I recently encountered a blog post that got me thinking. Hubspot’s 2010: the Year Inbound Marketing Crosses the Chasm touches on marketing topics that businesses of all sizes should consider. For those unfamiliar with the term “Inbound Marketing ,” refers to the process of placing a business in a position to be found by its prospects; I liken it to “pull marketing.”
The post offers a variety of interesting predictions for 2010, but the point I found most interesting suggested that business marketing will increase focus on content creation. The literal quote is:
“Companies will start to turn their marketing departments into production studios for creating content”
What does this mean to small and mid-sized businesses? As the effectiveness of traditional marketing continues to decline, wise companies should increase the importance of content development in their marketing strategy. Here are a couple examples:
Attract Interest in Jewelry on Flickr.com – Catherinette Rings leverages the photos they take of their existing jewelry by posting them on Flickr.com. By effectively tagging each photograph with phrases searchers might use, Catherinette attracts the interest of prospective buyers who can follow a link on their profile page to buy rings on Estsy.com. This technique can be used to publicize a variety of products and services not limited to something as popular as jewelry.
Sell Vinyl Fencing Using YouTube.com – Hoover Fence is a fencing supplier located in Newton, Iowa. While I’m sure that they use many traditional marketing methods, they’ve created a series of videos that give prospects a good idea of what they do and how they do it.
This video has received over 31,000 views. How many fence buyers watched this video, saw the ease with which this product can be installed and purchased the materials from Hoover?
Promote Your Services Using a Blog – Radiant Plumbing uses it’s blog to answer simple questions, discuss new products and focus on its community of Austin, Texas. It’s post My New Navien Tankless Water Heater is on the Google’s first page for “Navien Tankless Water Heater“. Not a bad investment in time for what is likely to generate interest in Navien and sales for Radiant.
These were just a few diverse examples about how businesses might shift their marketing strategies to focus on the creation of content to “pull” prospects in the coming year.
What do you think? Will a shift toward the creation of content make sense for your business?
Bill Rowland
How are you using Social Media Today?
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February 8, 2012. Posted under: Blog.
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