A few months ago, I
acquired a summary of a book called Content
Rules, written by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman. Our company
subscribes to getAbstract, a business book summary
service that helps me be more selective about the books I want to
spend time reading.
The summary of Content Rules caught my eye because it
makes the point that the marketing of products and services is increasingly
becoming connected to content creation and management. The
getAbstract summary put it this way:
“On the Internet, a brand new start-up, even a one-person shop,
can compete directly and quite favorably with the biggest Fortune 100 companies
– as long it offers superior online content.Today, consumers find the products and services they want by
using search engines. Your goal is to create engaging, compelling, and
memorable content –blogs, videos, podcasts, and websites – that people like,
link to, and pass on to others. This can help your material show up on the
first page of search engine results – even ahead of material from huge
corporations.”
As a real estate company,
have you ever thought of yourself as a content provider? If not,
maybe you should.
Of course at a basic
level, the primary benefit a real estate company offers a consumer is relevant
and helpful information concerning the process of buying and/or selling
homes. In this role, you are providing
content.
However, there is a
tendency to want to consolidate this content production role under large corporate-powered
platforms. While this is of some benefit, if you stop there you’ve
left yourself vulnerable to competitors who leverage the concept of micro-publishing.
As you know, real estate
is still a “local business” in most parts of the country. And on a
micro-level, a local real estate office has the opportunity to become the real
estate “domain expert” for a local community or neighborhood. How
is this done? By becoming a niche (real estate/ your specific
community or neighborhood) content provider on the internet.
Content Rules gives
several (non-real estate) examples on how this can be done. Here is
one I thought was interesting:
“As the new director of instruction at Reynolds Golf Academy in
Greensboro, Georgia, golf pro Charlie King badly needed to bring in golfing
students, but he had a very limited marketing budget. King turned to
the web to build his clientele by showcasing the Academy with quality online
content that would attract golfers who wanted to strengthen their games. He
presented useful golfing tips and explained that golf is not as difficult as it
may seem. King believed that his expertise and humor would draw golfers to his
online
activities and thus, eventually, to the school.
In February 2008, King launched his blog, “New Rules of Golf
Instruction,” offering free lessons via blog posts and videos. In March 2009,
he published an ebook, New Rules of Golf Instruction, as a free download from
his blog and Reynolds’ website. Golf magazine’s website ran an
ad-libbed video featuring King teaching a satirical lesson showing angry
golfers “The Proper Way to Throw a Club” into the water. The video went viral;
at 1.8 million viewers and climbing, it is continuing to generate hits on the
Academy’s website, providing great publicity and great fun.”
[Note: Charlie's video was moved to Golf.com (a site owned by Sports Illustrated) because it got so popular. To view it, cut the paste the following link into your browser address window: http://www.golf.com/video/proper-way-throw-your-club ]
Do you think the average
golf pro at your local country club is a marketing expert? Probably
not. If guys like Charlie King can do this, so can you!
The key to playing this
game is to turn yourself into a content provider that produces quality
content. What’s quality content? It’s content that your
target audience would not only find interesting, but also helpful and sometimes
entertaining.
Here is a quick checklist
for the content your produce. Quality content is always…
True – Never deal in false messages. As author Annie Lamott teaches,
“Good writing is about telling
the truth.”Relevant – Your message must be purposeful and must matter to your
audience.Human – Don’t write about your product; write about how people use it.
Passionate – People will not care about your products unless they see that
you do. Use the strength of your feelings to engage them.Original – An unusual story or a “fresh perspective” captures readers’
interest.Surprising – Being a bit unexpected is interesting; being shocking is a way
to go viral.
In our next WorkPuzzle,
we’ll cover some additional guidelines for becoming a content provider and show
you how this applies to recruiting.
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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.
