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Crutchfield Direct Meets Content Marketing

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Crutchfield-Direct-MailThere are few marketing catalogs good enough to devour and some you should trash. For them all, you ought to get on the “do not mail” list (can I get a personal assistant, please?).

The catalog I devour is Crutchfield. It is full of the most advanced tech gadgets from stereo speakers on a carabiner to cameras, earphones, and deck speakers for that outside life we all love to wish for.

I’m not an audiophile, but I sure do love tech toys. Didn’t I recently tell you we were all game players? I digress.

Direct Mail Say Hi To Content Marketing

Crutchfield is taking the direct mail catalog to new heights, and they are impressive ones:

On page 12 of the most recent not-junk-mail sales catalog is a piece fit for a blog post, “Making A Mustang Rock; We do the research so you know exactly where it fits.” It gets no link because it’s not online; it’s in print and mailed to me.

The article (yes, I said article) is for Mustang enthusiasts interested in souping up stereo speakers in the dash for Mustangs built in 2005-2009.

Throughout the authoritative piece that smacks of research and original proven content are photos of the speakers for sale.

In the sidebar is a feature of the guy, Jason, who’s been working for Crutchfield 18 years. He’s the savvy dude who fits your car with tech gear.

At the bottom, are two call outs —

  •  First is oriented to establishing more authority, “We’ve done profiles like this for 38 more vehicles; hit crutchfield.com/vprofile to read more, etc.:
  •  The second is definitely a favorite of Crutchfield customers and prospects…Outfit My Car, where Crutchfield has created a database of 17,000 autos and what the audio requirements are for each with a lot of “free installation accessories.”  Check that out at crutchfield.com/whatfits.

photo-32Why Crutchfield is #RockHot

  • Have you heard that content is king? I know you have or else you’ve been under a rock for two years.
  • This type of blog-postesque content that melds sales with content marketing is brilliant.
  • Not only that, the experts behind the story are featured right there; authority zudes from the content.
  • They showcase their database of extensive vehicles and product requirements.
  • Products are seen in action and help illustrate the story IN THE SALES CATALOG.

If you are a content marketer, it’s time to get creative, just like this. We’re living in a souped up time for business opportunity…just like those Mustangs Crutchfield is outfitting with sound systems.

 

By Jayme Soulati

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Content Marketers Need Web Designers And Developers

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My head is swirling from reviewing free- to-premium WordPress website templates and reading blog posts from designers and developers sharing tutorial about how they love Genesis, Thesis and think Headway is good but has some catching up to do.

Then there’s Elegant themes that look amazing, but Scott Quillin over at New England Multimedia won’t work in any of the above. Instead, he has one of his own secret premium themes he insists is #RockHot (which I won’t share with you).

I’ve been blogging on two blogs for almost three years (that’s nothing in the scheme of things). But, in that time, I’ve played with free themes, Headway, and Thesis enough to know that I suck at designing a website or blog. Heck, I’ve even launched a few websites in Go Daddy’s Website Tonight software (and they looked half-way shabby).

What I’m trying to say is this, Peeps:

Content marketers, like me, cannot design a website; nor can they develop its back end.

Get my drift? We can’t do it.  All we can do is change the font and the color of a leaf, but we can’t design a website all by ourselves.

It frustrates me extraordinarily that I can’t do this…even though I told Craig McBreen in comments at his house that I ban “I can’t” from my household. If there’s an obstacle in front of me, I climb it.

This time, though, to climb over the designing and developing of a website, I would need to go back to school somehow. I would also need to become a detail person and enjoy the tedious nature of graphic design.

I hate designing PowerPoint decks for that reason; I don’t make things look pretty very well. I’m a slap-the-paint-on-canvas kinda gal and call it abstract art; in fact, I have one of those on my mantel that I’m pretty in love with (‘cuz I slapped some acrylics on canvas and stroked the brush back and forth in a rainbow-esque fashion, and I really liked it).

I digress.

There’s so much more that goes on behind the scenes of a website or a blog that we can’t see and don’t know about. That’s why you have to hire someone to join your team and make it happen. But, you have to direct them to design and develop what you want; you need a vision for what you want to appear on that blank canvas.

About every six months, you have to go through this exercise with your website and stir the pot.

That time for all of us is about now, and here’s why:

Responsive design is the current trend, today; right now.

Making your website responsive means it will work on a smartphone or tablet or e-reader. When you visit a website and all you do is scroll from side to side to find the nav menu, then you know that site is not responsive.

Did you know that big data is telling us more people will visit your website from a smart device than from a PC? The data are showing that uptick; are you ready?

 

Google, Frommer’s, Zagat and Content Marketing

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from +Amanda Blain

Did you see the news? Google is carrying forth with its strategy to become a content marketer with the latest acquisition of Frommer’s travel guides for $25 million. In the world of travel guides, I wonder if that’s a lot of money? When you look at what Facebook paid for Instagram; it’s peanuts.

I, for one, love Frommer’s. It’s my travel guide of choice along with Lonely Planet. Last year, Google bought Zagat Reviews, and you begin to see the strategy unfold with its launch, too, of Google Flight Search.

Talk about becoming content kingpin in the travel and hospitality industry over night, eh?

So, what does this say about search engine Google now owning hot travel sites where hotter content rules? Because it can, it is diversifying in a sector that caters to a wide demographic from teens and tweens to mommies, business folk, seniors and great seniors.  How smart is that for a strategic move?

I don’t have to tell you that Google has opened up new and huge opportunity and successfully diversified its interests; much to the chagrin of Yelp and Yahoo!

What’s Your Google Strategy?

Here are some tips you might parlay in your own neck of the woods:

  •  If you’re @RalphDopping or @PattySwisher who work in the architectural fields, perhaps their firms might join forces with a construction company or launch their own. Small construction is still a good bet (versus building high-rise office structures), and perhaps architects can earn a greater piece of the pie.
  • If you’re @KaarinaDillabough who works as a business and life coach, is there a way to boost business by developing killer content that encapsulates tips for the stressed mommy entrepreneur? She can build a new channel that way; open new doors.
  • If you’re @NeicoleCrepeau who owns Coherent Interactive, a digital web shop with marketing analytics, perhaps she could partner with Soulati Media, which brings solid PR experience to marketing teams.
  •  Adam Toporek diversified his brand; I watched the whole thing. He decided to refocus his brand new blog on customer service and went dark awhile as he rebuilt the site and now targets content specific to that topic. Now, when I write my customer service stories, I always shoot them to him as they fit better on his blog than mine.  What’s he done? Become a content expert in that sector, just like Google is doing in hospitality and travel.

Very cool.

Content Marketing Requires Message Mapping

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In a high-level discussion with a colleague recently, we surmised there are three buckets in which we play in the social media world:

  • App developers
  • Big data masters
  • Content marketers

 

 

Although these three seem siloed; in fact, they’re not. The common thread is content marketing, where I play.

  • Everyone expecting to deliver a successful app to the space requires spot-on messaging to enhance content.
  • Anyone dissecting analytics and big data for marketers requires spot-on messaging to deliver the analysis for use in content marketing.
  • Anyone executing content marketing requires message mapping to deliver spot-on messaging.

What is Message Mapping?

There still seems to be great confusion about when to use a message map or if a mind map will suffice. I’d like to shed more light on this topic and help business owners understand the importance of each.

This is a core public relations tool used at the start of any strategic campaign and also prior to launch of a business. A message mapping exercise can be executed any time, actually. If a leadership team is interested in tweaking and perfecting messaging to launch new products or services, or complete a merger or acquisition, then a message map comes into play. Sales teams can even use message maps, as well.

When you develop a message map, a three-hour session with an integrated leadership team is drilled down to a messaging platform that becomes a creative suite of sound bites. Everyone likes to call it the elevator speech. It is and it’s so much more.

Message maps allow the encapsulation of a story about a company’s history, its products, its services, its people/founders, its competitors, its pricing, and industry all within one map that looks like a hub with quadrants and sub-sections.

When questions are asked of an executive, the message map provides all the prompts for the answer and then some. I’ve known executives to minimize the map and keep it in their wallet for easy reference. Nowadays, it’s easier to pull it up via mobile device.

As a content marketer, I recognize how critical a message map is to the success of any social media marketing campaign. I prefer to use a message map or messaging platform to draft social media posts for Twitter and Facebook. I prefer to reference a message map to ensure that approved language is added to corporate blog posts, too.

When there isn’t a message map, there is no unified voice. Think about that. Most of my clients that are smaller don’t want to invest in message mapping exercises. When they don’t, there is no approved corporate content to communicate externally. Messages become a tangled web and the team can become confused how to communicate and best portray the company.

For anyone starting or dabbling in social media marketing, I encourage this exercise. The outcome provides a foundation to build upon as your company grows. It is a critical component to the success of your positioning and the strength of your brand.

Lastly, a message map is NOT a mind map. From what I understand, mind maps allow for the tracking of tasks, actions and future programs via in-depth schematic like a roadway. Still confused? Ask me; ready to shed more light any time.

Message Mapping Revisited

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If I was an analytics girl, I’d be all over this topic like icing on cake. Alas, I’m not and that’s why it’s taken me so long to return to this highly popular subject.

(Here’s a quick story about what nudged me…I was at a corporate marketing meeting on a recent January Monday and introduced myself. Later that day a man I never met approached me to say my name had sounded familiar, and sure enough, he checked his bookmarks and noted he’d used this for his training session. How ridiculously cool is that?)

I digress.

Message mapping is something I do and get hired for. I lend my 27 years of core public relations blended with marketing to develop a company’s story. Not the type of storytelling story marketers are used to uncovering, but the factual, media type stories for delivery to all external audiences required by the PR team.

Messaging, regardless of whether you use a map format, is the single-most critical strategy for all companies in this post-social media era. (Heck, it was even the single most, blah, blah when social media was a big trend.) Without approved messaging for spokespeople to deliver to external audiences, the PR and communications teams cannot amplify the brand, position thought leaders, promote areas of excellence, and the like.

It’s never too late to start a exercise because core facts about a company don’t change yet outside influences do adjust the story. A formal messaging process ought to happen:

>>Every two years with the executive team

>>Every year with the communications team

>>Whenever a launch, business decision, acquisition, etc. changes the core messaging platform

 

Step One to Create Message Maps

In the beginning, I’m not concerned with how the message will be delivered or on which channel, I’m only interested in what we’re going to say. The “to whom” isn’t even a requirement at first; we uncover the basics and cascade from there.  Here’s how I approach message mapping:

>>Gather executives from the C-suite or other high-level positions in a room.

>>No advance prep required, but ask for a three-hour commitment.

>>For those you really need to focus, ask for undivided attention.

>>Facilitator (someone like me) from outside company begins the open-ended questioning about the company.

>>Describe your company; what do you do? For whom, when, how, how much, competition, industry, accolades, staff, etc.

>>Invariably, no executive says the same thing; everyone has a different descriptor or thought about the company.

>>The facilitator’s role is to capture all the words on sticky notes and come up with a draft messaging platform.

>>The draft messages are bucketized by category with statements under each.

>>Upon that organization, the header/descriptor of the category is simplified for all audiences.

>>Clients/internal teams approve the messages in a Word document; consensus is critical in some fashion.

Once messages are approved internally, a map can be used to capture all the messages on one page. I use PowerPoint with a home-base message square in the middle. Circling the center message are four-to-five categories that describe the company. Within those second-tier messages are bulleted lists to describe the company further.

The facilitator doesn’t need to have industry experience; in fact, it’s often better if the session leader isn’t in the know about the company. That way she can ask the open-ended questions and it’s more acceptable from an outsider. The trick is to hire an engaged facilitator who can get those who don’t wish to speak to speak.

More on this topic will appear about creating maps specific to business units and sales and how thought leaders can use message maps to advantage. What experience do you have with , message maps, of other tools you prefer to capture the corporate message?