our audience, bypassing the media filter completely. We have the power to create our own media brand in the niche of our own choosing. It’s about being found on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and niche content sites. Instead of writing press releases only when we have big news—releases that reach just a handful of journalists—we should be using techniques like newsjacking that highlight our expert ideas and stories. You will learn about newsjacking in Chapter 21.
To succeed in long-tail marketing and PR, we need to adopt different criteria for success. In the book world, everyone used to say, “If I can only get on Oprah, I’ll be a success.” Sure, I would have liked to be on The Oprah Winfrey Show, too. But instead of focusing countless (and probably fruitless) hours on a potential blockbuster of a TV appearance, wouldn’t it be a better strategy to have lots of people reviewing your book in smaller publications that reach the specific audiences who buy books like yours? Oprah was a long shot, but right now bloggers would love to hear from you. Oprah ignored 100 books a day, but bloggers run to their mailboxes to see what interesting things might be in there. Sure, it would be great to have your business profiled in Fortune or the Financial Times. But instead of putting all of your public relations efforts into that one potential PR blockbuster (a mention in the major business press), wouldn’t it be better to get dozens of the most influential bloggers and analysts to tell your story directly to the niche markets that are looking for what you have to offer?
The New Rules of Marketing and PR
If you’ve been nodding your head excitedly while reading about what some of these companies are up to, then the new rules are for you. In the next chapter, I offer interesting case studies of companies that have been successful with the new rules. In each case example, I’ve interviewed a particular person from that organization so we can learn directly from them. Following are chapters on specific areas of online content (such as blogging, online video, and social networking) and then more detailed how-to chapters. But before we move on, let me explicitly state the new rules of marketing and PR that we’ll discuss throughout the rest of the book:
Marketing is more than just advertising.
PR is for more than just a mainstream media audience.
You are what you publish.
People want authenticity, not spin.
People want participation, not propaganda.
Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.
Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the web.
PR is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the web.
Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. It’s about your organization winning business.
The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media.
Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content.
Blogs, online video, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate.
Buyers want information in language they understand, not gobbledygook-laden jargon.
Social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn allow people all over the world to share content and connect with the people and companies they do business with.
In our always-on world, buyers expect instant, 24/7 communications.
On the web, the lines between marketing and PR (and sales and service, too) have blurred.
The Convergence of Marketing and PR on the Web
As I originally wrote this list and edited it down, I was struck by how important one particular concept was to any successful online strategy to reach buyers directly: This concept is the convergence of marketing and PR. In an offline world, marketing and PR are separate departments with different people and different skill sets, but this is not the case on the web. What’s the difference between what Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix are doing to reach customers via online marketing and what The Concrete Network does? There’s not much difference. How is the news that Open Cycle creates itself and posts on the site different from a story on Bicycling magazine’s website? It isn’t. And when a buyer is researching your product category by using a search engine, does it really matter if the first exposure is a hit on your website, a news release your organization sent, a magazine article, or a post on your blog? I’d argue that it doesn’t matter. Whereas I presented two separate lists for The Old Rules of Marketing and The Old Rules of PR, now there is just one set of rules: The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Great content in all forms helps buyers see that you and your organization get it. Content drives action.
Notes
2 2cervelo.com
6 6concretenetwork.com/decorative-concrete-contractors
7 7concretenetwork.com/photo-gallery/
3 Reaching Your Buyers Directly
The frustration of relying exclusively on the media and expensive advertising to deliver your organization’s story is long gone. Yes, mainstream media are still important, but today smart marketers craft compelling information and tell the world directly via the web. The tremendous expense of relying on advertising to convince buyers to pay attention to your organization, ideas, products, and services is yesterday’s headache.
Chip McDermott founded ZeroTrash1 as a nonprofit organization to rid the streets and beaches of Laguna Beach, California, of trash. Population and tourism had exploded, and the city had not kept up in providing sufficient infrastructure for public trash collecting and recycling. McDermott used the web to rally the community with a grassroots movement.
“The spark of the idea was that trash was becoming commonplace on the streets and the sidewalks of Laguna Beach,” McDermott says. “We started to tackle the problem with a Facebook2 page for ZeroTrash Laguna and quickly built it to hundreds of members.”
People use the ZeroTrash Facebook
