The Overview of Content Strategy: How Do I Add VALUE

Before I begin any project we have to think about the specific audience you wish to appeal to and what value will this new information bring. I ask these questions to my clients because your customers are being bombarded by online messages constantly (though email, snail mail, television, social media platforms) and if the content is not useful, or is not relevant to their current needs your message will be lost, ignored or worse, you’ll be placed in their spam folder.

When creating content marketing strategy consider the following:

  1. Who is your target audience? What position are the decision makers? Is it B2B or B2C?
  2. What do your customers/audience want? What are their needs in the near future?
  3. What are their goals?
  4. How can we help them? What information can we share to help them come up with a solution.

Once we answer these preliminary questions we can figure out how to add value to their business and focus the best medium to use. Many corporate companies have been using white papers and case studies as examples for their customers on their websites, but the growth of on demand video and mobile video views have been increasing and social platform viewing of videos (such as on Facebook pages) and YouTube channels have been giving SEO boosts to company websites. The strength of storytelling using video not only establishes the customer as a thought leader but it helps convey several intangible things such as the company culture, the attitude of the company crew & executives, and values. People skills will add warmth and familiarity to any potential customer or buyer of a product and service. When people buy a product, they buy a brand, a culture, a lifestyle and it’s that promise that you are offering to them that will be conveyed in video.

Here’s an example of a project which we created to help educate our customers about the installation process while also demonstrating who are our customers.

 [Click to play “Scope of Work” video]

Maritime Leaders in the Pacific Northwest: Predictions for 2014

Boat-600x315

I recently interviewed a few of the maritime leaders for Krill Systems asking their thoughts and predictions for the upcoming year (2014). We were able to interview David Moseley, Director of the Washington State Ferries, Ralph Duncan, VP Business Development for BMT Designers & Planners, Matt Nichols, CEO Nichols Bros. Boat Builders, Art Parker, Sales Manager for Kvichak Marine Industries, Trevor Machen of Radar Marine, and Grant Fosheim for Vigor Industries.

[Click to play “Maritime Leaders” video]

This video was also redistributed by Maritime Executive Magazine’s Facebook page, their twitter feed and Maritime Executive website (our shared demographic audience). It pays to create sharable content because even if the viewers aren’t clicking through to your website from the video it’s still impressions and our company name giving brand visibility, everyone wins.

Maritime Ex website demographics

Maritime Ex website demographics

 

 

Seattle MaritimeFest Vignettes

The Downtown Seattle Waterfront is the place to be for the annual Seattle Maritime Festival, sponsored by Seattle Propeller Club with support from the Port of Seattle. This year’s 2011 festival celebrated the Centennial of the Port of Seattle. Demonstrations of Seattle’s workboats is important for public relations in understanding what the maritime community does for Seattle commerce. Without capturing the event (via video production and images) the celebration would cease after the show. Social media strategies were set in place to disperse content as quickly as possible and archiving content is essential.

Here are a few Seattle Maritime Fest video vignettes during the week events which I produced and edited for the Seattle Propeller Club. A few of the videos were redistributed for circulation by the media and were well received by the maritime community.


The USCG Aircrew 6574 performed their sea & air helicopter rescue on “Sponge Bob” at the Seattle Maritime Festival/

The 14th Annual Celebrity Chowder Cook-Off took place on May 10th at the World Trade Center Holland American Dining Room. Jim Dever (KING TV’s Evening Magazine), Rachel Belle (97.3 KIRO FM), Ann Peavey (@SeattleMaven/Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau), Mark Knudsen (SSA Marine/Seattle Maritime Festival Chairman) and Marc Warner (Legros Buchanan & Paul/President of Seattle Propeller Club) were the judges of the participating waterfront restaurants.


A narrative recap of the tugboats on parade at the Seattle Maritime Festival, May 14, along the downtown Seattle Waterfront. Tugboats included in this video: Andrew Foss, Triton and Crowley.

Watch more Seattle Maritime Fest videos on the Seattle Propeller Club YouTube Channel

Here are my photos from the event.

Choose the media, find relevance and achieve timeliness

I created this video to help promote my son’s high school band. This video is featured in the Kitsap Sun and Inside Bainbridge and other social networks which is greatly appreciated. Thank you to my Twitter followers and G+ friends who re-posted.

Why did I choose to focus on video content? Obviously it’s for the shareability factor but there’s more to it. For this event my focus was the music. This annual holiday event features the Argosy cruise boat parade. In near freezing temperatures there were only a handful of brave souls to view the festivities at the Bainbridge marina. Timing of the video post matters greatly; since audiences have short attention spans, videos not only should be kept short, but they also need to be published near the time of the event. Audiences will forget or lose interest to search so it is important not too wait too long to distribute. It’s a fine balance between taking your time editing towards perfection vs. good enough and being the first one out.

Narrative Storytelling Project: Seattle Seafarers’ Center

Seattle Seafarers’ Center is a non-profit that provides social services to meet the practical and spiritual needs of seafarers and maritime workers living and visiting Seattle. With lack of staff and zero funds to create awareness and publicity in the Seattle maritime community, the decision was to create a narrative story from the Chaplin’s point of view as he represents the center and the mission.

Home From The Sea from Lynne Watanabe on Vimeo.

The deliverable for this project involved story development, research and reporting  as well as video and sound production, distribution and online digital marketing. The goal was to achieve more visibility and greater understanding to seafarers around the world. Deserving respect and recognition for making great sacrifices and take risks in the high seas, dealing with issues such as piracy, the video was timely and redistributed around the world in honor of commemorating the International Maritime Organization (IMO) “Day of the Seafarer”.