Eric Ungs

Content will remain the catalyst for a brand’s online success (or failure) and ultimately having a tremendous effect on their overall digital return on influence (ROI).

John Bell (author of The Digital Influence Mapping Project) wrote a fabulous piece (which inspired this short writeup and graphic) on this shift in marketing and communications – content marketing finds its value (head on over and take a peak, come back, and we’ll continue on).

Examine the intersection between user and brand.

Content marketing goes beyond the products and services (it touches them indirectly) your organization possesses. It takes a look at who makes up your core demographic and then directly speaks to that user group about that shared interest. You have to examine the intersection of a user and brand. What’s the warm and fuzzy for the user, what’s the shared interest, what’s that one thing that makes both brand and user tick together? What’s the value you posses to help shape that user groups way of life? Speak to that topic.

Though I wholeheartedly agree on everything John is saying throughout his post, I think there’s one piece that’s being left out, or maybe that I would alter…

Creating content for users instead of consumers.

First, users aren’t customers. Users simply absorb your relevant and valuable content. This user group is your brands targeted audience but has a far greater reach than speaking to just consumers. Think about this for a second (refer to the graphic above as well or click here for a larger view). You are able to speak, with adding high levels of relevant value, to a user group that is five times (I have no idea how big, but it’s bigger) the size of your costumer base means huge opportunities. Though a user may never become a customer of yours, what this means is you have created a brand ambassador indirectly. This new ambassador is sharing relevant content that is deriving from your brand. This user group has become much larger making your brand (content) much more visible in an instant. By speaking to a community of users, this eventually will produce consumers who will want to give you some cash for your product or service. Users have now joined the group of brand ambassadors along side consumers. The larger the user base, the greater opportunity of obtaining customers. But, content must remain relevant and valuable. There is still a targeted direction, it’s not the masses.

American Express does it best.

American Express is a financial organization that offers credit card solutions for both personal and business use. What they have done with their content marketing strategy is created a hub that speaks to a core of their demographic. This platform is called American Express Open Forum. Their content consists of how to operate a small business – “powering small business success”. What it doesn’t consist of is how to operate a small business leveraging their credit card solutions. Instead it’s simply a forum. A place where top influencers and thought leaders in the small business space offer their advice, via guests posts, on running a successful small business. From managing, to marketing, to design, etc. This is the true kicker – it’s powered by the small business experts outside of American Express. They seek to the SMB expert to produce the content. They have even gone to the extent of declaring their own day of the year called “Small Business Saturday”. It’s the day after Black Friday that encourages shoppers to shop small and local. When a small business owner thinks about financials, they instantly gravitate to American Express. Through persistence they’ve molded their brand to become the “all things small business expert”.

Keep the platform in your control.

What must be remembered is that the content hub needs to be in your control. Meaning, don’t use third party platforms to create content. Instead, establish your own platform that both creates and distributes relevant content by means of social channels to your targeted user base. Refer to the graphic above for the path a user and customer takes. The idea of this platform and content marketing strategy is to always be creating. This results in shareable links and high SERPs. It’s constant, consistent, and filled with fresh content and conversation. Conversation and dialogue that takes place in your living room – your brands controlled environment.  This large group of users are continually returning to your content hub, it’s only a matter of time before they themselves, or one of their SWYN (share with your network) recipients, meanders to your website to research your product/service and then filters to the bottom of your sales funnel.

As John Bell stated at the end of his post – it’s definitely a marathon.

January 2, 2012 – #01

Each week I want to share with you the interesting things I come across. It could be anything; blog posts, tech products, new apps, quotes, etc. If you’ve found any interesting tidbits or news, please share in the comments below, I’d love to hear about them.

First, Happy New Year! Can’t believe it’s 2012.

1. Gympact. Is your New Years resolution to hit the gym? Do you have a weekly gym goal? Are you willing to put money on it? This app is about tough love. Each week you develop a goal on how many times you’ll go to the gym. You then attach a price you’re willing to pay if you don’t meet that goal. The app works on check-ins. If you don’t meet the goal, you have to pay the dollar amount you had tied to that goal. If you meet the goal, you see some green from all of the other users who didn’t meet their goals. Gympact collects a 3% fee on these transactions. Read more of Mashable’s coverage. P.S – you can’t do drive by check-ins. You must be there for at least thirty minutes.

2. ToutApp. Curious on the activity within your email inbox? ToutApp is a pretty slick tool that produces data on your Gmail activity for all of 2011. It produces a pretty neat infographic with various levels of data – it shows you how many emails you dealt with (received) over the year and how quickly you responded to them. On the flip side it shows you how many emails you sent, to whom, how many were replied to, the time of month, day, etc. Read more of Mashable’s coverage.

3. Steve Jobs. I completed the tale of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. One of the greater books I have read. It portrays the true side of Jobs. It’s truly a tell all kind of book. Though the printed version may seem overwhelming by the thickness, you won’t be dissatisfied. As I was nearing the end of the book I wish there was more. It truly is fascinating the impact this man had on our society and the industries he flipped upside down. Simply put, he’s a genius. Check out my full review  here.

Now it’s your turn to share… Go.

Steve Jobs is one of the most fascinating individuals of our time, therefore, this is one of the best books I have ever read. Walter Isaacson does it Pulitzer Prize style in delivering the true colors of Jobs. You know the saying, “the truth hurts”, absolutely, but the truth is what made Apple what it is today.

From his very first beginnings to his final breath it’s truly an inspiring and fascinating tale. I’ll leave the guts for you to read. Here are just a few highlights to dissect.

Apple is Steve Jobs.

The DNA of Steve Jobs poured into everything Apple – from employees to product design to the architecture of Apple properties to running and leading a business to advertising. He simply was Apple and he could con anyone into becoming a believer in his vision. He had a way with words and people.

Seeing the light with LSD.

Jobs credits taking psychedelic drugs for making him more enlightened. “Taking LSD was a profound experience. One of the most important things in my life”. It allowed him to gather a sense of what was truly important in life. It was ultimately a catalyst for his deep passion in changing the world. It wasn’t about getting rich, it was about making great products that would put a ripple through a lot of industries. It was about making something you believe in and creating a company that will last. There’s an admiration for those whose drive is to change people’s lives for the better – and not to mislead by just wanting to cash in. The green will follow.

A perfectionist to the Nth degree.

At a very young age Jobs’ father taught him that a drive for perfection meant that caring about the craftsmanship of the parts unseen. Jobs instilled this into everything he could put his hands on. From Apple to his living room – Jobs went with no furniture in his home for months because nothing suited his perfectionists drive. But it’s fairly easy (but mostly extremely difficult for a lot of people) – simplicity. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” This shows from Apple hardware to software. The amazement that non-techies (young children!) can pick up an iPad and fully comprehend how to use it. It’s a matter of instincts and it’s path from simplicity.

Reality distortion field.

Jobs would stare at his employees (or anyone for that matter) without blinking until they basically took a sip of his kool-aid. This notion of his reality distortion field is essentially summed up like this: “you did the impossible, because you didn’t realize it was impossible.” People found it empowering as Jobs believed it truly inspired and motivated his team. He would change the course of computer history with a fraction of resources Apple’s competitors were working with. Why? Because of this notion of belief. He would slash a 3 month ship date to 2 with his employees working tirelessly. In the end – they did the impossible and shipped in 2. In addition to this inspiration for his employees, he believed that the rules simply didn’t apply to him. He had this sense that there are few people who are truly special, that are the chosen ones, the enlightened ones. He believed he was one of them.

Jobs had a way with words and a way of luring people into this distortion field. During board meetings the others had signals for when someone was being caught up in Steve’s world and needed to be tugged back to reality.

A true knack for business

One of Jobs greatest strengths was his ability to focus. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” When he was invited back to Apple he simply came in and slashed 70% of the products Apple was creating at that time. Apple simply lost focus on the core product and was competing too much with its own self. It’s amazing the vision this man had and his intuition for operating a successful business, but yet, he had to sell himself (and his vision) during each one of these episodes.

Even to this day you see companies changing their model, features, systems, spending millions on market research to meet consumer demands. Jobs didn’t believe in market research because he knew that customers don’t know what they want until they’re shown. By having “A” employees and those with a real drive and passion for what they’re doing, they built products they wanted to use.

Apple products are truly revolutionary – they are the intersection of technology and creativity. Apple will go down in history as one of the greatest companies and brands of all time – turning many industries upside down.

Conclusion.

1.) He definitely was the chosen one and 2.) read the book for yourself. You’ll be in awe. Enjoy!