enthusiasts, who call themselves the Vayniacs, and has become somewhat of a celebrity himself. You might have seen Gary Vaynerchuk on shows such as Conan O'Brien, Nightline, The Today Show or Mad Money. Oh, and most importantly - Wine Library and now is a $50 million per year business.
And just in case you're wondering, Gary has done all this without the help of production crews, expensive video equipment and audio re-touching. This is all about Gary and the knowledge and personality he provides to the wine community.
Mobilize your community
If many potential and current customers come to your site and there's a big need for interaction, then it makes sense for you to mobilize the community on your site. Give people a chance to interact with each other, give you feedback and let the community answer any questions people might have. To get things started and test the water, why don't you start a user group on Facebook. Red Bull did that and now has a number of groups on Facebook (Vodka Redbull Lovers, Ja til Redbull i Norge and Addicted to RedBull - all of which have over 7,000 members each) as well as their official RedBull fan site which has 600,000+ fans. Not bad for zero dollars in infrastructure investment.
By the way, if you create any kind of meaningful content, a community will organically establish itself around such. That already might be happening. Otherwise, get blogging, start teaching, give something of value to the people who support your business.
Why not start a Festival
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a) an Italian Christmas Tradition and b) a comic/cook book about such. A few years ago, Bob Tinnell and his brother Jeff were trying to figure out how to best market it. Since there wasn't much money available to buy expensive ads they decided to build a community. They started with a blog, which over the course of a few years has attracted thousands of monthly readers. In their second year, the Feast Crew went on a road trip - from Italian community to community on the East Coast to celebrate the tradition with their readers. Oh, and last but not least, they started their own Festival - the Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival in Fairmont, West Virginia which every year attracts thousands of visitors. The result: thousands of books have been sold without spending any money on advertising - other than search. And next year, the story is being made into a Hollywood movie and is directed by Bob Tinnell himself. Not bad for a couple of brothers who wanted to publish a book about their favorite family tradition.
In all of these cases, there are real communities that exist around these content properties. Marketing success is a side-product and unlike with traditional advertising, success doesn't depend on budget but rather effort. So, what are you waiting for.
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