More Thoughts on Crisis Management

kade-headshot2012-square-correctKade Dworkin, founder and Chief Crisis Officer of Red Alert Social Media,  a company that focuses on helping corporations and individuals handle crises by leveraging social media, sent me the note below after reading my recent post on crisis management on iMediaConnection.  I’m delighted to share Kade’s thoughts on that subject with you here.

After reading Drew Neisser’s “Crisis Management: No Time for Amateurs” I felt compelled to reach out to him. Over the course of the last five years I have not only moved into social media marketing but I have become a specialist in crisis prevention, management and communications using social media. My list of clients and employers includes nine different $100mm+ brands including several of which that are household names.

There were two points in Drew’s original interview with Doug Duvall, Vice-President, Corporate Communications at Sprint, that I think most people will actually miss.  Not because he didn’t stress them enough but rather that Doug says them in such a matter-of-fact way. 

The first is in regards to the event at Freddie Mac where the CFO committed suicide. Most corporate communications people may not have direct access to the CEO and access to an individual who can make statements on behalf of the company is absolutely crucial in a crisis event. It is a habit of mine for both my corporate and individual clients to make a list of several people who have the authority to make statements for the company as part of my crisis preparation. 

The second point is that large companies need to have people trained in crisis management techniques in various departments in the company.  These people are the early warning system and can activate additional resources such as corporate communications.  Additionally, with this training they can actually contain minor crises before they become larger.  If they can take action within the first 15 minutes, they can entirely eliminate the threat. A smart social media manager trained in this fashion can do this regularly for your company.

The one area that I think Doug misses in this interview is that in crisis events [having] a constant flow of information on a regular schedule can make a massive difference in how the public perceives the crisis.  Breaking communications into three distinct types for the company story, the legal story and the personal story can help immensely.  By releasing each type on a defined time schedule it can eliminate the public’s concerns that the company is hiding information or failing to address all the affected parties.  Finally, these smaller content types can become the original pieces of content that your brand evangelists can use to spread your message to a much larger network of people. 

CMO Insights: Content Marketing

richardmarnellThis week, over 100 heads of marketing will gather in Los Angeles to share innovative ideas and forward thinking at The CMO Club Fall Innovation and Inspiration Summit. On Thursday, I am excited to be leading a panel on Content Marketing with three leading-edge CMO’s including Richard Marnell, CMO of Viking River Cruises. Richard was kind enough to share his thoughts in advance of the summit including how Viking is creating boat loads of content and using it to cruise ahead of its competitors.  And just in case you think I’m running you down the proverbial creek without a paddle, pay careful attention to how the Viking team has generated over 6 million video views and the role it is playing in their sales cycle.

Read on to see what tactics Viking River Cruises has used to engage their customers as well as why Richard Marnell believes content marketing will be an on going discussion even at next year’s summit.

Drew: What you are doing in the area of content marketing and how is it working for your business?

We started really digging into digital content marketing about 3 years ago in 3 very focused areas:

1) Videos about our destinations that focus on history, culture, food, experiences – things that travelers want to learn about;

2) Recipes that tie into the product because they’re for regional foods from the destinations we travel to; and

3) Social media on the platforms that are either relevant to our guests, business partners, media partners, or all of the above.

How it’s working for Viking? Increasing brand awareness – because videos such as language lessons, or meeting the cats of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, or a recipe for Vienna’s Sacher Torte – are things that our audience wants to share with their friends. And on Facebook, for example, when our audience engages with our content, it is then spread to their other Facebook friends. Plus, travel is something they naturally talk about on social media anyway.

Our product has a somewhat long purchase cycle, so content marketing keeps our guests engaged throughout the customer journey. Most valuably for us, it has filled a hole that was previously there for a segment we refer to as Booked Not Departed – meaning those who reserved their cruise a year in advance and are excited, but no longer receiving marketing messages from Viking. Now, they receive content marketing that is relevant to the product/itinerary that they’ve purchased – and it amplifies their anticipation, continues to connect them with the brand, and builds a base of knowledge and enrichment from which to further enhance their actual product experience when they do travel.

Drew: And before someone in the audience can ask about ROI, let’s talk about how your organization measured the success of your efforts in this area?

As a marketing organization we started as a direct mailer, which is highly measurable from an ROI standpoint.  As we have further layered our media mix, we isolate what we can to measure ROI.  Content is one that we more view through the lens of engagement.

This year we have driven 6,000,000 video minutes viewed.  We view this as a very positive sign that our content is being appreciated.

Drew: Content marketing seems to be a slow build versus a quick win as a company builds up its library and proficiency.  Was it a challenge to sell this to your management, and if so, what were the key points that made the sale?  

Our product and brand so naturally lend themselves to content – we focus on enrichment, education, history, culture, travel – that content marketing has been a part of the business from the beginning. New initiatives can be a hard sell at times; investing in video and social media wasn’t immediately intrinsic to the entire management team.

Over time, we’ve looked at the metrics of content within our digital channels:

•Testing email subject lines with keywords that actually promoted 2 of our main content channels – our email open rate is consistently higher when the subject lines state the words “recipe” and “video.”

•Website traffic being driven by content emails.

•Time spent on website pages that include video vs. not.

•The number of leads and eventual revenue generated by customers who came into our database new, through sweepstakes on our Facebook page.

And then using the conversations on social media – our customer-generated content – to showcase to management real-time brand sentiment and feedback around product, service, marketing, policies. Communities can amplify customer feedback in a way that management cannot ignore.

Drew: From a purchase cycle standpoint, what is content marketing particular good at? Are there things it simply can’t do well?

Good content, especially User Generated Content, can help turn awareness into consideration, and consideration into intent, because people are more inclined to believe their peers – even the anonymous online reviews of others like them – or a third party expert, such as a journalist, than to simply trust advertising alone. For Viking that means that having a strong user-generated content outreach program during the relive/recommend/reengage stage is important.

Also, the content that we produce ourselves can be particularly useful in the reengage stage of a long purchase cycle. Our passengers may not take a trip every year, so maybe they don’t always latch onto our promotional marketing, but even if they’re not ready to start planning their next trip, there’s a high probability that they’d like to test out the recipe we just emailed them, or answer a question we posted to Facebook. It keeps us in their consciousness and adds value to their day. Our content marketing helps create a brand halo.

For our product, I don’t think content works as well in the actual purchase cycle. It feeds into all of the other stages, but when it comes time to pick up the phone and purchase a vacation, what’s up on the screen isn’t a piece of content marketing – it’s our website with a very clearly defined cruise itinerary and offer.

Drew: Here we are talking about content marketing in isolation. Can you talk about the synergies of content marketing with your other marketing efforts? 

Content marketing is not a tactic, it’s a strategy. It folds into all of our channels: email, web, social, print, PR, while experiencing the product onboard our ships. It also folds into multiple stages in the purchase cycle.

Drew: How are you getting all this content created? Are you doing in-house or partnering with outside firms? What are the risks/benefits of in-sourcing versus outsourcing?

Currently any Viking published content is all created in-house, but in order to continue scaling with the growth of our business, as well as meet the demands of more and more content, we’ll need to add other publishers to the mix. The benefit to keeping it in-house is that there can be increased speed to publish, and the brand voice will be consistent. The downside is that being a publisher is a full-time job; knowing what to create, how to create it well, and having sufficient time in which to create it is always a challenge.

Rather than outsource more original content, we’re looking to scale for increasing content needs and elevate our brand by partnering with top publishers of the kind of content our audience likes – and curating that content into one digital destination under our brand umbrella. Moving forward, we’re looking to become more like a broadcaster than a publisher.

Drew: Production costs vary tremendously, especially when you are talking about videos. How did you decide how much to spend on content?

We have a fabulous video production team that performs as a full creative agency, and they are a fantastic value.  And no, I won’t tell you who they are.

Drew: Have you sought out user-generated content? What are the pros/cons of this approach?

Yes, we regularly solicit customer reviews – lengthy and detailed ones – on a popular cruise site. We use email and our own website to direct our customers to this third party site to write reviews and rate our product, because it’s a site that ranks high in our top search terms and because we understand that consumers trust peer reviews more than brands.

In PR we’ve started building relationships with social influencers, as well as more traditional media. They produce content differently than traditional media. It’s often quicker, there’s more of it, they’ll take their own photos and videos and publish across multiple platforms. It’s a way of having content created for us, rather than by us.

There’s some risk in turning over your brand to others. 100% of the time they’ll never say 100% of what you want them to say or how you’d want them to say it. They’ll talk about your brand in their own voice, rather than your brand voice – and there are pros and cons to that, too. But it’s an unavoidable situation in today’s digital marketplace. So we start all user-generated content efforts first with understanding who we are talking to: by extensively listening to what our customers are already saying online, by vetting social influencers with both our PR firm and social media team, or targeting customers who rated us highly in questionnaires or with a high NPS. Then, we build relationships with them, provide some kind of guidelines on what we’re politely asking for… and let go.

Drew: Will we still be talking about content marketing at next year’s summit?

Yes. I read once that content marketing began in the 1890s when John Deere published The Furrow magazine to inform farmers of the latest trends and technology that they needed to know about. Today, as marketers, we’re still using content marketing to grow our businesses, attract the attention of new customers and maintain relationships with current customers. Digital has only made it more important as a long-term strategy.

At next year’s summit I suspect we’ll be discussing how more and more, through content curation, brands are becoming both publishers and broadcasters for the best content relevant to their customer and their brand. I suspect we are heading toward competition between brands and traditional broadcasters and publishers.

Drew: If I’m a CMO and have been slow to the content marketing party, tell me a couple of mistakes I should try to avoid.

1. Don’t start by focusing on print. Focus on digital. Digital channels and their low cost barriers and ease of use are part of what has made content marketing explode.

Think of YouTube, WordPress, Facebook, downloadable articles, Constant Contact. Then consider paper, printing, shipping, warehousing, postage and on and on. Plus, remember that digital content is easier for today’s consumer to share with an audience of more than one.

2. Know that producing engaging content is a challenge that we all face and one that is most often learned through trial and error. Our instinct as marketers is to sell, promote, assert market leadership and hit home those branding messages.

Resist the urge to have all of your marketing speak directly to your products and services. Strive to balance the promotional aspect of your content with informational evergreen content. Remember that content marketing isn’t push marketing – it’s a pull strategy that can be thought of as the marketing of attraction. It’s marketing that is engaging, educational, helpful, entertaining and there when you need it.

Think of it this way: No one likes a one-sided conversation, so don’t be the guy on the date who only talks about himself. Instead, start your content strategy with a goal of establishing genuine customer-brand relationships by offering up content that your target audience would find shareable. Be the guy on the date that she wants to go tell her friends about, because he’s the guy who gets the second date, while the one who only talks about himself is in the never-ending cycle of first dates.

3. Remember that 90% of purchase decisions now begin with an Internet search.

Investing in Content Development

Leader_DPontrelliDelivering successful content is like having a conversation with a potential employer. If the jobseeker delivers a pitch that isn’t tailored to the needs of the organization, he will almost certainly be passed over for the next candidate. It’s no different for a company that is communicating with its customers. Cultivating a good content marketing strategy means moving beyond standard self-promotion and instead speaking to potential customers in an intentionally relevant way.

It turns out that Dominic Pontrelli, Sr. VP, Ricoh Americas Marketing and I are cut from the same cloth, in this view. In the following discussion, Dominic describes Ricoh’s content strategy, how Ricoh delivers highly tailored stories to its customers, and why investing in content development is, in fact, a very smart idea.

Drew: What role does content marketing play in your overall marketing mix?  Or asked differently, what role does the content you create play in the customer journey?
Content marketing is the compass in the customer’s journey to discovering a trusted provider of information.  Content is king.  We’ve always known that, but today it’s more important than ever for marketers to live by this phrase as the balance of power shifts from promotion to information.  Each and every communication with a customer, across all platforms, needs to be data-driven and customized to adhere to their pain points.  At Ricoh, we have a regular cadence with our customers via our customer touch strategies; it keeps our customer and non-customers aware of Ricoh offerings, services, and business-relevant thought leadership topics they may not be familiar with.   We are very sensitive to making sure we connect the messaging and content based upon what our audience is interested in.  Imagine if you worked at an online marketing firm and you received a direct mail piece from a company generally touting their latest product – and the next day received an email from the same company customized to you, with examples of the different solutions they’ve helped deliver that are relevant to you.  Regardless of how appealing the direct mail piece was, wouldn’t you turn away due to its irrelevance and lack of awareness?  I would.  And that’s exactly why consistent content marketing tactics need to be taken seriously.  With customers in such control, we can’t give them a reason to look in another direction.   At Ricoh, we leverage our vertical insights, predictive analytics and our customer successes to deliver highly tailored stories – not just marketing messages – that speak directly to the customer in the format that resonates most with them – print, email or social.

Drew: Are you increasing your investment in content?  If so, why?  Is there a competitive advantage to be gained with great content?
Most certainly.  Without relevant content, how will our customers trust that we know how to solve their issues?  They won’t and we know that.  As marketers, we must facilitate discussions that add value and build trust over time. This is why we’ve made changes within our marketing organization to ensure customer-driven content creation and management is at the forefront of everything we do.  We apply our “first touch” revenue methodology to how we build our customer prospect pipeline via our touch strategies.  Customers that we pull into a sales opportunity cycle via the influential content helps us identify the value of this content.  In addition, it truly assists us with identifying how influential marketing is at building our prospect pipeline.

The landscape is competitive and companies today must find new, creative ways to stay ahead of the curve. Take our vertical approach to solving business issues as an example.  We will fail if we communicate to a legal firm in the same way we do the federal government.  The pain points are different.  Our content must demonstrate that we know your unique needs, and we can fix your problems.  I’m proud to say that Ricoh is doing that today.

Drew: What kinds of content are you creating and are you finding some more effective than others? (If you can provide links to any of it that would be great)
To be honest, I’m finding that from a communications perspective, surveys are quite effective.  With them, we have the opportunity to entice both media AND customers.  Take our recent mobile workers survey for example- we saw media coverage ranging from Reuters to The Today Show and at the same time, traffic to our web site and social properties increased.

Content that involves numbers will always have power.  I think this is because each of us, at the basic level, is curious about opinions in aggregate – what the masses think.  And when we hear it, we then think about why we agree or disagree with the result.  Numbers spur conversations, and conversations related to mobile workers and helping businesses enable information mobility are conversations Ricoh wants to be a part of.  The additional opportunity is developing further content pieces out of the surveys.  White papers, e-books, viral video pieces, customer case studies all grow out of well developed surveys.  We find our customers and prospects find this type of content very compelling.

Drew: What metrics do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your content and how to you rank them in terms of importance?
We take a look at various metrics that center around the channels we use to provide content to our audience.  For example, in the social area we measure spikes in engagement based upon the content we have shared that month. This allows us to gauge what our followers are interested in, and adjust our content mix to those interest levels.

As I mentioned earlier, we leverage a “first touch” revenue methodology to how we build our customer prospect pipeline via our touch strategies.  Many studies have shown around 57% of the purchase decision-making process is determined online before a customer ever reaches out to a company.  So by designing compelling content that draws followers to Ricoh, and identify these prospects as they come into the sales pipeline, this activity is directly related to marketing and the compelling content we create.   Then with the direct connection to our CRM systems we can associate those contacts with opportunities that then lead to revenue.

Drew: With content, is it as simple as “build it and they will come?”  Or do you need to “market the marketing” either via media (paid, earned and/or owned) to generate significant viewership?  And if so, can you talk about how you “market” your content?
In marketing, it’s never as simple as “build it and they will come.”  In order to be an effective marketer, I’ve learned you must always set objectives, measure those objectives, determine which ones were met and evaluate why some weren’t, update accordingly and repeat.  Lacking that level of self-analysis will hinder a marketing campaign – or prevent meaningful learning from taking place.

We deploy nurture tracks that are educational efforts that assist taking our customers down through the buying cycle.  Each track is dedicated to various vertical or business object targets.  The targeted content is all created to speak directly to the business demands of the target audience.  Leveraging our marketing automation with well managed content is essentially a great way to “market the marketing” as you refer to it.  Create it once and share it to the appropriate audience what we practice at Ricoh.  Let’s take the example of a whitepaper.  We can pull content from that to write a blog post, perhaps use it in a demand generation campaign, pull media snacks for tweets and so on.  Let the content live and so will the conversations.

Drew: Do you think you need a different approach when creating B2B content versus B2C?
At the end of the day, all marketing is reaching a person.  So, I believe that approaches themselves don’t necessarily need to vary, but perhaps considering which approach deserves more emphasis should be varied.  For example, video resonates with both business and consumer audiences, but direct mail’s impact on both can be debated.  A B2B campaign may lead with a direct mail piece with a QR code that drives to video, but a consumer one may lead with the video that brings the viewer to a registration page, followed by a direct mail piece.

Drew: What recommendations do you have for other CMOs when approaching a content marketing program?
As marketers, we have to change our perception of how content affects a communications channel.  What works for one area will not have the same results in another.  So, while content is king, I’d say that content in the right context is really king. It’s import to make sure you maximize your investment in content development and create elements based upon your communications channel.  Also, realize the limits of your knowledge of content marketing – that’s extremely important.  This is becoming a growing area of expertise, and you need people to specialize in this.  Finally, there are many content marketing experts out there such as the Content Marketing Institute who can help educate marketing organizations on best practices.  There’s a marketing shift under way and in order to capitalize on it, we must embrace it.

CMO Insights: Content Marketing for B2B Marketers

No one is more delighted about all the new energy being put behind Content Marketing than yours truly.  After all, it is a quintessential example of “Marketing as Service,” the conceptual approach I’ve been preaching about on these pages for the last 7 years. Jay Baer’s excellent new book calls this approach, Youtility and a few years back Bob Gilbreath covered much the same territory in his book, Marketing with Meaning.  Regardless of what you call it (and yes I too should have written a book by now but we all have to make choices!), the point is that marketers can build profitable relationships with prospects and customers by doing something for them (in this case creating audio, video or written content) rather than just pushing ads at them.

Always in search of new examples, I was delighted to catch up with Judy Hackett, the CMO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation, a private spin-off of D&B that provides credit and credibility solutions primarily for small businesses.  As you will see below, Judy provides terrific insights into the breadth of content they are creating, how it is being integrated across multiple channels and why her company is increasing its investment in this area.  This is really a meaty interview especially for B2B marketers looking to grow their content programs.  (NOTE: Judy and I will be talking content marketing at The CMO Club Summit in LA on 10/10 along with Richard Marnell of Viking Cruises and Dominic Pontrelli of Ricoh.)

Drew: Is content marketing a new thing for Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp?  
As more of a conscious marketing strategy to drive sales, yes.  As an ongoing marketing tactic, no.  We have been producing content from the start and have a resource center filled with loads of evergreen content geared towards small businesses. Early on it was all about authoritative content to drive SEO but it evolved. We developed our blog. We launched a monthly one-hour live stream event called Credibility Live.  Our goal with content two years ago was to build our reputation as a small business advocate and influencer. The difference today is we are now carefully crafting a more integrated and meaningful content strategy to drive customer acquisition and upsell.

Drew: Do you approach “content” creation differently than say, ad creation?  
Yes and no.   For larger content projects, there is a creative brief drafted.  So of course all of the same considerations are made, target, language/voice, call to action, marketing objectives, etc.  Even the process is much like ad creation.  There are rounds of approvals and legal considerations.  Where it differs is in its ability to engage a prospect for longer and to tell a larger story. Infographics, videos, and links within an article can take a prospect deeper than an ad that is limited by time and/or space.  The reality is if you’re not creating content that fits your stated marketing objectives, then it’s not worth producing.

Drew: Is Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp increasing its investment in content?  If so, why?  
Absolutely. The need is increasing not necessarily for more content but for more quality content. This is where our money will go.  That and new technology to create, publish and syndicate content.  We are investing in more dynamic content to speak to prospects and customers on a one to one basis for the purpose of upselling and cross-selling.  Some of this is being created in house and some through new technologies.  As an example we are creating some pretty innovative one-to-one video content with multiple variables that will be delivered starting in September.  It’s highly customized to their businesses and what’s happening in their credit reports.

Drew: Do you have a specific content program that is really doing well right now? Tell me about it and, if possible, explain why you think it is working so well.
Access to Capital which is our thought leadership initiative for 2012-13.  Ours is a complex sale. It requires sometimes a 30 minute education to help a small business owner really understand why he/she needs to monitor/build good business credit.   Suppliers, manufacturers, certain business types know that building and maintaining good business credit can be critical to their growth. It’s the other half that doesn’t know anything about it, until they go to get a loan to grow their business and are denied.  We set out to own the Access to Capital conversation and we’re really starting to reap the rewards.  We partner on a quarterly Private Capital Access index with Pepperdine University. Politicians and others often cite the study when discussing the divide between the banks that say they’re lending; and businesses seeking funding but not succeeding.  We are helping to bridge that gap with an integrated content strategy that includes an accesstocapital.com website filled with informative content.  We’ve created our robust live events that in turn provide us with rich content on the topic of funding for future use.

Drew: Its interesting to me that you’ve taken your content program offline to events. What are the benefits of this approach?
The most obvious benefit is the content creation and marketing of that content that takes place prior to, at these events and following the events.  Panels of experts on traditional, alternative, crowdfunding and start-up capital share their words of wisdom as do the business owners share their funding stories.  All of these participants from businesses to banks and panelists to moderators become content generators for us. Attendees share their experience via social and I could go on and on. It’s probably the single best way to create content!

Drew: What kinds of content is Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp creating and are you finding some more effective than others? (If you can provide links to any of it that would be great) 
Video Content by far!

  • We launched the first-ever 529-education savings plan with employer-matched funds called EdAhead this year. It is designed to help our employees save money to send their loved ones or themselves to college.  In order to promote the program, we created a video in which our CEO explains the program to a boardroom full of children. It had over 200,000 views in just a few days.
  • With the help of Stargreetz technology, we launched our one-to-one video content campaign via email in September.
  • We’ll do the same with the launch of our Business Credit Member Alliance.   This program will utilize a network of strategic partners (e.g. micro and small business lenders) who are looking to help educate entrepreneurs on the importance of being creditworthy.  We have shot a series of educational videos as well as produced print collateral and training materials. We will provide this content to these organizations free of charge and we will give them a free business CreditSignal credit report for each business.  We already know how our free CreditSignal report performs and with these strategic partners we know we will be getting the warmest of leads. We’re helping provide them with quality educational content and they in turn are providing us with highly relevant leads.

Also, our active corporate blog has been able to engage hundreds of thousands of people on a range of topics including educational material for small business ownersrelevant opportunities for small business owners, and informative posts that help tell our story.

Drew: What metrics do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your content and how do you rank them in terms of importance?  
The BCMA will be measured on CreditSignal registrations and upsells. Our dynamic personalized email video content campaign will be measured on the results of three calls to action we are testing.  Our Access to Capital initiative is measured on several metrics– event registrations, products sold, partner satisfaction, press coverage, attendee satisfaction.

Drew: With content, is it as simple as “build it and they will come?”  Or do you need to “market the marketing” either via media (paid, earned and/or owned) to generate significant readership/viewership?  And if so, can you talk about how you “market” your content? 

Definitely NOT the former.  Your social team is critical.  Content just can’t be addressed in silos organizationally; you need collaboration between social, marcom, online, sales, etc.  It takes a village.  Also, we push our content partners hard to socialize and our employees are absolutely critical to the success of the content strategy.  We do a great deal to provide our partners and employees with the material they need to market on our behalf.  We occasionally support with social ad campaigns and press releases but it is the viral that makes it work.

I would add that we do extensive outreach to our employees, as in we send out an email to all our corporate employees each week that includes relevant events, interesting articles, new employees, and, most importantly, one “ask” at the top of the email. Through this “ask”, we’ve been able to increase our employee engagement and generate substantial social interactions around targeted campaigns.

Drew: What recommendations do you have for other CMOs when approaching a content marketing program?
There has to be a content commitment across the organization and a great deal of cross functional support.  If you are thinking that this is the job of just your social marketing department or your communications department, it’s not.  The collaboration required to do it right –and by no means are we doing it right yet—is monstrous. 

Reviews on User Generated Video

John Courtney

I met John Courtney at the MediaPost Social Media Insider Summit this past August.  As the person with the longest title I know, “Certified Agile Project Manager & Marketing Professional” at Sears Holdings E-commerce Content Strategy,  I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck he did.  Turns out, he’s a busy guy especially in the area of content marketing and more specifically product videos.  Sears now has over 33,000 user generated product reviews on its website which are helping to drive online sales.  That’s a lot of videos by any measure.

If a brand tried to create all of these videos themselves, the cost would inevitably be in the millions.  To help facilitate the creation and moderation of these user generated videos, Sears partners with ExpoTV.  And while John was cagey about the future not wanting to reveal confidential information, reading between the lines it seems like Sears will be upping its investment in these videos perhaps even matching the millions of products it sells online.  Regardless of the exact number, I found our whole conversatin quite enlightening and suspect you will too.

Drew: You mentioned that you have over 33,000 user generated product video reviews up on Sears.com.  That is a ton of videos.  What is the strategy behind creating all these videos and how long did it take to figure out it was working for Sears.com
Yes, currently there are over 33,000 consumer-generated product reviews directly matched to approximately 12,500 relevant items on product pages.  It’s been said that one in every four consumers posts something about you and your product or to you.  This segment is growing rapidly and brands call this growing sector the “Brand Connected Consumer.”  These people choose to be actively engaged in the conversation about product sharing and as they keep going, consumer-generated video numbers will increase geometrically.

The strategy behind creating all of these videos is really to test whether or not there is any lift benefit for key product page performance indicators such as revenue per visitor and average order value.  This content also naturally lends itself to YouTube to drive more traffic back to product pages.  It’s still probably a little too early to tell but so far product pages with consumer-generated product review videos appear to outperform those without.

Drew: Do these videos cost a lot of money to produce?  If not, why not?  (Feel free to talk about the vendor that helps you get these videos)
There’s definitely an investment to get consumer-generated media like this, but it’s completely different than producing professional video and other types of crowdsourced content. There is a really large investment in developing the community, getting brand connected consumers excited about this new form of supporting other consumers and communicating with brands, making the process easy for them and then just all of the infrastructure to support product matching and content distribution.  That being said, once consumer-generated media is scaled it becomes much more cost efficient.  You can get hundreds of consumer-generated videos for around same cost of a handful of professionally-produced videos. Both media types have unique benefit however and can be synergistic when combined.  Professionally-produced video conveys perceived benefits while consumer-generated validates those product claims giving the consumer more information to make a confident purchasing decision.  The sales effectiveness should offset costs to produce videos. Fortunately, Expo’s service also takes a lot of the investment burden off starting from scratch.

Drew: Have you been able to see a direct lift in sales (or at least site traffic to Sears.com) as a result of video views?
So far, the program indicates lift in conversion, engagement, intent and loyalty across numerous tests over the past year. At this point in program, the content is having the impact naturally expected by combining the power of video and the authenticity of real users.

Drew: What role do videos play in your overall marketing mix?  Or asked differently, what role do they play in the customer journey?  
Consumers are empowered.  By sharing their thoughts and opinions through video, they have gone beyond joining the conversation.  They’ve created it. In the past, merchants told the public what they would be buying.  Then again, in the past revolutions weren’t forged on Twitter.  Now they are.  Think about being in the middle of a flash mob of any sort?  It’s a pretty powerful phenomenon, just as an illustration.  Yes.  The public, as in the consumer, has created the conversation and brands all need to listen because they have the power and they’re not giving it back, and the more you listen and heed the comments to strengthen your brand, the more valuable the conversation will become.

Drew: Are you increasing your investment in videos?  If so, why?  (If possible please provide how many videos you plan to produce in the next 12 months as part of this answer relative to how many products you list online) 
Investment in video is definitely increasing. Consumers are getting used to having video and it is obvious it drives behavior. At the same time, the barriers to creating the content are falling and more creators are getting involved. Any major retailer has millions of SKUs but the bulk of revenue is highly concentrated. Videos tend to be concentrated on those key products so the impact is much greater than it would look by a raw coverage stat. Long story short, the program is moving from trial stage and into the scaling phase.

Drew: What metrics do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your videos and how to you rank them in terms of importance?  Asked differently, is there typically a direct correlation between quantity of views and say click thrus to your website?  Or are there a few videos with only a modest number of views but that have very high conversion rates?  
The metrics most focused on are revenue per visitor and average order value for product pages with consumer-generated videos.  Other CTAs are evaluated but these are probably the two most important.

Drew: With so many user generated videos, are you concerned about the production values of these videos?  Does the customer care?  
This is definitely something that has come up.  As volume of videos has grown this has become less of a concern.  Watchers of the consumer-generated videos can rank videos so as more videos match a product the higher quality videos naturally become front and center with the poorer quality being pushed down.  It’s important to mention that all consumer-generated videos are screened by an ExpoTV editorial team to screen out content that is either lascivious or demonstrates improper use of a product that could cause potential harm.  Outside of ensuring these types of videos are removed it’s important all other consumer-generated product review videos, whether good or bad reviews, be available so it’s authentic to the consumer.

Drew: With videos, is it as simple as making and posting them to generate viewership?  Or do you need to “market the marketing” either via media (paid, earned and/or owned) to generate significant viewership?  And if so, can you talk about how you “market” your videos?
Posting videos on product pages generates its own interest and drives sales even when people don’t watch the videos given the visual impact from the still image.

Drew: What recommendations do you have for other marketers when approaching a content marketing program like the one you have in place?
It’s important that marketers have clear objectives and expectations entering a program like this. As discussed above, if the idea is to get professional production quality videos done cheaply they are going to be disappointed. You can’t force reviews to happen for a specific product. Some videos will be negative. Some videos will have poor production quality or feature a creator who probably won’t be featured on America’s Next Model anytime soon. The benefit is in the conversion lift, the authenticity of the content and the breadth of coverage afforded by consumer-generated content.

On the Future of Instagram Ads

photoCan I just say for the record, I love Instagram!  As a longtime amateur photographer (yes, I spent many hours developing & printing in a darkroom way back when) I am quite happy taking an “insta-break” to soak in well composed shots and blow by the rest.  Add in the fact that I believe you can’t just talk the talk in our business–to be a good social advisor, it helps to walk the walk or perhaps in this case, seize the #selfie. So it was with mixed feelings that I responded to Saya Weissman of Digiday’s questions about the pending arrival of ads on Instagram.  Undoubtedly, ads will change the Instagram experience and it is hard to imagine it will be for the better.

Now without going out on a limb here I suspect Facebook didn’t pay $1 billion for Instagram without a monetization plan.  No such thing as a free lunch or a free app. So ads on Instagram? You bet.  Non-intrusive ones that actually enhance the experience?  We’ll see.  And since predicting what Facebook will do is a fool’s errand, I jumped right in, offering my best prognostications (see below). Fortunately, Saya’s article also includes quotes from GE’s Katrina Craigwell (see my 2012 interview with Katrina here) and Matt Britton of MRY (one of NYC’s best places to work), two people that I know and respect.  Bottom line–I suspect you’ll want to read their opinions as well (after you get through mine of course!)

Saya: What do you think is the best ad solution for Instagram?
Drew: The beauty of Instagram is its  elegantly simple user experience.  The best ad solution will be the one that is the least disruptive.  For example, allowing sponsored posts to show up in feeds will not be too disruptive as long as there aren’t too many of them.  A highly disruptive experience would be adding pre-roll to video posts.

Saya: What is going to be the biggest challenge in implementing ads on Instagram?
Drew: From a marketer’s perspective, Instagram is going to have to make a lot of changes to be competitive with Facebook.  For example, right now you can’t include hyperlinks in the copy that goes with Instagram photo/video posts. Without a means of driving clicks somewhere, Instagram will only be able to sell impressions and cheap ones at that.  Another challenge is that Instagram doesn’t know nearly as much about its users as Facebook other than geolocation and the hashtags they use.  While hashtags may represent a currency that can be sold to marketers, it remains to be seen if these will have as much value as more direct search terms.  Perhaps the biggest challenge is that marketers are already on Instagram.  Those that are doing it right are getting thousands of fans to see their posts without paying a dime.

Saya: How do you think users will react to ads on Instagram after having it ad free?
Drew: It depends how disruptive the ads become to the overall experience.  Most will live with the occasional “promoted post” because the app is free. However, if the ads are too disruptive, Instagram can count on a user rebellion like the one they had over their privacy SNAFU.

Saya: Do you think it will be difficult for Instagram to woo advertisers?
Drew:  Certain advertisers will consider Instagram given its highly engaged user base.  That said, Instagram will need to prove that it can offer highly targeted exposure AND drive traffic either within the app to a brand page or outside of the app to external sites.

Saya: Will ads ruin Instagram?
Drew: Ads could ruin Instagram if they go too far too fast thereby disrupting their currently elegant user experience.  They will be wise to pilot various approaches with users who will give them honest feedback.   Also they might want to offer an alternative paid app subscription that is ad free for the purists.

One possibility is that ads will actually ruin Instagram for marketers who are already successful on the platform.  It is conceivable that Instagram would suddenly throttle brand feeds to increase the value of its impressions.  So for example, Oreo’s Instagram posts currently reach all 97,000 of its followers. Instagram could decide to throttle this feed to say 16% and make Oreo pay to reach the other 84% of its organically earned fan base.  I suspect this would not inspire smiles or happy cookie images from the marketing team at Mondelez.

Saya: What can Instagram learn from Facebook’s ad model?
Drew: Facebook is extremely marketer friendly when it comes to buying media on their network.  First, provide an easy to use self-service buying platform. Second, make it extremely easy to monitor and evaluate ad performance based on both CPM and CPC.  This is why Instagram will need to figure out how to include hyperlinks either in post copy or on the post itself.  Third, don’t oversaturate a user’s feed with sponsored posts. Fourth, allow marketers to sponsor posts to existing customers (like Custom Audiences) and “look alike” customers.  Fifth, have very clear and strict ad guidelines that limit that amount text on any image or video post. Sixth, make sure ads are identified as ads.

As always, if you have some thoughts to share, please do either here or on Instagram itself.