Comments on: Why Content is King No More…

By: webfadds

webfadds — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:46:52 +0000

Hi – Glad you liked the article and want to become a fan. We do have a business page for WebFadds, here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/WebFaddscom/1027158…

Haven't worked it that much — tending to concentrate more on Twitter and LinkedIN, but your comment is a good reminder to give it some more attention. Thanks – Scott

By: lista de e-mails

lista de e-mails — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 07:20:54 +0000

Do you people have a fb fan page? I looked for one on twitter but couldn't uncover one, I would really like to become a fan!

By: webfadds

webfadds — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:10:09 +0000

Hi Eric –

Excellent points — thanks. My response in general is that if you follow through on all the "tactcs" in a good CCM strategy (including SEO, PPC, email, etc.), then you will get the traffic you need. I like your "Process" concept too. Too often people stop after doing just one thing… like making a page, or doing some SEO. I think any good marketing process should be part of CCM. – Scott

By: Eric Goldman

Eric Goldman — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:57:47 +0000

Scott,
Just responded on LinkedIn to your comments to the eMarketing group discussion. But here's some more food for thought. Totally agree with the idea that just getting traffic to the site is not the answer, as if they bounce, don't come back or fail to convert the effort was wasted. But no matter how brilliant your CCM strategy is, or how fascinating your content is, without traffic the creativity and thought invested in these concepts is wasted, too.
I totally agree with the idea – to use your words – of the Cycle being the most important part. What I would call The Process. If you believe in the whole concept of Continuous Process Improvements, by implementing a great Process for your marketing approach, you will get better and better at what you are doing, as you do it.
To help illustrate this point of view, here's a link to a post which describes the Process idea in detail. This Process description is aimed specifically at running Social Media Marketing campaigns and is thus not precisely on target for your CCM Process. But the ideas in the post are easily modified to make it more specific to any marketing exercise. The link at the end of this comment is to an index with this post (How to Run a SMM Campaign), and as it suggests using ROI as one of your metrics, 3 posts on the page describe (1) How to measure the ROI of your website as a whole, (2) The 10 best free ROI calculators on the Web and (3), How to build your own ROI calculator so that you can measure the ROI of your SMM.
Here's the link: http://bit.ly/cEc0ln

By: webfadds

webfadds — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:31:43 +0000

Hi John – thanks for the comment, and good points. I agree that there is too much hype surrounding Social Media, and that it is a coordinated effort. Here's to a good game with all the cards. – Scott

By: John Mosier

John Mosier — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:58:35 +0000

Scott, great post. I love the point that to have a chance to win at this crazy marketing card game we're all trying to play, you better have all five of those cards in your hand, and you better understand how they all work together to deliver results. I don't think it's really worth arguing (and I do see your rationale), but I would quibble with positioning Connection ahead of Content — mainly because I'm sick of all the "social media gurus" spouting a "just do it!" mentality, almost as if social media is the ONLY card marketers need to care about. To me, the engine for all of this (to switch metaphors) is the strategy embodied by your content — your knowledge of what your customers' care about and how you can uniquely meet their information needs across their buying journey. Of course, one could argue that customer knowledge begins with connection, and I wouldn't disagree. The point is ALL the cards are necessary!

By: webfadds

webfadds — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:47:40 +0000

Hi Bob – Thanks for the comment, and the dialog. I do agree that you need both content and connection… but just for the sake of our conversation… I wonder if someone could connect, say via Twitter or email, and close a sale with no content at all? I will wager they could, though it would be tougher. I think you make a good point that Publishing itself does not result in sales. People make sales. I will have to think about how to rephrase it, but my point is that there's a big disconnect between web teams, and sales teams in my experience. The web team "publishes" content then does some SEO, and inbound marketing work. But after that they rarely follow up on how good the leads they generate might be, or what the close rate is. This is key to tweaking and optimizing landing pages, lead forms, and calls to action.

By: Bob Leonard

Bob Leonard — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:39:23 +0000

Scott,

Very thought provoking. Quality information. I don't agree with everything, though.

Both content and connection are important. Without quality content, people won't bother to visit or to learn about you, your company, your products or your services. Without connection, you'll never close a sale.

Where I see a disconnect in your logic is, "Marketing is now Publishing, and Publishing is Sales." I agree that publishing content has become a primary function of B2B marketing (truth is, it always was, we just didn't have the tools to self-publish like we do today). I don't agree that "Publishing is Sales." If it were, then Content truly would be King, because it, alone, would result in sales. We agree that that's not the case. B2B sales are typically complex and expensive. Successful B2B deals require connections between people.

By: walt Goshert

walt Goshert — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:45:44 +0000

Hi Scott,

Excellent insights… say your response on Lee Ogden's post about Content as King.

I agree with your analysis here, especially "Ace" as the process, or system.

Few realize how marketing is much more systematic rather than creative. Michael Gerber talks about this in E-Myth.

I'll need to check out Batchbook. Currently working with a client on the Inbound Marketing/ Content/ and Sales Process, and we're trying to decide the best CRM hand-off from lead generation and integration to the sales force. Looking at SalesForce with Infusion Soft.

By: webfadds

webfadds — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:11:25 +0000

Hi Walt –
Thanks for stopping by with the comment. Good to see you here — I think we first met in a NING Marketing group. Batchbook is surprisingly comprehensive for the price. SalesForce is very professional. My current take is Batchbook for small businesses of 1-20 people. Salesforce from 15 people on up. I like how Batchbook integrates with Google email, MailChimp, Freshbooks (invoicing), and other systems. They have a good forms system that may be integrated with WordPress (using it here on this site). Best of success to you. – Scott