On Words and Business

The 3 basic stages before buying a product or service:

1. Do I have a problem?

The goal of content marketing at this point is to share materials that educate your customers about the issue or problem, including the consequences of ignoring it.

2. If I do have a problem, what solutions are out there to help me solve it?

This is when your content needs to provide details about the features and benefits of your product/service, so your customers can figure out what the differences are between offerings and why yours might be best.

3. Is this the right solution for me?

This is when your marketing materials should discuss things like the return on investment in your solution and any additional information (like service and support options) to help customers evaluate your product and compare against any competitors.

The heart of content marketing is providing information for your customers. But what information?

Assuming you’ve done your research into your customers and competitors and found a way to take a leadership role in your business or market sector, it is time to start solving your customers’ problems.

Start with this: they might not even know they have a problem. Before you can solve it you have to help them understand they have a problem. This is where your research and thought leadership come into play.

Once you’ve convinced them they have a problem, then you solve it. This isn’t as nefarious as it sounds. This isn’t about manufacturing a need. Every business has challenges they don’t recognize as such. This is about identifying those challenges and offering a solution.

Want to create a social media policy but don’t know how? Want to make sure your existing policy passes muster?

Check out Social Media Governance, a website with over 100 policies from companies like the BBC, FedEx, and Sun Microsystems. In addition, there are links to over 100 research reports about social media policy, some of them free.

A great resource.

Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis

Thoughts on marketing, branding, and communications from the folks at market research agency Millward Brown. Good stuff.

Apparently, a lot of people are glad to see the aughts go away. According to the Pew Research Center, this was the worst decade in 50 years.

Technology bright spots:

• 69% think cell phones are a change for the better
• 65% think the internet and email are changes for the better

Interestingly:

• 40% think that more people getting tattoos is a change for the worse
• 45% think that more people getting tattoos hasn’t made a difference

As I’ve said before, I’m not big on the lack of standardized categories for website content.

Like most, I’ve gotten used to searching Google for things. Although I’m not anti-Google, most of my searches are done reluctantly and with a sigh at the knowledge of all the dreck I’ll have to sort through. These days, sadly, it’s almost the only way to find something online.

Then…there is an outage. Here’s a great article on the single point of failure for finding content on the web.