Orange Slices

“Content marketing” has been getting a lot of buzz lately. Though content marketing has been around for almost as long as marketing itself, it’s become a valuable tool to break through the digital and media clutter that bombards your customers and prospects everyday.

Content that engages prospective customers is content they’ll tune in to, even while they get better at tuning out media and messages that are irrelevant to them. That’s why Best Buy has announced plans to build a journalistic platform of technology articles and reviews into its website. That’s why American Express has built a website full of articles and helpful content for entrepreneurs and small businesses. That’s why buyers may turn to Amazon for product review and comparison information — even if they don’t intend to buy from Amazon.

Why does this work? Simple: People engage with content when it’s interesting, entertaining or useful to them. That’s why Best Buy’s gadget reviews and American Express’ small business articles work. Those companies’ target audiences need and want that content, and so will spend some time engaging with those brands to get it.

RLF’s award-winning Debt Diva campaign was not just a social media and media relations effort. Both the social media and traditional media relations elements were fueled by content RLF created for the Debt Diva — budgeting tips, downloadable personal finance guides and how-to videos, among others.

I’ll make a bold prediction here: Content will become the most important marketing and public relations tool for the vast majority of companies within the next few years. As the media cacophony grows louder and people grow more skilled at tuning it out, the companies that win will be the companies that can earn attention from customers.

Here’s a few things to think about for your company when it comes to content:

1. What are your competitors doing? If they’re engaging in some form of content marketing and you’re not, you’ve got some catching up to do. If they’re not, it’s a huge opportunity for you to be the first and potentially become the go-to content source (and a thought leader) in your industry.

2. What do your customers and prospects want and need to know that aligns with your brand? It may be content that’s directly related to your business, for example a bank publishing business or personal financial tips. Or it may be content that creates a positive impression for your brand in a way that engages your audience; Pepsi’s Refresh Project is a great example of this. If you don’t know what your customers and prospects want and need, then you probably need to do more research. (We can help.)

3. How will you distribute your content? Build it and they will come is simply not enough to stand out. One of the most efficient ways to build awareness of your content and draw people to it is through social media. It is not the only way, however. Email, direct mail, custom publications, event marketing and advertising can all play a role.

4. What’s your conversion path? Finally, once you’ve got prospects engaged with your content, you need a clear conversion path to turn readers and browsers into leads and customers. This may take the form of an escalating series of engagement steps — “likes” and “follows” on social media, lead collection via an opt-in email list, and then qualification of the lead via a sales call or other methods. Content can also help build brand awareness at the top of the marketing funnel, but the best content marketing plans will have a clear path to a measurable return on investment.

Are you engaging in content marketing yet? Let us know in the comments below or get in touch if you’d like to discuss your situation in more detail.

The leaves have finally turned in North Carolina. An intensely hot summer that stretched into October generated deep, vibrant colors set against clear blue skies. It’s time to take stock of the waning year and prepare for the road ahead in 2011.

Fortunately, we’ve had time to do some clear-headed thinking over the past few weeks. RLF recently participated in three significant public relations industry events: the WorldCom Public Relations Group’s Americas meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, the Public Relations Society of America conference in Washington, D.C., and the Council of Public Relations Firms’ forum in New York City. In all, we heard from more than 30 leading business, advertising and public relations leaders and engaged in conversations with corporate and agency professionals from across the United States, Canada and Latin America.    

As all of us begin to plan, prepare and budget for 2011, here are six key observations we pulled from the events.  These and other thoughts will guide RLF in 2011 as we amplify our efforts to live up to our mission to be devoted to ideas, strategy and service that advance our clients’ business objectives.  

1.  The Strong Are Surging
The buzz among top agency executives is restrained optimism. The restraint is easy to understand. Unemployment remains high, credit is tight and confidence among consumers remains elusive. But optimism is finally muscling aside the gloomy predictions of recent years.  Across almost every business sector, corporate clients are gearing up for an aggressive 2011. Companies who made it through the great recession are ready to reap the rewards of aggressive cost-cutting and conservative business practices over the past three years. Companies intend to spend on programs and campaigns that will generate revenue and increase market share. As one speaker noted, the companies (and agencies who serve them) that can tap into helping consumers recover from the recession and regain control over their lives in small measures will see great success in 2011.   

2. “My Friend Recommends…” 
A great deal of discussion focused on social media and word-of-mouth’s continued rapid rise and influence on consumer behavior. One startling statistic shared – 78 percent of consumers “trust” a peer recommendation, but only 14 percent “trust” what a company says directly about a product or service…” 

The good news is that the fundamentals of marketing, branding and public relations have not changed. Reaching “key influencers” has always been a critical component of our work, but it is now taking on different forms.  As one action step, companies should assess if the relationship between marketing, public relations and customer service teams is working. These teams need to be constantly talking and sharing information about what consumers are saying, thinking and doing. Leading companies are establishing rapid response teams to monitor what is being said online about their products and services and addressing problems before they spiral out of control. As a senior vice president from American Express said, the logistics and time commitment are “enormously challenging” to do this kind of work, but the payoff appears to be worth it.      

3. Ideas, Trust & Courage
Corporate marketers were steadfast in their belief that “great ideas” are more important than ever in building brands, and they are open to those ideas no matter which agency they come from. “The best idea will win” was repeated, in one form or another, at every forum we attended this fall. And the ideas need to not only be good, they must also be “big.” We heard little support for embracing ideas that would generate only incremental improvement. Two ingredients — trust and courage — will be required significantly by marketers and agencies in 2011 to transform great ideas into workable, measurable campaigns. 

A Mexican beer company's popular campaign, "The Most Interesting Man In The World," was a tremendous leap of faith by the brewers.

The chief marketing officer for Heineken USA talked about the genesis of a very popular campaign for Dos Equis beer. “The Most Interesting Man in The World” campaign has generated tremendous sales based on the strength of integrating paid advertising, online marketing, social and earned media. Coming up with the approach and concept was a challenge, but the larger task was convincing the brewers funding the campaign that it was “okay” for the main character to say, “I don’t always drink beer…” For people who make beer for a living, supporting a creative campaign that discounts beer drinking takes a tremendous leap of faith. However, including that phrase makes the campaign “authentic” and one audiences have been willing to embrace, watch on YouTube, “like” on Facebook (at last count, the fictional spokesperson for a small Mexican beer had nearly 800,000 fans) and buy in the store.       

 4. The Value of “Value”
Winning consumers with “the lowest price” is not going to be as effective a strategy as it has been for the past few years. For example, one speaker noted the average shopper now spends 30 minutes more in the grocery store – comparing, sorting and judging – to better assess “value.” And increasingly, consumers are willing to spend money on items at all price points, but expectations have been reset.    

Figuring out what “value” means to consumers in your business, and then creating ways to deliver that “value,” should be a top priority for companies who want to increase market share in 2011.     

5. “Going Viral” Requires Creative Content…And Money
Consumers are drowning in content. The media and information channel explosion created a world of “constant communication” that must be filtered for value. For example, there are 24 hours of video uploaded on YouTube every 60 seconds. It’s not just that quantity exceeds quality; it also exceeds our ability to process it.    

Reaching consumers requires both sides of the media equation – paid media (advertising, marketing, sponsorships, product placements, etc.) and earned media (media relations, social media, industry leadership, contests, etc). They support, influence, and feed off each other’s strengths.    

For a corporate campaign to spread via word-of-mouth and social networks, creative content has become more important, not less important. And good content must be buttressed by paid media (in whatever tactical form that needs to take) to have a fighting chance of success.     

6. Give Your Team Direction and Boundaries, Then See What They Can Achieve
One of the most fascinating speakers out of all the fall events was Vinton Cerf, vice president and chief evangelist for Google. Cerf, one of the earlier pioneers of the Internet and the person we can most likely praise (or blame) for the creation of email, spoke eloquently about the Internet’s meteoric rise. Cerf and his colleague Robert Kahn created the “rules of the road” for the Internet, the basic architecture for how people should program in this new frontier. “We didn’t tell people what kind of car to make or drive, just what side of the road to stay on,” said Cerf. “And by focusing on creating a solid infrastructure, we’ve seen an explosion in applications and programs.”    

Looking ahead, Cerf foresees the same explosion taking place in mobile devices, and that view was shared in every forum. How we use mobile devices is still in its infancy, but companies who can provide consumers convenient and value-added applications will gain market share. Companies should challenge their marketing and public relations teams to envision how they can tap into mobile marketing and generate market share ahead of competitors. And then fund the big, game changing ideas.

Photo Credit: EatItAtlanta.com

A self confessed foodie, I am not an easy dinner companion.  I wince at the idea of going to Outback with the girls, I eschew bar and grill chains and I hold a particular distaste for restaurants that seem incapable of allowing anything remotely healthy to appear on their menus.

I’ve been fortunate enough to dine at some wonderful places over the years – La Masseria in Las Vegas, Mozza in L.A., and Magnolia Grill in Durham being some of my favorites.  That said, I don’t require an expensive meal.  Chick-Fil-A makes an excellent chicken sandwich and The Biscuit Factory in High Point is home to the best biscuit I’ve ever put in my mouth.

So imagine my excitement when, this fall, a local upscale restaurant approached RLF about PR opportunities.  Highly regarded as one of the city’s best dining establishments, they still struggled with top-of-mind awareness from the community and the region.  One look at their Web site and our mission was clear:  Web overhaul was the number one priority.  If the Web site and story was even half as good as its food, the reservation list would always be full.

Clients still underestimate the value of a good Web site.  It is the public face of a business. It needs to exude the same experience a customer will have with the actual product or service. In the high end restaurant world, having an appealing Web site should matter just as much as having an aesthetic presentation or an appetizing menu

While researching restaurant Web sites, I was shocked to learn how few establishments actually have an appealing site.  The Web is littered with mediocre restaurant sites that have template layouts and unappetizing colors. Even high end, celebrity chefs have sites that are pedestrian. Where is the creativity that reflects their menu and philosophy on food?

Out of all my disappointment came one bright shining star. Kudos to chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller. The site for his internationally recognized French Laundry is a paragon of great restaurant presentation. Not only is it visually appealing but it tells a wonderful story; a marriage of culinary passion and purveyor partnerships.

If only other restaurateurs knew what Keller does. The site must be edible – worthy of consumption and 30 seconds of someone’s time. If the site is unappealing, people assume the establishment and its food are as well, no matter what menu is posted online.

Advice to restaurants – cook up the same excitement on your Web site that you do in the kitchen. Bon appétit.

I recently attended a rousing discussion at the Critical Issues Forum hosted by the Council of Public Relations Firms in New York City. The Council is the leading industry association for just over 100 of the country’s top public relations agencies (and RLF is proud to be a member) and they convened some 200 agency and corporate communications professionals on the roles and responsibilities of our industry in getting the country back on track. I jotted down a number of comments that struck me as particularly insightful, misguided or just plain intriguing. I’m not the best note-taker so don’t quote me verbatim, but here are some insights shared by some top public relations professionals who participated in panel discussions, and my brief reactions.

• One of the panelists quoted management guru Peter Drucker that “underneath the world’s problems are a raft of entrepreneurial opportunities.” A great perspective for all of us as we plan ahead for the next 3-5 years.

• Another panelist commented that “let’s not confuse the fact that people may understand something, but really not care.” So true. If we think about levels of engagement in what we strive for – it is awareness, understanding, caring, acting.

• One panel member strongly urged taking your communications staff to see Michael Moore’s movie Capitalism. Regardless of how people feel about the politics of it, it is a stark reminder of the gap that exists between corporate America and citizens. Might be something worth doing one afternoon.
• The panel moderator commented that in an age of so many competing media streams, do we really know what “truth” is? Can PR professionals really make a claim on this front? Truth is influenced by context, and our job is to help give people more context.

• The head of marketing for General Electric was great. She said their research is pointing to a new reality that people want “experiences not stuff.”  Our client Byron Carlock from CNL Lifestyle Properties has been talking about this emerging trend for years and it is right on the mark

• David Gergen, former White House advisor, warned corporate America that they are not out of the woods in being held accountable to the public. With more than 10 percent of Americans out of work, a fact that will not change anytime soon, the mood is still fragile and that has implications for communications. He relayed the story about President Obama summoning nine CEO financial services executives to the Oval Office and telling them that he was the only thing that stood between them and the “mob with pitchforks.” Gergen’s point was that while the pitchforks have been put away, the mob didn’t toss them in the river. They are “in the closet, and it will not take too many missteps by corporate leaders for the mob to pull them back out if trust is not restored.”

• On exactly that point of restoring trust, the head of communications for Morgan Stanley was completely out of touch. Perhaps it was just me, but his comments that “the financial crisis was caused because of irrational behavior” and that bank executives “deserve all of their bonuses despite the public bailout” came across as bitter. On the issue of bonuses, he lambasted another panel member who suggested that banks make contributions to help people in need rather than dole out all of the bonus money to executives. His response was something like “that is a cuckoo way of thinking. It’s like Bono thinking he can solve problems in Africa by just dumping money on the continent.” Does Morgan Stanley really think they have the moral high ground over Bono leading charity efforts in Africa?

• Margie Kraus, CEO of APCO Worldwide, had one of the best comments of the day for leaders (and PR people). She said that we can all acknowledge that trust in institutions (corporate and political) are at all time lows, and for good reasons. She urged folks to not think this was going to change on its own accord. “If you want to earn back trust with the audiences that matter to you, then stand up and earn it. Find ways to reestablish the social compact.”

This is the second in a series of posts that will take you directly to the right side of the brain of Ron Irons, the Creative Director at RLF, and give you the opportunity to see some of the ideas that he creates and develops at their genesis. Oh, brother!

Somewhere, out there in the heavens, there are hundreds of millions of pieces of trash circling our solar system. All the man-made debris that we’ve left up there over the years – satellites, rocket boosters, the glove from the Gemini 4 mission. Given the nation’s increased efforts to keep a green planet, you’d think we might want to reuse a piece or two.

Take the Gemini 4 glove, for instance. It could be put in the Smithsonian for the sake of national education or auctioned off at Sotheby’s with the proceeds benefiting soup kitchens, the uninsured or public school systems.

The point is we spend a lot of time and effort creating things that disappear from our consciousness. It’s the same thing with client proposals. Everyone who has ever developed and pitched a proposal has been there. The RFP asks for “out of the box” ideas to promote the product or service. And so the agency spends days, even weeks developing brilliant ideas, and presents them with conviction to a somber faced boardroom full of executives. Even if your agency wins the account, how many clients are bold enough to let you put those brilliant ideas into practice? In my experience, it’s a pretty small number, just shy of one percent.

But that doesn’t mean those great ideas should be shelved. They are intellectual capital and they should live to see the light of day elsewhere – just like that bridesmaid dress you’re supposed to cut off at the knees and wear to a cocktail party. Preserve them, build on them and adapt them for other uses. Appoint your own agency recycling crew to retrieve and collect them from the nethermost region of your server. Make a point to add unused ideas from each new proposal you create. You will soon have a database rich with ideas and inspiration for future campaigns. And you’ll feel really good about your carbon footprint.

This is the first in a series of posts that will take you directly to the right side of the brain of Ron Irons, the Creative Director at RLF, and give you the opportunity to see some of the ideas that he creates and develops at their genesis. Oh, brother!