Helpful Truth about Content Marketing
(July 19, 2013)


Jay Baer wrote a wonderful piece for Fast Company, about how McDonald's Canada used honest and helpful answers to customer questions in their content strategy to see dramatic improvements in the perception of the company and their food.

At one point in the article, McDonald's points out that they knew that the ROI for the strategy would only show in the long term. Equally, they took it as an opportunity to better consolidate customer Q&A onto one channel rather than having to manage responses across the multitude of communication channels in use. 

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It reminded me of two recent examples I've experienced where clients stepped out of their comfort zone for a long term strategy - the writing of help files for online banking and blogging for a wealth management firm.

In the first case, the writer for the bank's help file came from the marketing department. She's a great writer and thankfully a quick study. First drafts of the copy were way too marketing voice, the second way too dry - helpful, but dry. We carefully examined the lines between marketing speak and technical writing to get to the place for being of assistance. A subtle change makes all the difference. They will see the payoff in the next couple of years.

For a wealth management client, they are leaders in their wealth management style in Canada, but very few people outside a small circle of wealthy Canadians were aware of the firm. Luckily a couple of the advisors bought into social media and blogging as part of their relational communications strategy. They understood that sharing their knowledge openly built trust amoung all their current clients and influenced their leadership position within the industry, as well as with prospects. It took them out of their comfort zone and it was a long term strategy that began to pay off within the first year and it continues to do so.

Read the Fast Company article to see how this long term and audacious strategy paid off... MARKETING, WITH A SIDE OF TRUTH: THE SECRET MCDONALD'S RECIPE FOR CANADIAN SUCCESS.

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