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The Content Evolution How content can change your business for the better
Melissa Rach | @melissarach
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“The information superhighway!”
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The goal
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The result
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Common comments
• “Our website is embarrassing” • “We’re so far behind” • “We don’t get any traffic/ROI” • “Nobody’s updated this content since Clinton was in office” • “What are we going to do about mobile?” • “We’ve built dozens of microsites to avoid the CMS” • “This website is a garbage dump” • “The CEO is hot on Facebook” • “Legal is being ridiculous on approvals” • “We have so many PDFs” • “There’s so much to do, I just can’t keep up”
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Web content is hard
flickr user: cometstarmoon
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Nobody was prepared for this …
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Or this …
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© 2013 Visual News
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What a mess
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We are in a transition from an economy based on material goods
to one based on knowledge.
—Peter Drucker,
The Landmarks of Tomorrow (1959)
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Things have changed
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Industrial economy
• Strategy as planning
• One-way communication
• Brand consistency
• Hierarchy
• Profit (quarterly)
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Today’s communities
• Distrust in authority
• Unlimited information access
• Participatory communication channels
• Multi-channel use
• Culture of research
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In today's environment, traditional marketing and sales
doesn't make sense.
— Bill Lee, Harvard Business Review
(paraphrased)
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We are clearly entering a period where the extinction of the slow,
the inflexible, and the bureaucratic is about to happen
in record numbers.
—Chris Zook, Harvard Business Review
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Extinction!?!
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It’s time to break all the old rules.
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Rethink Strategy
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Focus on the long-term vision
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Strategy vs. planning
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STRATEGY
Strategy
Planning
Day-to-day work
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[Employees] want to be part of something larger than themselves.
They want to be part of something they're really proud of, that they'll
fight for, sacrifice for.
—Howard Schulz, Starbucks
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Strategic intent
• Constant • Flexible • Repeatable • Aspirational • Inspiring • Believable
Hamel and Prahalad, “Strategic Intent” Harvard Business Review
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Examples
• Apple: Think different
• Coke: Put a bottle within arms reach of every possible customer
• Honda: Be the second Ford
• Amazon: Start with the customer and work backwards
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They might think you’re nuts
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We are willing to be misunderstood for long
periods of time.
—Jeff Bezos, Amazon
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Rethink Communications
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Goal: A true relationship
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[People] learn what they care about,
From people they care about
and who, they know, cares about them.
—Barbara Harrell Carson,
Thirty Years of Stories
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Reciprocal, respectful conversations
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Let conversation lead content
• Listen
• Speak with customers (not to customers)
• Give consistently, take once in awhile
• Make channel/format a secondary consideration
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Go beyond product specs
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Map the entire customer journey
Not just online tasks, not just your “jurisdiction”
• What’s the “big task”?
• Where are the conversation points?
• What kinds of content do they need at each point?
• What content exists? Where are the gaps?
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Brands that simplify customer decision-making are 115% more
likely to be recommended.
—Corporate Executive Board (2012)
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Examples
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Images from Dove,
Amazon, and Patagonia
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For all the American people everywhere… they need
something like this.
—Fred Smith,
Creator, Wisconsin Concrete Park
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Why?
Wisconsin Concrete Park
Phillips, WI
flickr user: dakota kingfisher
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Every piece of content needs to:
• Support a your vision/strategy
• Fulfill a customer need
• Have a person assigned to maintain it (maintainable content only)
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Rethink Consistency
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They’re on to us
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The old brand rules
Build the brand over time
• Speak B2B or B2C
• Use repeatable messages
• Require militant consistency
• Control information
• Be polished and perfect at all times
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The new rules
Build relationships over time by:
• Speak P2P
• Create adaptable messages
• Develop organic consistency
• Allow radical transparency
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Example: Fluevog
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It’s bit scary
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But, not this scary
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Consumers don’t expect brands to be flawless; they will even embrace brands
that are FLAWSOME…
Brands that are honest about their flaws, that show some empathy, generosity,
humility, flexibility, maturity, humor, and dare we say it, some character and
humanity.
—Trendwatching.com
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Examples
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Images from Miracle Whip, Johnson & Johnson, and American Red Cross via Trendwatching.com
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‘Established' is now often just another word for tired if not tainted.
—Trendwatching.com
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Rethink Hierarchy
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Nobody’s smarter than everybody
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Don’t plan your future, plan your people. Outstanding people who fit your broad vision will tend to make the right decisions along the way;
not by following a plan but by using their skill.
—Harry Beckwith
Selling the Invisible
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Chaos theory
Enough structure to allow for pattern development, but flexible enough to allow for creativity.
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Strategic routines
• Strategic routines, not rules
• Support instead of strictness
• Encourage innovation
• Invite participation
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Don’t stay tied to old habits
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To reach our [strategic] goals, we must first change our lifestyle and our daily
habits now.
Then we must summon the courage to keep up the new habits and not yield to all
the old familiar temptations. Then, and only then, we get the benefits later.
—David Maister
Strategy and the Fat Smoker
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Redefine Success
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Success metrics are a bit fishy
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Long-term success
• Make budgets customer-centric, not product or channel centric
• Not always immediate
• Not always exact
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Measurements that matter
Traditional
• Short timeframes
• Isolated pieces of content
• Easily accessible analytics
• Measuring what exists
Try instead
• Longer timeframes
• Content systems
• Mix of measurement techniques
• Predictive monitoring
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Research shows companies who invest in communications are
more profitable and keep executives longer.
—Paul A. Argenti,
Dartmouth
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Summary
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Remember…
You can redefine:
• Strategy
• Communications
• Consistency
• Hierarchy
• Success
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When we look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We
march backwards into the future.
—Marshall McLuhan
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Thanks!
Melissa Rach
@melissarach
www.dialogstudios.com
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