Is Amateur Hour Over for B2B Content Marketers?

October 15, 2010 By 3 Comments

Mr Apple himself, Steve Jobs, recently upset a few people by claiming that people don’t want “amateur hour” on TV; they want “Hollywood movies and TV shows”.

Now I’m sure that Jobs was just trying to be provocative (and promoting his new toy at the same time); after all, Apple is the company who gave us desktop publishing, Garageband and iMovie. His comment still got me thinking though about B2B content marketing. There are, after all, stacks of companies that create a lot of in-house content that is a bit more homemade than the polished material some content agencies churn out.

Personally, I love it when a CEO makes a video with a Flip camera and really engages with the audience, talking about a particular issue. I really appreciate it when a corporation takes the time (and good sense) to communicate in a crisis via the business blog, answering questions and engaging in a more day-to-day tone, rather than stilted PR Speak.

Trouble is, I don’t think everyone is like me. Lots of people like glossed, stylish, well-made “professional” looking content. That’s my feeling at least after a few recent conversations.

A few things to think about:

Do stakeholders and customers really want to bother with:

  • traditional business blogs (as opposed to the “pro” blogs that are more like newspapers)
  • homemade YouTube flicks, shot with a Flip camera
  • poor audio podcasts
  • crummy PDFs that are a hassle to download?

Have we got to the stage where quality content – really well produced, well written, hi-fi material – is what companies should be aspiring to on the web now it’s no longer in its infancy and digital skills have rapidly taken off?
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You Need Content, Not Just a Custom WordPress Theme

August 13, 2010 By 53 Comments

If you’re a business and just landed here looking for help with WordPress themes stop for a second. And read this post! I dare you!

Although you might be set on investing in a cool design for your business blog or website, there’s one thing you need to remember before you hire a designer: a website without implicitly meaningful content, is like a store without stock. Seriously.

white elephantAs content marketers at Jontus Media we usually get to talk to businesses who already have a website. Maybe they’re generating stacks of traffic to their site from a (rather expensive) pay-per-click campaign and not getting enough conversions or wondering why no one contacts them for a quote despite having just spent BIG MONEY on a really cool website design.

It’s at that stage that we enter the frame and look at their site, assessing how their current content is working (or not). We then show them that you need great online content to not only drive visitors to your site but also engage them.

This is particularly true of the B2B market where the sales process is typically more drawn out. You have to work hard to convince visitors to your site that you’re the go-to company they’re looking for.

Boring, run of the mill, text filled with stacks of weasel words like “best practice” and “cutting edge” just comes across as blah blah blah to real humans. And you know you don’t read that stuff either! [Read more...]

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Creative Approaches to B2B Marketing

August 4, 2010 By 30 Comments

I‘m a firm believer in creative online content. The kind of content that makes you stop and soak it in for a moment – like the Old Spice videos. Or a Seth Godin E-book.

creative content

Go on, get creative!

If you’re working in the B2B sector and looking to marketing your services or products online you need to embrace creativity if your content marketing is going to dazzle and increase sales.

Content is King, But Creativity is Queen

I don’t mean that you should put creativity or razzmatazz ahead of substance; getting your key value proposition across is essential. Nevertheless, the creativity that underscores a piece of online content is an important part of the marketing process. The Net has all but replaced TV as the go-to medium but text alone is losing some of its sparkle; in the last two years video and audio have begun to feel just as natural on the Net. After all, there’s a reason YouTube is the number 2 search engine on the planet!

Creative Strategies

With the Net increasingly the domain of mixed (or multi) media, content marketing strategies have had to change. Getting traffic to your website isn’t just a matter of great writing. It’s also about search engine optimization, participation across social media channels, and building communities of engagement.

Throwing money at a project isn’t the be all and end all of strategy. Sure, large companies may be able to throw money at creative teams in the pursuit of standout content, but that doesn’t always ensure success. Just ask Cisco. They aped the Old Spice campaign and no one seemed to notice. [Read more...]

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Why Does Content Marketing Take So Long to Get Results?

July 25, 2010 By 24 Comments

A PR executive was asking me the other day about the time it takes for a content marketing campaign to yield results. Especially when it involves social media.

I know firsthand that it can take a long time – but a lot of it depends on what outposts you’ve already got established on the Net.

For example, if you’ve already got a relatively successful and search engine optimised blog that’s already doing well in search engine results pages you can quickly generate organic traffic and funnel it to your content marketing efforts.

content marketing failure

Not getting the results you want?


Similarly if you’ve got a thriving Facebook Page or hoards of meaningful followers on Twitter, you can alert your community to your latest content marketing campaign. [Read more...]

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3 Tips for Online Content Marketing Success

June 16, 2010 By 16 Comments
ontent marketing success

So which way are you headed?

The success of your online content marketing always rests on whether you’re getting the right message in the right format to the right audience and in the right way.

It sounds simple in theory but you’d be amazed at how many (small!) businesses can’t work this out.

Identify your audience?

Are you selling services, consulting, products, you name it? Before you know who to target, you need to clarify what you’re actually selling in the first place. Other wise how will you know what online content to create in the first place?

Identify your audience?

The next step to achieving success with your content marketing is to figure out where you’re prospective clients actually are! Small businesses in Stockholm? B2B marketers in Chicago? French-speaking CEOs? It doesn’t matter what you’re selling if you’re not actually talking to the right people in the first place.

Find out where they are online, create a content marketing strategy document that includes details of where prospects hang out online and let your people know about this. You and your people need to understand exactly who you’re company is targeting.
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What Do People Want Online?

June 15, 2010 By 4 Comments

If you’re setting out to develop your online marketing and communications strategy you should ask yourself an important question: What do people want online?

what do people want onlineThere’s no point filling a website, blog or twitter account with endless sparkly online content unless you actually know what your audience is looking for.

Understanding Consumer’s Motives for Being Online

One of the most significant reasons for web-usage is that people get online because they want to accomplish something. They are goal-orientated in the sense that they want:

  • information
  • help
  • ideas
  • inspiration
  • examples
  • entertainment

and so on.
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