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On 17 November 2010, I was invited to present a webinar on content marketing for The Brew Small Business Development Series. Sponsored by New South Wales Government Industry & Investment, the lunchtime program is designed to bring practical advice to small business owners.

The Brew has put a recording of my webinar, Content Marketing for Small Business: How to use your knowledge & expertise to drive more customers & sales, on their website. When you find an extra 30 minutes, grab a coffee and find out how content marketing can help you in your own business.

How are you using content marketing to gain more customers and improve revenue?

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You've heard the myths, right? Social media is a panacea for business owners, especially small business owners. Hop over to Twitter, find a few friends on Facebook and link your network with LinkedIn and, pretty soon, you can sit back and watch the cash roll in. All you have to do is set up a few profiles and you're on easy street. That's just not how it works.

Having been a social media practitioner for two years now, I have insight some people would rather I didn't share. Notice I didn't call myself an expert, or a wizard, or a doctor of social media or, the worst one ever, a social media Jedi. Ridiculous titles are becoming common and usually carry with them a lot of false promises and not much in the way of deliverables. I've had wonderful success with social media in my business. Here are some of the myths I've discovered, sometimes through the school of hard knocks.

• Social media is free. This is a particularly seductive myth because it doesn't cost anything to register a profile and get started. However, just showing up isn't going to do anything for you and could actually hurt your business. According to the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from the Social Media Examiner, 56% of marketers are using social media for six hours or more each week and 30% for eleven or more hours weekly. Unless you've got a spare 6+ hours per week, it's not free. To run a successful social media strategy, you need to dedicate time and money developing and distributing content. The worst thing you can do is abandon your social media profiles. When your prospects find them, they could easily consider your don't pay much attention to other parts of your business, as well.
• Social media will close business for you. It won't do any such thing, especially if you don't already have a strong product or service offering. Don't confuse social media with an ecommerce system. Social media tools help spread your message but you're still going to have to figure out a way to get prospects to purchase your product. That means you need to continue with your normal sales strategies. Social media is for communication, not for collecting money.
• You get immediate results. You have to view social media as a slow burn technique for generating interest in your business. Just because you show up, doesn't mean anyone will listen. You must still do the hard work of building relationships, connecting with the right people, and promoting your brand. You have the added complication of working in a "social" environment. Broadcasting to the masses doesn't work and you'll be penalised if this is how you choose to behave. My experience is it takes about six months of persistent and consistent activity before you start to experience interest from the outside. That sounds a lot like "business as usual", doesn't it?
• You need to understand technology to use social media tools. Probably the biggest myth of all, social media activity requires almost no technical skills. The tools have been purposely designed to appeal to people without a technical background. If you can fill out a form or send an email, you can easily navigate your way around.
• It's a young person's game. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the Pew Research Center in America recently produced statistics showing the fastest growth rate for social media activity is with people over the age of 55. The Nielsen Company, in a 2009 study, reported the biggest demographic of Twitter is in the 25 54 age range. The Social Media Examiner report mentioned earlier showed the median time for all groups (except the 60- to 69-year-olds) was 10 hours per week. The people using social media are the people you want for your customers.

The Take-Away
Social media is not a magic bullet. It probably won't even change the way you do business, much. What it does very well is open new channels for you to find prospects, influence customers and nurture leads. It's taken geographic boundaries off Word of Mouth referrals and your ability to market your business. Yes, it's a slow burn method but once you get the fire going, it can quickly ignite and explode your potential in a way we've never seen before. I'm a big fan of social media and consider it a vital part of my overall strategy. I highly recommend it to every one of my customers. I just make sure they can separate truth from fiction before they get started.

What social media myths have you uncovered?

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Last Friday evening, the City of Perth kicked off the Christmas season with their annual Turning on the Lights event. Promising, This magical show will feature a variety of entertainment and the grand arrival of Santa into the City, the event missed its mark by a lot. While I suffered through the evening, I couldn't help but consider the marketing lessons to be learned.

Know Your Audience
The cardinal rule in content marketing is to know what your audience needs and give it to them. The City of Perth failed miserably at this task.

• The content didn't appeal to the target audience. I'm a baby boomer and, even for me, a zany/ditzy news reporter getting a live "wire" feed was dated. Kids don't even know what a wire is. They certainly didn't understand what the electronic beep-beep-beep signal meant every time "breaking news" occurred. It probably would have worked better for an aged care audience.
• Suffice it to say it's never appropriate to use profanity in a kid's show, even mild profanity. I certainly didn't appreciate the "Where the HELL is Santa" line. I'm waiting for my 6-year-old to use that next time he wants to create an impression.
• It's also incredibly bad judgement to describe Santa as a "mythical creature". To the target audience, 3 to 8-year-old children, he is a real person. It isn't the City of Perth's job to dispel that belief.

Keep your content relevant
Everyone in attendance expected a traditional Christmas show culminating in Santa turning on the lights of the city. It's the official start of the Christmas season in Perth and the first time the lights are turned on.

• The content did not stay on topic. The Easter Bunny and Bob the Builder were completely unnecessary elements to the show. It's a great example of where "more is better" isn't.
• The music was wrong. Little kids don't know Favourite Things from the Sound of Music. They would have loved a sing-a-long; Jingle Bells would have been a better choice. The audience was chastised for not participating but how could they when they didn't know the song?
• A cover version of Aretha Franklin's Respect by Mrs. Santa Claus equally confused the audience.

Make your point and keep it concise
The event was too long. Given that it was aimed at young kids and started after 7:30, it shouldn't have gone more than 30 minutes. The event lasted for 50 minutes which was excruciating for everyone. Unfortunately, none of us could skip to the end. It would have been nice to miss the daytime TV personality who plugged her network very late in the program, much to the confusion of the kids.

Know Your Secondary Audience
I suspect the City of Perth was trying to appeal to the parents as much as the children at this event. Big mistake. Christmas lights and Santa are definitely kid's territory. If you want to keep parents happy and entertained, focus on the kids and get them out of there before the meltdowns begin. None of us came to the event for any other reason except to treat our tykes to a Christmas spectacle.

A Clear Call to Action Works
There were a lot of complaints about pandering to the sponsors. As a marketer, that didn't bother me too much. David Jones, the main sponsor, littered our seats with marketing material in the form of brochures and flyers. The kids all had paper visors and carrying bags shaped like stockings with the department store branding plastered all over it. I lost count of the number of times David Jones was mentioned from the stage. When the show was over, my little boy insisted we go to David Jones. He wasn't even interested in seeing Santa but definitely wanted to go see what the buzz was about. I had not planned to go shopping after the show but ended up spending just under $100 in the store none of it in the children's or toy department.

Social Media Works
After voicing some of my complaints on Twitter and trading opinions with other people at the same event, an employee from the City of Perth asked me to email my comments to her so it could be used as feedback for next year. I did that, gladly. As I write this post, at least one other blogger is waiting for me to finish so it can be referenced elsewhere. It's just another example of how Twitter can help advocate change.

We dragged ourselves home from the Turning on the Lights event exhausted and disappointed. My little boy didn't view the event with a critical eye. That's the benefit of being six. I'm waiting to address the, "Is Santa real?" question and will silently curse The City of Perth if it happens this year. I'm also waiting for him to ask me, "Where the HELL have you been?" the next time I show up late for the school pick-up. He's anticipating Christmas and another trip back to David Jones when I'm in a better mood.

What's your take on the City of Perth's marketing approach?
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How do you feel about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)? Do you hate it? I have to confess to sharing the same opinion expressed by Jason Amunwa in his post at The Zest titled, Why I hate SEO but also respect it. If you're interested in Asset Based Marketing, it's a necessary evil.

Why SEO Matters
I've spoken a lot about the importance of design when it comes to your content. In the same way design enhances your content, SEO enhances your overall marketing strategy. If prospective customers cannot find you when they're looking for a vendor, the best content and most brilliant design languishes. Your landing page becomes a parking lot devoid of traffic. For as much as I'd rather not think about SEO, it's on my mind all the time.

Asset degradation
Have you ever had low-grade anxiety connected to what you're not getting done at work? My blog has been idle for the past week. I've got several topics for future posts so it's a matter of finding the time to develop the ideas more than anything. The anxiety stems from knowing a business asset is sitting idle or even degrading due to inactivity.

[/b]Pay attention to logistics[/b]
The search engines, especially Google, appreciate websites that are updated frequently. Two good ways to do this are with a blog and an RSS news feed. The logistics of both are important. I highly recommend you put a news feed on your homepage and keep it updated. Every time you add a news items, your home page is updated and Google takes note. I've written before about the importance of blog logistics. If you're blogging for business, your posts will be littered with keywords which will impress search engine algorithms. If it's anchored on your business website, you will benefit from an improvement in SEO rankings.

Why does SEO matter to Asset Based Marketing?
When your website is ranking well with the search engines, your content is going to reach more people. You can pay for an SEO service but that's a pure marketing expense. You can also influence your own SEO by making regular updates to your website through your blog and news items. While boosting your SEO, you'll also be:

• Attracting new readers
• Developing a reputation for expertise in your field
• Conducting a lead nurturing campaign
• Compiling a valuable asset

The Take-Away
Developing a marketing strategy without giving careful consideration to SEO is a mistake. Creating original content with a strong design element is a necessity to an asset based marketing program. Unless your content is easily found, it's still not an asset. Like it or not, SEO is the necessary evil to any content strategy. You'll know you're on the right track when you start to feel anxious about slipping your own publication schedule.

What's your view on SEO?

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Why Aren't You Blogging? by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, on Flickr

Last week I posted an article at the Content Marketing Institute about boosting the impact of your newsletter. Titled, 7 Ways to Get More Value From Your eNewsletter, the post gives a great example of asset based marketing at work.

Master Photographer Geoff Fisher attended a conference where I was speaking about content marketing. He had implemented components of a content marketing strategy but was quickly finding out it took time away from what he really loved doing photographing portraits and landscapes. When he hired me to help produce original content for Fisher Photography, I suggested he take an asset based marketing approach and bring a strong design element onto the project. He immediately agreed for two reasons:

• As a visual artist, Geoff understands the importance of design
• As a business owner, he was attracted to the idea of a marketing expense becoming an asset for his company

Content + Design = Asset
I enlisted the help of designer Ryan Briggs. Designers are always happy to have a steady supply of good images so it wasn't difficult to convince Ryan to take on a master photographer for a new client. I had some ideas about the content for Geoff's website and newsletter so was able to give Ryan a detailed design brief. He started firing off ideas of his own.

Newsletter Landing Page
One of my content strategies was to tell the "story behind the photo". I also wanted Geoff to share "tips from the pro" for home photographers. He always seems to know what's happening around town so I thought he should share that information, as well. Ryan knew we needed to let people know what sort of content they could expect and also what the newsletter would look like. He created a newsletter landing page on Geoff's website showing an anatomy of the newsletter.

This sneak peak encourages people to subscribe to the newsletter. Ryan also archives all issues of Geoff's newsletter on the landing page which is a big help in SEO. As a result, Geoff's newsletter is enjoying a continual stream of new subscribers, a healthy open rate and is working overtime attracting the attention of the search engines. The Fisher Photography newsletter does not have a "sell by" date making it an asset in Geoff's marketing efforts.

The Take-Away
Business has become so accustomed to spending money on marketing, they don't always consider ways to create assets out of the activity. By utilising great design techniques and quality content, your audience will respond. Creating original collateral may take a bit of extra time and budget at the creation stage. An asset based marketing strategy will ensure the efforts are rewarded with long-term results.

What have you done to increase the value of your marketing efforts?

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