The Josh Gordon Group blog

I love this cartoon by Brady Bonus I found on the Eloqua cartoon collaborative. I don't have to add much about the importance of having a content strategy driving social media because this cartoon says it beautifully:

Topics: content strategy, social media

I frequently suggest to clients they combine their blog and website. But often the mentality is that websites are websites and blogs are blogs.

Topics: content strategy, social media

In July 2009 Amazon.com bought online shoe retailer Zappos.com for $887.9 million from entrepreneur Tony Hsieh (pictured).

Topics: content strategy, Twitter

Here is an aticle that ran this morning: 

Topics: content, content marketing, content strategy, bradcast indusrty survey, prduction research, Sports Video Group, educational content, Josh Gordon, Broadcast, Ken Kerschbaumer

Topics: new custoerms, content strategy, B2B marketing, seo, search, Google rankings, changing customer, marketing strategy, marketing content, advertising, On line content, earned media, Website

Conducting a survey is the process of taking a small, representative sample of a larger group to gain a better understanding of the group as a whole. When surveys are conducted on an ongoing basis they can become extremely important. Marketers take note: when done well, a series of ongoing surveys can become an important reference point for the markets they serve.

Topics: content strategy, B2B marketing, marketing content, advertising

What is the downside to marketers shifting media dollars out of paid media and into owned and earned media? Matt Kinsman's team at American Business Media did a great job interviewing me in this video about this overlooked topic. In the intreview I refrence findings from our recent study, "Improving Marketing Effectiveness." Click on the picture below to see the video produced using the new, innovative Me!Box interface which blends video with posted content for a richer viewing experience.

Topics: B2B suppliers, content strategy, digital media, B2B marketing, non-customers, e-newsletter, social media, Josh Gordon Group, buyer/seller relatsionship, Josh Gordon, advertising, earned media, existing customers, noncustomers

When I was a kid, there was one kind of milk you could buy: the white kind. But now you choose from whole, skim, 1%, 2%, organic, and chocolate. Media is a lot like that. You used to spend money for one thing: exposing customers to marketing messages. Now you choose from “bought media”, “owned media”, and “earned media.” The definitions:

Bought media: media you pay for like print ads and banner ads.

Owned media: media you own and control such as your company website,  blog, newsletters or digital magazines. Your organization publishes these.

Earned media: exposure you “earn” by posting content on social networks, forums, and websites that you do not own. Examples are comments posted on blogs, photos shared on Facebook, or videos uploaded to YouTube. Here is chart from a presentation from Alex Wong that illustrates these three kinds of media.

Conventional wisdom says each of these media has different strengths:

Owned media is best for reaching your current customer base. Since your organization should have the most complete list of your own customers, publishing a newsletter or digital magazine to that list should provide the best coverage available.

Bought media is best for reaching new customers. The weakness of “owned media” is that it reaches largely people who are already customers or inclined to become them. Since paid media is purchased from a 3rd party publisher you will more often find customers of competitors.

Earned media enables your biggest fans to advocate for you. Every company has customers who, if properly motivated, will advocate for you online. While this is basically an organic process that you have no direct control over, smart organizations find ways to encourage this process along. Many mistakenly think that earned media is free. While there is no charge for posting content on most social media sites, the task of doing so requires staffing for the function, and adding staff is never free.

Earned, owned, or paid media. Which should you emphasize?  
If your customer are heavily involved in social media, then earned media needs your attention. If you have not asked about your customers social media involvement in a year, you need to ask again.

 If you sell a utilitarian product like car batteries, or commodity products like toothpaste or paper towels, paid media might be best. When was the last time you saw a passionate blog post or successful newsletter about toothpaste?

If most of your business comes from repeat customers, you need to think more about owned media.

Different media work best for different situations. Along those lines, I prefer skim milk in my morning cereal, but 1 or 2% % for hot coca.

See Alex Wong's entire presentation on slide share

Topics: content strategy, B2B marketing, owned media, social media, non-customersr, buyer preference, buyer/seller relatsionship, advertising, BtoB, On line content, earned media, paid media

There were once two competitors. The first invested to create great educational information truly helpful to customers. The second invested nothing in educational content, took the savings to the bottom line, and sold their products for less. Who won? In this case, the lower priced suppler. But it should not have happened that way. 

Topics: content strategy, educational conrent, marketing strategy, buyer preference, marketing content, educational content, B2B technology marketing

When the digital content you create and distribute through your website, social media, and online venues is used strategically it can act as a second sales force that can help your physical one. But is the idea of a “digital sales force” just online spin?

Topics: sales leads, sales lead generation, content strategy, marketing content, educational content, attract online traffic, Digital Sales Force, On line content