Content, there's so much out there and it's filling our screens large and small. Heck, you can't move for the stuff and if it was all great high-quality information then the world would be a much more knowledgeable and better-connected place.
But...the truth is, a lot of what's published isn't very good.
Of course, I'm not talking about the quality prose, film and other material that your company produces. Far from it. I like your stuff. It's informative, it's deep. It connects with me. I learn things when I read or watch it.
So what's the problem?
I'm concerned as you probably are about how your content and my content is going to stand out in such an overcrowded often overhyped, blah, blah, blah media world.
Bottom line: How can value publishing help us both reach and connect with more of the people that we want to be doing business with? Here are a few thoughts that you may or may not find helpful.
Quality vs. quantity
Less is more. Familiarity breeds contempt. Useful phrases, hundreds of years old are basic truths that still apply in our overcrowded digital world.
Some people might also like to quote "Let he (or she) who shouts loudest be heard first."
A fair point but in the age of influencing....
It's better to produce fewer, quality pieces of content as the mainstay of a well thought out campaign. These are your foundation pieces. Anchors from which you build sub-campaigns that include tweets and posts.
To get anchor pieces of content, you need to think of a connected campaign. Something that's mapped out.
When you do this you can see how other parts of your marketing, things like SEO, email, and direct mail can connect-up to make a much more powerful impact in the market you wish to reach and influence.
This is a much stronger approach than lots of one-offs that deal with a seemingly disjointed range of subjects.
The case for quantity: "The he who shouts the loudest strategy"
There is a case for quantity in content publishing but your results will be stronger if you match quantity with quality.
Shouting by itself is just irritating to listeners and in the digital world, you can block out irritations quickly and easily.
You just unsubscribe.
If you have mapped out main themes in advance it's easier to join together blog posts, tweets, videos, reports, white papers and other forms of content around specific and topical subjects.
This approach will work better for your recipients and for you.
Get the foundations together first and then get busy in the market from a position that's planned and organised. Then you’re more likely to be influencing rather than shouting.
Value publishing
If you wonder why your marketing, content or otherwise isn't producing great results, it's probably because it doesn't go deep enough to show what is often now called "value."
Value is really just another term for showing how what you do makes a real difference to somebody else. If what you are saying doesn't connect with your audience in that way, then it may get read or watched but no further action will occur.
Blah marketing messages skim the surface of a problem; talking say about great stand design with images of nice looking stands in support. There are lots of these examples around.
Value marketing talks about why companies are exhibiting in the first place. They want to grow their business directly through sales achieved or less directly through testing new products or building awareness for their brand.
The stand solution is discussed only in relation to helping the achievement of these objectives perhaps with case studies where clients say how a stand helped their particular objectives.
This last element is important because exhibitors value what other exhibitors have to say and recommend. And therein lies the value to the reader or consumer of your message.
Feeding the sales machine
When it comes to growing sales, your website should be a funnel for new leads. It should be a major contributor to your sales pipeline.
Your marketing programme can pull people to specific landing pages and not just your website's homepage.
If you create content about a particular issue, why direct your reader, viewer or listener to a generalist home page? Instead, take them to a dedicated page that has lots of facts and information about the issue. Within that page present lots of opportunities to request a sales call or further sales-related information.
If you have a live chat function built into your site, this would appear here too.
Landing pages aren't just for inbound marketing either. You can call them up and show them to prospective clients during face to face meetings. You can use them in phone calls, just send a link the person that you're talking to during the call. It makes sales calls much more interactive and fruitful.
Re-purposing what you have produced in the past
In an age where sustainability is so highly rated you have the perfect opportunity to re-purpose old content. This is often a great place to start if you think that you have very little ready-made content to offer.
Do your foundation work first. Think about the main issues and messages that your business is equipped to handle in an excellent, deep and if possible... thought leader style.
Some or most of what you produced previously in sales brochures, press articles, email campaigns, awards entries, images etc. may still fit the bill. Some updating may be required but that's OK.
Remember what is old hat and bog standard to you and your business will be a brand new way of thinking and acting to someone else.
For more on this subject see this page on the Exhibitors Only website.
To your success and to stronger marketing and sales results.
