By Margie Dana

Although I don’t recall who sent me the email invitation to a Content Marketing Summit recently, I'm sure glad they did. Fifty or more people joined me at this half-day event hosted by ten24 Web Solutions. I hadn't heard of them before, but many of you may have. Visit www.ten24web.com for more information. This was actually their second annual Content Marketing Summit.

These days, you can't swing a short stick without hitting someone talking about Content Marketing, and it's a good thing. Even if your heart (and history) is in print, you know that consumers and customers are getting their information (i.e., content) from dozens of newer media, most of which is digital. Print media specialists – or enthusiasts – need to understand what this means and where it’s headed.

So it was with genuine anticipation that I drove to this event, where five marketing professionals filled our heads (and my notebook) with tons of valuable insights and statistics.

The presenters were:
Myles Bristowe from CommCreative (www.commcreative.com),
Soren Ryherd from Working Planet Marketing Group (),
Tim Hurley from ThinkMedia Partners (great name, right? www.thinkmediapartners.com), and
Brad Gustavesen and Anna Barcelos of ten24 Web Solutions (www.ten24web.com).

Myles Bristowe spoke on Unifying Your Marketing Channels. Perfect topic for all of us – whatever business we're in! Look at the preferences of your audience, he stressed. Listen – Understand – Engage. That's a mantra we should all live by. He also discussed digital content syndication and repurposing. Pushing your content out via new media channels is where it's at.

Myles spoke of the power of mobile marketing. One great quotable quote: “We're only in day 3 of the mobile revolution.” Subsequent speakers also stressed the power of mobile.

Soren Ryherd spoke of a universal business challenge: resource allocation for marketing and advertising. He touched on 'cross channel effects': when what happens in one marketing channel has an effect on what's happening in another channel.

We learned great advice for web sites. Make sure your “Call to Action” is loud and clear. Don't rush to redo “stale” copy just for the sake of doing it. “Your web site's not stale to someone just coming to it for the first time.” (Touché!)

ThinkMedia Partner's Tim Hurley's presentation focused on Creating a Content Continuum. He was the only speaker (if my notes are accurate) who even brought up the phrase 'print media,' pondering if it's on life support. (No.) Tim did say that 46% of Americans get their news online at least 3 times a week. He made us imagine what the newsroom of the future will look like – since we're already used to getting a constant stream of news consumption.

I love the notion of a “Content Continuum.” Tim’s guidelines were these: 1. Define the problem or objective; set your goals. 2. Establish a “Content Center of Excellence.” 3. Determine channel selection.

PS. No one can be effective in every media. Take two or three channels that matter most to your (fill in the blank here, folks…) customers. Go from there.

Brad Gustavesen and Anna Barcelos, the two presenters from ten24, focused on something oh-so-near-and-dear to my heart: email marketing and how to optimize it. The good news is that attitudes about email marketing are improving. What’s changing? Loads of stuff, like social media integration. There are new deliverability challenges. And this: mobile is HUGE. How we read/reply to email is changing fast. The percent of email accessed on mobile devices is increasing dramatically.

So optimize your email blasts for mobile. (Note to self: get on it.) Use short subject lines and short “Sender” names, too. And here’s a cool tip: what the presenters called the children’s book approach. Shorter is better for reading on a mobile device. Think “See Spot run.”

The upshot of this event was that I have new information about how to use my company’s content, how to improve my email marketing, and how to make use of the data I gather from my marketing. Mobile is major. “Content curation” is key. I love that phrase.

While all of these speakers had our attention, I kept Print in mind, thinking of ways it could support newer media channels in a marketing strategy.

Bottom line? I was reminded to look at the concept of marketing differently. Social media channels play a major role. Orchestrating the placement, use, and timing of content is the difficult but important job ahead.

Your heart may ache for Print. But don’t let that stop you from attending events like this one. Print still matters. Print still counts. But it’s not always the only or even the best solution for tending to customers’ needs.

© 2011 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. Your comments are encouraged. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.