Onlines

Nope. There’s still hope. Lots of it. Along with serious questions. Lots of them.

Closings, layoffs, and bankruptcies are manifestations of current economic chaos. “But in chaos lies opportunity,” said Gerould Kern, editor of The Chicago Tribune, published by Tribune Co.

Joined by Scott Flanders, CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc., Kern spoke Thursday March 18 at “A Discussion on Print Media in the Digital Age,” moderated by Bradley J. Hamm, Dean of the IU School of Journalism and jointly sponsored by the journalism school and the IU Maurer School of Law.

If you read media reports and analysis, it sounds like a “crisis” leading to Armageddon, for American democracy as well as journalism, Hamm began. It’s actually more of a business story that the reporters and editors are more interested in than their audiences, Flanders suggested.

“It’s the business model that’s restructuring, not audience consumption,” Flanders said. “There’s an insatiable appetite for information (especially about celebrities).”

As The Economist reported in “Network Effects” (subscription required) on 15 December 2009, “The internet may kill newspapers; but it is not clear if that matters. The news business will survive.” (The story is noteworthy because it reports on a similar time of technological disruption in the media business, with the commercialization of the telegraph in 1845.)

Audience interest remains high. The media and journalism will survive, though not exactly in their current form, Kern and Flanders agreed.

Economic Origins

In Flanders’ analysis, what has brought about much of the current crisis in the newspaper business is the same thing that brought about much of the crisis in much of the economy: too much debt. As with all businesses that are essentially monopolies, the newspaper business was highly profitable for years.

Publishers were underleveraged, in the view of the finance industry, and ripe for increased borrowing. They loaded up on seemingly inexpensive debt. Now they can’t sustain the hits of the recession, and some companies are going bankrupt as a result.

With the recession, the most highly profitable part of a newspaper—classified advertising for cars, jobs, and houses—is way down. So is cash. So are profits. “If craigslist and Angie’s List hadn’t cut out the most profitable part of the business, the classified ads, there would be no problem,” said Flanders, who came to Playboy last June from Irvine, California-based Freedom Communications, Inc.

For a complete view of the media business and audience today, see “State of the News Media 2010,” a study by the Pew Research Center, released 15 March 2010.

Business Model Changes

Now the entire media industry is looking for different business models, and much of the reporting on the media business centers on either the search for a business model or the potential damage to democracy with the demise of high-quality reporting.

Readers have never supported media content in the United States. Advertisers have, and at a higher percentage here than in most other parts of the world, and advertising will not likely ever subsidize American journalism at the same high rates. Online readers in particular will never be willing to pay for content that they now read for free.

What’s also becoming clear is that some readers will pay more than others depending on how they receive content. Both Playboy and The Tribune are looking to the future of mobile information consumption for additional income.

“Mobile users are conditioned to pay for content,” Flanders said. “Mobile is the place where we want to spend the most time and development.” Media companies, the good ones at least, will experiment.

Marketing Journalism

The newspapers that survive will have a “diversity of portfolio,” Kern said, with various properties in print and online. The key will be “super relevant information that people cannot get anywhere else. That will be the value proposition.”

I grew up in a newspaper family, and I saw Lou Grant on TV as the epitome of the hard-bitten editor. I don’t think Lou Grant would use the term “value proposition” or the term it originated from, “unique selling proposition.” I don’t think he would talk like an online marketer, with concerns about whether “content” is “relevant.”

I’m very glad that Kern does. It’s an even better example of things that must change in journalism than either he or Flanders gave in making the point that business deals that seemed inconceivable in the past are happening today. Much of what journalists have considered to be matters of conviction are, in fact, matters of convention, Kern said, and too much convention will lead to extinction.

What also struck me is that one of the answers for media lies in tradition. News organizations must, in Kern’s words, “define what you stand for that’s better than anyone else.”

The most important defining characteristic is the one that keeps my family’s paper, The Chesterton Tribune, in business: local coverage. “The newspapers that survive will not seek to have a national or even a regional force. They will be intensely local,” Kern said.

“Hyperlocal,” to use the term that appears in 2010 media trends reports.

As a reporter covering town meetings, I noticed that it was flooded basements after torrential rains that brought people out to meetings, not so much the everyday business of government. That’s intensely relevant content, Kern agreed.

Media people are intensely interested in public affairs, and it’s a good thing. Many, if not most, people are not.

We’re simply witnessing the latest chapter in the long and ongoing debate over the public interest and the media’s mission to protect it. The level of the public’s interest in public affairs (or public opinion) has always been lower than journalists think it should be. “The narcissism of professional journalism is striking to me,” Flanders remarked.

The Dollars of Sense

Yet Dean Hamm’s question and concern—who will pay for quality journalism?—remains. Early in the week, he attended the New York opening of the play Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, which included a post-play talkback on the work surrounding the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the Vietnam War. The panel included several of the people involved, including former U.S. Dept. of Defense analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the papers to The New York Times.

It’s clear, Hamm said, that today the Pentagon Papers would be posted on the internet immediately and in full.

But who would make sense of them? The New York Times paid for a team of reporters and lawyers that spent three months reviewing the papers and looking at such questions as national interest, national security, and public information. The Times’ team then digested the results into a long series of articles, fighting—and paying for—a seminal case for press freedom along the way.

Who would do that now? What do you think?

For more on the state of the media business and its economics, see:

“The Cable Wars,” by James Surowiecki, The New Yorker, 19 January 2010.

“Social Reading,” by Collin Canright, Onlines Blog, 27 May 2009.

“Marc Andreessen’s newspaper deathwatch,” Fortune, 4 March 2008.

“End Times,” by Michael Hirschorn, The Atlantic, January/February 2008.

- Collin

Tags: Chicago, Chicago Tribune, Indiana University, journalism, marketing, media, media economics, mobile, New York Times, Playboy
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Research and articles that have caught my attention this past week.

SMB Marketers Segment Emails by Preference, Behavior

Email marketing research on trends for small and medium businesses.

Does social media generate leads?

Reasonable and realistic assessments of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for business lead generation.

Differentiating Your Company’s IT Services Menu

Thoughtful discussion of  ”trusted relationships” as the differentiating factor in IT services (and other professional) firms, from Ben Bradley of MaconRaine.

Social media strategies that work

Report on research from MarketingProfs.

Atari Computer Concepts

Very cool photos of product concepts c. 1981.

Tags: B2B marketing, computers, lead generation, Social Media
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In writing copy for a client’s website today, and in working with our own website, I am facing a navigation problem: what one of Canright’s designers refers to as “floating pages.” These are pages that do not appear in the site’s main navigation but are important content pages.

One example on our site is the “Treasury Management Communication” page. It’s a special industry page, and because we do not have an “Industry” section in our navigation, it hangs in the site. I primarily send it as a link in emails, and last week I gave the URL out over the phone.

A client site I am working on has a number of pages like that. We have the main navigation items each clicking through to a landing page with general information. The items in the drop-down menu on the home page go to more specific content pages. We then have links within the content that lead to what we’re calling “floating pages.” They’re not quite “orphan pages,” as they are linked to and from other pages, but they’re also not found in any navigation or menu.

Are they a problem?

Many designers maintain a general rule of thumb called the “three-click rule”: a visitor should be able to get to any page on a site within three clicks. As long as one can find a page within three clicks, perhaps it is not so problematic to have pages not in any sort of formal navigational menu.

What do you think?

For more on web design trends, see “What’s Next in Web Design,” an article from the design firm Information Architects. This article does not specifically address the navigational problem above, but it comes close in tending to prefer the simple over the complex.

-Collin

Tags: Web Design
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Sitting in a coffee shop today in a college bookstore, I realized once again, as I eavesdropped on a couple of conversations, how life is marketing and sales. Marketing in how things are positioned. Sales in making the presentation and reaching an agreement to move forward with a business proposition.

Two doctoral students were discussing papers they were writing for some kind of study proposals. The student’s task is to detail how her education is going to serve humanity. Her overall topic is evil.

“How am I going to spin this so they’ll like it?” A marketing problem.

A woman who works on curriculum for the university comes in for a meeting with a man who has taught university courses. It’s a sales call for him, and she clearly wants to work with him while making sure it’s a course students will want to pay for, especially because it would be a noncredit class, meaning primarily adult education.

The guy wants to teach a philosophy class. I’ll keep the specifics out of it—I was, after all, eavesdropping on someone’s idea presentation—but part of the course sounded complicated and technical, as philosophy can, while another part sounded like something I’d want to know about.

The woman gently tried to steer him in a more salable direction, and he went back to a more intellectual presentation. Then she spelled out the marketing position.

“We advertise to a very general audience,” she said. Whether she said it directly or not, she was saying that a philosophy class in a specialized area would not have strong enough interest for a general audience to get people to open their wallets.

“How does it appeal to a broad audience? You have to think about that kind of audience when you are thinking about what you want to teach.”

She listed the demographics of the typical noncredit student—and she knew her marketing. “A class like this may appeal more to seniors wanting to keep their minds active.”

He made enough of a sale to get to the proposal stage of writing short and long course descriptions. As I listened, I spent time on my own marketing work of sending emails on our network contact program. I decided the best way to spend the afternoon was following them up with phone calls, the first part of our sales process.

-Collin

Tags: marketing, sales
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As you may know from the email newsletters and bulletins you receive from us, we’ve been working on creative ways to keep in touch with our network of customers, prospects, and suppliers through email newsletters and email marketing.

It’s the best way we know to keep a name in front of people, so they remember you when they need your services, know the full range of services you offer, and understand the value you provide.

It’s seven times easier to sell more to an existing customer than to gain a new one. At the same time, 80% of sales take five to 12 contacts with the prospect to close a sale.

But the best way to beat the odds of that conventional marketing wisdom is with email marketing. Email is ubiquitous, even in the social media age. “As long as email remains the collection point for social networking updates, including alerts around new followers, discussion updates and friend requests, it will remain a powerful force in marketing and our lives,” reports the eMarketer research service.

Canright Communications can help you navigate through the powerful yet often confusing world of email marketing, social media, and customer relationship management (CRM). You can find a lot of inexpensive email-blast providers but few firms that provide comprehensive email programs.

Our Network Contact Program demystifies the process and ensures that you unlock the knowledge and expertise hidden in content throughout your business to stay in contact with your network of customers and prospects through:

• List Development
• LinkedIn Profile Updates
• Email Newsletters
• Ebooks

The bottom line: email marketing works. Here’s the menu of services you can select to create a custom email marketing program:

List Development

List Evaluation and Program Consultation……………….. FREE
CALL Collin Canright at 773 426-7000 or email collin@canrightcommunications.com

List Development Consulting……………………………….. $450

LinkedIn Profile Update

LinkedIn Individual…………………………………………… $225
We rewrite your profile to show what you do for your clients.

LinkedIn Corporate…………………………………………… $800
We do the same for your firm and four key employees.

Email Newsletter

Email Bulletin………………………………………………… $650
We write, design, and set up a custom email bulletin
you can use as an ongoing template.

Quarterly Enewsletter………………………………………. CALL for QUOTE
We design, write, and manage a complete custom
email newsletter every quarter.

Monthly Enewsletter………………………………………… CALL for QUOTE
We design, write, and manage a complete custom
email newsletter every month.

Enewsletter Template………………………………………. CALL for QUOTE
We produce one custom issue and train you to do the rest.

Ebook

Ebook Basic…………………………………………………. CALL for QUOTE
We take your presentation and rework it into a 12-page ebook.

Ebook Advanced …………………………………………… CALL for QUOTE
We research your topic, write, and design a 25-page ebook.

CALL Collin Canright at 773 426-7000 or email collin@canrightcommunications.com

Tags: email marketing
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Content sharing and the way a network can multiply influence is one of the least glamorous and likely one of the least discussed effects of social media. A lot of online activity, social media as well as email, is the result of one person sharing something they find interesting or noteworthy and passing it on to others.

I am interested of late in how content is shared and what results content sharing generates. As an example, I heard about a potential project that originated from LinkedIn. One person posted a note to his network on the type of person he was seeking. I receive that note from two people who forwarded their LinkedIn email to me through internet email. Then I received a phone call from another friend who had also received the LinkedIn note and thought I’d be interested.

That’s the network effect of content sharing, and I’m sure the person who put out the request on LinkedIn was successful, given the breadth of his network to begin with and the power of cross-channel content sharing—in this case the message went from a social channel to an email channel and the telephone channel.

In another instance, I ran across a Twitter post that had an intriguing title about a business accelerator for start ups. I don’t know who sent it, but I clicked through to see http://www.exceleratelabs.com/. I knew that Ron May, publisher of The May Report, would be interested in the website, so I sent him an email. Ron follows venture capital and entrepreneurship, and he published my email and the link in his newsletter. I know because someone told me. And now, the link is published in a blog. Again, the network effect operates across channels, from Twitter, to email, to email newsletter.

The content-sharing power of social media emerged as a main theme at tonight’s Social Media Club of Chicago panel on social media in financial services. Panelists from financial publisher Morningstar discussed how the firm uses social media to share thought-leadership content from its analysts and magazines as a way to generate web traffic and build relationships, and in the end I was struck by the cross-channel nature of communication and how social media both contributes to and speeds the sharing of content.

“It’s about creating  ways that make it easier to share your content and make it easy to talk about. Not through one channel, but a good mix because people consume and share information differently,” said Panelist Shannon Paul, community manager for PEAK6 Online, parent company of online brokerage OptionsHouse.

Twitter has the highest click through and highest bounce rates. Email has the lowest click through but the highest engagement, she noted, citing research by the sharing utility publisher Share This.

Share This sees sharing as the “heart of the social web.” Read more in the post, “Sharing and ‘Socialgraphics’: Why Marketers Should Be Paying Attention.”

-Collin

Tags: network, Social Media
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Like a white paper, a pertinent and relevant ebook is a powerful lead-generating tool. Now we are not discussing ebooks as in Amazon Kindle ebooks—and there is some confusion because these days “ebook” means books read on electronic devices.

Instead, we are referring to electronic books, generally published in Adobe Acrobat format, that are used to show thought leadership, explain a subject, or take a position, much like traditional white papers.

The ebook is essentially a unique twist on the white paper format. The format provides a more engaging experience for the reader, builds a case, and uses a more design-intensive format. It’s fun, too. You see a lot of retro ’50s and early ’60s style designs and unique graphics in ebooks. This is definitely not white-paper style.

Just like a well-formed white paper, an ebook tells your prospects that you are a credible source of information, giving you that sought-after expert status. The best part about an ebook is that it is distributed widely for free and is intended to go viral.

In “The New Rules of Viral Marketing,” David Meerman Scott goes so far to say, “ebooks have become the stylish younger sister to the nerdy white paper.” He further stresses the importance the ebook serves by stating that, “ebooks have a great deal of importance to readers. People can instantly see the value of a product that looks like for-purchase content but can actually be downloaded for free. In my opinion, ebooks should be material people want to read, compared to the dense and usually boring white paper, which our buyers feel they should read but often don’t.”

We believe that each are valid tools. It all depends upon the specific marketing message and the audience you are trying to reach. And, the release of an ebook can also be a web and social media catalyst.

For more on ebooks and how they are used in marketing, see our Canright Network Contact Program. For more on white papers, download our own “White Paper Basics” report.

Tags: content marketing, email marketing
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Email newsletters remain highly relevant even in the social media age, according to a survey conducted by BredinBusiness Information. Some 79% of survey respondents reported that email newsletters were still relevant while 97% rated email newsletters as an important or very important source of business management advice.

In terms of content, the survey shows that email newsletter readers prefer industry news and “how-to” articles. About 86% of respondents look for industry news frequently or occasionally, followed by technology (78%), and sales and marketing (73%). On a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (important), the survey shows, how-to content rated 3.6, slightly ahead of case studies, perspective pieces, product information and offers, and company news.

BredinBusiness Information conducted Marketing Online to SMBs August 28 to September 4, 2009 and based its results on responses from 381 principals of U.S.-based businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

Our experience with enewsletters parallels that research and has uncovered the following best practices for enewsletters:

Timing

Stick to the schedule. Of all the best practices, this is the one that counts. Regularity trumps creativity. Every time. Set a schedule and get the newsletter out on time. We tend to graciously or comically acknowledge schedule breaches when they occur, as they inevitably will.

The BredinBusiness Information survey shows that readers prefer enewsletters on a weekly (42%) and monthly (27%) frequency. Our own experience suggests that weekly newsletters must contain highly relevant, almost essential, content in order to retain readers.

Content

• Use a consistent sender and subject tag line.
• Make sure the sender is recognizable to your audience—the BredinBusiness Information survey indicated what “who” a newsletter is from is more important than “what” the subject is.
• Keep the subject line is compelling and short.
• Write one main article that provides the most information.

• “How-to” articles
• Review of industry trends
• Top 10 tips
• List of resources
• Answers to common client questions
• Interviews with associates
• Review of a book/resource we use

• Include a “personal touch.”

• Editor’s note
• Fun/creative section
• Jokes
• Photos

• Using 25% of the newsletter for business promotion is OK.

• Promos for services
• Testimonials

• Weave business success stories into articles/tips
• Write for click-through.
• Include links to other relevant information from all sources, including research reports and other information you drew on in writing your article.
• Add relevant links to your website and offers for better tracking and conversion.

Design

• Design with email reading habits in mind.
• Keep the overall design simple for easy readability
• Put highest value links near the top (easier for readers to take desired actions)
• Move images below the fold (readers with image blockers won’t see blocks in preview pane)
• Guide the eye  by using design elements to make an email or enewsletter “scanable” by the reader.
• Consider the email preview pane as most readers see an email in Outlook’s preview pane, so make sure the most important information displays there.
• Avoid clutter: you only have six seconds at most. Focus your message on what will compel a customer to read and take action.

Tags: content marketing, copywriting, Design, email marketing
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I am not used to being the person who looks at the new and suggests that the old school has a lot of value left in it—that businesses shouldn’t abandon the old for the new. I may have been cutting edge when I bought my first PC over a car or worked for an electronic news service that turned out to be a precursor to the web—and way ahead of its time—and even when the firm started desktop publishing on the PC.

Yet now Canright Communications is decidedly leading edge. Not cutting edge and certainly not bleeding edge. As an example, we began the February 2010 issue of Canright Communicates, our newsletter, like this:

When new innovations hit and catch fire, they are exciting partly because they fill a need, and partly because they are new. As each new tool takes hold, the old tools, such as steady email, take a back seat. But just because they are in the background doesn’t mean they are not necessary. And just because it’s familiar doesn’t mean it’s not useful and valuable. Nowadays, many people check their email before they officially start their day. The fact remains: email is still popular.

When I started using email, I barely had anyone to email to. Initially, I could email to others on CompuServe and then only to others on SprintMail. Email was among the first electronic communications medium to open up and interconnect, and maybe that’s why I still believe email is still the single medium that powers online communication, social media included.

I’m not alone either. Bloomberg BusinessWeek came out with a report on online marketing this week, focusing on collaboration, multichannel marketing, and personalization. I liked it because it’s on “online marketing” more than “social media” or “email marketing,” and the report is more transitional than transformational. More leading edge, in other words. More online marketing as a whole than social media as the future.

In my leading edge way, I like the report’s focus on multi-channel marketing. I find the report’s marketing metrics language tedious, but the overall point is sound. Here’s the quote, in leading edge fashion, that I think makes it the best:

Modern marketers are moving toward integrating offline and online activities, with the goal of creating a full spectrum, single-view capability. Marketers are quickly coming to the realization that the greatest value to be had from investing precious marketing dollars is in the integration of effectiveness and optimization: Knowing what works, in which channels, and targeting individual customer behavior in each channel across multiple touch points. Integration, collaboration, effectiveness, and optimization together comprise the wide-angle viewfinder executives and managers increasingly use to stay ahead of the competition as they get the biggest bang for their budget.

Check out the leading-edge words and phrases in that: “integration” of old and new, “knowing what works,” even “optimization.” Those indicate ways to lead toward what’s new.

The next leading-edge point comes from internet marketing pioneer Ken McCarthy, who says online marketing, in the end, is all about conversion, and conversion really boils down to copywriting—”old school” direct marketing copywriting at that.

I really am not a retro Luddite but a transitional thinker. I prefer to build on the best of what is and lead to what’s next. Communications media is going through its biggest transition since Gutenberg. It’s a great time to be in the marketing and media businesses.

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I had a call on our social media strategy and tactics today with Dean DeLisle, CEO of social media and sales consultancy Forward Progress. We were talking about LinkedIn and using it to help generate the holy grail of sales: inbound leads. Good solid inbound leads.

The problem we have—and he put it a bit delicately—is that our profiles (mine and that of firm president Christina Canright) didn’t tell people what we do for them or even what we do. I say he put it delicately because when I looked at my profile later in the day, I’d say that using a cliché like “dry as dust” would be giving too much credit.

Like many people, I took what amounted to the description in a résumé or straight bio and pasted it in LinkedIn with no other thought. “It looks like you put it there because you had to,” Dean said.

Well, yes. Had to fill the space. Just the facts.

So I looked at Dean’s profile, and it’s brilliant. It tells you exactly what he’s done for clients, how he got into the business, and why he likes it. It also integrates a few choice keywords for search optimization purposes. Take a look at it, and see why I used it as a model in rewriting my new LinkedIn profile and Christina’s profile.

I also referred to a book that Christina has been extolling of late, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. On page 71, under the subhead, “The Ultimate Elevator Pitch,” author Carmine Gallo gives the following advice:

The problem need not take long to establish. Jobs generally takes just a few minutes to introduce the antagonist. You can do so in as little as 30 seconds. Simply create a one-sentence answer for the following four questions: (1) What do you do? (2) What problem do you solve? (3) How are you different? (4) Why should I care?

That quote came in the context of high-stakes venture capital pitches, where a presentation may cost $3,000 a minute. But aren’t the stakes just as high for your online profile?

I’d love to have other examples of great LinkedIn or Facebook profiles. Please put them in a comment and let me know what you like about them.

-Collin

Tags: LinkedIn, personal branding
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