Yes, Virginia, Content CAN Sell!

Many content writers and managers may shudder at the very prospect of precious 'editorial' content being used as a tool for selling.

But, truth be told, content online often plays a supporting role in a sales process. Sometimes - God forbid! - it actually promotes the sale of services and products directly.

Let us explain what we mean. Here's a passage from a newsletter aimed at an audience with an interest in consumer electronics.

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a technology that enables networks to offer more Internet-based applications to the cellular phone user. With this technology, you are better equipped to browse the Internet in color, have mobile email capabilities and powerful visual communications - all at a speed of 56 kilobits per second. Designed for GSM networks, GPRS technology is used in the Nokia 8390 cellular phone, which delivers speedy data transmission, text messaging and voice-activated dialing.

The article was written to bring people up to date on the subject of the latest mobile phone technologies. But that product name, linked to a sales page, is clearly designed to promote sales.

Does the inclusion of a product link somehow diminish the value of the information in the article? Not a bit.

In fact, in some ways, it actually enhances the information. Readers can click through and see how the newest technologies are actually being applied to the latest cell phones.

Here's another example.

Finally, a brief word about HIPAA. 'HIPAA' stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The act sets out new laws that require health care providers, insurers and plans to use the same electronic formats, implementing a common standard across the industry.

HIPAA has been described as the new 'Y2K', because of the enormous amount of work that will be required to achieve nationwide compliance. There is a huge opportunity here for qualified HIPAA technical consultants.

Looking for a new, BIG opportunity? Then you'll want to be the first to try our new, beta version HIPAA Certification test.

This passage was taken from a newsletter sent out by a company that offers certification tests to workers in the IT industry. And they have gone beyond simply providing a link from the page. In this case, the last paragraph overtly promotes the company's own services.

Is this a problem? Has the editorial integrity of the content somehow been compromised by a sales message?

Again, no way, Jose. The information about HIPAA remains valuable and -- for this audience, anyway -- the invitation to obtain an important, new certification is also valuable.

Finally, a little closer to home, our good friends at eMarketer (www.emarketer.com) do an excellent job of merging content and copy.

Look at this bit from its daily newsletter a few day ago.

iLogos Research recently found that 81% of Fortune 500 companies are posting job listings on their corporate career websites. iLogos determined that this amount compares to 51% that are posting on Monster.com, 43% posting jobs on HotJobs.com and just 22% posting on CareerBuilder.com.

The eMarketer article goes on to give lots of great information in both text and graphics on the use of job listings online. The piece then closes with this paragraph:

A search on the term "jobs" in eMarketer's eStat Database yields 159 records. Need to pitch an ad campaign on career-focused websites? Then order a subscription to eMarketer's eStat Database for the statistics you need for your next presentation.

Sure, it's salesy - in that its intent is clearly to convince the buyer of the value of the eStat database. But the content above that little piece of copy has demonstrated that that very database does indeed contain some kick-butt stats.

In our opinion: No harm, no foul.

Here's the bottom line: All of us in the online world should spend less time stressing over trying to distinguish between content and copy. After all, we aren't newspaper proprietors maintaining a division between editorial and advertising.

Far more useful is to be clear about our intent when we write any piece of text.

In all of the examples above, the intent of the text was to educate, inform and support the subscriber. This intent was achieved through a balance of editorial content and direct sales messages.

You'll find the same balance being achieved - sometimes well and sometimes not so well - in thousands of online newsletters and content-rich pages on Web sites.

So, borrowing an attitude from the '60s: I'm OK, you're OK. It's OK for content to sell. And it's OK for copy to inform.

There. Don't we all just FEEL better?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ann Handley is a Wall Street Journal best-selling author who recently published Everybody Writes 2. She speaks worldwide about how businesses can escape marketing mediocrity to ignite tangible results. IBM named her one of the 7 people shaping modern marketing. Ann is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, a LinkedIn Influencer, a keynote speaker, mom, dog person, and writer.