What's Your Small Business Online Marketing Story, Morning Glory?
Earlier this year, the iconic British superstar rock band Oasis received a number of awards for their 1995 album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?"
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, listed the album among its top ten of essential listening, along with albums from the Beatles, Pink Floyd and U2.
Isn't it incredible that the "content" they created has continued to endure, resonate and impress even the most apparently unlikely of fans? (Who knew the Pope was a rocker?) The album was also awarded the “Brits Album of 30 Years” as one of the top albums in the last 30 years.
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was released on October 2nd, 1995, featuring 12 tracks, all written by Noel Gallagher who produced the album along with Owen Morris. It contains truly amazing tunes which became real anthems for a whole generation such as Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back in Anger and Champagne Supernova. In honor of this amazing album, our next series of blog posts will take inspiration from these unforgettable song titles.
So what's the point going to be in this post, you may be wondering? The song's refrain contains the secret. Here it goes:
(Cos) all your dreams are made
Now you're chained to the mirror with your razor blade
Today's the day that all the world will see
(It's) another sunny afternoon
Yeah I'm walking to the sound of my favorite tune
Tomorrow doesn't know what it doesn't know too soon
What's the story morning glory
Well (you) need a little time to wake up
Wake up well
What's the story morning glory
Well (you) need a little time to wake up
Wake up
Here's our interpretation as it relates to online marketing:
It is time for small & mid sized businesses to unchain themselves from the same outbound marketing mirror they've been looking in all these years, and stop taking a razor blade to their marketing budgets by relying exclusively on non-enduring paid advertising to generate new leads for their business.
Look at the power of website content! As Oasis' album demonstrates, great content endures year after year. Heck, the amamzing content you develop for your customers and industry or field of experties may even become a classic and find it's way on to the Pope's nightstand, for all you know. The amazing thing about content-based Inbound Marketing is that YOU GET TO KEEP THE CONTENT!
When you develeop a television commercial or magazine ad, not only are they not measurable but they are like the drug implied on the mirror in the Oasis song, the good feelings disappear as soon as you stop paying. You may have a beautful ad, but if you can't afford to keep running it then what good is it doing you? Does an ad offer you the opportunity to build a relationship, and cultivate your own "fan club" over time? Don't you want your own groupies, the people who love what you do, follow your every move, and tell everyone?
In contrast to paid advertising, whether online or offline, the content you develop as part of your inbound marketing content strategy, which could take the form of everything from website copy to blog posts, articles, ebooks, whitepapers, viral videos, podcasts, presentations and so on, are search optimized, and can stay on your site generating a critical mass of thought leadership and search relevance for your organization. Over time, this content builds up and a snowball effect occurs, resulting in your site being buoyed to the top of search rankings. As long as the content is still factual and not outdated, it works for you time after time, day after day, year after year.
So what's your story, morning glory? Do you know where you're going to? Do you know who your customers are? Are you treating them as indviduals, and demontrating that you understand and care about them? When are you going to wake up, wake up?
Wake up and start developing website copy and premium content that will attract traffic to your site, and then equip your site with calls to action, landing pages and lead nurturing tools to help you convert leads.
Remember: Content development is an investment you get to keep. So tell your story, morning glory!
Oh, yeah, and enjoy the tune. Just like Inbound Marketing, it rocks.
If you want to learn more about how content based inbound marketing could crank up the volume on your website traffic and lead generation, just give us a shout.