Digital publishing is on the rise. Publishing is where you take content (eBook, video, audio) and offer it to your viewers/readers/listeners for free – or at a price. The great thing about even free content publishing is that it can easily help market your brand and draw attention to your company/product/service offerings.
Just look at the fall of the major book publishing houses in the last few years, just in the context of fiction publishing alone. There are several traditional soft and hardcover book publishers still out there, but their numbers continue to dwindle as self publishing gains momentum with readers and authors.
Sites like Amazon, Kobo Books, iTunes, Smashwords, and many others are taking over the traditional space; offering readers a chance to score a great fiction and non-fiction titles they want, at often far below the price of what a physical book would offer.
The same goes for video content. In years gone by, “video” was a physical product, which inherently increased their value. You’d get a set of cassettes or CD’s, along with some written content delivered to your door, and it was something tangible that you could hang onto for years to come.
Today, with digital content, now people can download their favorite video content from Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuck, or even a blockbuster movie at very little cost – store it on their hard-drive, burn it, share it, etc. for as long as they want. If you know something – anything that people want to know, it’s worth throwing your hat in the ring, as it can generate sales beyond your wildest imagination!
YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes, Metacafe, Veoh – the list of free streaming sites goes on and on. Look for paid solutions if you’re in an exclusive niche.
Look at how Podcasts have virtually eliminated the need for you to turn on the radio in your car or home for some insightful audio entertainment. These Podcasters are still turning out plugs for various products and services, and getting a nice lump sum of cash for each lead they produce or advertisement they put out there.
Anyone can become a Podcaster, and plug their own product or service, without a fancy journalism degree! iTunes, Podcast Alley, Odeo, Blogtalkradio, and many others offer free podcast hosting, along with YouTube if you’re going to offer a video feed too.
What does all this mean for you, a motivated business owner looking to secure a foothold in your niche by proliferating your brand?
It means you don’t have to pay mega bucks to have some fancy author write a how-to book or magazine article; or pay hundreds of thousands to get a commercial spot during the Superbowl on TV, or spend hundreds a week to run a 15-second spot on your local radio station to promote your company!
Tool #1: EBook Publishing
So many of you must be thinking: “How the heck is an eBook gonna help promote my company? I run a home inspection consulting company for crying out loud! It takes years to do what I do!”
Just think about how much loyalty you can build by writing a small, 20 – 100 page manual on basic home inspection practices that future homeowners can (safely) do by themselves?
Impossible you say? “We can’t have Joe Citizen climbing around in the rafters looking for wood fractures. I’d get sued!”
Not so…
Tell those eager wannabe homeowners how to look for basic warning signs like fractured foundations, how to spot uneven flooring, shoddy electrical work, etc. They just might call you for a consult when they discover that, despite your informative eBook, they need someone with a little more experience to tell them if the dilapidated century home they want to restore is a good investment or not.
Publish an eBook about how to make money using an innovative method you’ve mastered, how to restore a classic car, manage employees, starting a business, increase profits, cook healthy food, cure diabetes without medication, etc. Eventually, most will realize they need your expertise and the leads and word-of-mouth advertising from your little manual will give you lots of passive sign ups for your product or service.
Must-read:
- http://www.copyblogger.com/ebook-marketing/ (great article about the power of ebook pubbing to market your business).
- https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=ctrl&ei=VPXAUpy9FaiC8QeC_IDYBw&gws_rd=cr#q=list+of+free+ebook+publishing+sites (Google is your friend, lots of sites to publish your ebook for free!)
Tool #2: Video publishing
By now, it should be a given that most of you have spent a minute or two on YouTube. Notice how many experts are on there giving advice on how to do things that were impossible for an untrained person to do ten years ago?
You might be thinking: “If I just give it away, why would they ever need me?”
Because, whatever your specialty, you know that craftsmanship, legal expertise, marketing savvy, etc. takes a lot more than one or two videos to learn how to do effectively. The key is that you’re going to show them what you know, by presuming to teach them something (or many things) that you know they’ll inevitably never be able to do at the level you can. If they do learn how to accomplish some basics on their own, they’ll still hit a stumbling block at some point.
If they don’t, the SEO power offered by YouTube and other free video-content-posting sites will put your video in front of eyes who won’t be so brazen as to attempt to do things on their own. If you have hundreds of thousands of views, and considerable comments talking about how great you are, don’t you think some of those folks will give you a call?
Must-read:
- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-marketing/advertising/how-to-use-online-video-as-a-marketing-tool/article15045297/ (using video to market your business).
- http://www.techsupportalert.com/5-Best-Free-Video-Streaming-Sites.htm (list of the most popular streaming sites).
Tool #3: Audio publishing
Podcasting is where it’s at these days for audio content. While traditional radio still has listeners, and paid audio programming from sources like Sirius Radio have loyal listeners, everyone loves listening to the Podcasts of interesting people with something to say or teach.
Say you own a computer repair store, software development company, or online/offline marketing agency: A daily/weekly/monthly podcast where you give tips, talk about industry news, or interview other authorities in your industry, or related industries, can help you capture the attention of the people you want to market your product or services, too.
Must-read:
- advertising.about.com/od/smallbusinesscampaigns/a/podcastbiz.htm (learn how to create a podcast).
- www.podcastalley.com/ (study other successful Podcasters before taking the plunge yourself).
Takeaway
When it comes to marketing your business, 1+1 = 3.
While you can definitely approach those publishing tools above on individual basis – e.g. focusing on video publishing – doing all three as a focused campaign for customer/lead acquisition will give the most bang to the buck; that’s what inbound marketing is all about, anyway: A holistic approach to help your business in getting found online by offering your target market valuable resources they can’t get anywhere else.
