Web Strategy Consulting
our content marketing strategies are wicked famous
Every day you produce valuable content. You may not recognize it yet, but you do. When you’re making your products, or planning new services, you’re navigating a process filled with exciting decisions and interesting information. They may not seem exciting or interesting you—because you deal with them every day—but if captured and used correctly, the story of your decisions and the expertise hidden within your team, can help you find new customers—while strengthening your connection to the ones you already serve.
In these days of faceless mega-corporations, we consumers are seeking alternatives. We want something familiar we can rely on and recommend to our friends. You already know you’re running such a company. But it is difficult to convince skeptical consumers. We can help.
Content Marketing
The idea behind Content Marketing is simple: Identify and capture the valuable content you produce every day, and then use it to interact with—and build—your audience. Our content marketing strategies have helped businesses, professionals, and organizations all across the country. We’ve helped a candy maker see the video-value of his chocolate waterfallAn ACTUAL chocolate waterfall!, have helped 
apple growers produce interesting videos about their cider-making process, and have taught a tack shop how to capitalize on and promote over twenty years of hard-won saddle-fitting experience. We’ve also rebuilt web strategies from the ground up for content-producing people and companies like magazines, book publishers, and authors.
Why It Works
There a many reasons why our Content Marketing strategies work. Some are technical. Some are meatier.
The Humans Within Us
Content Marketing works because people want to care. Content marketing works because people are smart and want to decide for themselves if you are selling them inferior products and a false story. By giving your customers a peek behind the curtain, you’re lowering your guard—and therefore they have an easier time lowering theirs. You’re showing confidence that you’re doing things right—for them, for your company, and for the planetYes. That's my sneaky pitch for green-livin'.. And, you’re showing your 
customers that even when you mess up, you’re humble enough to admit it and make things right again. Participating in these social media channels gives your customers convenient and instant access to your company—which is important in these days when everybody is expecting instant gratification.
The Cyborgs Around Us
Content Marketing works because all the web platforms of the day thrive on original content. This powerful strategy enables and encourages your customers to share your compelling content with their friends. Word-of-mouth is more powerful and more explosive than ever. Content Marketing is perfectly poised to take advantage of the exponential potential of these social media platforms.
Content Marketing works because we’ve entered a new age of search engine optimization where search engines can separate content people like from content they don’t[/tooltip]. Ranking now depends on valuable content and the number and placement of links around the web. Content Marketing can provide both.
Jesse Explains the History of Content Marketing
I come out of the book industry. My education and career have bounced back and forth between the web development and book publishing. I developed these Content Marketing strategies originally to help promote and sell books. So, naturally, it was the book content I was using on social media platforms to attract interested people. It worked amazingly well. I was promoting valuable content and people were buying the books to find and own more.
In the early days of Catalyst Webworks, Cally and I worked together to see if we could adapt these content strategies to work with businesses of all kinds. As we traveled the country—touring large and small businesses, speaking with passionate authors, and visiting farms of all types—we realized that there is just as much value locked away in the lives of the folks we were meeting than there was locked away in the paper of any bookWell. Except for maybe the Encyclopaedia. Yes. I just used the dipthong. I'm a geek. Deal with it!. Our mission was clear: to help these folks capture their valuable content and to build them the tools they’d need to leverage it as a powerful marketing tool.
Books We’ve Written
We’ve been thinking, working, and writing about these strategies for years. Here are some of the books we’ve written and published on the topic.
Content Marketing (Working Title)
O’Reilly Media, 2012
Tweet This Book (Working Title)
O’Reilly Media, 2012
Start Your Own Blogging Business
Entrepreneur Press, 2007
Folks Have Noticed…
Our Content Marketing strategies have been used successfully for years by many companies. From time to time the press picks up on a cool campaign we’ve run.
- Publisher’s Weekly
- Book Business Magazine
- Publishing Trends
- Vermont’s Seven Days weekly
- Independent Book Publisher’s Association
The Show on the Road
We’ve also had the opportunity to speak about our strategies at conferences and trade shows around the country. Here are a few we’ve done recently.
- O’Reilly’s 2011 Tools of Change
- MPIBA’s 2011 Trade Show
- PubWest’s 2011 Annual Conference
- O’Reilly’s 2010 Tools of Change
- VBSR’s 2009 Annual Conferences
- PubWest’s 2009 Annual Conference
- Book Business Magazine’s Digital Content Day
- O’Reilly’s 2009 Tools of Change
- VBSR’s 2008 Annual Conferences
Did we mention it’s fun?!
The thing we like most about Content Marketing is how much fun we have doing it. It’s amazing how quickly a video camera can turn a stressed-out book editor into a giggling mess. But most of all we love watching our clients’ faces light up the moment they see results—the first new customer, the first unsolicited Twitter recommendation, the first successful social media contest. We look forward to helping you giggle and light up as well.
