Bruce Almighty: Exemplary Content Marketing
In this podcast I fly solo to provide an interesting story about a house painter named Bruce. Bruce is not the podcast interview type so you’ll have to hear the story from me. In fact, Bruce doesn’t know much about the web. If I talk about “social media marketing” with him, he wouldn’t know what it means.
Bruce is a successful house painter located in my Tampa Bay area. He’s been in business about 20 years. He works alone. He does no marketing. None whatsoever. He has a business card and a magnetic sign on the side of his truck with his name and phone number. That’s the extent of his marketing.
Bruce’s marketing is a combination of great content and great customer service. So, how does a house painter produce great content? I’ve said before, “let your content be your marketing.” In Bruce’s case, his content is his knowledge of quality painting, his willingness to give clients paint samples, show up on time, be courteous, be reliable, be friendly, exceed expectations and be clean during and after the painting process. The result of all this great content is that his work is outstanding and his 20 year reputation is proof. 100% of Bruce’s painting jobs are from word of mouth. If the phone doesn’t ring, he doesn’t work. And, even in a weak economy Bruce is never without work. When Bruce completes a painting job at a residential or commercial property, he cleans up so meticulously you wouldn’t even know he was there. Bruce has even been flown out of state by affluent homeowners who have learned of his reputation from a satisfied client.
What does this have to do with social media marketing? If you follow me (and my contemporary social media evangelists) you’ve heard me say that successful social media marketing is based on two pillars: great content and relationship building. Bruce’s example in an offline world transfers to marketers who are marketing online. Bruce could produce a website displaying photos and video of his painting experience. He could list testimonials of thrilled clients. He could Tweet about his experiences, and share them on Facebook. Sure, he could share that great content online but then he would probably have to hire other painters to keep up with the demand. Bruce is pretty happy working alone, so he won’t do any of these.
But, the rest of us can learn from Bruce’s exemplary content and relationship building as we project our brand through our online strategies. Let your content be your marketing. Produce great content, build relationships online and like Bruce, you’ll do just fine..
In this podcast, I also provided an update on my book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Sellers and Buyers on the Social Web. The book is at the publisher going through the second round of editing. It should be available by the end of June. I will be podcasting chapter summaries soon with my podcasting buddy Chuck Palm (@chuckpalm). Stay tuned on that…
I also will soon be interviewing interesting guests on my podcast shows. Some of my upcoming guests include Steve Tingiris, CEO of Enthusem, Justin Levy, General Manager of New Marketing Labs, Mike Volpe, V.P. Inbound Marketing at HubSpot and Susan Bratton, CEO of Personal Life Media and host of the DishyMix podcast show. Other guests include successful marketers whom I wrote about in my book. You’ll hear firsthand their stories about how they are using social media marketing in their business.
I hope my solo podcast was interesting and enlightening, if (admittedly) not as entertaining as they are with Chuck Palm. The podcast medium allows us to do whatever we want with little regard for professional studio quality (Chuck Palm notwithstanding). If the content is useful to you, that’s what matters most, even if you have to tolerate a little bit of hissing in the audio.
As always, I welcome your feedback, input and suggestions for future podcasts.
Bernie Borges, aka @berniebay
6 Comments to Bruce Almighty: Exemplary Content Marketing
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Bernie,
Nice work. Good analogy. I'd love to hire a painter like Bruce. I'd add that relationships are built on trust. Bruce is obviously trusted. He shows up on time and really helps his customers choose the right kind of paint. He's an expert at painting and knows his stuff. Just like Bruce good content (not just self-serving content) builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships influence buying decisions. Buying decisions drive revenue.
Be Bruce.
Thanks again for the good content! We're building a relationship! -
Hi Andrew,
Yes, this example is not a typical example of great content marketing. Bruce wouldn't use the word "content" to explain what makes him unique. But, that's what it is. He is a good example for all marketers to study.Thanks for your comment.
Bernie -
Hm, Now i'm comfortable with this nevertheless not thoroughly sure, so i'm going to research a little more.
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