Remember the “good, old days” when you could give someone a gift of cash by tucking a couple of dollars in a greeting card and mailing it? A couple of dollars??? Well, I did say old days…

I’d never send cash now and I’m not real sure about all those gift cards hanging by the cash register at the grocery store. Who knows who might have messed with them? Besides they are so impersonal!

Amazon has come up with more alternatives than you could imagine to send a gift card, some of them are virtual and some physical. With and without greeting cards. (Read the article)

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The Five Ws of Content

Content – what is it? Well, well! Here we go:

• Something selected for graphic representation
• The sum of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned
• Subject matter or substance of a message

A content strategy will basically define how you will use and manage the many varieties of content in your company. Content is everywhere: customer data, inventory, pricing, descriptions, images and digital art, online customer insights, search and meta tags, and more.

In other words, it’s pretty much everything you know and everything you know about what you know.

It was a newsletter from Seattle Publishing that got me headed down this path and they suggest building your content strategy on journalism’s 5 Ws – Who, What, When, Where and Why.

• Who is producing, modifying, managing, and consuming content?
• What are the advantages, assets and strengths of your knowledge?
• When should you build, leverage and grow systems that use and manage content?
• Where are the liabilities, costs and weaknesses?
• Why is having content strategy important in today’s current business cycle?

It is possible to lower costs, streamline processes, and avoid work duplication and content errors by carefully answering these questions. Understanding, managing, and using your content will help your  company to remain flexible and adaptable during these changing business conditions.

The best news is that a properly developed content strategy will also generate more revenue and result in better customer service.

Who’s not content with those results? (Sorry…)

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The Hot Dog Vendor

There was a man that lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes so he had no newspapers.

But even with these hardships, he sold hot dogs. He would stand on the roadside and holler, “Buy a hot dog Mister?” And the people would buy from him.

His business thrived and he increased his meat and bun orders. He eventually bought a larger stove to take care of his trade. He did so well, he was able to send his son to college.

During the summer months, his son would come home from college to help him out. But then one summer, something happened.

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio? Haven’t you been reading the newspapers? We are in the worst recession since World War II. The European and Far Eastern markets are tanking out. Our domestic market situation is even worse.”

Whereupon the Father began to think, “Well my son has been to college, he reads the newspapers, and he listens to the radio. So he ought to know what is happening to the economy.”

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer stood by the roadside hollering, “Buy a hot dog Mister?” to sell his hot dogs.

His hot dog sales fell almost overnight.

“You’re right son,” the Father said to the boy. “We certainly are in the middle of a great recession.”

Anonymous

Wow, does that hit it right on the head! Reminds me of the comment I came across this week: Stopping marketing to save money is like stopping your watch to save time. Yup!

This little bit of inspiration was forwarded to me by Bob Bliss, of Communications Bliss, with these comments:

Now isn’t this a silly story? Who would actually cut back in all the areas that made them successful just because some college educated kid told them that it is impossible to continue succeeding because of the bad news the media giants and Washington pundits are publishing and saying to reporters just to make them look smart and important?

Give me a break!

Visit Bob’s site at Communications Bliss.

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