Episode 1: Content Marketing & Merlot – Past, Present and Future
February 9, 2011
Welcome to the flagship episode of Content Marketing & Merlot! We’re really excited to deliver the latest in content marketing strategy, tips, tools and stories from industry experts who are making it happen! To listen to the episode, click the play button below. If you’d like to download episodes automatically to your iPod or mobile device, click the iTunes icon in the right sidebar.
Special thanks to Cellar & Loft for our Wine of the Month: Pine Ridge 2006 Soma Merlot!
A Little Back Story
The episode kicks off with a little of the back story behind our careers and how we started using content marketing to market our own entrepreneurial ventures. We tell the story of how Allure New Media was formed out of a desire to create a live seminar series and bring new media strategies to the Kansas City business community. During the seminar development process, we also realized that there hadn’t yet been a book published that was offering a process similar to what we were creating. Hey…Let’s write a book! It didn’t take long for us to realize the path that was being laid out before us.
The Present – Why Content Marketing?
Much like the recent resurgence of Merlot after taking a hit in the movie “Sideways”, content marketing is making a big resurgence due to the growth of our online marketplace over the last decade. With a large majority of consumers utilizing the internet and social influences to guide purchase decisions, content marketing has quickly emerged as the driving force behind the most successful companies online.
So Why Merlot?
If the Sideways reference wasn’t enough…We also have a wine reference that we use quite often when trying to explain the concept of “delivering value” at our live seminars. Think of Twitter as the world’s largest house party. You don’t really know many people at this party, but you’re going to do some networking to make this event fun and build some relationships that might bare fruit. What kind of reaction do you think you would get if you walked up to a table full of people, interrupted them and proceeded to give them a sales pitch? Who invited this guy? But isn’t that what traditional advertising does on a regular basis? On the flipside, picture that table’s reaction when you present each of them with a glass of Pine Ridge 2006 Soma Merlot…A different reaction perhaps? You’ve brought some wine to the table, or something of value that added to the experience of that conversation.
Content Marketing defined: The process of creating and delivering valuable content that drives consumers to a desired action.
The Future: Content Marketing is Getting a Corner Office
We wrap up the episode with an interesting trend that is emerging quickly among larger organizations. Content marketing and social media are forcing a changing of the guard within many organizations. With content sitting at the core of these new media marketing programs, companies are hiring “Chief Content Officers” (CCOs) to take on the roles of content strategy development and governance across all marketing channels. Jayme specifically references an article by Greg Matusky title, “The Hottest New Job in Public Relations: Chief Content Officer”. It’s a great article that talks specifically about the job description of this new, c-level role.
Thanks for listening…we’re just getting started folks!
