Content marketing is something most marketers have done for years without ever knowing that it had a name.  I don’t remember learning about it in journalism school, yet I’ve provided content marketing to my clients since my first day at my first marketing job.  The only difference is that now, I’m sharing it online.

Content marketing is defined as “using informative or entertaining content to attract and retain customers and position your business as a trusted resource in your industry.”

Instead of aggressive and persistent outgoing messages designed to attract attention, content marketing provides useful information that can be quietly appreciated and uniquely valued by clients and prospects alike. The sales message from you is subtle—almost to the point of subliminal.

If you’ve ever read your alma mater’s alumni magazine, you’ve read content marketing. If you have spoken at a Chamber of Commerce or other networking event, you’ve provided content marketing. Recipes on the back of cans from food companies, realtor articles in the local paper, customer newsletters – these are all considered content marketing.

The bottom line is that content marketing is never a direct sales pitch. “Content marketing is engaging with your community around an idea instead of a product. What it is is to try to serve the community first, and sharing information, ideas and experiences that benefit others without directly asking for anything in return. What it isn’t is just a veil in front of a sales pitch,” says Dan Blank of We Grow Media.

Here are some examples of content marketing you may already be doing:

• Free workshops, seminars or webinars
• A regular newsletter that educates (not sells)
• A well-written, regularly updated blog
• A customer newsletter or magazine that educates – not sells
• Articles you write for trade magazines or journals
• Video tutorials
• Detailed case studies
• White papers

Share valuable info on your website, social sites and blog, and you will be employing a great age-old marketing tool that also helps to educate consumers on the products and services you sell (and they need).  As long as your content gives them something they need or want for free, they will likely seek out and share your future content marketing because you have demonstrated trust, authority, and influence.

Facebook contests offer many benefits. They can increase Likes and fan engagement on your page; secure relevant and targeted fans; add to your e-mail list; increase traffic on your website; and more. Is it time you held a Facebook contest? Here are some tips:

1. Plan ahead
Running an online contest takes planning. What are your social media goals? Do you want more fans or more engagement? Are you running a contest or a sweepstakes? Who will fulfill the prizes? Be sure to have a detailed plan before beginning any promotion.

2. Consider your target demographics
Do you want to microtarget your fans or not? If you’re strictly B2B, how can you ensure that you get businesspeople rather than stay-at-home moms to enter? (Offering an iPad is great, but everyone wants one.) Think ahead and target only the entrants you want.

3. Follow Facebook’s rules
We see promotions daily that are being run in violation of Facebook’s terms. Be sure to read and understand the rules here before beginning any type of promotion. Note that votes and entries can’t be made on the wall without a third-party app like the one we made for our client Hotel Amarano.

4. Promote, promote, promote
Just holding a contest doesn’t mean that droves of people will enter. You need to promote your contest via advertising and online posting as your budget permits. Unless you plan to give away loads of cash, you need to continue to spread the word throughout the contest.

5. Make it easy to enter
Scavenger hunts, point-accruing games, essay contests and other multistep contests are too hard and turn people away. Make it easy to enter and even easier to win, and you’ll get more participants. Of course, collecting emails must be part of the process.

6. Reward participation
Keep in mind that people are taking the time from their busy lives to help promote your company. Respond to all questions and comments and continue to engage with your community. Thank each entrant and perhaps even give a token gift for every entry. We saw bumper stickers (cost: under a buck) fly out the door for a contest we ran recently; for another, we gave every entrant a surprise discount code.

7. Follow up
Make sure prizes are awarded and sent in a timely manner. Ask the winner to send photos with the prize to share with your Page, and send out press or social media posts. Participants want to see that a real person won. Be sure to use the emails you collect from participants to send follow-up messaging.

If you want to get more qualified leads easily, and want to run a contest on Facebook to help, call us at 818-848-1700. We’ll help you do it right.

There’s not much worse than making a spelling mistake in pubic.

Yesterday,  thanks to a Baby Bell conglomerate who shall remained unnamed, our office got an unintended retreat from our lifeline, the Internet.

For the first hour, sheer terror set in.  No email, no Facebook, no Twitter, no website access – the very tools of our trade were literally inaccessible.  By hour three, with a bevvy of IT and AT & T (whoops, spilled the beans) specialists working on our equipment like a fine-tuned team of neurosurgeons, panic had turned to acceptance.

Forced to work offline, some began writing, others reading printed materials and whitepapers long ago placed in the “Must Read” box.  Though disconnected from the 21^st century, we connected with each other, our clients and our industry by makeshift methods our grandparents would have thought customary.

Yet an inexplicable calm and sense of accomplishment filled the air, even into hour five.  We had unintentionally yet successfully “unplugged” for the day. Instead of Armageddon, we experienced a temporary respite from the online hullabaloo.  We caught our collective breaths, read about advancements in our industry, brainstormed aloud and on paper, and recollected (or for the youngers, learned) what it was like to be marketers in the pre-digital era.

The Internet is back up today. While we’re all ecstatic to have the trappings of our modern workspace back, our unintentional day of surrender taught us that an occasional day spent unwired can be a beneficial and even necessary experience.

In fact, we can’t wait to tell everyone on Facebook about it!

“Most social media seems so… trivial.”

Me:  “What’s the question?”

“What’s your response?”

Me:  “I agree. So is most human speech. So is most of everything. It’s Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of everything is crap. BUT — the other 10% has real value. And that 10% represents a lot of people wanting a lot of things.”

It’s true that most social media consists of funny pet videos and meaningless surveys about long-ago TV shows. But there are billions of tweets and postings every day; if only 10% of them are content-rich, that’s still millions of opportunities to get your message out there.

Don’t worry about the chaff. Focus on the wheat.

“It’s not so good,” she said.

I asked her why she thought that was.

“It’s the economy. People used to get a haircut every month — now they put it off to save money. And instead of getting real color here, they go buy the $10 box at the drugstore.” In fact, she said, the economy was so bad that business was even below the height of the recession, in 2009. There was no way out that she could see. All we could do was hope and pray that the economy was going to get better, and soon.

There’s only one thing wrong with her theory:  I had come to this barbershop because the one I usually go to was packed wall-to-wall with people, and I couldn’t wait an hour for my turn. (So I went to one I knew wouldn’t be busy.) Why was the other one busy, while this place was empty?

The other one is actively marketing themselves.

They’re doing specials and promotions. They’re actively engaged in social media. They’re advertising in local newspapers. They have a frequency discount program. And they send reminders on birthdays and holidays. Oh, and they charge more than the other place.

As they say, hope isn’t a plan. No matter what the state of the economy is (or what you think it is), you should set your own plans for how to grow  your business, and then pursue them. Otherwise, you might find that your competitors are giving you a haircut.

• Are designers empowered to overrule beancounters — or vice versa?
Our most recent staff meeting included the importance of empowering everyone, including designers, by asking the question, “I don’t know, what do you think?” It’s played a key role in how we approach problem solving.

• Is the input of designers considered to be peripheral to “real” business decisions — or does it play a vital role in shaping them? Is design treated as a function or a competence?
The aesthetics of a website, of print material, of a logo are the first impression one has about a business. Since that is the case, design is key and we strive to create fresh material that reflects the businesses we represent in a helpful and meaningful way that is unique to them. No one business is the same, and no one look is the same. A cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work in this day and age. Counterintuity’s President, Amy Kramer, has often said to clients, “If you want to look like everyone else, then use someone else.” We approach each project uniquely because no one is the same.

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• Are designers seen just as mechanics of mere stuff — or as vital contributors to the art of igniting new industries, markets, and catgeories, sparking more enduring demand, building trust, providing empathy, and seeding tomorrow’s big ideas?
Take a look at our business card, you’ll realize that our design is much more than mechanics. We used our creativity in design and in actionable writing to create an effective business card that would start a conversation, drive business, and create a lasting impression.

• How much weight does senior management give to right-brained ideas, like delight, amazement, intuition, and joy? Just a little, a lot — or, as for most companies, almost none?
Creativity is key and the only way to produce creativity is to encourage it. In some way or another, we all get kicks out of the little things we see out from others and inside our office. Including… GAP’s new logo.

Does your business take design seriously?