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As Chief Strategist for Optiem, I oversee the development of innovative internet marketing, media, content and design strategies for our clients. I also manage Optiem's strategic alliances and integrated communications.
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Seven Lessons From The Content Marketing Revolution

Posted: Jul 15, 2008 -- 7:03 PM

Thanks to Media Brains, here are seven key points for effective content marketing:

1. Only content that is intrinsically valuable to your customers will work as a core component of your content marketing strategy.

2. You must have a thorough understanding of your customers and what is most important to them. If you do not understand the problems and challenges they face, you cannot hope to create content that is truly relevant to them. Without understanding their problems, you cannot provide solutions.

3. A comprehensive content marketing strategy may provide a complete or partial replacement of traditional advertising and marketing. Such a strategy can be both more effective and less expensive than doing things the old-fashioned way.

4. Print magazines can be a powerful weapon within your content marketing arsenal. They enable you to reach out with precision to your customers with carefully targeted messaging that is totally under your control.

5. Your best content marketing investment may be in the creation of a dedicated internal or external team who understand how to produce great content and who live and die by the success of your content marketing program.

6. Relevant and valuable content is just the first step in turning a prospect or visitor into a customer. You must then make it easy for them to buy.

7. Most of the best practices from the larger companies profiled in the book can be emulated in whole or in part even by very small organizations. It's not the money. It's the content marketing mindset that counts. Big ideas can trump big bucks

Clyde Miles

Socius, As a top software VAR, Socius needed a solid brand foundation both online and off. With Optiem on its side, Socius truly experienced "The Power of Partnership."
National City, Moving a traditional audience like private banking clients online was National City’s challenge. Optiem replicated the lush feel of offline materials for the digital realm. The result was a rich customer experience.
JumpStart set out to seed new ideas and re-plant the economy of Northeast Ohio. They turned to Optiem for a vibrant brand foundation and a crop of ideas to help spark all their online and offline marketing.
Things Remembered, Maximizing email performance was the goal for Things Remembered. Optiem’s audit provided the strategic insight, the creative firepower, and the campaign analysis to turn their efforts into gold.
RedMatch, An extremely effective B2B email campaign leading to a Flash demo was the way to energize a new product launch. Optiem put the pieces in place with an integrated campaign that brought it all together.
Insurance.com had the name but needed the traffic. Optiem designed and developed interactive banners that cut through the clutter and delivered consumers to the site in droves...and they have the quotes to prove it.
Sherwin Williams wanted an online strategy that rewarded its best customers and drove offline store traffic. Regular email promotions with unique bar codes sealed the deal and painted the competition into a corner.
COSE, An interactive membership form that cross-sells, up-sells and just plain sells? COSE needed it to stimulate prospects and member companies, and Optiem designed and built it.
Podcasts, Optiem developed RSS feeds for quicker distribution of audio files over the internet.