Smart & Sustainable Communication Strategies
              -- Minus the hype --

Content marketing is a relatively new “school” within marketing communications. It’s a philosophy that says if you create and openly share information, you’ll build trust with prospects and customers, and ultimately win their business.

Here’s how it works: you, the marketer, create high value content (in the form of videos, white papers, articles, reports, webinars, podcasts, tweets, etc.) then give that content away for free through a myriad of channels. If you execute correctly, you’ll establish your company, and yourself, as a thought leader in your marketspace. And chances are good that you’ll also gain more qualified leads, more direct sales, and higher customer retention rates over time.

Content Marketing vs. Interuptive Marketing

For most people, it won’t be hard to see the logic behind content marketing, especially when you compare it to more traditional forms of marketing which are “interuptive.” Here are a few: television and radio ads, non-opt-in email marketing (I’m not talking about spam, but about the newsletters that you’re suddenly subscribed to by someone you just met at a networking event), splash video clips that force you to watch them before your chosen video will load, and those annoying little banner ads that march across the computer screen when you’re trying to read an article.

Content marketing, on the other hand, whispers softly, “Hey there! Whenever you have a free minute, I’m over here with some valuable information that might really help you. If you enjoy it, we have a lot more just like it on our website. And it will cost you nothing.” You find the content through Google searches, articles, reports, and trusted blogs and twitter feeds. And you tune in to it when you’re ready to tune in, not when you’re busy doing something else.

The Importance of Building Trust

Content marketing is just like good networking. And good networkers know that building trust is essential if you ever hope to make a sale. They know, for example, that it doesn’t work to try to sell something to someone you’ve just met at a meeting or event. After all, just because that person agreed to shake your hand and chat with you for a few minutes doesn’t mean you’ve won them over.

If you want to do business with that individual, you have to build trust and credibility first. How do good networkers do this? By becoming a valued part of your network. Their goal is to nurture a relationship with you over time. And the best networkers do this by: 1) learning everything they can about your needs, and 2) periodically sending you valuable information that meets those needs – with no strings attached.

It matters little if an individual in your network is never going to buy from you. The important thing is, they may refer someone else who might buy from you in the future. In other words, they’ve become an essential part of your internal sales force: trusted business associates who know about you and your business solutions. If they trust you enough, they’ll surely refer you when the time is right.

To see an example of great content marketing in action, check out this new eBook from Marketo and ClickDocuments. It presents 2010 predictions from 39 of the top content marketers, B2B marketers, email marketers and social media gurus. Each contributor has a page of advice on how marketers should tackle 2010 successfully (and embedded on each of those pages are links to each of the contributors’ websites where you can get more free information, or find out about their solutions).

Content marketing is about creating content that encourages your customers and audience to do your marketing for you. So make it a priority this year to create content that your audience absolutely has to share — because it’s that good. Provide a level of customer support and engagement that inspires your customers to tell the world about you. With a strategy like that, you just can’t fail.

In his article “Say NO to squeezing your buyers“, David Meerman Scott makes a case for giving away your content without requiring site visitors to register for it.

He’s referring to a practice known as “content gating.” And marketers have been doing it for years, with much success.

The strategy is simple: you, the marketer, offer up some valuable information such as a white paper, report, or webinar, for free. In exchange for this valuable information, your site visitors agree to register, giving you their email addresses. Then, once they’ve opted in to receive more free offers, you can start to build a trusted relationship with them, eventually convincing them to become customers.

Ask less, get more?

If content gating still works, why would Scott advocate for giving up those email connections? Because, according to him, you’ll derive much more value out of the transaction if you agree to give the information away for free.

And his logic is understandable. After all, we now live in the age of “free” and “open”. No cost, open source information is readily available all over the Internet and people are less and less inclined to give up their email addresses to get it. That fact, coupled with the growth of social media channels, has made it even easier for people to spread news about your company virally.

That’s why Scott recommends giving your information away for free. In his view, you’ll gain more eyeballs, more “link love”, and ultimately, more brand awareness, than you ever would have if you had required people to “pay” for it with their email addresses.

But is Content Gating Still a Viable Strategy?

In her recent article “Should You Put Your eBooks and White Papers (and Other Content) Behind a Registration Page?“, Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, asserts that both methods have their place. And while she concurs that the impact of lots of people talking about you online can ultimately pay off more handsomely, Handley argues that the content gating approach still has its merits.

If your goal is to amass a mailing list she argues, stick with content gating. Sure, you’ll get fewer downloads than you would have if you didn’t require registration, but you’ll benefit by obtaining a highly qualified lead list that can be transformed into near-term business.

If your goal is to cast a wider net however, you’d do better by heeding Scott’s advice. Requiring your prospects to give you their personal information is an ineffective strategy when your goal is to spread your ideas and message on a wider scale. If you’re willing to forgo that lead connection, you might gain many more future customers over time.

Taking a hybrid approach

If you were interested enough to read to the end of David Meerman Scott’s article, you will have seen his bonus advice on taking a hybrid approach. He suggests that one approach might be to give away the first white paper for free, then require registration for subsequent offers.

The main thing to keep in mind is whether you gate your content, offer it up for free, or do a little bit of both, the right approach should always depend on your specific business situation. For most cash-strapped businesses, gating content remains a low-cost, high return strategy that will continue to deliver qualified leads well into 2011.

More importantly, the gated content approach results in conversions which can be tracked today. That fact alone makes it a strategy worth keeping. If you’re a business with limited marketing resources, it’s always best to focus on programs that can be easily tracked and measured. Then you’ll have a basis for evaluating other marketing expenditures moving forward.