Content marketing and digital PR strategists

Auckland, New Zealand – Content Marketing: While regular advertising is under pressure, particularly in print, there is a way to combine that traditional medium with powerful content marketing – consider this story about buying window cleaner.

Photo by Ambro.

CONTENT MARKETING BLOG, Auckland, New Zealand: By gardyneHOLT

Adolf Hitler wrote in ‘Mein Kampf’ that if you told people a lie often enough, they would believe it.

Essentially he was talking about the power of repetition, but how do you achieve constant exposure in a market where most information needs are met through browsing?

The Forgetting Curve; from Stahl et al CNS Spectr. 2010;15(8):491-504 --- click image for source

The starting point of any good content marketing campaign is to know both your positioning and your relevance to the 'conversation'.

In his book "Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands" Marty Neumeier talks about a differentiation statement for Hooters chain of restaurants (they make great chicken wings by the way), that, in my opinion, does it all.

Auckland, New Zealand: Content Marketing Tactics – Not so long ago my daughter was selected to play on the wing for her high school hockey team. A few games went by and she didn't score any goals, so I offered her a GHD hair straightener if she scored a goal… the result was not what I expected.

Photo courtesy Tina Phillips.

This is the first in a series of content marketing pieces we have worked with our clients to produce and publish, and which is achieving great results...

PRESS RELEASE

Zone IP (The Zone Corporation)

26 February 2013

Companies need to act to stop competitors using their names in Google Adword campaigns

A New Zealand trade mark law firm is warning businesses to beware after an increase in complaints from companies whose competitor's are using their name or brand names in Google's AdWords campaigns.

One in five marketing emails are blocked by spam filters, and probably others are filed in the "to read later" box or deleted out of hand… so how do you get your message across when people, frankly, don't give a damn?

According to the ‘Australia and New Zealand Email Intelligence Report’, by email intelligence firm Return Path, reaching the inbox is tough enough for Australians, and its even tougher for Kiwis:

"Australian email marketers scored 74 out of 100 on Return Path’s rating system, performing well against key reputation measures of complaints, unknown users and spam traps. By comparison, New Zealand marketers scored 40."

Heading out for an early Sunday morning mountain bike ride, I pulled in to the Mobil service station in Northcote and there I met George Martin who - I was too learn - had just won the Lotto in Sydney.

I’m not a huge fan of adverts – though I believe they have their place – but I just spotted a clever advert from Mammoth, Modern Insulation, on the New Zealand Herald website (see graphics below).

Coca Cola has launched its content marketing campaign with a Coca Cola website that looks like a magazine. On the face of it, that might seem like a bizarre move for a company that sells sugar water.

You would think that a consumer soft drink is the last kind of product that would have a need to publish informative and educational content, but Coca Cola knows something a lot of people still haven't caught on to yet – people are turning off 'sales jingles' in favour of substance.

Auckland, New Zealand: Could journalists be the new marketing consultants of tomorrow? It's already happening and the discipline even has a name. It's called brand journalism.

For years I used my journalism skills to help clients with their sales and marketing (over and above simple copywriting), but I considered myself relatively unique. Not anymore.

I always thought it was a pretty obvious fit, but journalists needed to first get over their passion for socially engineering the world, and their disdain for anything relating to the word 'sales'.

Photo by: graur codrin

Auckland, New Zealand - Brand Journalism and Content Marketing: For some time I have despaired at the mounting junk pile of content on the Internet. The main culprits are so-called search engine optimisation specialists focussed on link building, with no thought to the actual role of content and the frustration customers (who are looking for real solutions) will feel when they come across this 'junk content'.

Expect company websites to become the centre of an organisation's marketing efforts in 2013, as content marketing increases its share of the marketing budget. More conventional marketing campaigns - including television, radio and print media advertising – will focus on driving traffic to the organization's website.

Call it ‘infobesity’ or ‘info saturation’ or what you will, there’s no doubt the sheer volume of information out there is overwhelming for most of us, which creates some challenges for companies trying to get their message out.

New Zealand companies keen to implement an effective online content marketing programme should be wary of confusing strategy with process. By this I mean the act of having 'articles on your website, perhaps having a blog, being 'on' Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn… is not strategy, it's merely process.

Auckland, New Zealand: Research suggests content marketers have less than one second to get somebody’s attention, and it’s getting harder everyday. But a new trend may hold some clues on how to improve your conversion…

I don’t know about you, but when I visit an auction site like trademe, I won’t click on anything that doesn’t have a photograph. Others I speak to say the same thing. But it's more than a photograph, it's a specific formula...

It's mercenary, egotistical, misguided and not real… Let me explain.

I've had a couple of follows on Twitter recently, particularly from some SEO specialists and 'social media gurus' -- if there is such a thing -- here in Auckland. I thought, naively, they were following me because they're interested in content marketing and good copy, or in engaging in some way...

I often have people tell me that they have been to a networking meeting and likedit, but didn’t join because those present weren’t their target market – how badly they miss the point.

You do not join network to sell to the members in the chapter. You join a network to tap into the networks of those people – you never know who somebody knows, until you get to know them better.

How simple is that.

I can't help but marvel at how many companies there are in New Zealand whose Twitter followers far out number the amount of people they are following -- doesn't that say something about their willingness, or lack thereof, to listen to their customers?

It seems that some companies have taken social media and twisted it to their own ends. They prefer to speak, than be spoken to... and they enjoy the 'social prestige' or mana of having so many more followers than they are following - or am I being precious here?

I always thought social media was about conversation, which is at least 50% listening.

A key message is public relations tool defined as: “A short, concise and memorable sentence used to convey an important message during an interview”.

Key messages however have far broader application in a marketing context.

RED BULL may give you wings, but it’s the international corporate giant’s innovative use of content marketing, or brand journalism, that has launched the brand into the stratosphere of marketing success.

Red Bull Media House prints one of the biggest magazines in the world with a distribution of 4.8 million, offers Red Bull Mobile services, operates a TV station and produces documentaries, movies, music, apps and even games for all devices.

The strategy is called content marketing and their objective is simple: “To excite customers with outstanding quality content". More...

Photo by Free Digital Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net