By Jeff Walter, Senior Editor and Writer

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines evergreen, in the non-botanical sense, as “retaining freshness or interest: perennial” and “universally and continually relevant: not limited in applicability to a particular event or date.” As a noun, an evergreen can be “something that retains its freshness, interest, or popularity.”

You probably have a lot of evergreens in your marketing arsenal … or forest (to stick with the metaphor). Time-tested wisdom never goes out of style, and it’s always in demand.

If you’re continually struggling to generate fresh new content, maybe you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. Consider whether it might make sense to revisit some of the information, observations and insights your organization has shared in the past. If it has been a while, it might be time to dust them off, update or otherwise adapt them if appropriate, and share them again with a receptive audience.

Your newer customers, and potential ones, might never have been exposed to these ideas and would benefit from them—especially if they fall into the category of thought leadership, education or inspiration, as opposed to pure sales.

Another option is to repurpose materials. A blog post from a few years ago might be distilled into an arresting infographic, for example, or a dated PowerPoint presentation might be converted into an entertaining and current video. It’s possible that you’re too close to the subject and could benefit from a fresh set of eyes that can see new possibilities in existing content—and can help you discover new ways to keep it relevant.

The ongoing creation of new content will always be critical, of course, but the “evergreen” approach can supplement and round out what you do.

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By Jeff Walter, Senior Editor and Writer

Regardless of your industry, your organization is brimming with knowledge on a range of topics. The best, brightest and most experienced of these might well be considered subject matter experts (SMEs). What intelligence and insights they might share! But are they doing so?

We’re not suggesting that you give away any trade secrets. But useful facts and astute observations from your people, whether that information is recently acquired or from the “vaults,” may be a hidden asset that your organization has yet to exploit to its full potential. You might use it, for example, to establish your industry credentials, arouse consumer (or B2B) interest in your brand and potentially drive traffic to your proverbial door, or keep existing customers engaged and tuned in to your brand and what it’s been up to lately. Your SMEs can play an important role in fostering loyalty over the long haul.

E-books, white papers, blog posts, videos, webinars, social media, virtual events, infographics and other content culled from your experiences can educate and inform without being overtly sales-oriented. This content can target as broad or narrow a base as you desire to reach.

Your SMEs’ wisdom—your institutional knowledge—is a resource you can tap to produce compelling content that shines a bright light on your brand, without explicitly angling for the sale. When you share what you know, others can draw useful lessons from it that will increase your long-term value to them and help you nurture lasting relationships.

 

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By John Lavey, CEO/President

One trend that influences the solutions we bring is the evolving marketing operations we see with our clients. I’ve been seeing more and more companies develop a leaner marketing team, perhaps even led by a fractional CMO, supported by a team of key outside partners.  
 
That model makes sense, and here are what I see as the five factors that go into making that a successful operation, supporting your growth and communication goals.

1. A solid marketing plan—It all starts with a plan, supported by company leadership, that articulates all the channels and what will realistically define success for those channels. This plan also helps align partners toward a common goal. 
   
   
2. Dashboard for activity and performance—Being able to successfully manage all the marketing channels that support a company’s growth means having visibility into all the activities that are taking place, and performance, too. 
   
   
3. A lead strategic partner—One who understands your company, your industry and your audience is best positioned to be the general contractor, with the other marketing functions serving as subcontractors. You might be able to do this role yourself, but a lead partner can support your efforts. 
   
   
4. The ability to pivot and iterate—With a dashboard to assess performance, and a strong strategic partner, you can honestly look at what’s working and what’s not working and make decisions to change course. 
   
   
5. A commitment to the commitment—Being restless and wavering every time the market looks slightly different, or when you face sales obstacles, is not a good way to run your marketing. You should build a plan to focus on a span of time that looks critically at performance, but trust in the solution you are providing, and don’t just walk away.

Changing marketing operations structures are the new reality. The principles above can guide your approach and help you succeed. Where are you with your marketing operations?  

 

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By John Lavey, CEO/President

There is a well-known story about William Wrigley Jr., founder of the chewing gum company. 
 
Wrigley attributed the success of his chewing gum business to its massive investments in advertising. A young accountant for the company asked the boss whether the brand wasn’t well established enough to divert that investment into profits instead of continuing to feed the spend. They happened to be on a train.  
 
Wrigley asked the accountant, “Why doesn’t the railroad remove the engine and let the train travel on its own momentum?” 
 
Today’s equivalent is investments in content marketing. More than 9 in 10 B2B marketers use content marketing as a primary marketing tool, with estimates that it generates three times the number of leads as traditional marketing channels (Demand Metric).  
 
Yet, right now, many companies are being very conservative with their spending, sitting on their hands and holding off on investments in marketing. 
 
It’s as if they decided to “remove the engine” and hope that they can succeed and grow on the power of any momentum generated from prior investments.  
 
We see it differently. We know that removing the engine means losing ground quickly to competitors. In my own business, there was a day when Hammock was known as one of a few firms in Nashville to go to for certain work. Now we have to think about competing against the world, and we have to focus on constant content generation to stay relevant. 
 
How’s the trip going for your business? Are you fueling the engine, or trying to operate on fumes? 

 

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By John Lavey, CEO/President

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By John Lavey, CEO/President

1. The iPhone, which came out in 2007, changed everything. As adoption of this mobile content consumption device proliferated, we had entered a new era. We all saw the opportunity to push content to someone and then, as a result, see them purchase our products or services. We became interested in immediate gratification.
2. The 2007–2008 financial crisis made marketing budgets evaporate. When content marketing budgets came back, they were often smaller amounts of investment, and marketers wanted to see successful results. The ability to tie those investments to sales became the coin of the realm

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By Jeff Walter, Senior Editor

There is a reason you’re in the business you’re in, and it’s not just to sell products and services. This reason runs deeper than even the best mission statement you might compose. Chances are, you get a little emotional thinking about it. Your passion helped you get where you are … and it will keep motivating you to get where you still want to go.

But you didn’t reach this point on passion alone. You’ve done the legwork: the self-education, the research, the outreach, the preparation, the partnering and collaboration that are necessary to do what you do at a high level. You’ve made agonizing decisions, confronted daunting challenges, celebrated victories large and small. You quite likely have faced the challenge of selling others on your dream and your vision, be they partners or investors or employees.

It all makes for a heck of a story. How well are you telling it?

Consider that your customers, like you, are interested in more than just products and services. Perhaps they love a good story, especially one that makes them feel good about the product or service they are buying. What else might you and your organization offer them beyond overt sales-oriented marketing?

There’s the vision, the origin, the journey so far. There’s the experience: the hard-earned wisdom you’ve accrued along the way. What anecdotes and insights, old or new, might benefit your customers while helping you connect with them on a more personal level? From the organizational level to the frontline individuals who personify the team, from behind-the-scenes glimpses to inspirational customer features, there are numerous little stories to be told, even as the big story is still being written.

Blog posts, videos and other digital content that captures why you do what you do can get other people fired up about it as well. We’d welcome the opportunity to help you share your story.

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By Megan Hamby, Editorial Director

In 2017, Adidas sent an email to Boston Marathon finishers, with the subject line, “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!”  
 
I know what you’re probably thinking: “Oh no.” Just four years after the Boston Marathon bombing killed three people and injured 280, the sportswear giant sent this tone-deaf and insensitive email. 

Even though the company issued a public apology on its social media accounts a few hours later, this blunder has become an object lesson to marketers, as one of the worst high-profile email mistakes we’ve ever seen.  

As a marketer, you might be thinking, “Our company would never send something as egregious as that.” But without the right checks and balances in place, even the most seasoned marketers can press send on an email that could be read as insensitive or offensive. 
 
So how can you avoid putting your foot in your mouth in your email marketing campaigns? 

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By John Lavey

You can find a lot of marketing content making the claim that human attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish, but this seems to be unscientific research used by marketers to help pitch video as a replacement for text-based content.

But we do know getting audience attention is a huge challenge for marketers. Whether the problem is a shorter attention span, a general failure to provide engaging content, or both, a solution is needed. 

One place to start is by creating websites that work. Websites often fail at answering one basic question: “What do you do?” That’s because, in part, the story is spread across different sections of the site, and the format that we have become used to expects us to click across a top navigation bar to get the answers we need.

One content tool that cuts through the clutter is explainer videos. Explainer videos are perfectly named. They explain what you do. This is particularly helpful if your solution is complicated or abstract. You don’t need an explainer video to market Coca-Cola, but you might need it to sell an SaaS platform that addresses a critical niche problem.

Here’s a test. Try to explain to your kids or to a casual acquaintance what you do. If you find yourself struggling to make an elevator pitch that is super clear and concise, you probably need an explainer video. If your kids’ eyes glaze over, then you need an explainer video. (Note: It would be highly unusual if your kids showed that level of interest in what you do, so you need something easy for them to remember.)

Explainer videos are usually 45 seconds to 90 seconds long. They often use simple animation with illustrations or photography, typography, music and voice-overs. You can build the imagery from scratch or use stock imagery creatively to tell the story. They have energy to propel the narrative, and when done well, they convey the problem the audience faces, what the solution looks like, and what the outcome will be.

Putting explainer videos on a prominent place on your website can go a long way toward making it easier to understand the value of your offering. Even if the attention span is closer to that of a goldfish (whatever that might actually be). 

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By Jeff Walter, Senior Editor

Everybody knows that search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to 21st-century businesses vying for online market share, but it shouldn’t take precedence over the customer experience.

That last part is the main takeaway of Google’s new search algorithm, which it has dubbed the “helpful content update.” This change, the technology giant says, is “part of a broader effort to ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.” The update, announced August 18, was set to begin rolling out last week.

In a nutshell, the new system works by deploying a signal that detects and penalizes sites with high amounts of unhelpful content. Even helpful content will be less likely to perform well if other content on the same site is not helpful. This emphasis on quality over quantity means some businesses would be advised to remove website content that falls short of the standard. 

What distinguishes helpful content from its evil twin?

To Google, it’s a matter of whether it was created primarily for people (and by people) or for search engines. Would the intended audience find the content useful, or feel let down by “click bait”? Does it demonstrate firsthand expertise, or is it simply others’ recycled wisdom with no value added? Will readers learn anything from it? Will they have a satisfying experience?

While analytics, traffic monitoring and website scanning can help organizations assess how they are faring with the new algorithm, a bit of soul-searching is also in order: What is the real purpose of the content we’re providing?  At Hammock, we’ve long preached the gospel of “help not hype.” That means taking time to get to know the audience and what kind of information is likely to engage them, and then delivering it. Data, perhaps? How-to guides? Informed predictions about coming trends?  

If you haven’t been providing helpful content, it’s not too late to change your ways. The pressure is on to share what you know!

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