SalesVPI

Email, Newsletters and Portable Devices

We sent our September newsletter out today. We've done major work on our content, database, website and lead management system. That effort has delayed the release. But it's interesting to see how all these things are integrated.

In appreciation for the fact that most of us have two different email viewing devices, Blackberry/iPhone and computers, we've adopted a practice of writing our emails for viewing on portable devices. This means NOT sending newsletters directly as an email.

Think about how people consume information on each device. On my Blackberry, it's very transactional. I'm checking, sending quick responses, noting incoming mail to deal with later. I'm literally on the go. My mind is mostly focused on other things. I seldom read an article, blog, newsletter on my Blackberry. And I really don't want people reading my important content, or viewing my multimedia vignettes, in that situation. For that, I want them able to focus, concentrate, listen and reflect.

I have certain times for computer viewing of blogs, articles, downloads, whitepapers, etc. My mind is in learning mode. I am focused on taking on new information. I find I retain it better, and link ideas with other ideas or problems I'm working on.

To deal with this reality, we send a very short email with a link to the newsletter.

With our marketing automation system, this has the additional benefit of telling us who actually looked at the newsletter and for how long. This is not the irrelevant "email open" indicator that comes from many email tracking systems. These often give false positives due to the "preview" window in Outlook.

People who are interested in our newsletter must click to view it. It opens as a separate web page. Those pages link to additional resources. The articles can be read on a portable device. But viewing videos, vignettes, downloads or longer articles is not practical today for most of us on most devices.

Here is our recent newsletter email and link:

Content Rubik's Cube Newsletter -- Your content marketing strategy

“A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviors” -- Clay Shirky

Lead management, marketing automation, content marketing and a plethora of social media technologies are changing behaviors.

But the content engine to drive these initiatives with quality, consistent content is often lacking.

A content strategy, supported by a well defined and implemented "publishing" process, is the key to unlocking the full potential of lead management and sales enablement initiatives.

The Avitage "Content Rubik's Cube" September newsletter addresses these issues with a rich compendium of insights from customer engagements, videos, whitepapers, articles and links to additional resources.

Click here to view.

 

Don Hewitt and the New Producers

This summer Don Hewitt, creator and producer of 60 minutes died.

For those of us in the communications business -- most of us -- there is a lot to learn from this man.

Despite working with text from our youth, most of us don't write very well. When it comes to graphics, animation, audio and video we truly have a long way to go. But these are the new tools for communication in our age, and we are the "new producers".

As business communicators, we must learn from "publishers" how to create quality content, quickly and affordably. Digital media and the web have raised the bar making us not just publishers, but broadcasters. Don Hewitt was the master of the broadcast world.

I'd like to call your attention to this interview, and to several statements in particular that relate to web-based communication. A shorter segement is below.

Conversations at KCTS 9: Don Hewitt, December 1, 2008 - 28:00

This legendary TV producer began his career working with Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly and went on to create and produce CBS News and 60 Minutes.

Listen to this shorter excerpt and his message about Audio and Competition.

Audio: it's not about pictures, it's about the copy that goes along with the pictures. Simple, profound.

Competition: your competition for your online messages and content -- your web site, webinars, e-learning, podcasts, blogs and videos -- is the mouse. The computer equivalent of the television clicker. Hewitt compares the clicker to a gun and it's ability to shoot you instantly the minute interest lags.

Whether we're in sales, marketing, training, or the executive suite, what are our primary communication challenges?

• Attention: to capture it
• Convenience: make it easy to receive messages
• Compelling & Relevant: content
• Internalize: help people internalize messages
• Motivate: audiences to make changes and take action
• Availability: have appropriate content available to be delivered the moment it's needed
• Constraints: resolve practical production challenges of technical and creative expertise, time, desire and above all, cost

Multimedia offers a compelling remendy for these challenges. But to meet the practical constraints of quality, time, budget and volume requires a new paradigm. The traditional production paradigm based upon production professionals defining a fixed deliverable and working through a traditional process of scripting, storyboarding, producing content and assembling a final "production" product doesn't meet the needs of the web-enabled digital world.

Business communicators know their audiences. They know their communication objectives for engaging those audiences. With this they also know the right messages, timing, and preferred consumption methods of their audiences.

The relationship business communicators have with their audience is essential to capturing attention so messages are consumed. To do this, they must make the final determination of content, delivery method and timing. They must become the New Producers.

Google or YouTube his name and select from a number of excellent video clips.

Think Like a Publisher

Marketing automation for lead nurturing raises the stakes and the complexity of the content creation process.

Buyers want to view relevant content based upon their: role, specific needs or issues, stage of the buying process, industry, alternatives, and information purpose (attention, general education, customer stories, vendor point-of-view, vendor capabilities, proof points, technical explanation and more.)

To create physical documents to respond to this requirement would require hundreds, perhaps a thousand documents (4 variables for 5 factors is 4 to the 5th power). Daunting, if even possible.

Business publishers need content to be available immediately when buyers, or their sales staff, require it. But budgets are tight and quality standards must be preserved. Volume and the ability to tailor content -- perhaps even personalize it -- really ups the ante.

Business publishers need to shift their thinking from re-active, event or project driven initiatives, to a planned and continuous process to create, manage, deploy and deliver content for the new digital era.

Sales messaging is dynamic so content must also anticipate and accommodate constant iteration and updating.

And content can be delivered in many more formats than before: text, audio, Flash and video. To personal devices, through web conference technology, streaming, downloaded and more. So content must be created in anticipation of, and to enable delivery using ALL practical media.

Publishers use databases, templates and a process that is considerably different than the traditional "production" process to produce quality output, quickly and affordably.

I recently did a podcast with Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor in which we discussed specific principles and practices that can have you thinking like a publisher right away.

This link is to a page with the source podcast and transcripts, as well as a link to a BtoB magazine webcast featuring Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 talking about Content Management. In the webcast Joe recommends thinking like a publisher, but is limited by time in delivering specific prescriptions. This webcast and his book, Get Content, Get Customers are highly recommended.

We've used this page to create several examples of thinking like a publisher. You will see how just a 20 minute podcast can be turned into many different content elements for different purposes. In fact, we'll be adding to this page over time.

Here is a starting checklist of what it means to "Think Like a Publisher":

1. Shift thinking from a traditional production process that is event or project driven to a continuous "publishing" process
2. Develop and document a process to create, manage, update, deploy, assemble and deliver content for multiple purposes and delivery modes, and to collect and iterate feedback
3. Define standards, policies and procedures, templates
4. Have a methodology: map your customer's buying process, customer needs, issues and interests, by stage of buying process, industry, their alternatives (your competition) and primary communication scenarios
5. Develop "value maps" and "message maps," the business equivalent of an editorial plan
6. Think of content as assets -- continuously acquire, edit into modules, convert into multiple formats, store in a database base for sharing and re-use
7. Pre-produce content based upon your message map so it is ready for instant use and delivery
8. Produce content for multiple purposes: train, remediate, share knowledge, market/promote, educate, support the buying/sales process
9. Organize deliverables as modules that can be easily and instantly converted into final work products
10. Collect feedback, track, report, analyze, learn, iterate

What techniques have you found to think and work like a publisher?