You know what happens when the vast majority of mobile applications or any sort of useful content gets launched by a company?
Nothing happens. Nothing.
This is because companies treat the fact that they finished the content execution as the end game.
We finished our mobile application and it showed up in the iTunes App Store. Yea! Let’s take a victory lap!
The launch of your awesome content – so inherently useful that customers would pay you for it – is not the end of the journey, it’s the beginning.
To win the war of information you must market your marketing.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital has an exceptionally useful car seat application that helps parents figure out the best type of car seat to purchase, based on the size of their child. Imminently helpful, it’s a classic case of Youtility marketing that creates long-term loyalty (which is why it’s a featured case study in my forthcoming new book Youtility: Why Smart Companies Focus on Helping, Not Selling) Note: go to jaybaerbook.com to stay up-to-date on the new book progress.
The hospital’s car seat app was built by my pal and awesome mobile app creator Brian Berg from MediaKube. When it was completed, Phoenix Children’s didn’t simply throw it up in the app store. In fact, they developed an entire marketing plan around the launch and propagation of the app, starting 60 days before completion.
Here are just a few of the tactics they employed:
- Email to employees via internal newsletter
- Social media news release
- Traditional news release
- Appearances on several local television morning shows
- Write ups in several national parenting magazines
- Youtube demo (see above)
- Mention in the hospital’s e-newsletter
- Mention in the hospital’s printed newsletter
- Appearance on the hospital’s website home page
- Mentions on the hospital Twitter account and Facebook page
They marketed their marketing. You have to consider that when you’re attempting to break through the enormous amount of digital clutter, and it’s where social media and content really work together.
We often think about content and social media as different, but they are really two sides of the same coin. Content is fire, and social media is gasoline.
It’s much easier (and more effective in many cases) to use social media to promote outstanding content, than it is to promote your company.