I hate to use the word “guru” because it implies someone who advises rather than does. It suggests someone who might have a lot of great insight, but only a hazy notion of how it applies in the real world, in real situations. Theory can be useful, of course. But even better is actionable how-to.
At least, that’s my perspective, as applies to almost anything. And that’s why I’m a fan of Michael Stelzner’s new book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition (Wiley, 2011). Like many of my favorite marketers, Michael is a doer: He doesn’t just posit some great ideas on how to grow a business. Instead, he’s been there, done that. In other words, he’s practiced them.
By way of background: Michael is the founder of Social Media Examiner, a site that helps small businesses navigate social media. In less than 18 months, SocialMediaExaminer.com grew from infancy to more than 80,000 subscribers. Prior to Launch, he authored Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged.
Here, Michael and I chat about how to build a loyal fan base without the hard sell and the lessons he learned from Social Media Examiner as they apply to almost any company doing business online. As it happens, the growth primarily involves one of my most favorite things. (Hint: It starts with “con” and ends with “tent.”)
Ann: Let’s talk about how social media has changed the way businesses need to market online.
Michael: The change has been radical. And this means many businesses need to unlearn the practices of yesterday. No longer can marketers treat people like fish. Terms like “bait pieces” and “acquisition” are words that should banned from our vocabulary.
Unfortunately, too many of us have been taught that marketing is about an exchange. I (the marketer) give you something, and you (the prospect) reciprocate. This “give to get” mantra is manipulative, and frankly, people are fed up with it.
There’s a reason most people don’t trust businesses. And marketing has a lot to do with it. It’s as if marketers have fired everything they’ve got at people. As marketing messages come raining down, people are seeking refuge from the storm. They’ve tuned out.
Plus, social media has changed everything. To paraphrase Guy Kawasaki, power has shifted to “nobodies from nowhere.” Now everyday Joes and Janes are letting their voices be heard with blogs, on Facebook, via Twitter and on YouTube. And here’s what they’re saying:
• “We want access to great insight and people!”
• “Recognize me.”
• “I want it all for free!”
Smart marketers have figured out how to give people precisely what they want with the highly scalable power of content.
Ann: And content cuts through the noise.
Michael: First, let me clarify that not all content is created equal. What people don’t want are details about why they should buy from your business. What I discovered is most people could care less about me and my products. I found this out the hard way.
But, what people do want is detailed “how to” information, success stories, and expert interviews. This type of content meets their insatiable appetite for free guidance and assistance.
For example, at Social Media Examiner, we go to trade shows and interview experts like Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, and Mari Smith. Our audience love’s hearing golden nuggets from the creative minds of these pros. And sometimes, those experts share our content with their fan base.
The beauty of great content is it’s highly scalable and sharable. When people share your content on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter … that drives back more qualified traffic to you.
Ann: You talk about businesses as, essentially, “publishers.” (Which is something I also espouse!) But what do you say to people who say that they aren’t in the business of producing “content”? In other words, how can they produce all the various kinds of stuff you talk about in Launch, in addition to adding outside voices to the mix?
Michael: If you’re not in the business of producing content then you’ll be reliant on others that do. Everywhere you place an advertisement is the content business: Google, radio, TV, and print. If you want to remain reliant on them for costly marketing … then don’t produce content.
But, if you want to own your own platform and eliminate the outrageous costs of marketing, then you need a content strategy.
Ann: I like the creative formula you developed to show the power of content. You call it the “elevation principle.”
Michael: It’s really a simple concept. If you focus on the needs of people, your business will achieve forward momentum. If you think of your business like a rocket ship, your goal as a marketer is to navigate it to new frontiers.
Here’s the elevation principle formula: Great content plus other people minus marketing messages equals growth.
You know what great content is. It’s those in-depth articles that provide precisely what your readers need.
The second part—other people—is overlooked by most businesses. This involves reaching out to experts in your field and sharing all that great knowledge in their minds.
The last part of the elevation principle involves removing the marketing messages from your content. Marketing is like friction for your rocket ship, the more you use it, the less people will receive your content as a gift.
Have you ever been to a wedding sponsored by Nike? If you received a gift that forced you to first watch a commercial, what would you think? Of course these would be absurd! If you hate being pitched to, so do your customers and prospects. Pack away those marketing messages and people will receive you and your message with open arms.
Ann: You discuss two types of content. Can you talk about what they are and how business can use them?
Michael: First there’s primary fuel. This is like gasoline for your business. It has about a 72-hour shelf life and includes the content you regularly produce for your business.
Ann: Like?
Michael: Like articles, reviews, case studies and expert interviews that all focus on the needs of your readers.This is important because it gives people a reason to keep coming back for more.
Nuclear fuel is more complicated, yet more powerful. Able to attract many more people, this type of content has a much longer tail – reports, maybe, or contests.
Ann: Can you give me a specific example of what nuclear fuel can do?
Michael: Sure. We release an annual report called the Social Media Marketing Industry Report—a free 40+ page study that examines the state of social media. We survey thousands and produce this rich report that we give away for free—without any registration requirement.
The results: We typically get at least 40,000 people reading the report within the first month and rank very high in the search engines.
Primary fuel is your everyday content that gets people coming back and nuclear fuel is that special content you use when you need to launch something.
Ann: What’s the role of a blog in an ongoing content publishing program?
Michael: When I interviewed Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra two years ago, he told me that the word blog has changed and morphed. Everyone is producing content. It happens to be that blogs are the platform or the technology. In reality, I see the word blog going away. We at Social Media Examiner call ourselves an online magazine because people know what that means.
But, fundamentally it’s blogs that have enabled all of us to become publishers. God bless the folks behind WordPress. It’s changed my life.
Ann: If businesses should provide commercial-free content, what’s your perspective on how do they ultimately sell and make money? (I get this question a lot.)
Michael: That’s a wonderful question. The answer is to use what I call backchannels. If you can keep your primary channel (for example, your blog), free of commercials, people will receive your content as a gift and share it widely.
As more people visit your site, some of them will want to come back for more. If you can provide a way for people to subscribe to updates from your site, this creates a secondary channel. Once people have opted in to receive your updates, you can promote via this backchannel.
This keeps your primary channel (that all important first impression) free of ads. It also helps you build a list and loyal following that you can continue to feed with your content (and occasionally market to).
Pick up a free chapter of Michael’s new book here.
Want to apply the same strategy used to launch Social Media Examiner to your own marketing efforts? Learn how on Thursday, August 11 (or later on-demand) as Michael Stelzner breaks down the steps in the PRO seminar, How to Rapidly Grow Your Business by NOT Marketing. Special bonus: 10 live seminar attendees will receive a free copy of Michael’s new book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition.
Ann & Michael,
thanks for sharing this interview. I only find the title a little big misleading: it’s not that marketing MUST change, it already HAS. The question is if marketers play to those new rules and how they do it.
With regard to the strategy described below, I really like the idea of having a commercial-free primary channel and a backchannel. Would you say that a corporate blog can be such a primary channel? Or did you have something different in mind?
The tricky bit is and will be to change the patters of marketing in many companies. Social Media Examiner was most likely built the way it’s described here from the very beginning, they had a chance to organically build a group of followers while continually building content. With time this becomes a self-enforcing concept.
Now the challenge for many companies is:
a) content is not created in this thought-leadership-manner, but still in the product-commercial-style
b) change takes time, and you’ll probably need to drive both strategies in parallel until you see enough leads getting through from the new model
Probably the next big thing to discuss will be: how to drive this change?
Thanks again and kind regards from Germany,
Matt
Thanks for chiming in here, Matt. The idea of a blog as a primary channel — focused on the needs of your customers, not marketing blather — is key to what Michael is describing here. And yes – you are spot-on in the challenges. In terms of driving this change, I think you need to make the case for it, start small or incrementally, and show success. Just as you would with any other new initiative.
Wonderful piece Ann. Classic primary fuel – an interview with an expert who has a point of view and valuable insights. Would love more of this type of fuel.
Thanks, Michael. Duly noted.
Thanks for the interview Ann!
People still want to learn about a product. At some point in the buying cycle, they come to your business website to learn about the product because you are the best place on the web for that data. If you’re buying a car, you want to see the legroom, the fuel mileage, etc. You may want to talk to independent experts, but the vendor should still provide the basics of Web 1-0. I see too many Web professionals running away from the basics to chase social media, flavor-of-the-day zephyrs. You need to balance guru words with a look at your traffic and search logs.
John – I concur. BUT most people don’t spend all their web time purchasing. And to many companies spend all their web efforts on selling. There is a time and a place to sell. However the days of product marketing are the days of old. Rather, businesses that have ultra loyal fans who purchase their products without question are the ones spending time giving people what they want–for free. Check out the free PDF here for a fuller picture of what I am proposing: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/launch/
John – I think what you are saying is critical, too: Product sheets, or product comparison or other product-centric content does have a place. But the problem is — as Michael says — that many companies start and end there. I see that kind of product-centric content as more appropriate when people are further along in the sales cycle… ready to buy, and looking at specific features… not right up front. (Which is the mistake a lot of companies make.)
BTW, funny that you mention car-buying as an example… because I’m in the market for a new car right now. The questions I have are not about legroom and fuel mileage, though.. but more about general car-buying issues: Like, how do I get the best deal from a dealer? Should I buy new or pre-owned? That kind of stuff – that’s not product-centric per se. The dealer who helps me through that mire of questions will get my business.. because so far no one adequately is.
While I agree with the ideas of content curation and dissemination, like all “gurus” this manifesto treats selling/monetization as a casual offshoot. “Let’s give them cool videos and articles and tips and tricks. If they end up buying something, well that’s a nice bonus.”
Uhh no. That people end up buying something is the point. This article has not made clear the path to doing so other than briefly touching on “backchannels”. As a result this sort of pap does disservice to the intricacies involved in crafting social media as part of a modern integrated marketing plan. At the end of the day, social media channels still have to respect the brand – which in effect is part of the consumer’s mental construct that has to answer the question “What do I get if I choose you?”. If you don’t answer the question, you can’t make the sale.
GURU! http://youtu.be/3f-hr1iWNyI
Agree with David. Too much social media is hope…and as my sales execs tell me: hope is not a strategy. I believe in the power of customers and prospects co-sharing your Brand. But we in the business side of the web need to make sure we actually have a strategy that delivers results.
David – Actually, “that people end up buying something” is NOT the point. To many marketers have forgotten that the role of selling is not the only role of marketing.
The point is to build loyal evangelists who will gladly share you and your product to the world. These fans becoming walking sign posts pointing tons of people to you and your company. So, while getting the sale is important, it is not the only factor.
If you can have thousands who constantly sing your praises, then you won’t need to pitch, hard close or do anything else that people hate. Instead people will gladly line up to buy what you have to offer.
This is not theory. It really works. We are a living example.
Which is fine if you’re in the 1% of brands like BMW, MAC or Nike who get it right and have built products or visions (or both) that people can get excited about enough to evangelize. Unfortunately, most brands out there don’t have that luxury. And not coincidentally, those brands’ equity was built by traditional consumer marketing means.
At a time when value is increasingly coming to the forefront in the consumer decison-making psych, I wonder where those people are “who purchase their products without question”. If anything, this sentiment is a relic from the past as much or more than *shudder* “selling”.
I get it. We want people to speak on our behalf. Of course referrals are much more powerful than anything we can create. But even if someone tells me Audis rock, I’m still going to have to complete the value equation for myself (Value = What I get/What I give up). Marketing’s job is to help the consumer complete that equation. Referrals are great, but they’re only part of the solution. A good marketer realizes this.
I’d say that marketing must certainly adapt. But as marketers we’re charged with driving revenue. My VP wants to see a tangible path to revenue generation (I bet most of us are in the same boat). Social media/conversations/engagement/content curation is part of that path, but it’s a real stretch to say that we have to disregard the basics of positioning our product in our customer’s mind to the point where both firm and customer can realize a mutually beneficial transaction – which is what we’re paid to do.
I’d also add that too many marketers have forgotten that the role of marketing is to sell. Or rather to provide a path for the consumer where the end-point is a sale.
David – Seems like you have a lot to say on this topic. I’d invite you to submit a piece to MarketingProfs fleshing out some of your thoughts here. I’m sure our readers would enjoy it.
For the record, though… I don’t think that Michael is suggesting as haphazard an approach as you suggest he is (nor do C.C. Chapman and I suggest that in Content Rules, our book on content). It’s not about tossing up videos or blogs and hoping for a sale; it’s much more strategic and intentional than that. Clearly, this interview is only scratching the surface.
p.s. It’s funny to me that you linked to the “Guru” video on YouTube… because the video was produced by ZapposTV, a company that has embraced the notion of content as a cornerstone of their marketing. It was hilarious BTW. So thanks for that!
Great interview that raises some valid points.
[...] be quick and easy to do, and can make for interesting blog posts. Here’s a good example of the interview format, with some great content marketing ideas [...]
This is the part that knee-jerked me into replying. “The last part of the elevation principle involves removing the marketing messages from your content. Marketing is like friction for your rocket ship, the more you use it, the less people will receive your content as a gift.”
For years, I’ve been advocating that marketing is actually more simple than we make it out to be and almost Zen: **the less you talk about yourself, the more you get talked about.** What you’re suggesting, Michael, is something similar. The response I’ve received has run the gamut from “But how will we get credit for what we do?” to “People love our marketing. Our brand is special.”
To quote Dr. Evil: “Rrrrrright.”
I really like the idea of the elevation principle. From where I sit, it means putting your customers first in everything you do. Not just as a pithy saying for the mission statement gathering dust, but as a fundamental way of how you do business. Now to go put it into practice.
At your service,
Michael
Thanks Michael!
[...] Marketing Must Change: A Q&A with Michael Stelzner [...]
Thanks for the post. I like the way you broke down different types of contents – primary fuel vs. nuclear fuel.
You also wrote, “The last part of the elevation principle involves removing the marketing messages from your content. Marketing is like friction for your rocket ship, the more you use it, the less people will receive your content as a gift.”
I think that point is applicable to the marketing messages that push a product, lack credibility, and are full of fluff. Content consumers can see through these. These messages definitely discredit the content.
However, instead of “removing the marketing message,” I would suggest “evolving the marketing message.” An “evolved marketing message” is a well though-through and well put together marketing message that is based on your market feedback, speaks the language of your prospects and does not push products. It helps people understand how they can solve a challenge / problem they are struggling with and then smoothly guide them into possible solutions (your product potentially being one of these.)
Here is an example. Let’s say, there is a new type of a computer virus. Many people are being affected. People are looking for solutions, not just a research material. So, you create content, where after talking about the virus, how it works, how it infects, the “evolved marketing message” explains what type of technology can protect against this virus (still not product-specific) and briefly explain what your company may have developed to provide the right solution (talking technology, not product). Then, in the end, you can explain how this technology was quickly integrated into the product to offer real-time protection and offer a free trial or a link to learn more. This link can take visitors to a landing page that continues the conversation and offers a solution (product trial / purchase options.) This hopefully will result in a trial / sale at some point.
To summarize, in my experience, successful content has been a mix between the content that has no tie-back to the product (e.g. review of a book, news, posts) and the one that has a credible marketing message – explaining how to solve a particular problem with a soft tie-back to the offering. Yes, no product pushing.
Gary – There is a place for marketing messages. Just no embedded into every piece of content you create.
[...] David Burn on August 1, 2011 Ann Handley of Marketing Profs spoke with Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner about content [...]
[...] Handley of Marketing Profs spoke with Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner about content [...]
David ~ That people end up buying something is undoubtedly the point.
However…I’m in sales, and I don’t see it as marketing’s responsibility to make sales for me. That’s my job. Marketing can make my job easier by raising awareness, establishing some sort of relative value, and planting sees for, “What do I get if I choose you?”, but I’ve never had a marketing person make a sale for me.
Things are changing faster and faster. Of course people want things for free, but at the other hand, what is really good, so common belief, has it’s price. When you offer great content and you then offer a product, because even a blogger or any internet marketer needs to make some money, people await something better as what you offer for free.
The problem is more that most people receive too many emails and can’t make a difference between good or bad. So it is about relationships and yes, reviews from people you trust.
From my point of view, it is how well someone is in sales. This is something, which will never change.
Christa – I say keep your blog commercial free to maximize your growth. It is okay to see now and again on that channel. But that will slow down your subscriber growth.
Although I accept your premise, Michael, it does come with an inherent risk. One can become an exceptional content creator, providing free, accessible, and relevant information that people share readily. Sure, they’ll come back for more and continue to access the free content, but, that doesn’t automatically produce customers and revenue. What’s the incentive to pay when “this type of content meets their insatiable appetite for free guidance and assistance?”
Hey Elaine,
Actually this is really no risk at all.
HubSpot has built a large and successful business with this very model.
The idea is that your blog is your ad-free front door. Once people come inside and decide they want more, they get on your list. Once they are on your list you can send marketing messages along with your content updates.
[...] Handley of Marketing Profs spoke with Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner about content [...]
Great interview and article. This approach looks to me to be ‘Solution’ based selling rather and ‘Product’ type of selling. Get to know your customer/client and understand their pain points, whats driving their needs, and approach them with solutions built around your products.
We always selling and should be, but we shoudl never be pushing the product to them 24 hrs a day. TV does that job really well. Why do you think people are leaving Satellite and Cable…. commercials all the time. I know streaming content has commercials but at least they do not run for 5 solid minutes.
Michael’s approach also applies to the mobile consumer as well. They are less forgiving than web consumers. They flat out let you know how you will market to them and if you step over the line, they leave and never come back.
You have to get on the personal level, kind of like ‘the trusted advisor’. When they like they will buy anything you have.
[...] Must Change: A Q&A with Michael StelznerLink: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/marketing-must-change-a-qa-with-michael-stelznerMy Take: I really enjoyed this conversation about the new role of content in [...]