Bedell Communications

Got content? Need more? In my last post I brought up the idea of recycling content to get more out of your marketing budget.  Podcasts, videocasts, and webcasts lend themselves well to this idea.

You can transcribe an excerpt of a podcast, videocast, or webcast to create a short technical article for your Web site or blog. Listen/view your ‘cast and identify the soundbite you want to reproduce. It should provide a complete idea and be able to stand alone. For example, from a webcast on migrating to Windows 7, you might excerpt the first, preparatory step. You can either transcribe that excerpt word-for-word and edit it, or you can summarize it based on what you heard. Here are some tips for making this work:

• Add an introductory paragraph that puts the article in context. Focus on the content you’re reproducing, not the ‘cast you pulled it from.
• Wrap up the article with a short paragraph explaining where the content came from with a link to the full ‘cast. This is a great opportunity to generate more leads. You might also include this information in a sidebar to make it more visible.
• Keep the entire article between 300-5oo words if you’re posting it on the Web. Keep to the shorter side of that range if you’re using it as a blog post.
• This format is great for concise, actionable how-to advice.  Readers immediately get a sense of how they’ll benefit from the larger piece. (Don’t forget that link!)
• Take advantage of images. If the excerpt relies on a visual — a slide from a webcast, for example — post it as an image with the article. You can even include a short video clip.
• Give the article a unique title that is optimized for search engines.
• Distribute the article via e-newsletter or submit it to online tech pubs.

– Crystal Bedell

I spent a lot of time in a previous work life creating new ways to slice and dice and repackage online content. I had two main goals in doing so: to give readers options and to make the most of my freelance budget. Technology marketers can reap those benefits — and more — by reusing content they’ve already invested in.

When you repackage content by making it part of a larger offering — a “how-to guide,” for example — you give your content more exposure. It will rank better in search engines and readers will be more likely to navigate to it on their own because you’ve created another path to find it.

Repackaging content also provides readers with different contexts. Potential leads may recognize a need for your solution as it fits within a larger strategy. You can help them understand the role your product or service plays in the bigger picture.

Repurposing content by translating it from one format to another — a podcast into a text article, for example – can help you attract leads that might not otherwise be interested in a podcast per se, but might be drawn to text. 

The trick to successfully repurposing content is to provide added value in the new rendition. Simply transcribing a podcast word for word isn’t going to be successful in converting leads. There was a reason you chose to deliver that content via a podcast. You need to have a reason for repurposing it, and you need to take advantage of what the new medium offers. Over the next few weeks we’ll explore this in more depth.

Knowing your audience is critical to the success of any marketing campaign. There are two aspects to this: knowing what medium to use (i.e. blogs, white papers, e-mail, etc.) and knowing how to engage readers with the content delivered via this medium.

One medium may be appropriate for more than one segment of your readership. White papers, for example, are often read by technology professionals who are involved in different stages of the buying cycle. If you fail to identify your reader, you risk losing affinity. You need to address the reader appropriately within the paper, and consider including your ideal readers’ title in the white paper title.

This case study on KACE highlights the value and role of print in the company’s marketing campaign. Despite the fact that print advertising is down and fewer people are reading print publications, it can still play an important role in converting leads — if you’re using it to target the right reader.

The two sides of knowing your reader come together in the results of a study by e-mail delivery company Pivotal Veracity, as reported by BtoBonline.com:

According to Pivotal’s “E-mail Engagement Index Q1–Q3, 2009,” financial services marketers recorded an average index score of 77, while technology/telecom companies logged 65. Travel and hospitality marketers fared the worst in e-mail engagement, returning an index score of 34. (In the index, 100 represents a perfect score)

In other words, the study found that financial  and technology/telecommunications companies were most successful at engaging customers via their e-mail marketing programs. Proof that many tech marketers are delivering the right content via the right medium.

When you plan a marketing campaign, how much thought do you put into your audience? Are you considering both the medium and the content?

Welcome to the Tech Marcom Blog published by technology copywriting firm Bedell Communications. The goal of this blog is to share tips and strategies for marketing technology products and services, from writing white papers and case studies to hiring a freelancer to do it for you.

There are a lot of blogs on the Web about B2B marketing and using technology such as Facebook and Twitter for marketing purposes. However, there are far fewer blogs specifically about B2B technology marketing. While I’m sure most of what will be discussed here will be applicable to other industries, I’d like to keep it focused as much as possible on marketing high technology solutions to businesses. I’m talking about storage area networks, security appliances, consulting services, enterprise applications, and the like. I welcome your interaction and submissions if you know of any good tech marketing blogs that we haven’t yet stumbled across ourselves. And in the meantime, thanks for stopping by! – Crystal Bedell