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Book Review: David Meerman Scott Changes the Rules
of Marketing and PR |
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Learn How Your Business Can Capitalize on Scott's
New Rules |
If you haven’t already read this 2007 best-seller, run, don’t
walk to grab your copy. In “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,”
Scott explains how the Internet has dramatically changed the
effectiveness of old-style marketing and PR.
Before the Internet, businesses had no choice but to spend a
ton of money on advertising to attract the attention of
consumers interested in their products or services. Typically,
companies used advertising designed “to interrupt people to get
them to pay attention to a one-way message.” Your product had
to appeal to mass audiences and you needed deep pockets to
effectively reach consumers using these methods. It was often a
"money-pit of wasted resources," Scott explains.
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The Web is a
place to reach millions of
micromarkets with precise messages
just at the point of consumption.
We need to create many different
microsites-with purpose-built
landing pages and “just-right”
content-each aimed at a narrow
target
constituency.
- David
Meerman Scott
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Now, with the
new rules, even the tiniest company can reach potential
consumers directly using the Internet's new media and niche
marketing. In the past, press releases were designed for the
eyes of a few media
only
and your story had to be significant news to have
a prayer of gaining coverage. But with Scott’s new
rules, any company can create “direct-to-consumer” news
releases.
You no longer have to wait
for a reporter to tell your story; you can tell it
yourself.
What makes Scott’s book especially
useful are the examples he uses to demonstrate his points.
In one example, he describes how Gerard Vroomen, co-founder
of Cervélo Cycles, created a powerful content site for the
buyers of competition bikes, that interweaves compelling
stories of the
people who win races and the races themselves, with
everything you would want to know about the
engineering-driven product he offers them. And on each page
of his book, Scott cites the related web address so you can
check the site out for yourself.
With the stories, Scott
demonstrates how a small company, using niche marketing,
can sell its products all over the world.
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David Meerman Scott's
New Rules1
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Marketing is more
than just
advertising.
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PR is for more than
just a mainstream
media audience.
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You are what you
publish.
-
People want
authenticity, not
spin.
-
People want
participation, not
propaganda.
-
Instead of causing
one-way
interruption,
marketing is about
delivering content
at just the precise
moment your
audience needs it.
-
Marketers must
shift their
thinking from
mainstream
marketing to the
masses to a
strategy of
reaching vast
numbers of
underserved
audiences via
the Web.
-
PR is not about
your boss seeing
your company on TV.
It's about your
buyers seeing your
company on the Web.
-
Marketing is not
about your agency
winning awards.
It's about your
organization
winning business.
-
The Internet has
made public
relations public
again, after years
of almost exclusive
focus on media.
-
Companies must
drive people into
the purchasing
process with great
online content.
-
Blogs, podcasts,
e-books, news
releases, and other
forms of online
content let
organizations
communicate
directly with
buyers in a form
they appreciate.
-
On the Web, the
lines between
marketing and PR
have blurred.
1Scott,
David Meerman, The New
Rules of Marketing &
PR; How to Use News
Releases, Blogs,
Podcasting, Viral
Marketing & Online
Media to Reach Buyers
Directly, p. 25-26. John
Wiley & Sons.
Hoboken, New Jersey.
©2007
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In subsequent chapters, he shows how
to use blogs, forums, wikis, podcasts, even squidoo lenses
to generate buzz about your company and its product, and to
follow the events occurring in your industry. Whether it's a
viral marketing campaign that turns a little known firm into
a recognized expert almost over night or an organization
whose content-packed website makes it the recognized leader,
Scott shows how the new rules force companies to
adapt.
"Think like a publisher" by
understanding your audience, Scott says. Consider what
marketing problems your buyer personas face, and develop
topics to appeal to them. Write for that audience, using
stories and examples, the way he does in his book.
Great content designed around the problems of your buyer
personas is much more important than great design or
cool technology, he says.
Scott's book is packed
with how-to information that any small business can learn
from, including:
There also is plenty
of practical stuff:
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How to use the keywords
and phrases your buyers use
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Why you should include
links in your news releases
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When and how to include
appropriate social media tags
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How to optimize your news
releases for searching and browsing
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When and how to include
multimedia content or detailed product specs
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What background
information journalists will need to write
stories
It’s easy to
understand why Scott’s “New Rules” set off a
controversial fire storm in marketing and PR circles, by
challenging long-held tenets. And all of Scott’s ideas may
not be appropriate for your business. Don’t read the book
with an eye to doing just what he says. And don’t feel you
have to try all of his ideas at once.
Use the book to stimulate your own
thinking about how to tap the power of the Internet to
promote your small business. Check out some of the examples
and ask yourself how your business could incorporate
some of the ideas mentioned in The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
-Marcia Ming
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