In fact, it is so important, we’ve created a email-based content marketing course for you, at no charge. Sign-up for our Workingman’s Content Marketing Course here.

Content marketing is a CRITICAL component to your customer acquisition and revenue generation efforts. Of that, there is NO doubt. And yes, you should effectively integrate a content marketing strategy along all of the stages of your sales process.

But it is more than that. By far.

1. Content marketing has an important role to play in your public relations (PR) efforts. You can newsjack your way into important global conversations in your market space, but only if you are contributing (read: making content) to the conversation in your market.

2. Content marketing can be an essential piece in your investor relations efforts, to keep them up-to-speed on what is happening with “their” organization. This can be internal content, too.

3. Most websites have a FAQ Sheet, where you address the most commonly-asked questions your organization receives. Your content marketing strategy can be a very creative and memorable way to fulfill this purpose.

4. You have customers. You need to maintain those very important relationships. You want to deepen their loyalty. So, a content strategy can be a really fun, and helpful, way to provide continuing education and support to your customers. This can be internal too.

5. You have a very specific customer you are looking for, but it is never a bad idea to provide general knowledge to a broader market place. This can help build goodwill, and generate referral opportunities. Here’s an example of a little project along this score.

So while your content marketing strategy is an important piece to your organizational sales and marketing efforts, it can also play a mission critical role in many other communication essentials too.

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Sign-up for our FREE Workingman’s Content Marketing Course here.

Drawing by Hugh MacLeod.

• Has everything (not really, but as an 8 year old, it seemed like it)
• Updated every year
• Free!

Yesterday, while using the weather app on my iPad, up pops an ad for the Real Yellow Pages.  (Yes I’m still hooked on the “free” thing and have not upgraded to the ad-less version.)  Downloaded that Yellow Pages rascal tout suite!  After a few minutes of nostalgia – the pages look exactly they way I remember them from the 50s – I concluded…

The Real Yellow Pages iPad app is awesome!

After flipping through a few pages though, it dawned on me that for the most part the only info I was getting was a business name, address and phone number.  That’s it? I’m expected to make a purchase decision based on that?

The Real Yellow Pages iPad app stinks!

So which is it?  A brilliant reincarnation of an iconic brand? Or the pathetic, low-budget appeal of a dying business model aimed at techno-phobic baby boomers?

More digging convinced me that it’s a little bit of both, but sadly, mostly the latter.  I really, really like “flipping through the pages.”  Gives me a warm, fuzzy, remember-my-childhood feeling, and it does in fact enable some intelligent shopping.  For example, I’m looking for some water-proof pants designed for a bicycle rider.  Looked under Bicycle Dealers and there was a listing with a link to bike dealer’s web site.  Found ‘em!  Success!  Ummm….

Except it was just one bike dealer; more focused on bikes than on apparel.  So I went to Google.  Typed in “bicycle rain pants.”  In 10 minutes I had ordered exactly what I wanted; the highest rated pants from the highest rated supplier at the lowest cost. They’re scheduled for delivery to my house tomorrow.

The point of the story?  Examine your business model!  Yes, it might still be working. But it might be working like the Yellow Pages.

As we’ve explained countless times on this blog, podcasting, audio, and radio shows are a big piece of the puzzle as to how we go to market, but how we help our customers go to market, and ramp up their business development efforts.

As promised, from time to time, we will share other tools and platforms to help you do your thing. Here is one you should take a look at. Just press the orange play button:

One such tool that we want to bring to your attention is SoundCloud.

If you think podcasting, or generating any kind of audio content is too hard and requires expensive tools and equipment, you are wrong.

From SoundCloud

In fact, once you record content, as you can see from the image to the left, SoundCloud makes it very easy to share to the social web as well as embed an audio player to your website and/or blog.

Honestly my friends, you no longer have any excuses. You now have a new tool that can make an impact on your sales and marketing program. All you need is the commitment to making it happen.

If you aren’t sure how to use podcasting and the resultant content generated from it, you should join our mailing list about e-Rep, or sign-up for our FREE content marketing course.

Feel free to email us if you want to better understand how to integrate a tool like this into your program!

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Almost two years ago, I was in Milwaukee doing some work for a client.  Since I was out there anyway and business was good that year, I accepted a long-standing invitation to speak – unpaid – to a CEO networking group in the area.  I had stopped dong unpaid speaking gigs eight or nine years back when I concluded they were rarely worth the time and effort.  It’s “you get what you pay for” in reverse.  Members of the group get your consulting for free for a few hours, and value what they get according to the cash investment they made – zippo.

Sound a bit cocky?  Yup.  But hey, Mr. Big Shot here figured the only other option was sitting at the Milwaukee airport bar waiting for the only flight back to Atlanta.  So the dog and pony show was on!

Speaking in front of groups is something I truly love doing, and I think I did a pretty good job of it that day.  Even remembered to ask the group to opt in to our e-newsletter.  Of course 100% of the hands went up signaling agreement.  (They’re CEOs after all, so they’re polite.)  The ONLY reason I followed up though, and entered the names and e-mails into the system to complete the double-opt-in process, was a rain delay at the airport.  Otherwise I’d have blown it off.

This past Friday, I re-learned – yet again – how vital it is to get subscribers to your e-newsletter.

Got a phone call out of the blue from one of those CEOs.  This woman had not only read all the e-newsletters, but also had been following this blog, listening to our podcasts and watching our videos.  She bought a 2-day seminar on the spot.  There’s a decent chance this thing will turn into a 6+ month engagement.

So the lesson?  Actually, there are three.  First, don’t ever get cocky and think you’re above executing all the basic blocking and tackling.  Second, make sure your e-Rep is robust and continuously feeding meaty, valuable text, audio and video content to your constituents out there in cyber-space.  And third…

Never, never, never pass up an opportunity to get someone signed up for your e-newsletter.

By the way, you might want to sign up for our e-newsletter.

It doesn’t matter how I initially stumbled upon them, but usually it was through PR referrals, LinkedIn searches, HARO, word of mouth, etc.

In any event, I thought they looked like interesting potential guests for one of my radio shows. So I would visit their website, look for the “Contact Us” page, and either send an email and/or complete the suggested form.

Then I hit send.

And then?

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nary a peep. At least for 50% of the organizations I contacted in this manner.

FIFTY PERCENT.

What a shame. No, not for me, although sad to miss out on a chance to interview them. But a shame for them.

They missed a chance to get some additional exposure. They missed a chance to connect with a potential referral source. They missed a chance to make a connection with someone who might just talk about them to his social graph.

Why does this happen?

Well, it is possible that they weren’t interested in what I was offering. But I doubt it.

[But still, even if you aren't interested, you can still build positive goodwill by graciously declining.]

Honestly, I think they are lazy, reckless, uncaring, unaware, and missing the boat entirely.

These might be prospects for goodness sakes!

It is possible the web guy slapped up the contact form when the website was originally built. But what a sad testament to how uncaring the organization is to be so unaware of how their website is presented to the world.

And a quick, somewhat related side note. I hate seeing the “To get more info, email us at info@organization.com” email addresses. Don’t make me contact Mr. Info. I don’t want to talk to some generic intern who has been assigned the duty of answering the “info” email account.

Allow me to contact a real human being. Give me a name! Give me some hope that he or she will actually respond to me. And don’t let me worry that my email is going straight to the contact page zone of death.

Here is a customer of ours using a contact form as not only a means of establishing a connection, but also to attain some critical information about how he can potentially serve them.

Bill is a conscientious fellow. I have no worries that people who contact him there will never hear from him. But why do so many organizations fail to respond?

Why do they miss opportunities to connect with people who are reaching out to them?

As there is more and more noise clamoring for our attention, why do you ignore someone who gave you his or her attention?

At the end of the day, it is always about the little things. This is one of those little things. Honestly, if you mishandle this little opportunity, how carelessly might you handle my business?

Don’t ignore the real people reaching out to you on your contact pages. You do all this work to get the attention of people who want to connect with you. And then you ignore them when they tap on your shoulder.

You never know, you might just end up on a radio show. And famous!

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Join our list to learn how to thrive in the digital world.

Drawing by Hugh MacLeod.

The higher your mind share gets, the more you sell.

So measure Mind Share!!!

Now an intriguing question…  Is your average mind share per decision maker greater than, less than or equal to that of the average rep?  Getting the answer to that question is a heck of a challenge, but having way above average mind share means way above average sales achievement.  So how can you begin to get a handle on it?

Start with a rough cut for your 10 most important contacts.  (Use this tool.)  Estimate the number of minutes each contact invests per year in:

• Meeting with you face-to-face
• Talking to you on the telephone
• Reading text written by you (Things like E-mail, Proposals, Blog posts, Other…  Assume for now that people read about 250 words per minute)
• Reading text written by others about the value you can deliver (Brochures, Catalogs, White Papers, Articles, Case Studies, Blog Posts, Other)
• Listening to a live presentation about the value you can deliver
• Listening to a podcast about the value you can deliver
• Watching a video about the value you can deliver
• Other

Add up all those minutes, then divide by 525,600 minutes per year.  Actually make that 527,040 since it’s a leap year.  (Just kidding…). Multiply the result by 100,000 to make it an easier number to think about; let’s call it the “Mind Share Index.”

What do you think of your answers?  How do your good customers compare to your not-so-good customers?  To your prospects?  How high does the index need to get before somebody buys?  What’s the most effective way to boost the index?  What’s the most efficient way to boost the index?

I’ll answer those last two questions for you.  Get ‘em reading more blog posts, listening to more podcasts and watching more videos.  Did I say, “e-Rep?”

They want to be told what to do, how to do it, and why to do it.

The “why” is the most important. Think about the great leaders of our time.

They succeeded, they are remembered, we talk about them still only because they made it clear why they were doing what they were doing…

…and we wanted to be a part of that journey.

People love to listen to authority figures talk about how they made it, about how they exceeded expectations, and how they plan to keep blazing new trails.

We all know the Apple story. Yet we still purchased Steve Jobs when it was published. We wanted to know more about how and why he did what he did.

In the end, people love following people who tell amazing stories.

This is just another reason why you should host a podcast or a regular video series on your organizational website. You can bring these leaders, these success stories, these authority figures direct to your audience.

And in return, your audience will come to appreciate the learning and the leadership you are providing. And you will be recognized as a thought leader in your own market space.

And it is not hard to do. You don’t have to find a JFK or an MLK to find inspirational leaders.

You can look into your very own rolodex to find amazing people, leading amazing organizations, achieving what many thought impossible.

Why not recruit them to your podcast to tell their story? To share what they know? To teach others how they did it?

Not only are you providing a forum and exposure to these leaders, who in turn will appreciate the opportunity. But your audience will appreciate and value learning from someone just like them.

People love trailblazers, leaders, innovators, and they love to learn how they achieved the things they achieved. It gives them a sense that maybe I can achieve something too.

Your podcast is more than just a marketing and sales tactic. More than just content. More than just search engine bait…

Your podcast is showcasing leadership. Inspiration. Imagination. It provides ideas and hope to your audience.

And that’s not a bad way to help market you and your organization…

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Sign-up for our FREE newsletter to learn how to incorporate podcasting into your sales and marketing program.

Drawing by Hugh Macleod.

And you don’t have one???

Need something to help you get started developing and maintaining your very own e-Rep?  Your very own 24 X 7 X 365 sales and marketing assistant?  No matter how techno-phobic you are, you already have virtually all the skills required.  And this e-book will fill in the few gaps left.

Get your copy of the e-Rep e-book now.  And sign up for this free e-newsletter to further boost your e-Rep knowledge and skills.

The overwhelming majority of web content is drivel.  There is an enormous quantity of fabulous stuff out there, but it’s scattered around and surrounded by nonsense.  These facts, plus the power of Google search, are the drivers of this “foraging” behavior.  In researcher Jakob Nielsen’s words, “Instead of spending a lot of time on a single page, users move between many pages and try to pick the most tasty segments of each.”

Think in terms of a predator pursuing its prey.  And you are the prey!  You want to be the prey!

You want your prospects and customers to pick up on your “information scent” and chase you down.  They’re all hungry for relevant information, they all know how to effectively use search tools and they all eat “information snacks” at every opportunity.

So publish a lot – i.e., spread your scent around.  Make sure each bit has real value – i.e., be tasty.

Do it!

Here’s the problem with this:

These people panic, because they think they either have to HAVE a large audience, or that they have to BUILD a large audience. And as a result, they shut down, claim that it is too hard, and do nothing.

Understanding content marketing isn’t complicated. It is generating content that tells stories about the purpose, the mission, the “why” of your business. Tells the stories of how you help and serve your market. And that content is distributed in countless ways, from advertising, to blogging, to social media, to video, and to podcasting…to name just a few.

The confusion comes with the question: “Who am I generating all this content for?”

It is an important question.

If you think you can’t host a videoTV series, or a podcast, or shouldn’t publish a regular blog without a large audience to consume the content, you are dead wrong.

Yes, it is true that consistently publishing a video series, podcast, and blog content, you will certainly grow an audience for the content over time. But this is a slow and steady process, one that takes time. [by the way, this isn't a bad thing...]

But the simple message I want to communicate today is this:

The content you create can be, should be, must be…created for a very specific audience. And maybe even for ONE person.

Your customers, your prospects, the influencers in your market space have specific questions, specific needs, or require clarity on something particular.

Create content to answer those inquiries. One piece of content – one question – at a time. And then, be darn sure that person receives a personalized communication from you linking to the content specifically made for them.

But then, something magical happens…

When you answer a question for one person, you know darn well (or will certainly find out), there are countless other people and organizations that will benefit from the same content.

And that’s how your audience is built over time…

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To learn about content marketing, sign-up for our FREE content marketing course.

Drawing by Hugh Macleod.