This Month's Features: Verified Would Like to Welcome... Empathy And Authenticity in B2B Content Marketing ASME Updates Guidelines, Releases Native Ad Rules Events Calendar Newspaper Coupons First Choice for Savings Tips & Techniques: Samples |
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![]() Verified Would Like to Welcome... Overdrive
Oakland
Post
| Richmond Post | El
Mundo | Marin Post ![]() Empathy And Authenticity in B2B Content Marketing
Great content-marketing efforts can be a real antidote to this same-as-everyone-else approach. But what makes content marketing great? It starts with empathy. Content marketing is most successful when it's more about what your target audience needs than your need to pitch your own products or services. Whether developing a weekly newsletter, an e-book or a sponsored article for publication online, it's important to put yourself in your target's shoes. What are their biggest concerns in business and in life? What trends do they follow? What processes do they struggle to improve? What does continuing education look like for them? Producing content that speaks to these concerns and provides real value as a result has a much greater chance of capturing your target audience's attention. It also means they're more likely to pay attention to your messages the next time they come around. What also makes content marketing great is authenticity. As Rand Fishkin, CEO of MOZ, tweeted earlier in the year: "Ours is an era of authenticity. As marketers, we must atone for the sins of our predecessors and build brands worthy of our customers' love." While it's one thing to address the concerns and aspirations of your target, it's also important to speak to them as one human being to another. Marketingspeak can routinely be so impersonal, so anodyne, that it ends up not really saying anything at all. We live in an era of authenticity, and if folks feel like they're getting some kind of washed-and-sorted boilerplate, they'll see it for what it is and dismiss it. Forever. Find a unique voice for your content-marketing efforts, and then use it consistently across all your communications. Ideally, one person or a small number of people in your organization will own this voice and, through real empathy, find authentic ways to consistently connect to their target audience. The results? Better engagement. Repeat business. New business leads. And high regard for your brand. ©
MediaPost Communications 2013 ![]() ASME Updates Guidelines, Releases Native Ad Rules
In its updated guidelines, ASME suggests that native advertising "should not use type fonts and graphics resembling those used for editorial content and should be visually separated from editorial content." The source of such content and the affiliation of the authors should be clearly acknowledged. ASME also suggests that magazine publishers differentiate native ads by labeling them "Sponsor Content," as well as prefacing or accompanying them with a prominent statement or link to a statement "explaining that the content has been created by a marketer and that the marketer has paid for its publication." For good or ill, the appeal of native advertising in the eyes of many advertisers is that it resembles editorial content both graphically and in its positioning. Any move to distinguish native ads from editorial content with a different visual appearance and location will necessarily diminish its efficacy and desirability as an advertising channel. In the area of content, although the ASME guidelines make it clear that editorial staff may not create ads themselves, they leave it unclear how much assistance they may give to advertisers creating native advertising content. Like the rest of ASME's guidelines, the suggested rules are inspired by the industry organization's basic principles of editorial integrity, including "the value of magazines to advertisers depends on reader trust;" "the difference between editorial content and marketing messages must be transparent;" and "editorial integrity must not be compromised by advertiser influence." In practical terms, that means "media consumers should always be able to distinguish between content produced by journalists and content delivered on behalf of advertisers. In other words, no fooling the reader." Adherence to the ASME rules is strictly voluntary, but publications that run afoul of the industry organization's guidelines (and refuse to take measures to respond to official ASME complaints) can suffer sanctions, including exclusion from consideration for the National Magazine Awards. ©
MediaPost Communications 2013 ![]() Events Calendar
The
Visual Revolution Summit presented by Chute 2013
MPA Digital: Technology Advancing Publishing (TAP) 2013
SIPA Marketing Conference AMA
Content Marketing: Philadelphia, PA If
you have an event that you would like to announce,
![]() Newspaper Coupons First Choice for Savings According to the Valassis annual Purse String Survey, millennials rely more heavily on print for their shopping behaviors than you might expect. With newspaper as their number one source for coupons and deals, these promotion-sensitive millennials are getting their savings the same way as all other consumers across age groups and income levels, with 51% indicating this print source is their first choice for savings. All respondents most often get their coupons and deals from the newspapers and emails/coupon alerts. For millennials, in-store exceeds their use of retail circulars by 4 percentage points to rank fifth. From print sources, millennials get their deals:
Over the last 12 months, 27% of millennials indicated they are using more mobile coupons compared to 17% of the overall findings. Millennials actually are using their smartphone to a greater degree than the general population:
"The survey results are somewhat counter intuitive from what you might expect," noted Lisa Reynolds, Valassis Vice President of Consumer Engagement. "Though heavy digital users, this group also embraces tried and true methods for savings, as any other age group, from both print and digital." Millennials share at the highest rate (90%) among all age groups:
Looking for savings, 85% of millennials seek out grocery coupons compared to 78% of the overall findings, followed by clothing and dining out. How millennials share (select image to view or download a larger PDF): ©
MediaPost Communications 2013 Sample copies are defined as copies distributed free of charge to potential subscribers. Samples can be reported as qualified free carrier or non-paid (free) mail if the sample is distributed to the same address for the minimum number of consecutive issues: Copies delivered less than the required minimum sampling period are considered non-qualified. All required records for free carrier or free mail circulation must be provided for the sample copies as well as route lists or maps, carrier payroll, USPS Statements of Mailing, etc. If you have questions regarding sample copies, please contact Verified at 415-461-6006.
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