“Show Me the Content” – The (Quasi) Jerry Maguire Moment that Changed My Marketing Life

It was late 2009, the recession was beating down on destination marketing organizations and the entire travel and tourism industry (and everyone else), and to top it off, marketing was changing what felt like daily.

There had to be something more than buying media to get your message across to customers, right? Besides, my ad budget had been cut to the bone. Even if I could buy, I couldn’t buy enough frequency to make any difference. Social media was sweeping through like a dust storm, coating everything it touched. Sure, we had Facebook and Twitter pages, even a couple of blogs, but I still didn’t understand how they helped us reach our goals. Something was missing and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Fast forward to a few weeks later and a trip to Barnes & Noble where I started browsing the books in the “Marketing & Sales” section. I stumbled upon the book that would ultimately change my (marketing) life. It was “Get Content Get Customers” written by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett. To this day, I don’t even know why I picked it up. But, I am so glad I did.

I read the book in about two days, then I re-read it. This was what I was searching for and thy name was content marketing. No two things fit better and so obviously together than destination marketing and content marketing. It’s possible that I heard angels sing…

Turns out, “Get Content Get Customers” is THE seminal book on content marketing.

That discovery led to my version of a Jerry Maguire moment. I holed up in my office and re-wrote sections of our business plan to focus on the importance of content and if we are to bring value to our customers and reach our business goals, we need to be in control of our destiny. There’s absolutely no need to just rely on expensive media buys and journalists to tell the story of our destination. There’s still a place for traditional marketing and PR tactics, but we have to let go of that “old school” notion that it’s the only way to reach our customers and visitors.

No one understands their destination like the hometown team – a team that consists of everyone from the receptionist to the sales manager to the visitor center staff to the president and CEO. And that’s the simple beauty of content marketing, everyone can play: there are no bench warmers; every day there can be a new star. Yes, sometimes we still need ringers (i.e. travel writers, OTA’s, trade advertising and so forth), but the home team should take the lead. (I think I’ve exhausted this feel-good sports metaphor.)

I’ve been on this content marketing journey now for nearly 10 years. I would love to say it’s been easy and I’ve mastered it, but that would just be fiction. It’s easy in theory, but challenging to execute. It’s time-consuming and you wonder all the time if you’re making a difference. Then one day you get an unsolicited email from a prospective customer who says “I just read read your blog and discovered you can help me.” It’s the holy grail of content marketing results. And it keeps you forging ahead to create content – sometimes good, sometimes not so good – aiming for that same high.

So, in deference to my content marketing hero Joe Pulizzi, who I emailed after reading the book nearly three years ago and told him it was a game-changer – he emailed me back! – and who I have had the pleasure of meeting, I’m sharing my content marketing journey with my fellow DMO’ers and anyone else looking to take control of their marketing destiny.

Also, I’m pretty sure my staff is tired of listening to me go on and on about this, so I thought I’d do this and give them some relief.

And I want to hear what you’re doing to tell your story.