Publish or Perish! Haven’t you read or heard that philosophy to the point of complete exhaustion over the last few years? No one can ever read the amount of content that’s being published to the internet. And, no one really wants to.

1. Make More Sales than “Friends”
Dump the Content
Strategy: Make More
Sales Than Friends
Publish or Perish!
Haven’t you read or heard that philosophy to the point of
complete exhaustion over the last few years?
So has every other business in the world. This mantra is
having such an impact on marketing departments all over
the world that billions of pages of gibberish are being
published to the internet every month. No one can ever read
the amount of content that’s being published to the internet.
And, no one really wants to.
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2. It’s no surprise that
people love social media
sites. It’s not just because we
are a social species. It’s also
because people want to get
away
from
advertisers.
Advertisers remind us of our
jobs,
our
dwindling
satisfaction with life. They
just won’t let us relax.
We go to social media
sites to connect with other
people and shed the stench
of corporate influence.
Mitch Joel, President of
Twist Image says, “…the
same consumers that are
inundated with advertising
are now being inundated
with content. That’s a lot of
messaging… it’s critical that
we, the marketers, take one
step back and ask ourselves:
‘Are we asking too much of
our consumers?’… Kill the
content. You heard me. Kill
the content. Step away from
the publish button and take a
breather.”
Internet marketing hype
has hi-jacked common sense
and good business sense.
The media coverage of the
few success stories has
created zombies who blindly
hunger for what they’ve seen
other companies accomplish
online.
Some of those success
stories were early adopters.
There are always going to be
those who profit from
recognizing a trend before
the rest of the flock. The first
sheep on a grassy knoll will
gorge himself until the rest
of the herd finds out about
his great find. Then, the herd
comes and devours their
share and thins out the feast.
The herd has come
stampeding and the freedom
of operating online has
become
restricted.
The
novelty of the internet has
long since worn off. In
normal economic situations,
the market will correct itself
and weed out those who are
cluttering up the market and
leave it to the real players.
Unfortunately,
because
the internet is open to
anyone with a computing
device, it will take much
longer for the market to clear
out the rubbish than normal.
The competition for the
audience will continue to
pile on pages and pages of
content.
Your
generic
content will get buried
deeper and deeper into a
black hole of hyperlinks. All
while you are forgetting the
golden rule of business. You
have to keep making sales.
Unless your goal is to
publish content, we are
assuming
you’re
really
trying to sell more products
and services. Publishing
content can become a
distraction. For you, it may
have already crossed the
line. Yes, of course, content
can
generate
leads.
However, using content to
compete is a different beast
all together.
The Boring Tax
Accountant
Five years ago, we
advised a tax accountant to
drop her plans to publish an
ebook and blog. She wanted
to get more clients. Instead,
we advised her to drop the
ebook idea and publish one
piece of content that was
strictly designed to sell.
She fought us on the
advice. She even threatened
to
take
her
business
elsewhere. The expensive
consultant she hired had
suggested a “publish or
perish”
strategy.
We
challenged her. We offered
to produce the content she
wanted (which we call junk
content) as well as the one
piece of content that we
advised her to produce.
Her consultant’s philosophy:
In order to get more clients
the accountant must build a
brand. In order to build a
brand, she must use the
internet to let as many
people as possible know that

3. Make More Sales than “Friends”
she was an expert in tax
accounting.
Our philosophy: Branding is
a great concept. It is the very
concept that allows you to
charge a higher price than
your closest competitor. It is
the
very
thing
that
sometimes makes a customer
choose you over a no name
company. The misconception
of branding is that it is
something
that
your
company does alone. It is
not. You may set the stage
with a well-crafted message,
eye-popping packaging and
a few innovations that
everyone else hasn’t caught
on to yet, but your brand is
largely controlled by your
customers. They are the ones
who are going to determine
whether you have lived up
to the promises that you
have made or not. Most of
what creates thriving brands
happens after the sale.
Our tax accountant needed
to sell her services first in
order for consumers to
determine if she was living
up to her brand promise. It
doesn’t take 100 blog posts to
do
that.
Proving
her
expertise
to
paying
customers is what gets
people to refer her to others.
We created a publication
for her, similar to this one,
that looks like the type of
publication
the
general
consumer is used to reading
in their spare time. The
format itself lends a little
credibility to the content
author. It lowers the barriers
that traditional advertising
puts between the advertiser
and the consumer. In the
print world, we call these
advertorials.
Advertorials are a proven
and
tested
advertising
model. All we did was stick
to sound sales fundamentals
and brought them into the
online world. Advertorials
satisfy the “publish or
perish” evangelists while
still keeping your focus on
increasing sales. Currently,
our tax accountant client is
taking
on
speaking
engagements. We publish
two of these advertorials a
year for her. (Now, we are
trying to convince her to
publish books. It’s the next
logical step in her career
path.)
We don’t know if she still
works
directly
with
customers anymore since she
has amassed a small staff.
She’s not set to knock off Bill
Gates or Warren Buffet from
any wealth lists, but she is
light years removed from the
frantic, nervous wreck who
expected to lose everything a
few years ago.
Use the Tools; Don’t
Get Used by the Tools
The internet is a monster
that will keep eating as long
as you feed it. It’ll never
reach a critical mass. As long
as ISPs continue to make
money from it, they’ll just
install more servers. That’s
what makes it so much
easier to get caught up in
publishing, social media and
all
the
other
hype
surrounding the internet.
Dig deeper and look at all
the metrics before you
dedicate valuable time and
money to the next great
hype. Take social media, for
example.
You’ve probably already
figured out that people don’t
use social media sites to buy
stuff. Several big brand
names have pulled the plug
on social media ads because
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4. Make More Sales than “Friends”
they weren’t getting the
return on investment that it
was hyped up to be. Social
media is a great tool for
figuring out what customers
think about products, brands
and industries. As a sales
tool it’s not as effective.
The
most
successful
campaigns on social media
platforms have been coupon
offers from Big Box Retailers
and well-known restaurant
chains. Do you want to
engage in a “price war” with
that bunch?
No! You want to increase
profits as well as sales.
Competing by price never
increases profits.
There’s only one way to
use the Internet to do that.
Stay focused on increasing
sales and providing value.
Once you get the sale, then
provide the value you’ve
promised.
Referrers
are
those who’ve experienced
your
value
proposition.
Referrals and Word-OfMouth build strong brands.
The advertorial strategy is
effective in:
Explaining complicated
processes in a way that
traditional ads cannot.
Gives
the
customer
information to think
about.
Is less intimidating, so
that
customer
isn’t
already on the defensive
and is more receptive to
the sales pitch.
Builds your credibility in
the
industry
and
establishes
your
expertise on the subject
matter.
Expresses your brand
philosophy and identity
without shoving it down
the customer’s throat.
Turns a prospect into a
referrer if he himself is
not ready to buy now.
Johanna
Schlossberg,
associate media director at
Clive, Davis & Mann and
Gwen Canter VP, media
director
at
Sidler
&
Hennessey have researched
the
effectiveness
of
advertorials
thoroughly.
Their research reveals that
“…advertorials were shown
to be more effective than
branded ads in terms of
generating
interest,
providing
valuable
information, and provoking
follow-up discussions.”
The Perfect Mix of
Content and Sales
Advertorials are not a
marketing strategy that will
replace your need to connect
with your customers. At
worse, it is a lead generation
strategy.
At
its
best,
advertorials do what you
hope a cold call will do. It
does
some
of
your
prospecting with fewer man
hours.
It
softens
the
customer up and turns that
cold call into a warm lead. It
transforms your salesman’s
job from prospecting to
qualifying the customer.
Howard Sholkin, director
of corporate communication
for
International
Data
Group, “A lot of ads tend to
be more like brochures.
Advertorials
are
more
welcoming to the readers if
they’re done properly.”
At DigitalScribble, we
create and publish standalone advertorials for small
and
mid-sized
service
businesses. We believe so
wholeheartedly
in
this
advertising strategy that we
offer to prove it or you get
your money back.
From now until December
31, 2013, you can commission your advertorial for
only $199 (Normally $399)
and take advantage of our
90-day guarantee.
Call 313-338-8071 8to8
EST and talk sales with
Barbara, Karen or Steve. (Use
promo code EV1)
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