Time to think like a publisher

Several prominent gurus have recently urged marketers everywhere to think like publishers.  In a week when Jeff Bezos launched Amazon's long-awaited wireless e-book reader Kindle in a bid to change the way we read the most enduring of all old media formats, Relevant and Valued explores how.

What have publishers (who market content) got to teach those who want to reach and influence customers through content marketing?

It's an exhilarating time to be a publisher of traditional print media: books, newspapers and magazines.  As audiences change the way they discover, purchase and consume media, publishing companies are implementing their assault on the new media environment. It's an ongoing challenge as traditional models become eroded but it has also led to a great deal of change, experimentation and commercial success.

The biggest question for businesses built on the monetization of content - through sales, subscriptions and advertising - is how to protect revenue streams in a world where content is striving to be free and the very act of publishing has become a democratized activity. Creative commons and crowdsourcing sit uncomfortably with the idea of professional authors and journalists distributing their words of wisdom through centralized hubs with the editor as the ultimate arbiter of what reaches readers.

The model may be changing, but many in the publishing industry are adapting and innovating fast. The motive of the content marketer - sourcing, creating and distributing relevant and valued content to drive interest and engagement - are different. This new breed of marketer is using content to monetize a product or service - not the content itself - but many of the imperatives are the same and the content experts (the publishing industry) can point the way.

Publishers are leveraging their traditional strengths in the networked world of Web 2.0 with exciting results. Content marketers should take heed of the following:

• Publishers are highly attuned to the informational (and entertainment) needs of their target audiences.  From lads mags to business news online to books for medical practioners: the content is driven by what their customers are looking for, in their preferred format, and is increasingly modified for other media channels as well. For example: print books become e-books and audio books and their content is syndicated to newspapers and on the web.
• Promotional flair.  Note Seth Godin and others distributing free e-book content to drive print sales and ultimately his own consulting and public speaking activity. Content marketers can use e-books to drive adoption of their own products and services. Newspapers and magazines employ online content and communities to drive print sales and advertising revenues.
• Using the web to get sales growth: books were one of the first commercial success stories on the web and many publishers have ten years experience of growing their business through ecommerce enabled websites.
• Understanding the immense power of Google and its search competitors.  Publishers have experienced a love-hate relationship with Google over the years but the massive success of Google Book Search has been embraced as a terrific free marketing opportunity.  Great content marketers understand that if it does not exist on Google then it doesn't exist as far as the customer is concerned and publishers have significant experience in optimising content for Google search results.
• Crowdsourcing.  Been on the BBC website recently? The readers/viewers/listeners are meshed with reporters' content for maximum impact.
• Content goes viral: readers comments drive Amazon sales - enable others to easily spread the word about your company or your product.
• Putting it out there!  Widgets are the talk of the town and these nifty web applications allow publishers to reach consumers with electronic samples of content in the context of user-generated content: blogs, author websites, Facebook profiles etc. Random House are one of the publishers enabling their website visitors to do just this through their browse and search functionality.
• Social utilities. Newspapers know the power of getting their readers to bookmark and distribute their content online and provide tools to enable this. See the Guardian website and its 'share' call to action for proof.
• Aggregating the best writing on the web: from the hyperlocal to the international (see Jeff Jarvis' article about Glam.com). What if you started to source content from customers that are talking about your products and re-publish the most powerful advocates on your own site?

Counter-intuitively many print-based newspaper, magazine and book publishers have thrived in the digital age. And they have done so because of a notable combination of authoritative content, multimedia diversification, marketing nous and customer-centric innovation. Some are dragging their heels but they are likely to emerge from this content revolution in a weaker market position. And it's this kind of forward thinking that content marketers can benefit from.

Be relevant, be valued and get your customers to act.

www.relevantandvalued.com