Content alone isn’t enough. “If you build it, they will come” worked in the film Field of Dreams, but it doesn’t play out in real-time. People will not show up to view your content unless you let them know about it first.

How did those baseball players know Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) had built that baseball field? Well, it’s a mystical movie, so they just knew. (They’re ghosts, after all.)

For the rest of us, we have to build something compelling and valuable, with targeted outreach, that prompts our audiences to show up.

There are variations on how to accomplish this. Here’s a taste of what we’ve learned:

STEP 1. Get Focused On The Marketing Goal

Many video campaigns start out with a cool idea, instead of creating a cool idea around a marketing objective.

The right order is: Objective first, creative second. Figure out what you want to accomplish. What are your goals for the campaign?

For Trek Bikes, About Face Media created a series of online videos, called “Document Unscripted” which chronicled the behind-the-scenes journey of Lance Armstrong, the Trek Bicycle 2009 Tour De France Team and their fans.

The goal was simple: to illustrate how the brand weaves into the lives of the Trek customer.

And how did we know they would want to watch? We knew that the biking fan base in enthusiastic, and that they would follow the entire team, which included Lance Armstrong.  We knew that Trek customers would like to ride along with the team.

So it was simply a question of asking: What would the Trek customer find useful and entertaining?

Marketers are used to carefully identifying the goals and scope of potential projects. Content marketing strategies require the same. The creative content will be more successful if the strategy and goals behind your social media campaign are targeted first.

STEP 2. The Audience (a.k.a. Identify Who You Want To Reach)

What is the primary target audience?

For instance, “Ask Quill” was produced for Quill.com, the business to business e-commerce division of Staples Corp.

The project is aimed at the twenty-something office managers who are being asked by their bosses to become ‘tech savvy’ in a new media age.

What questions are these managers asking? What sites are they visiting? What blogs are they reading? What search terms are they using? Where are they going to learn how to integrate new software and hardware within their offices? What questions do they need answering?

By drilling into these questions, we identified a very specific target,  and a precise focus for the campaign.

Content marketing strategies must be planned in advance. They are different than broadcast strategies: Social media strategies are narrow, not broad. The content must be of use or entertaining to your audience.

One broad video won’t cut it. One size does not fit all.

This brings us to messaging and the brand experience.

STEP 3. Desired Results/Goals (aka Quantifiable Bang For Your Buck)

What is the ‘brand’ experience you want the media to convey? And once you identify the experience you want conveyed, how will you convey it?

Every time you reach out and communicate to a customer, you affect your brand. Keep this in mind as you create your strategy.  Here’s an example from KmartDesign:

At the same time, remember that what you communicate has to be useful and entertaining to your targeted audience. Avoid confusing what is useful for you, the marketer, with what is useful to your audience. Be hard on yourself.

For instance, with our KmartDesign initiative, we wanted to create curious disbelief about Kmart Design and use that to get across our message that Kmart has changed for the better. Every communication we put out there – from our videos to each little Tweet—is wrapped in that brand experience, in that message. The exchange below, between @shopsmartgirl and @kmartdesign is one example:

In Kmart’s kids series, there are two “how-to” episodes that highlight an activity parents and their children can enjoy together—how to customize jeans, sweatshirts and other apparel.

The viewers watch the episodes because they are entertaining and offer useful information. At the same time, they learn more about the Kmart brand.

How is your media useful or entertaining to your audience?

Are you looking for a measurable action on the part of your customers in addition to an overall branding experience?

Both are valid objectives, for which video is perfect.

We did this series of videos for Florida Tourism (Agency: BVK) — a great example of “entertaining” as well as useful to the target audience of people considering a visit to the St. Pete/Clearwater area.

“Eli’s BBQ” is one of our favorites in the series:

Now it’s time you think about how to get it out there.

STEP 4. Delivery (aka Get It Out There In The Right Way)

Where will the media be placed?

Video hub at VisitStPeteClearwater.com.

Your corporate web site?

Social networks?

A customized mini-site to supplement the main site?

Do you have affiliate partners, strategic partners or other “friends” who will help you get exposure for the media?

Make an inventory of any resources you might have that can help get the word out.

With Art Chicago we used The Merchandise Mart’s broader resources like their email database, and their general website to promote the launch of ArtChicago.TV.  But even more importantly, they used partner and affiliate groups (such as the Art Institute of Chicago) to send promotional emails out on their behalf.

You’ve just thought through what assets you have at your fingertips to aid your campaign. You may have realized you have a ton of low hanging fruit to pick, or you may have come to the harrowing conclusion that the shelves are bare as far as assets go.

If you’re in the latter camp, don’t Tweet “This is the end” just yet. There are ways to get the message out whether your assets are an embarrassment of riches or not.

You’ve just thought through what assets you have at your fingertips to aid your campaign. You may have realized you have a ton of low hanging fruit to pick, or you may have come to the harrowing conclusion that the shelves are bare as far as assets go.

If you’re in the latter camp, don’t Tweet “This is the end” just yet. There are ways to get the message out whether your assets are an embarrassment of riches or not.

STEP 5. Syndication/Viral (aka Even More Getting It Out There In The Right Way)

One reason KmartDesign has been successful is that we’ve used a number of methods to drive video plays, website visitors, and social media impressions. These methods include video syndication, e-mail blasts, and blogger outreach, amongst others.

How else will/could the media be syndicated or released?

Brightcove? TubeMogul? YouTube?

Paid or unpaid video sharing sites? There are lots of options available on any budget. It is your task to map out which options you will take advantage of.

V-Blast for QuinnStories, a "behind the scenes" video series for IL Governor Pat Quinn

Will you use e-mail blasts? Blog outreach? Offline distribution, such as screenings at meetings or DVD’s?

Do you have current e-mail lists?

How robust are your lists? How targeted are they? Video can be very effective when sent to a robust, targeted list of people who will find value in what you have to say.

Now you know your distribution options and your plan. Some more thought will help maximize your impact in the end.

STEP 6. Your Website (aka Your Website)

Social Media "Side Bar" at KmartDesign.com

What is the strategy behind the placement of the content on your website?

You’ll need to have a strong strategy behind how you are presenting your media and by extension your message.

Does your media site encourage interactivity?

Do you have a solid strategy behind tying together your site, your media, and any additional social media outreach in which you are engaged?

KmartDesign.com was built to be a hub—a place to put our best foot forward while being a part of the overall, integrated campaign. Our strategy was to give a visitor a strong impression at a glance while enticing them to dig in deeper by offering them useful content.

STEP 7. PR/Advertising (a.k.a. Yes, Non-Online Exposure And Outreach Is Still A Valuable Tool)

How did all those baseball fans find out about the ghost-filled “Field of Dreams” ballpark? Who knows, but, depending on your budget, doing paid advertising or paid PR can draw attention to this media.

Consider print, TV, banner ads, PPC ads, or press releases. Keep “targeted,” rather than “broad,” in mind as you develop these.

Remember: Generic e-release blasts miss their marks. Be prepared to segment your target audience, and hone in on fine-tuned interests.

STEP 8. Data Collection And Metrics (a.k.a. Cold-Hard Stats)

Are there metrics that you would like to track?

Make sure that your social media strategy will get you the kind of data and metrics that you can use in your next social media campaign. Tools like Google Analytics, TubeMogul and Radian6, can often get you what you want to know. If you’re having great success with one type of video, genre, or length, it follows that you should increase your focus on that type moving forward.

Conclusion

Marketers are finding that putting a traditional corporate video or television commercial up on YouTube or a company’s website often provides little return on their investment.

You don’t necessarily have the magic of Hollywood to fill in any shortage in planning the way The Field of Dreams did—so, yes, build it, and make sure it is something your audience will want, and then make sure you know how to get it out there in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

Keep producing great videos, and exploring other ways to use them in the future. A quick example? Kmart’s shoppable videos. Pretty cool stuff—you can watch a video, and click on the items within the video and drop them in your shopping cart.

You name it. Whatever you want to accomplish with your content marketing project, it’s hard to imagine that there isn’t an opportunity to connect the dots between the video and your call to action.

Manny Marquez

It was still a bit rainy and sad in France, and we headed for the Swiss Alps.

Manny spent several hours with the truck driver — Jerzi — hoping for a happy ending to his story to brighten up the mood.

When it was over, he came back to the hotel, gave me the footage and said… “I don’t think we have anything, man”.

He was wrong:

We cut the episode and sent it to Lance. Within a day, a jersey was on it’s way to Izabel. I hope she liked it.

The next day we woke up to sunshine, Swiss mountains… and a feeling that things were turning. Manny decided to make the trek to the mountain finish. This was going to be a challenge… there was no way to get to the finish easily. I didn’t think he’d make it, as most people had gone up there the day before.

But he came back a day later and handed me the footage saying “Canadian newlyweds man. The husband was a Mountie!”.

That was the day that it became clear that Contador, not Lance, was probably going to win the Tour. There was very little “who is going to win” drama left as we headed into the home stretch.

But the French are amazing hosts, and the fans kept things interesting as we headed to Les Carroz

This is where we met “Bernard the Racer”:

We heard back from Pat that he’d gotten approval for us to go with Trek Travel up to the top of the legendary Mt. Ventoux a couple of days later as the Tour came to an end>>>

The Tour was winding down and we were figuring out how to wrap it up, given that it was pretty clear now that Alberto was likely to win.

It was a “down day” on the tour and we didn’t have anything to film. So Manny decided to go to the team’s hotel and interview the Chef of the Astana team, ‘Chef Duffy’.

Chef Duffy is beloved by both the team and fans… he has a huge Twitter following of his own.

Little did we know that this episode would be “tweeted” by Levi Leipheimer and it would be the most popular video of the trip, garnering tens of thousands of views.

There is a saying that audiences always love films about sex and food. Well, Trek is a family company, so food it is:

Next up was the penultimate leg of the Tour… the awesome and ghostly Mt. Ventoux. We drove up to the top of the mountain (after Manny sweet talked a guard to let us in) and I dropped Manny off. He was on his own, with a backpack and a camera. I left to return the rental car, and Manny capture this ghostly episode:

Trek flew Manny off Mt. Ventoux in the Trek Travel helicopter so he could catch the train back to Paris for the finale. I returned the rental car and flew back to meet him.

We had no idea how to end the series… it was clear that Contador was going to win. The ending was pretty much a coronation. What was the story? Then we remembered a story that Graham Watson had told us a dozen days earlier… and we knew how to wrap up the Tour de France section of “Document”:

I went home on Monday morning. Manny went to England to direct a music video for the band Little Fish.

Here’s hoping that we get a chance to do this again for the 2010 Tour de France.

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Manny was planning to meet up with Santi the next day in the tiny republic of Andorre (nestled in Spain near the French border) and follow him and his friends as they rode the tour route.

While waiting for Santi to show up, Manny shot this episode:

Santi finally showed up at the Andorre cafe, and Manny followed him in his rental car toward the bike route.

It was several hours before the race. But the police pulled everyone over to block off the route for the race. Manny was stranded and without a subject.

He took a nap in the car, and when he woke up he found himself parked next to Liam and his dad, who had brought their Trek bikes from America to ride the route of the Tour:

It took eleven year old Liam to finally say on camera what everyone was talking about: Lance and Contador were at odds and a drama was emerging.

Barry editing in a cafe in Barcelona.

We decide to take a couple of day in Barcelona to catch up on edits. Manny hung out in town, took pictures and shot b-roll.

I was editing wherever I could could… hotel rooms, cafes, even the car.

We caught up with the team back in France in Limoges on their first ‘down day’ and got a coup — an interview with Academy Award winning director Alex Gibney.

Gibney is making a film about Lance and we were able to get his take on the growing rift between the two superstars — Lance and Alberto:

It was raining when we got to Gueret, where the race was coming through the next day. It’s kind of interesting how the race zips through these small towns along the way and we wanted to capture this. Manny shot this on Bastille Day:

In a wild stroke of luck we ran into Graham Watson the next night in a restaurant near our hotel. If you don’t know who Graham is, he is the premiere cycling photographer of all time.

After sharing a bottle of wine with us, he said “this is your lucky day” and agreed to let us follow him the next day in Tonnerre as he went about his work. It’s hard for me to pick, but this is one of my favorite episodes:

That’s when things turned ugly. There were hopes that Lance, Alberto and Levi Leipheimer (also on Astana, and a hell of a nice guy) would take one-two-three on the podium. But Levi had a bad spill and was out for the rest of the tour. And then it started raining again.

It took a sweet couple in the French Alps to lift our spirits as the Tour rolled on… they weren’t really Astana fans, but they were gracious hosts and didn’t let on when the cameras were rolling:

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We arrived in France over the July 4th weekend to begin shooting the next phase of the “Document” series for Trek Bikes. Pat Buckley is producing the Tour de France section of the series and Manny Marquez is directing.

We began in Monacco. Manny hadn’t arrived yet, so Pat directed AND produced the first episode. Pat recently directed a festival favorite flick — “William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet“, so he was a great stand in while we waited for Manny to show up.

The folks at Trek had been working with us for a while and were cool with letting us upload the episodes directly to YouTube without review. This way we were able to get the videos up within a day or two of the actual shoot.

I uploaded the first episode on the Trek website and YouTube page on July 5th:

The strategy was simple:

• Tell stories along the route of the Tour that seldom get covered.
• Avoid standard race coverage.
• Follow the human stories.
• Look for the unexpected.

The next episode, shot in Montpellier in the south of France, provided a rare opportunity to see what it’s like to ride in the team “follow car” with coach Dirk Demol.

Joining Dirk is actress Christine Taylor. How Manny wrangled his way into the car with Ben Stiller’s wife is still beyond all of us at AboutFace:

Ben Coates is the Trek Team Liaison to the Astana team. Manny rode with him to Le Cap D’Agde to the start of the fifth stage of the Tour de France and shot this episode:

Director Manny Marquez

As we continued on along the south of France, it was definitely getting tougher and tougher to get any time or attention from the Astana team. After all, it is the Tour de France.

We always intended to mix up episodes between the team and the fans. Manny I decided it was time to focus on fans.

But how can we still get to the Trek Bikes story without following the team? And how hard would it be to find good stories ‘on the fly’? Nothing was planned. The series was called DOCUMENT UNSCRIPTED after all… we are about to give some serious testing to the “unscripted” part.

In this episode Manny meets Santi from Girona, France, and uncovers an amazing story about Lance:

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