Up Market |
| You See A Gorgeous Girl At A Party… Posted: 21 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT
You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "Let's dance". You show her the moves. You take her on unassuming dates on bicycle, talk a lot, dance some more. Slowly, she realizes you're rich. By the time you say "Will you marry me?" she's been waiting for it. That's Content Marketing. Why is Content Marketing so hard to understand?
Why is it that we struggle with understanding this one form of marketing that is taking over all others? I mean, it's not like it's new. And the idea of gaining someone's trust by being genuine in order to do business is the foundation of long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. So why is it so hard? In a recent article, I began to explore this question. My thinking is Content Marketing (part of Inbound Marketing / Permission Marketing, a.k.a. Relationship Marketing, the foundation of Social Media Marketing, etc.) is just a hard pill to swallow for many small business owners. As I wrote there, for one thing, it's just plain hard:
It is a lot like building a long-lasting personal relationship. Basically the same rules apply:
We can all agree to these being good things, right? Then, why is it so hard? The Humanity of Content MarketingI think Content Marketing is difficult for some small business owners to grasp or accept partly because of the personal aspect of it. Think about it. Think about this commonly-accepted phrase: "Hey, it's not personal, it's business." On top of that, we've grown weary of the Mad Men style of marketing. No one wants to be one of those guys in his circle of friends or clients. What is happening is social media is transforming what we think of as business as usual. The transparency created by social media is turning the proverbial global village into an actual small little town, regardless of physical boundaries. When this happens, the dynamics of a small town apply: Clients get to know the owner behind the business, maybe even by name. The owner gets to know clients by name too. A community is created, and in small communities, business is personal. A shift in mind-setThis is why Content Marketing is hard: It requires erasing from our minds decades of lessons instilled by conventional media, and it requires that we accept a return to a simpler time, where the Golden Rule ruled. The tactics and mechanics of Content Marketing are simple by comparison. The shift in mind-set is the challenging part. The good news? I think most people have it in them to do the right thing. You too. Let your guards down — if any — and just be the likable person your closest friends love. That's a good start. Image credit: Kevin N. Murphy |
| Posted: 21 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT
Unless, of course, you happen to have a job. And then it's business as usual, which isn't always an easy pill to swallow. Let's face it, no matter how much you love your job, it's hard to keep your focus on work as the rest of the world seems to be sliding into summer vacation mode. Of course we have to keep working. Bills don't pay themselves. And for some reason my kids seem to want to eat every day. So how do you fight the summer doldrums and stay proactive at work? Well psychologists have identified three things that matter. If you want to know where your own levels of proactive energies lie, ask yourself the following 3 questions: Can You Do It?This is your belief that you're even capable of being proactive. If you don't think you can be proactive then you won't try. Similarly if you don't think you can accomplish the task, then why start? Everything starts with your belief in your "can do" abilities. As a side note, this is why working with pessimistic people is so hard — they eat away at your "can do" attitude. Do You Have A Reason To Do It?Is being proactive worth it? If you get your work done, does your company care? Does your boss? Will someone sabotage it? Do you even love what you do? Obviously if no one cares, then you won't feel very proactive. In fact, you'll feel a lot like Peter Gibbons in the movie Office Space… Are You Energized?Do you have the energy to get things done? It's all well and good to know that you can do something. And it's nice to believe it's worth it. But if you are too exhausted (mentally or physically) to get something done, then it's likely you won't get anything done at all. This is why sleep, exercise, and eating right matter. It's also why bringing your meaning to work is important. Without these things, your energy will always be lacking! Now that you've asked yourself these 3 questions, what do you do with the answers? Well for starters, you probably noticed that you need all three things (can do, reason to, and energized) in order to proactively tackle your work. No amount of belief in doing something or having a reason to do it are going to help if you're not energized enough to work. Similarly if you want to work, believe you can do it, but no one cares — your desire to be proactive takes a nose dive. All three are important. Secondly, your job itself matters. How is your work structured? What kind of control (if any) do you have over these elements? The more your job helps you answer these three questions, the more you'll find yourself being proactive. Finally, in today's economy the person responsible for meeting all of these criteria is, well, you. Are you actively working to make sure all three of these requirements are met? If not, you might find yourself sliding into the lazy days of summer. Photo Credit: Crinity |
| Marketing to a Scanning Society Posted: 21 Jun 2012 02:00 AM PDT
But let's be honest. The rest of the world, even some of our biggest fans and followers, do not. In fact, they're digitally bombarded every day to follow, like, subscribe, friend, or add something to their life who will text, email, call, message, post and market to them as well. This raises a bigger question and complication of our digital age: Are we becoming a Scanning Society? A society that embraces, even participates, in more topics and conversations than ever before — but, when distilled to our basic human nature (and brain power), we actually still only remember and truly care about a handful of things? Many studies have been published over the years about how much a brain remembers. The most recent publicized post came from Fast Company: "Is Your Memory Good Enough To Remember That You Read This?" The short answer? Maybe not. Remembering the details of an article you just read, or what you Liked on Facebook in the last hour depends on how many other things you were doing at or around the same time. It's also noted that most people cannot process or recall more than seven things at a time. Other studies have also been done on multitasking. A few notables include NPR's talk on "Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again" which challenges that we may not be as good at multitasking as we think — better than other life forms, but still not great. According to a Rutger's study, the average mean of effective multitasking is 3 things at a time. Anything beyond that and we move in a sub-conscious state of action, but little recall. Yet today, we are almost forced to scan to keep up with the onslaught of constant push notifications, email alerts, status updates and more that remind us about something or someone we gave permission to… but didn't genuinely connect with.
A few findings have been drawn up over the years by psychologists about what triggers long-term memory. Among the most popular triggers that marketers can and should take to heart are:
How can your marketing influence a digitally obsessed Scanning Society? Second photo source: News Current |
Cute, isn't it? The joke above — maybe too much? 
Summer. Good times. Cool lemonade. And lazy days.
As marketers, it's easy to become self-obsessed. We think and dream in the colors of our brand.
As marketers, we should be incredibly aware of what marketing to a Scanning Society means. This goes beyond permission marketing. It requires an exerted study (of your target audience) and diligent effort (test and learn) to become part of someone's long-term memory. It's about moving opinions from short term to long term, transitioning conversations from a sub-conscious to conscious state and enabling someone to adequately categorize you (not to be confused with stereotypes) with something or someone they can easily relate to.| You are subscribed to email updates from Upmarket To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu