2 Examples of Content Marketing: 1 Good and 1 Excellent

I recently participated in two webinars sponsored by The American Marketing Association (AMA). One I felt was an excellent example of a delicately prepared gourmet content marketing meal and the other, in my opinion, only ranked as good - more akin to a nice dining experience of typical cuisine. 

Both webinars were on topics relevant to marketers, and both were designed to lure me in with sexy topics like Artificial Intelligence and Structured Content. (Are you salivating?)

So here’s the Pepsi Challenge for you. 

Below are the links for the webinars. Watch them and vote on which one you think was excellent by using the comment box on our blog or social media feed. If you want to do a blind ‘taste test’, I would recommend you read my reviews and any other comments left here after you’ve voted.

Spoiler Alert: Below is my review of the experience. If you are curious and think you can have an unbiased opinion before watching the recordings… keep reading. :)

Summary

• Both webinars were well organized and available through a credible source, AMA. 
• They were visually interesting and the topics were relevant to marketers, their target audience. 
• They both had a product pitch.
• Both webinars were distributed in a timely manner to the participants.
• They were both promoted and advertised the same way.
• One followed up rapidly with a sales call while the other one fell silent.
• One utilized an external resource to present and the other used an internal expert.
• Both offered Q&A sessions.
• Both left a meaningful impression: 1 positive and 1 mediocre

Webinar A

I walked away from this one feeling as if I had not only learned something new and valuable, but that I obtained practical examples and resources on where I could learn more. I felt the webinar was worth my time, and I took notes on things I wanted to further investigate. 

The speaker was well-versed on the subject, and upon completion of the presentation, demonstrated knowledge beyond his/her (I don’t want to give anything away here…) product, services and company. They also had a very comfortable and relatable style weaving in stories of their personal background and history, which gave me the impression they had extensive experience working in the domain.

The presenter did a nice job of incorporating visual cues to support the content. My one very minor critique in this particular area: It would have been nice to have a few carefully placed animations or short video clips. After all the attention span is getting shorter, and keeping things engaging and dynamic is paramount.

Although I feel the presentation would have benefited from some supporting evidence of value, for example statistics demonstrating the time saved, return on the investment or facts that could be used to help build a business case, I generally felt positive about the experience and wanted to learn more. 

I appreciated that the company who organized the speaker did only a 10-15 minute explanation on their product, and then brought in an industry expert to talk about the topic for the webinar.  

Hook, line and sinker - I was engaged and eager to conduct additional research on my own.

I visited both company websites (presenter and sponsor), and I looked for more information on the topic. I even went on to incorporate some of their findings in my own presentations, and I happily reference them as my source. I received one email from the sponsor within 2 hours of the event providing the link for the recording. Otherwise, I have not heard from them again.

Webinar B

This webinar was equally well thought out and impeccably delivered. It displayed a complex and often misunderstood topic in a concise and easy-to-digest format. The title was compelling and the subject was fascinating, however I walked away from this webinar feeling somewhat let down.

Once again the presenter was articulate and well-rehearsed, but I felt they lacked authenticity and didn’t seem to have the depth and breadth of expertise on the subject I was ultimately hoping for. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I thought they were more of an authority figure on the subject and was disappointed by their limited knowledge.

What I find interesting is that my impression of the first part of the presentation was very positive and I was feeling good about participating in the event. I was taking notes and thinking about how great this is going to be for marketers; I was definitely connecting with the material. I could envision ways to apply the methods to my own everyday challenges.

But then midway through the presentation I noticed a change in my attitude. Later, I reflected on the experience and pondered why I felt disenchanted with this webinar. The key difference was that one presentation was platform agnostic and provided general information on a relevant industry trend, whereas the second webinar gave examples that were 100% related to their clients use of their own technology. 

Visually the presentation was stunning (although there were some occasional typos and template-based prompts embedded) and the story was great. The problem was that the presentation didn’t meet my expectations. I was expecting to learn about how to apply a particular methodology and/or understand what technologies enable the ability to solve my real world problems, and instead I felt like I got a product pitch. Don’t get me wrong here. The frontend approach was great in that they framed the challenges of their target audience properly, and the product positioning was definitely in the background, which was following best practices.

Yet, at the end of the day, I had a more negative view of this experience and felt disillusioned which I automatically transferred to the brand. Right or wrong, my takeaway from this webinar was that they wanted to sell me their product.

I conducted no additional research on their website, but rather looked for more about the subject in other places. Exactly one week after participating in the webinar, I received a phone call from a company representative. I thought it was related to my feedback on the webinar via the survey provided at the end of the presentation. Instead, it was a sales call.

What are your thoughts? 

Leave your comments and let us know which one you felt was an excellent example of content marketing.