Marketers' Credo: Thou Shalt Create Great Content

Content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi is a key believer in using great content to foment and cement relationships. He published what should be a marketer's credo with his 30 Content Marketing Truths. They boil down to the brand being a relationship -- not a tag line; and, that the customer relationship doesn't end with the payment.

Those two "truths" (#8 and #2, respectively) are the crux to what I call Persuasive Marketing. Persuasive Marketing is a process of identifying, targeting and communicating with key influencers throughout the industry. Key influencers being customers, luminaries, analysts, media, academicians, partners and even employees. When key influcencers vocalize their experiences -- their respective peers take notice -- and join in on the conversation.

The core to creating relationships is with good content. Don't believe me? Think about when you are at a cocktail party; people gather around those with compelling stories and anecdotes. Or when you are interviewing for a job; if the conversation is loose and flowing interest ensues. Think of your brand as a news magazine and create content that intrigues and interests your audiences. Give them a forum to talk about their challenges, create content that inspires, shares anecdotes, relays how-tos. Ultimately you are creating a mechanism to relate and gain trust.

I recently spoke with Luuk de Jager, Senior Director, Central Marketing Office Online for Philips Consumer Lifestyle. He shared with me that Philips content is split between customer centered and product centered content, with the former being more important to all audiences save for business partners -- which is why the Philips' sites are peppered with articles on ambiance, designing with light, finding the right fixture, finding the right bulb.

Philiips has invested literally millions of dollars on content that has nothing to do with selling product but rather is about engaging the customer. Unfortunately this "soft" approach is foreign to most companies, and hence, as Pulizzi opines, more than 90% of all Web sites "suck" because they go on and on about how great the company is. Really? As my writing coach used to say, "show me, don't tell me."

There is a tremendous opportunity right now for enterprises to take advantage of the missteps and misfortunes of the traditional media. People are hungry for information that solves their problems. The media used to be where people turned, but with cutbacks, scandals and the search engines, people are finding corporate content to fill their needs.

The enterprises that recognize that great content (not just articles, by the way, but illustrations, videos and photographs) leads people to experience your brand -- and in turn, spend the time influencing others. Building your sphere of influencers has to be a key goal for 2010 -- and having a steady stream of great content will help your sphere grow quickly.