Lessons Learned at South by Southwest annual conference, March 2012

1. What I Learned at SXSW
That Can Help Us
3.23.2012
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4. Best of SXSW
• The Future of Digital Health
• Content Marketing
• Free or Paid Content?
• Syndicating Content
• Your Brand in the Digital World
• Social Media and ROI
• Video: Best Practices
• Blogs: Best Practices
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5. The Future of Digital Health
The emerging and rapidly growing digital industry is
poised to forever transform the healthcare industry
Consider these 7 facts:
1 As employers shift the cost of healthcare to consumers, 1
in 4 people are having trouble paying their healthcare bills,
including the average yearly $2,000 health insurance
deductible.
2 This shift, which has been particularly evident within the
last five years, has created an even greater opportunity to
provide “guided” – and validated -- health information on
the web, mobile, email, blogs, and social media. 5
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6. Digital Health Cont.
3. As healthcare costs continue to rise -- and extend beyond the reach
of many -- cost-effective alternative health solutions will become more
necessary, appealing, and sought after.
4. Highly credible and relevant health information will become the most
potent pathway between the consumer and providers of alternative
health advice, guidance, and solutions.
5. The immediate and long-term goal: To encourage people 50 to 80 to
focus on prevention and minimize their reliance as much as possible on
healthcare practitioners and traditional healthcare remedies.
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7. Digital Health Cont.
6. Younger generations are the denizens of the digital age. The
average 24-year-old spends more time in a week on Facebook than
he/she will with their doctor over 20 years’ time. As they age and their
healthcare needs grow, they will expect to access information on any
and all digital platforms immediately.
7. Doctors, previously reticent about providing healthcare information
via the web, are now embracing digital platforms to reach more patients
remotely. They’re joining communities like Interactive Health Network
http://healthtap.com (provides free online and mobile answers from
10,000 thousand doctors).
Say they: “We’re changing the way people find health information
online and interact with their physicians.”
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8. Digital Health Cont.
So, as this “interactive health movement” takes off,
these 3 elements will define the digital health space:
1. Access for all to the most trusted, reliable healthcare
information
2. Access to the best doctors and their advice --
without losing sight of care and compassion
3.“Personalized” information, which Healthy Directions
already knows, will become the norm (via assessment
tools and other types of interactivity), so its even more
relevant to the consumer.
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9. Future of Digital Health
What does this changing landscape mean for HD?
1.The company must perfect its ability to project its doctors
credibly to its target audiences.
2.The company must stay abreast of developments in the
ever-changing Internet, particularly those it can use to
advantage in marketing doctors and their products (i.e.
more discerning search engines, interactive tools that
enable visitors to tailor their interaction with sites (again,
something we’re already moving on).
3.The company must leverage and syndicate its content
so its accessible to all.
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10. Content Marketing
Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the
establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are in control.” --
Rupert Murdoch
Fact: Consumers today engage with an average of 5-10 pieces of content
before making a purchasing decision. They want to say: “Oh, these guys are
legit, and now I’m ready to pull the trigger.”
And how does that trigger get pulled?
• It’s all about the content. To be a leading expert in your field today, and to
get and retain online customers, you must create consistent, valuable, and
compelling content that’s as good as or better than anything else in the
industry.
• That content must be authentic and credible. It’s important to realize that
non-media brands like Healthy Directions are competing with traditional
media for attention and retention.
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11. Content Marketing Cont.
The 3-legged “success” stool
Research shows that the biggest content-
marketing challenge for B2B marketers is
developing ongoing content that truly engages and
compels customers and prospects.
So then, what’s the best way to overcome that
challenge?
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12. Content Marketing Cont.
1. Know your niche: Where can you be the leading expert in the world for
your specific buyers? It’s better to narrow your focus and then broaden out
once you dominate your niche. Vertical is in; horizontal is out. The content
team at Healthy Directions has set up its content in just this way.
2. Know your audience: Who are you writing for? The biggest failures occur
when you go too broad with your content. Rule of thumb: If your content
extends beyond your niche, you’re doing something wrong.
3. Know your metrics: To assess the true value of your content and tailor it
to your customers’ needs and desires accordingly, metrics (shares, lead
gen, conversion to sale, etc.) are critical.
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13. Free Content or Paid Content?
Once you create all of that consistent, valuable, and
compelling content, how much then should be free,
and how much of it should you charge for?
In other words, how far should you “open the
kimono?”
And the answer to this oft-asked question is...
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14. Free Content or Paid Content?
…Open your kimono all the way. 100% of your digital
content should be free!
Here’s why:
• Through your content, you develop attention, then
interest, then action. It’s all about brand engagement.
• Remember -- contrary to what some believe -- a
prospect doesn’t read one blog post or article and buy on
the spot. They consume 5-10 pieces of content before
making a purchasing decision.
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15. Free Content or Paid Content?
• Yes, you may feel like you’re giving away your secrets, but having a
grocery list doesn’t make anyone a chef!
• Those customers who take your advice and never buy – they aren’t
the customers you want anyway. You need to show your expertise
and insights so existing and potential consumers recognize your
value.
The bottom line: The more accessible/convenient (FREE) your
content, the more value it has for consumers; consumers in turn will
be more likely to provide info about themselves, and to share your
content if you make it easy for them.
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16. Free Content or Paid?
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI): Case in Point
CMI, which sells consulting services, offers all of its content for free to
generate interest in its consulting practice. Since launching its site in
May 2010, CMI claims:
 Nearly 100,000 unique monthly visitors
 More than 70 active contributors, producing two posts per day
around “how-to” content marketing, and content-marketing news
 “Dozens” of qualified in-bound leads, six of them recently from
Fortune 500 companies
 Companies come to their site ready to buy their services
 Their sales cycle has dropped, in some cases, to just a few days
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17. Free Content or Paid?
Bottom Line: Smart Companies Are:
 Asking: “How do we get our content into the hands of our
customers and future prospects?”
 Understanding that giving away their knowledge leads to
substantially more opportunities to generate revenue.
 Appreciating that content marketing is the ultimate
“informational annuity”.
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18. Free Content or Paid?
 Realizing that if people are already talking about
them online in the “right” places, they don’t need
as much original content as those who aren’t yet
invited to the party.
 Acknowledging that if you want to be shared and
talked about in social media, you need amazing
content to make your social media go. Content is
fire. Social media is gasoline!
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19. Syndicating Content
Key Take-aways
•Get your content out for free in the right channels while
bypassing under-performing channels.
•Syndicated content is the best way to not only differentiate
yourself, but to advertise your brand and attract new users.
•You can double your site traffic by putting your content on
other sites.
•Be sure to load your content with links to take full
advantage of the opportunity to send traffic back to your
site.
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20. Your Brand in the Digital World
As they re-define and reinvent themselves in the digital
space, brands need to do these 6 things to succeed:
1.Put your customer first -- always and your brand
second -- always
2.Have a clear understanding of what your brand
stands for and ask yourself how people will use your
brand. If you say: “Our audience would love this,
then that’s your answer.”

21. Your Brand in the Digital World
3. Find ways to become both informative and entertaining
as the web moves/evolves to a feed-based system
4. Identify the influencers who love, love, love your brand
and ask them to advertise for you (via video, short-form
TV, etc). Give them a chance to tell your story. People
who like your brand will promote it and protect it.
5. Associate your brand with “big activity” on YouTube,
whether it’s fitness, wellness, or weight-loss categories.
6. Place your brand in relationship to excellent content.

22. Measuring Social Media
Social media if done well builds trust; if done
really well, it builds true trust, and trust
brings an advantage to the bottom line.
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23. Measuring Social Media
Many companies are struggling to determine the ROI of social media,
but industry leaders strongly agree that’s the wrong way to think about
social media. Rather, the platform should be viewed first and foremost
as an opportunity to:
• Increase brand awareness
• Drive leads in the pipeline
• Drive traffic to the site
• Reduce customer service cost
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Improve customer retention and loyalty
• And ultimately increase sales
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24. Measuring Social Media
Many companies are struggling to determine the ROI of social media,
but industry leaders strongly agree that’s the wrong way to think about
social media. Rather, the platform should be viewed first and foremost
as an opportunity to:
• Increase brand awareness
• Drive leads in the pipeline
• Drive traffic to the site
• Reduce customer service cost
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Improve customer retention and loyalty
• And ultimately increase sales
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25. Measuring Social Media
When it comes to social media, the word on
the street is:
Tell, don’t sell
• Inspire your customers to become fit
• Tell them something thing they need to
know
This will change the relevance of your brand
on social media
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26. Measuring Social Media
What’s the problem with trying to establish
an ROI when it comes to social media?
• You need to understand why people use
social media in the first place.
• Sorry to say, it’s not because they want to
know more about your brand or products.
• They login and post to social media for 2
reasons only:
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27. Measuring Social Media
And those 2 reasons are:
1.They want to know if someone wants to be their
friend (love me, support me, need me)
2.They want to express themselves and to be
heard
All too often, companies forget why people use
social applications in the first place. Remember
this: You need to make the connection, or you’ll
face rejection!
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28. Video: Best Practices
No question, more companies are looking to video to help move the
needle, and it’s working.
Bud Lite is a case in point: In its 2012 online Super Bowl campaign,
Bud asked customers via video why they’re passionate about Bud Lite.
The campaign was hugely successful. It yielded:
•480,000 consumer engagements (views, comments)
•92,000 shares
•2 minutes on average viewing time
•And 25,000 influencers shared the video 1,000 times
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29. Video: Best Practices
• Yes! Your customers on video can be one of your biggest
brand influencers. The truth is, people want to hear from
people like them.
• It’s far better to have your customers advertise your
brand, than to have the brand “talking at” the customer.
• Start with a concept that has an affinity with your brand.
Bottom line: Video testimonials can promote your brand
and also reduce brand skepticism because they feel and
sound authentic. So let your customers do the talking.
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31. Video: Best Practices
Case Study: The Shoedazzle Effect
•Shoedazzle is a great testament to the effectiveness of
customer video testimonials. Its customers absolutely love
the brand and what it stands for.
•The average Shoedazzle viewer watches a whopping 10.4
customer testimonials at one time, versus 10 seconds on
average of video at one time.
•The testimonials generate more than 85,000 engagements
and more than1,000 sales a month.
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33. Video: Best Practices
Case Study: The Marcus Sheridan Effect
Marcus owns River Pools and Spas in Virginia and is now a prominent
and much sought-after marketing speaker and consultant. He also
writes one of the most educational swimming pool blogs in the country,
called “The Sales Lion”.
So what?
Marcus sells more fiberglass swimming pools than anyone in the
country because he shares everything, including specifics on price. He
absolutely dominates the search ranking. The same approach – baring
all -- has worked in his marketing practice. He is one very wealthy
young man.
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34. Blogs: Best Practices
The devil’s in the details, so say the folks who study
our brains
•The type of font in your blog can have a drastic impact
on the blog’s performance.
•If you want people to remember what they read, use a
simple font. It’s tough for the brain to remember the
message when it’s in fancy font.
•When the font was simple, research showed that that
there was 86 percent recall of the blog’s message.
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35. Blogs: Best Practices
• Begin the blog in a classic newspaper style
format, narrow and deep, and then widen the
text across the page (55 characters per line is
ideal).
• This small-to-wide approach triggers in our
brains the apparent illusion that the blog is
manageable to read.
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37. Blogs: Best Practices
• Include a sound bite within the blog in a different
font, against a backdrop color. This can lead to more
re-tweets, in some cases increasing from 100 re-
tweets to 800 re-tweets.
• The brain loves pop-out paradigms.
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38. Top Take-aways from SXSW
So bringing it all home: 7 Lessons for Digital Success:
• Know Your Audience, Target (Narrow) Your Content
• Offer Your Content for Free – All of It
• Syndicate Your Content -- for Free – in the right channels
• Let Your Customers Sell Your Brand
• Forget About Social Media and ROI
• Leverage Video to Sell Your Brand
• Refine Your Blog Appearance for Better Performance
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