1. Marketing Your Content in a
Micro-Segmented Online World
Society for Scholarly Publishing
June 7, 2006
David Meerman Scott
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Why Marketing?
• Marketing is increasingly the source of
success for today’s organizations
• It is less often the “product”
• Consumer marketers know this
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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2. Offering Content in the Forms
Buyers Demand
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
The Long Tail for Publishers
Programs that you create at the long end of the tail
yields highly profitable and sustainable results.
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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3. Publishers: Create Micro-Content
From a print book
to interactive
electronic content
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Micro-Content Strategy
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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4. Free Content Sells Content
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Wall Street Journal Online: free content sold
700,000+ subscriptions at $79 or $39 per year
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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5. Shore: Free content sells research
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Content Markets Content
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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6. Digital Influence
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Marketing 2.0
Personalized News Datafeeds
Micro Sites
Audio
Conversations & Commentary Video
Content lens
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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7. Blogging for publishers
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Tim O’Reilly - O’Reilly Media
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8. Ziff Davis editors blog
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CIO Magazine blog
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9. Charlene Li’s blog - Forrester Research
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Publishers marketing with
content in innovative ways
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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10. Edmunds: Wiki for car enthusiasts
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Macworld Magazine’s podcasts
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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11. Hanley Wood’s ebuild: construction product portal
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Direct-to-Consumer PR
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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12. Public relations (new rules)
Download a complimentary copy:
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/New_Rules_of_PR.pdf
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
PR 2.0 for Publishers
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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13. Reach buyers directly with press releases
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Optimize Web Site for Buyers
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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14. Search Engine Marketing
A critical component of the marketing mix
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Organic Search Results
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15. Search Engine Advertising
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Being found online
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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16. The long end of the tail
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Selling micro-content
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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17. How the heck do we get
started?
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Do you know your distinctive competence?
• How does your content REALLY deliver value?
• What are customers really buying?
• What does the market see as compelling?
• Is it truly unique and sustainable?
• Can you prove it?
• Examples
– Innovation
– Product leadership
– Training
– Customer intimacy
– Channel
– Service reputation
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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18. Understand Buyer Personas
• Most marketing and communications programs are
egotistical
• Understand buyers and speaking their language is critical
• What media does this persona use to get new ideas and
information
• Most publishers have multiple buyers
– Different job functions
– Different industries
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Understanding your buyers problems
• What does your content do for buyers?
• What problems does your content solve
for buyers?
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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19. Understand your sales process
• The sales process is definable, repeatable,
and understandable
• You need to understand your sales process
• Understand from buyer perspective (win-loss
analysis)
• Can vary by product or market
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Example Sales Cycle
Exposures Engage prospects
with a compelling
story throughout
the sales cycle to
Suspects enhance
Sales Marketing salespeople
effectiveness and
Cycle Programs build revenue
Prospects quickly
Negotiating
Customers
To build new revenue quickly, integrate marketing programs directly into the sales cycle
to increase success rates at each stage in the selling process.
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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20. Web Content to Drive Revenue
• Optimize site for personas
• Move visitors into the sales cycle
• Use the Web as Direct Marketing
• Deliver offers for each persona
• Measure everything
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Thought Leadership
Authentic marketing at work
– E-books
– Webinars
– Blogs
– Wikis
– Podcasts
– Direct-to-consumer press releases
– Publishers = Provide complimentary content
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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21. Blogging for publishers
• Great for thought leadership
• Terrific search engine fodder
• Opportunity for . . .
– Delivering authentic information
– Optional comment capabilities
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Search Engine Marketing for Publishers
• Marketing delivered precisely upon inquiry
– Non-intrusive (response to request)
– Highly targeted (highly relevant to request)
• Information businesses have unique opportunity
– Large quantities of high-quality content is one of the
most important contributors to driving search engine
traffic to your site.
– Keyword rich content means specific and granular
search terms can be optimized
– For most publishers, tens of thousands of search
terms exist.
– Some publishers have millions of search terms
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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22. SEM for Publishers
• Create Micro-Content
• Keyword Analysis is critical
• Leverage your existing taxonomy
• Make “search engine friendly” pages
• Don’t be egotistical
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Keyword Analysis and Development
• It’s not about you, it’s about your buyers
• Understand your potential buyers
– What keywords and phrases do your buyers use?
– How do they search?
• What search terms do people use today?
– Access and analyze your site statistics
• Mine keywords from titles, descriptions, and
metadata for large content sets
• Use your editorial taxonomy
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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23. Mine phrases from your content
• Optimize for your content’s titles, subtitles,
and author names
• Surface descriptions, summaries and
abstracts so search engines can find them
• Make metadata available for the search
engines to find (for example companies or
people or industries mentioned in the
article or report)
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Example taxonomy
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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24. Example content listing
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Don’t be egotistical
(People don’t search on “business news” when they want a story, they search for the story they want.)
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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25. One Publisher’s Success
a case study
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
MAKE Magazine
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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26. Makezine.com
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Make blog
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27. Make podcasts & video
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Make: reader contributed content
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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28. Make: reader contributed photos
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
MAKE Magazine: Case Study of Success
• Launched February 2005
• Shoestring Budget
• 0 to 90,000 paid circulation in 12 months
• Makezine.com 1 million visitors / month
• Hundreds of stories in mainstream media
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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29. MAKE Magazine: Lessons learned
• Readers want to be part of a community
• Offer opportunities for readers to
contribute content
• Digital distribution is key
• Blog, blog, blog
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
Contact
Book Cashing in with Content
Sites www.DavidMeermanScott.com
www.freshspot.com
Blog www.WebInkNow.com
Email david@freshspot.com
Copyright 2006 by David Meerman Scott
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