StrategiContent

On the Web, nothing is more damaging to your organization’s reputation and brand than out of date content.

My comment on Giraffe Forum post dated September 27th

I would go one step further then just making sure the archived article was dated in bold; I’d put the archives on a different site altogether as this inserts an extra step in the viewing-reading process.

Yes, this could be made invisible as one page could look just like another site; however, a large banner at the top of the page or right above the article could announce ‘Archived Oct. 20, 2004.’

Abundant links could direct he reader back to main site where it is made plain that this site contains “Current info” with a date the site was updated. Archives printed out would get a header that read ‘Archived article + date published.’

Regarding some of the other points made, sites that are packed full of every kind of data can be a means of CYA  (cover-your-ass)behavior.

Reviewing content for its relevancy would entail a company having a content strategy and an understanding that what’s on their site affects their customers,’ could-be customers, and-or the public’s perception of them.

Content Management Systems tend to trivialize content. While they serve as a facilitator for uploading new stuff onto the site, it gives those doing so the impression that the program is more important than the words themselves. What gets overlooked is that the content is a strategic resource of itself.

Computer programs do not provide the judgment and discretion like a content manager does.

In about 30 days, everyone who registered their phone numbers with the Government of Canada’s (CRTC) National “(Telemarketers) Do Not Call” website can safely take their phone ringer off “Ringer is off.”

Mine is on that setting permanently as telemarketers call me incessantly.

What are my flavours of the month?

• Vacation offers from cottage country, i.e. Collingwood. No thanks.
• Offers to lower my interest rate on my credit cards. I tell them to stop calling me, they apologize and keep at it. The calls are routed from an American ‘208′ area code to get my interest.
• Do I want to invest $20,000 in gold or silver from far off Florida? No.
• Someone challenging me that their long distance phone rates are the lowest: they’re not.
• Boris the mover has been replaced by, presumably, his wife

I’m sure my calls are typical but they never stop being annoying. As soon as I chance it - allow the phone to ring “live” in my place - I get stung by an unwanted call. What I do now is put the phone on ‘Ringer is Off’ and when it rings, I just lift the receiver and hang it up quickly. It’s like injecting a death serum into the telemarketer’s vein.

What is telemarketing? It is a form of “interruption marketing” similar to radio or TV commercials in that it interrupts the activity you were formally engaged in. It’s on the way out after 50+ years of people being bothered.

With the drastic reduction in long distance rates 10 years ago, telemarketing experienced a boom. Around the same time, the Internet began to win people’s attention. Of course, 10 years ago it was still in its infancy. Dial ahead to 2006 and, I’m just picking a number here, people at home are getting royally pissed off with getting calls throughout the day from pesky telemarketers with always big offers. The elderly face an even bigger battle; my 90 year old mother constantly gets called by charities of every description.

The Internet has now changed things for all time as it ushered in an expectation of being allowed to surf for as long as they liked with no interruptions. TV and radio are choices but telemarketers are a unrequested nuisance.

The result? The National Do Not Call list. Reach it here.

The result? I read in the Globe earlier today that the direct mail folks - the ones that stuff my mailbox, and help me fill the nearby garbage bucket, are gearing up for an onslaught, the likes of which we haven’t seen …since long distance rates were double what they are now.

Bring it on; I say, it’ll give me an off-season workout for my pitching arm.

From Gerry McGovern’s Giraffe Forum latest article: How to Market to the Info-rich (customer)

“The Web is the land of the skeptic, the cynic, the impatient, time-starved, information-overloaded consumer who is on a mission. The mission is to solve a problem, answer a question, get a good deal. The Web is the land of the comparison shopper, the person who wants to read reviews to see if the product is actually any good.”

In general, the days are past when traditional marketing methods will work like they used to. The Internet with its screen medium, has changed all that with its focus on what the reader-user-customer is looking for: we are in control

After spending some time online, conventional “interruption” marketing like commercials on radio, makes people like me turn it off. Why? Because i can find comparable music online with no (irritating) commercials.

With the proliferation of the Internet, awareness of what marketing is has risen. Yet, ignorance of why and how it needs to be different online is widespread; in fact, it is the rule.

I look at websites all day as I am in the business of writing them. What do I see a lot of? Superlatives (”we’re great”), the company name getting repeat mention only centimeters away from its initial mention, statements like “We are proud to…(huh? I thought your website was for me, the reader. Why would I care what you’re proud of?), and dense paragraphs in tiny fonts which satisfies management’s obsession for providing all the relevant facts now that people have arrived at the site.

Problem? With people’s attention span and time being so limited online, a new type of decision-making process must be exercised: 1) Ascertaining the most important things or tasks readers will to find or accomplish, and 2) deciding how best to portray or position them. Do that and sites would lose weight, have less on them and be a more efficient read.

In doing so, an old marketing adage often found in conventional brochures - “more means more value” is turned on its head. “Less is more” is the new rule, or one of them.

My comment on Gerry McGovern’s post regarding “The Complexity Tax” from Giraffe Forum is as follows:

The reasons for too much content and complexity on top of it are varied:

1) Ego and a need to control of the corporate website, 2) Misconceptions about what makes a website effective or a grasp of a site’s real purpose, and 3) Insecurity about the company’s competitive positioning in its marketplace, which involves #2.

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My moving plans are hereby canceled.

Got some great news earlier tonite. The crack house across the street, which has cursed my neighborhood for 3 years, has been condemned by the city. But this only took place because area residents, including me, banded together to convince Toronto City Councilor Sandra Bussin, a Police sergeant, and some guy involved in zoning to meet with us. Thirty two people showed up this past Monday, July 28th which amazed the government types.

For many people, crack is what happens elsewhere and before all this happened here, I wouldn’t have known too much about it.

What happens in a crack’d neighborhood? Well, to begin with, a lot of things get stolen, car windows get smashed in, more things get stolen, drug deals occur right in front of you or your kids or your parents, they occur down the alley, they occur at 3am outside your window, ominous cars pull up, kids walk up to asking if you want to buy a car radio or a CD player with wires hanging off it, and there are crazy people fighting in the street around 5am regardless of your meeting at 9am.

Eventually, the prostitutes show up, who are addicts themselves, followed by the inevitable deaths of said addicts. Five (5) people have died in that crack house in the last 3 years - the last one, Elizabeth, passed away 6 months ago.

So, now that will be gone in 4 months. The last piece of news made me feel even better. The violent alcoholic across the street who has been in 3 rounds of anger management classes has also changed his stripes. He’s renounced booze altogether and become a vegetarian; he’s even out doing volunteer work. That’s a good thing because he and I had a misunderstanding about 3 weeks ago. I think that last outburst did it for a lot of people and no one saw him for a couple of weeks.

Because of these two formerly large problems, I’d begun reviewing apartment listings online; at least, I’d opened up my mind to the possibility of moving from where I’ve been happily living these last 11 years.

And now, it’s all good again.

Citizen participation has now been proven to work. Take the example and make it happen in your neighborhood.

Earlier today, I changed my life by getting a bike, a hybrid to be exact. I’d become aware that I’d developed a habit some days of not leaving my home office because I’d grown tired of walking. Not a good situation.

Because I am extremely tall at 6′9,” I decided to buy new and make sure I got the all-important fit right. Just next door at Cycle Solutions, they had a 62cm (24.4″) frame, the largest made, in stock. That was great. It brought to mind that old saying that most of life’s solutions are underfoot.

I picked up a Kona Dew Plus which a friend tells me is the high end of low end. Fine with me. I feel miles better (bad pun) since taking it most everywhere.

A well-thought-out strategy of your site’s content delivers a consistent, coherent message. And what is the difference between a website strategy and a content one?

The website one represents the entire plan for your site and it should be aligned with your marketing plan. It addresses:

• Site’s purpose
• Particular sales approach (why you will emphasize, how you will handle perceived objections, etc.)
• Plan for how the site will get found (search engine optimization) and promoted within the Internet (search engine marketing)
• Flavor and tone of awareness vehicles like blogs, news releases, and-or online articles
• Site’s projected evolution over the next 12 to 24 months

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People arrive at your site through any number of methods; however, once they show up, the real question is, will they stay and read your site’s marketing message, i.e. your site’s text.

Website not a brochure
Most people assume yes: “We have a website, people will visit it, read it over, then contract us at some point.” However, that isn’t a given. More often than we know, site visitors leave almost immediately. Why? Well, unlike a brochure - which you can read at your leisure or a TV show which you can just watch - websites are interactive. You have to do things to them - click this, click that - to find what you’re looking for.

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Some pranksters in America ask their fellow citizens to tell them whether statements they read aloud were made by Batman or George W. Bush. Pretty funny stuff.