More succes. Less content. Real results @TPLDrew #congrescm

Last up at the Content Marketing and Webediting conference is Andrew Davis. His keynote was about less content with more success. I really enjoyed listening to this talk. Lots of examples that I can hardly share in a blogpost. I'll link to the presentation as soon as it's published somewhere.

Key messages from his talk were:

• We should create content brands, not branded content. It must relate to a subscription. Build a relationship with your audience before they need you.
• Content brands build relationships, relationships build trust and trust drives revenue.
• How do you do that? Think like a tv executive.

He had 5 secrets to achieve this (of which I missed one... sorry, it's been a long day):

1. get rich, focus on a niche
2. think in fractals, explore your niches
3. exploit content holes
4. … missed this one (will look it up and update this later…)
5. create a hook

That wraps up a great conference, although I'm biased because we organize this conference. Happy to say I spoke to many smart and interesting people that felt the same about today as I do.

Wat maakt content overtuigend en viraal? @mcoster #congrescm

Micha Coster is de derde keynote tijdens het congres contentmarketing en webredactie. Zijn verhaal gaat over overtuigende en virale content. Hierbij wat 'notes' van zijn verhaal.

We nemen ongeveer 600 beslissingen per dag.

Wat zijn de mechanismen onder de keuzes die mensen maken?

• Witte jas (autoriteit): als iemand in een witte jas wat zegt, dan nemen we dat serieuzer
• Meer=belangrijker: als meer mensen het doen, dan doen we het sneller
• Sympathie: mensen zeggen ‘ja’ tegen personen die ze kennen en aardig of sympathiek vinden

Deze punten kun je ook toepassen op content. Denk aan: review sites, sites om vakanties te boeken (met review en doelgroepencategorieën), wat experts over producten zeggen en ‘x anderen kochten ook’.

Tenslotte gaat hij nog in op de vraag wat content viraal maakt? Daar is onderzoek naar gedaan. Virale content ont

• Maakt gebruik van 'word-of-mouth' (want het is overtuigender en gerichter)
• Vertelt een verhaal
• Speelt in op emotie
• Heeft een trigger

Give your cross-media approach wings @nozurbina #congrescm

Second keynote at the Content Marketing and Webediting conference is by Noz Urbina about going omnichannel. Here are my notes of his talk.

Do you know the difference between multi- and omni-channel? Noz will answer this question during his talk.

Overt selling has given way to problem solving. Sweeping statements have given way to conversation-like message. (Rose)

Good example of omni-content: cards Google is showing based on searches. E.g. showing the opening times of a supermarket when you Google for it, instead of showing you a link to the site of the supermarket.
There are more and more channels and there's more and more need for personalization of content.
We’re realizing content is the strategic business asset, not the deliverable that wrap it. Content is vital across channels.

We must:

1. fix the content (make it media-agnostic; make is reusable, well-modelled; apply semantic metadata; apply audience, applicability and context metadata to decide where and when to route it)
2. assemble and serve more intelligently (manage systems that understand the content; etc)

Ad 1. Distinguish between Content, Models, Users, Scenario's and Outputs This links the world of UX to the world of content. The content model is the backbone of adaptive, cross-media, omnichannel content strategies.

Ad 2. It's not about the cms anymore. We need to think in layers: Create (authoring tool(s)), Manage (CCMS), Serve and transform (processors/api's), Publish and measure (WCMS). Then you can serve to everyone, channels, specific people. Also can relate to CRM's and translation management systems.

Omnichannel is when you take your content/assets and maps them to the phases of your relationships. This is not the same as multi-channel. Google understand this and tracks it with Google Universal Analytics.

In summary:

• Who are you really talking to?
• What content, format, model?
• When should you personalize?
• Where: device, channel, layout?
• Why, updated valued-prop?
• How will you create, govern, publish and measure?

Content strategy with slow content @mbloomstein #congrescm

I’m sharing some of my notes from the Content Marketing and Webediting conference I’m attending today. First up is Margot Bloomstein about content strategy using slow content for long-term change.

How to give people the right content in the right context?

Margot’s definition of content strategy is: planning of the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable, brand-appropriate content.

Margot’s talk is structured around the following ways to slow down your users with content:

1. Editorial style and structure

Points to tracking personal data. Lots of uptick around phone and apps to share and capture personal data (Fitbit and the like), but they don’t happen to good at long-term change. On the other hand 10Q is a good example of using content for long-term change.

Content affects experience… and the user’s perception it.

Frustrating activities feel slow, but if the activity make happy it does not feel slow.

2. Discover and comparison-style content type

Think the pathway through IKEA. Why do they do this? For instance to drive exploration.

And think about how Disneyland attractions create experience before, during and after you visit it. Content affects experience… and the user’s perception it.

Frustrating activities feel slow, but if the activity make happy it does not feel slow.

3. Long form content

Margot gives several examples from brands like Patagonia about how to use long and short content, fast and slow content.

Respect users when the pay attention to your brand. Be here now.

You can find Margot's slides here:

Content strategy for deliberate discovery at CongresCM from Margot Bloomstein

The importance of punctuation by @wimdaniels #webred12

The last keynote of the Copywriting & Content Marketing conference! About the importance of the comma by Wim Daniels. If you focus on the comma you don't need to worry about content marketing, says Daniels...

And with respect to the rest of his talk: you should have been there. It was hilarious! :-)

Content marketing: from buzz to business by @robert_rose #webred12

Next keynote at the Copywriting & Content Marketing conference is by Robert Rose.

Marketing processes have changed. All content people are now marketeers. Why? Marketing is not only responsible for leads and visitors, but also for retention, satisfaction and upselling. We need to work towards customers that will defend us to death (evangelism).

Buyers used to solve their problems and that's how they bought products. "People don't notice ads, they notice what interests them and sometimes its an ad." (Gossage)
But buyers have changed due to the internet. Audiences now filter. Email and direct mail are less effective. Buyers are rising above the noise. They are empowered and more informed.

Some numbers: 90% of buy start with a search and 30% (and rising quickly) is done via social media. 40% and rising is done via mobile.

People don't search in Google and social media about you. They have a question and are looking for answers. "People don't buy into your product. They buy the way you solve their problem."

However, you are still important. Tell stories. Differentiate! Tell a different story, not the same story better.
Rose refers to the 2020 project by Coca-Cola. They are going to double their sales by brand storytelling. The goal is to fill the emotional well of consumers.

Rose shares some more numbers: content marketing spending is up compared to previous years, except for mid-sized companies.

The biggest challenge in content marketing is to create content that is engaging. This is difficult because we are slaved to data (analytics). Rose stresses we all know how to do this. We all can tell stories and we often are already doing this. Rose pointed to the Statefarm (William Shatner commercial) and Whole Foods (blog) case to prove it works this way. Both cases show webcontent editors starting something innovative that ended up being big.

First rule of content marketing: you are not competing with other tactics (like ads)! But all the tactics should be focused on cultivating evangelists. This starts at the content editor level of the company. So, become marketeer. It's so much more interesting. Move away from the data-driven approach. Be and become a rock star. It's your story, make it remarkable.

Online storytelling @joepvanloon #webred12

First breakout round during the Copywriting & Content Marketing conference. Colleague Joep van Loon will talk about online storytelling.

What is a story? The shortest story is: For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn. By Ernest Hemingway.

The difference between storytelling and online storytelling: in online storytelling you have lots of tech tools to tell your story. (YouTube is the number 1 way to tell and sell stories.)

Why stories? Because our brains like them, says Joep. We can remember stories and a good story touches us. Therefore authenticity is key in stories. Joep points to several examples of 'stories' and stories on the web.

Joep finished his breakout by sharing different types of stories, like a scenario and synopsis. And examples of the tools that companies can use to tell stories, like infographics, video and photo.

When there is perfection there is not story to tell (Ben Okri).

Get the most from your website by @gerrymcgovern #webred12

Gerry McGovern is the next keynote at the Copywriting and Content Marketing conference. His talk is about 'Getting the most from your website'.

Gerry started out by looking at several presidential campaign websites. What are they about? Their core tasks are clear: to get names from people.

The biggest challenge for companies and their website is to cut content, to understand what we don't do, to simplify.

Gerry explains his top-task management approach and shows how certain tasks show up and are important for organizations. A great website has things to do on the homepage.

Customer success should be your number one priority (also on your website).

I'm not a copywriter by @polledemaagt #webred12

I'll be live-blogging the Copywriting & Content Marketing conference today. First up is Polle de Maagt. His keynote is titled 'Relevant and notable content: it's possible'.

Polle's goal is to change companies to do less with ads and act more. Content is never the end goal. Real people want something and content is the in-between step to get there. Polle showed the KLM Surprise campagne. He learned from that campaign that people loved it, but are also very practical. They want to get things done and, e.g., find their suitecase.
Now, let's talk managers. When working on cool content we need to work on input for their talks at the golf course. Make sure you show them lots of facts and figures, even though this is not what it's really about. The underlying construct is important. Technology forces us to rethink content. And metrics dictates creativity.

Copywriters and content marketeers are in the squeeze between tech, managers and consumers. And there's an exploding number of touchpoints. And things get even worse... consumers expect more. He refers to the Skyfall Coca Cola campaign. But is this a good campaign? Does it get things done?

De Maagt is obsessed with solution-driven content and copy. How do you show that content has value? Start with a business case focusing on things that is important to your managers. Polle also points to the Net Promotor Score.

Wrap up:

• layer your content calender
• construct concepts worth sharing
• talk the management porn (they don't understand content)
• try, test, experiment and scale what works
• build momentum and change the organization
• don't reinvent, learn from others (don't trust your agency, trust your competitors)

And, ACT (within the next 48 hours)!

Dutch Web Editor’s conference #webred11

The company that I work for, Entopic, recently organized the Web editor’s conference (Dutch: Congres Webredactie). It was the first conference in Holland (and the world?) for web editors. Dutch posts about the conference can be found here. The tweet stream can be found here (#webred11) and all the presentations here. I’ll share some highlights from the conference with you here.

The Future of Content
The conference started out with a talk by futurist Gerd Leonhard about the future of content. He gave an interesting talk about the past, present and future of content. He started in the broadcasting era and move to what he calls the broadband era; the time we are experiencing now. He stressed this is happening now and if we or institutions don’t get on board we/they will be disrupted.

I liked they way he pointed to the increasing influence of technology on our lives, but also stressed the extreme importance of human ingenuity.

Of course, Leonard also addressed the post pc statements and its implications for content (publishing and curation). The value of content will be in adding meaning and context (location, real-time, platform) to content, not in the publishing of it. This will also ask for a complete different business model.

Customer Journey
There were also several breakouts. I went to two of them. One was about Customer Journeys. How can you lead people through their tour along websites, email newsletters and social media in an optimal way? Interestingly the speaker said the audience should not use persona’s to define these journeys, while persona’s were promoted in another breakout.

Writing a book using social media

The other breakout was done by Erwin Blom. Hij wrote the Community Handbook (in Dutch). He told a fascinating story about how he used social media to write, promote and improve his book. He sees the process of writing the book as the product. And advises all to publish raw material. Make sure the product or service you want to deliver is alive before it’s there.

Another interesting thing he said is by sharing early you also claim the idea. I agree. This is a weird paradox of social media. Some wonder if we should be so open about our lives and ideas. An important question. But if you have an idea sharing it on social media gives you the exact time and date (permalink) on which you shared it. Comparing dates could help solve the problem who had the idea first.

Web editor’s and social media
Erwin Blom also closed the day with a keynote. He stressed the blessing that social media is for web editor’s.

Erwin studied journalism and became journalist. The internet fascinated him. He wondered how he could tell more stories over the web. How do you share more with your audience? Your audience often knows more than you can know by yourself.

Social media is great for telling (more) stories. Social media brings people together around their passion, a problem or goal they have. Blom showed the audience all kinds of ways to use social media to find interesting people and information, to interact with the world, etc. He challenged the audience to start with one of the example or just start blogging.

Some endnotes

- Social media is about passion. So if you use social media, you have to do it with passion.
- Facilitate the communication of the community. Even when it’s negative feedback. Respond to the feedback and learn from it.
- Blom was asked what new web app he liked? He pointed to Instagram. Not many in the audience had heard of it or were using it.

- And two video's from the conference. The first is the intro to the conference and the second is a summary of the day.

Question
I'm curious if you know of a comparable conference in other parts of the world?