In this exclusive interview for the MaccaPR blog, Pulizzi explains how traditional PR and advertising programsaimed at earning and buying space on media outlets are being supplanted \u2013 and quickly \u2013 by brands that create their own content and become media outlets themselves. What\u2019s more, these brands treat their audiences not as sales prospects or customers, but as readers and content “subscribers.”<\/p>\n
Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute<\/a>, urges marketers to establish their companies not as a vendor, seller or manufacturer, but as leading information sources in their industries. The tools Pulizzi recommends for marketers include: blogs, YouTube videos, e-newsletters, e-books, mobile apps, webcasts, podcasts, online games and infographics. The goal: avoid “sales speak” by attracting subscribers to riveting content that\u2019s real-time, visual, curated and fast-driven.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a lively book from a provocateur who challenges the strategies, timelines and budgets that most of today\u2019s marketing campaigns are founded upon. I expect many in the PR industry will be pleased by Pulizzi\u2019s book, while some ad agencies may become unsettled at Pulizzi\u2019s prescription. Chief marketing and communications officers, however, will find “Epic Content Marketing” a mesmerizing read.<\/p>\n We spoke to Joe from his offices of the Content Marketing Institute in Cleveland:<\/p>\n “If you\u2019re a marketer who wants to build an ongoing audience long-term for your brand\u2019s content \u2013 not just have consumers see that one TV ad campaign or read a placed article, but become engaged as a consistent audience over a long period of time \u2013 then you have to look at what media companies like Fast Company<\/em><\/a> and Inc.<\/em><\/a> magazine are doing. Of course, Inc<\/em>. would never publish an article saying ‘you must come to our Inc. <\/em>event’ or print a cover story about how ‘Inc<\/em>. magazine has the greatest advertising opportunities ever.’ Every piece of Inc<\/em>. content is focused on how to make its small business owner readers more profitable.<\/p>\n It\u2019s often a very different story when you review a company\u2019s marketing materials. If you\u2019re a brand marketer, you need to be honest in auditing the marketing content you\u2019ve been pushing out. Ask yourself: does your audience really care about your CEO and how awesome he says your product is? No, they do not. Ninety-five percent of most company\u2019s marketing content \u2013 white papers, blog posts, print ads, press releases \u2013 is about US, the company. . . not about your audience at all. You used to be able to get away with that, because consumers didn\u2019t have any other channel for high-quality content. Now, the Web has armed them with all the information they need for buying decisions. So marketers have to switch lenses; if your marketing materials are not talking about how to improve your customer\u2019s lives, then your content is not worth doing.\u201d<\/p>\n “Hey, I\u2019ve been speaking to the PRSA and other public relations groups for a decade. With the revolution in content marketing, it\u2019s PR people who understand how to tell powerful stories about a brand. It\u2019s how you distribute and get those stories found by readers that\u2019s different. Content marketing is not a replacement for media relations. We\u2019ll still need PR people to persuade editors to tell a brand\u2019s story.”<\/p>\n “Typically, a company\u2019s budget is designed for a six-month marketing campaign, after which the company or agency may kill it. Content marketing takes patience. It requires two to three years to build an audience.<\/p>\n I just spoke to the CMO of one of the largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies in the world. He told me, ‘Joe, I don\u2019t want to wait two to three years to build an audience.’ And I told him, then go to the leading media property in your industry and buy it. Your company will instantly and immediately have that loyal connection with your targeted consumers. Here\u2019s an eye-opener: A year from now, you\u2019ll see the largest Fortune 100 companies buying media properties, instead of buying ad space.”<\/p>\n “First off, can we agree that press releases are not working as a marketing tool? Clients should ask their PR agencies to take a story-telling mentality and focus on telling those stories via owned media platforms like company blogs or article repositories, on a consistent basis, rather than through individual placements in earned media.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, as a brand marketer, you don\u2019t want to have<\/em> to buy advertising or convince editors and producers with outside media to cover you \u2013 you should have the option<\/em> to do that. When brands become publishers, they acquire that freedom.”<\/p>\n “Look at the greatest media brands of all time \u2013 the New York Times<\/em>, ESPN, Fortune<\/em> magazine. Those brands all rest on three legs of a stool \u2013 a digital property, a print property and event\/conference properties. You reach different segments of your audience through those different channels.<\/p>\n Why did the website AllRecipes.com just launch a print magazine? If your company wants to be the leading expert in your industry, you need a book, magazine or other print property. The leading expert in every industry has a book. To speak at large national conferences as an industry expert, you need a book \u2013 otherwise, you\u2019re just a vendor, not a thought leader.”<\/p>\n “I\u2019m not saying these developments are good things, but it\u2019s the reality.\u00a0 Hey, I came out of trade magazine publishing at Penton. I lived through the days when we cut our entire research department and most of our writers, turning instead to stringers. The ad money was no longer there to support the magazine. I predict what you\u2019ll see happen is more big companies with large budgets will buy the media outright; as Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos did when he bought the Washington Post.”<\/em><\/p>\n “No. If you establish a content marketing department, you just create another silo. However, it is smart to assign someone as the ambassador in charge of all content marketing throughout your organization.”<\/p>\n “There\u2019s a content development line in your Human Resources budget, in your social media budget, in your email marketing budget and in other departments. The budgets are there, but it\u2019s all in silos \u2013 so you get different stories being told. Larger companies are now embracing the Kraft and Coca-Cola model of a content center of excellence that unites the entire company.<\/p>\n To be honest, the money for content marketing is coming out of advertising budgets. The involvement of agencies in native advertising is making that easier. In talking to major CPG companies, they\u2019re cutting content dollars from their ad budgets \u2013 so instead of spending $2 billion on advertising, they siphon off a few hundred thousand for content marketing and spend just $1.9 billion on advertising.”<\/p>\n ————-<\/p>\n Thanks to Joe Pulizzi for imparting his contenting marketing knowledge with MaccaPR! Connect with Joe on Twitter<\/a>, Google Plus<\/a>, SlideShare<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a>, YouTube<\/a> and his blog<\/a>. Stay tuned for part two<\/a> of our exploration of Joe Pulizzi\u2019s thoughts on content marketing continues next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a game-changing marketing strategy has been embraced by such global brands as Coca-Cola, Lego, General Mills, Zappos, Sherwin Williams, Ford, Google, Procter & Gamble and John Deere, it\u2019s time for VPs of Marketing and Public Relations (PR) Directors to pay close attention. Content marketing evangelist Joe Pulizzi is the author of a recent book,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n1. What\u2019s the biggest paradigm shift marketing directors have to accept if they\u2019re to succeed at content marketing?<\/h3>\n
2. If the future of news content is content that\u2019s not curated by independent journalists, but produced directly by brands themselves \u2013 what role remains for PR professionals?<\/h3>\n
![\"Content_Marketing_Takes_Patience\"](\"http:\/\/info.maccabee.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Content_Marketing_Takes_Patience.png\" "\\"Content_Marketing_Takes_Patience\\"")
3. How does a shift to content marketing change the timeline of engaging with consumers?<\/h3>\n4. How should PR agencies and corporate communications directors view content marketing?<\/h3>\n
![\"CMQuote\"](\"http:\/\/info.maccabee.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/CMQuote.png\" "\\"CMQuote\\"")
<\/h3>\n5. Given how much focus in \u201cEpic Content Marketing\u201d is on digital and social media, I was surprised at your recommendation that brands write a book \u2013 what you describe as not an e-book, but rather \u201ca \u2018makes-a-big-thud-when-dropped-on-a-desk\u2019 book that is produced from dead trees\u2019!\u201d<\/h3>\n
6. Your book recognizes that traditional media is dying and that consumers are now as likely to check out reviews of new cameras on Best Buy.com as in Popular Photography<\/em>, or search for recipes on General Mills\u2019 content sites such as Tablespoon, rather than in Food & Wine <\/em>magazine. As a marketer, this opportunity to connect directly with consumers, rather than through gatekeepers, is terrific. But as a former journalist, this move to brand-produced “news” could be unsettling \u2013 can we trust corporate-sponsored content the same way we respect independent journalism?<\/h3>\n
7. Should our MaccaPR readers establish a dedicated content marketing department?<\/h3>\n
8. So, to quote the character played by Cuba Gooding in the film,\u00a0\u2018Jerry Maguire,\u2019 “Show me the money!” Where are budgets for content marketing going to come from?<\/h3>\n