Web Ink Now

How big is YOURS?

Lee sent me an email:

"Am enjoying your book The New Rules of Marketing & PR and have recommended it to many colleagues.

Wow you really don't like us poor old PR people do you? So - how DO you replace the clip books - which you are so scathing of – and our bosses and client still demand? Can you help me understand how to explain to a client exactly what they have paid for on a monthly basis - you can't just say it's all out there in cyberland somewhere - they want to see results."

Here is a longer version of what I answered back to Lee.

Back in the day, I was VP marketing & PR for several public companies and engaged PR agencies, paying USD $20,000 and more per month.

I was always annoyed at the "clip book" form of measurement, but in the 1990s we had nothing better. (A clip book is a gathering of all the "clippings" cut from magazines and newspapers about your company in a month and presented as a bound book usually by your PR agency.)

The bigger the better.

In a good month, agencies would proudly drop the clip book on a table to hear the "thud factor." A deep resonance was good.

The problem I have with clip book measurement is that it does not reflect the realities of what we can do today to reach our audiences via the Web. A clip book implies that all we care about is ink from mainstream media. Measuring success by focusing only on the number of times the mainstream media write or broadcast about you misses the point.

• If a blogger is spreading your ideas, that's great.
• If a thousand people watch your YouTube video, that's awesome.
• If a hundred people email a link to your information to their networks, tweet about you, or post about you on their Facebook page, that's amazing.
• If you come up on the first page of Google for an important phrase, break out the champagne!

You're reaching people, which was the point of seeking media attention in the first place, right?

But most PR people only measure traditional media like magazines, newspapers, radio, and TV, and this practice doesn’t capture the value of sharing.

Here are some things you can measure.

1. How many people are getting exposed to your ideas?

2. How many people are downloading your stuff?

3. How often are bloggers writing about you and your ideas?

4. (And what are those bloggers saying?)

5. Where are you appearing in search results for important phrases?

6. How many people are engaging with you and choosing to speak to you about your offerings?

7. How are sales going? Is the company reaching its goals?

I talk more about these ideas in a free ebook I published last year.

Lose Control of Your Marketing! Why marketing ROI measures lead to failure

Free ebook on Conflict-Driven Business Writing

Please download my newest ebook Gaijin Male Model: A Case Study in Conflict-Driven Business Writing. No registration required.

If you like the ebook, please pass it on.

Conflict.

All good film and all good fiction is really just about conflict, right?

Usually, it's one character in conflict with others (Batman against the bad guys). Sometimes it's a character in conflict with herself ("I really shouldn't go into this bar, but...").

One writing teacher went so far as to say, "Writing without conflict is propaganda."

But very few marketers and business writers introduce conflict in their writing.

We all see tons of this stuff instead: "Here’s our product. It is great. Here are customers who say it is great. Now buy some of our product."

Sadly, this classic propaganda-driven marketing crap is everywhere.

Gaijin Male Model

This ebook is a departure for me because most of the ebook is an example of conflict-driven business writing called Gaijin Male Model, from an essay I wrote several years ago about my experience as a part-time model in Tokyo.

The essay first appeared in the Summer 2004 issue of North American Review (America’s oldest literary magazine) and also appeared in Hacks, an anthology of published excerpts from novelists, poets, non-fiction writers, screenwriters, and short story writers.

In the spirit of "show, don’t tell" I hope this example gets you thinking about how to introduce conflict into your own writing.

Download Gaijin Male Model: A Case Study in Conflict-Driven Business Writing.

If you like the ebook, please pass it on.

If you have an example of conflict-driven business writing, please share.

In case you've missed any here is a link to download my other ebooks (no registration required).