It’s sometimes a challenge to imagine what the future will look like. But some people are already inventing the way we view it, play with it and share it.
We’ll all become knowledge marketers in one way or another. Sharing, collaborating, conversing, teaching and engaging in creative pursuits.
This video gives a taste of the future for our connected communications and knowledge sharing:
I’ve always been interested in what makes life easier.
Personal and career pursuits have had this life narrative evolve over the years. My first career move was industrial design, then taking up naturopathy, yoga, natural health and new age retailing. Branding and marketing connected all of these and became a new business Brandwithin. A more recent evolution of my story brings education, knowledge marketing and the puzzle of the Internet as a turbo-charged medium for connection and transformation. It’s a fun ride!
At the launch of Trump University in 2005, Brandwithin had the opportunity to work first hand with Donald Trump for Trump U’s first product - The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint. Filming for the video in Trump Tower revealed the power and presence of Trump himself. My colleague Jon Ward was the interviewer.
Now we see the timeless nature of well presented knowledge - with this video clip from The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint, Trump U’s VP of Marketing, Josef Katz has launched a new angle on their knowledge marketing - through YouTube. I doubt that video marketing will get fired any time soon!
The fast lane - and living in it is now the norm – at least when it comes to the Internet.There are so many metaphors for the speed of life these days, it’s hard to deny that so much of life accelerates around us. Years ago on my first visit to New York, coming from Australia I met someone there who said “We don’t live in the fast lane here - we live in the laser lane!” And the pace of walking on Manhattan streets was so much faster – I liked it – mostly.Now my business is based on the marketing of knowledge, so much of which has an online component, and the same metaphors challenge us. Tom Biederbeck of STEP: Inside Design magazine says “Success on the web is determined by presence—presence that is immediate, immersive and seductive. The line between what works online and what doesn’t is measured in seconds.” More focus on speed.
The website visitor, blog reader, YouTube viewer, Google searcher, and everyone online make split second decisions whether to stay and explore - or move on (usually never to return). So the essence (think headline) of your knowledge piece must first be clear, simple, bold, and able to be perceived at first glance. Our brains have been trained to distill complex ideas to simple ones in this A.D.D. world of busy-ness and information overload.The challenge for knowledge marketers is to craft the simple distilled concept first – do the work for the customer or site visitor – so they don’t have to. Then you have the best chance of grabbing their attention and engaging them. Web 2.0 design trends exemplify this – larger, simpler graphics, icons, symbols and simple statements.
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom. Justice. Honor. Duty. Mercy. Hope.”Winston Churchill
in branding we call this the ‘Singular Idea‘. I learned this laser beam focus from my colleague Jon Ward — we explore it in Branding for Profit. A brand that is built on a Singular Idea has a faster and easier road to success. Effective knowledge marketing is built on the same focus.
With the rise in popularity of video on the web, more and more people are consuming massive amounts of ‘content’.
CNN Money article Dawn of the Web Potato reports that ‘web surfing’ is over - and that looking at content takes up 47% of the typical Internet user’s time online.
What are the lessons for knowledge marketers?
Know your niche - it is easy to find you.
Speak to your audience about what they are interested in (as my friend and colleague Jon Ward says: “the secret of marketing is simple: it’s not about you.”)
Find your voice (ahem - i still feel I have training wheels on).
Distill your message – in this A.D.D. world if you don’t make it simple your customer will do it for you - and it may not be what you want!
Think Video - and not just with a ‘movie’ camera - even Apple’s new software, Keynote (their answer to PowerPoint) has a direct export function to YouTube! Awesome for making a presentation with slides, moving images, audio, more.
Share about what your customers love and hate - and what they know and what they don’t
Beware the curse of assumption: “Oh they’ll already know that” or “They won’t be interested in those details.”
When Trump University was launched, the challenge was to give reality to a learning environment that was primarily designed to be online. Enter The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint, the first flagship product for Trump U – to share the stage with Donald Trump.
This home study program has substantial ‘thud’ factor, plus the substance of a complete wealth building system to follow in Trump’s footsteps. But how could it stand out in the media frenzy of lights, cameras and journalists wanting a story straight from the Donald?
The ‘theme park’ was essential to convert the lobby into an environment that could capture the imagination and create a brand experience that left a lasting impression - not to mention the opportunity to profile the product around the world riding on the media’s coverage.
Essential ingredients for a knowledge theme park:
Create a color palette to set the stage for the brand (colored table cloths can work well)
Merchandise with multiple product samples (an old department store trick: stack them high – watch them fly!)
Display messages that inspire and evoke curiosity - an open mind is essential to get someone to take action
Build the browsing experience - create a mini fantasy adventure with lots to explore
Engage your audience with multiple senses
And now with the ever-increasing expectations for a complete online experience, these same principles can be applied in a website to create a virtual knowledge marketing theme park.
It’s good to be on the other side of a workshop experience, and two recent events I attended missed out on theming and opportunities to take participants into ‘another world’. Not the world of high-pressure sales, but one that builds on their heightened sense of what’s possible for themselves and their business.
The above picture is one example of how to change the dynamics of the participant buying experience. For Robert Kiyosaki and his Rich Dad Seminars we created a branded ‘theme park’, with most of the accessories being standard hotel supplies (it is always worthwhile getting a tour of the back store room!). It can be as simple as bringing your own colored table cloths – we used a purple theme for Rich Dad events – and creating some smart tiered displays plus display cards with interesting quotes from the speaker, presented on banner stands or easel-backed signs.
I find that ‘miracles of improvisation‘ are usually far better than excessive spending on all sorts of fancy display accessories. (Stay tuned for how to transform a generic pipe and drape trade show booth into a compelling and profitable destination!) Knowledge marketing has many faces .
We don’t live in an information age. We live in a knowledge age.
My colleague, Jon Ward describes knowledge as ‘practical wisdom’. Unlike mere information, knowledge can be intelligently applied to create desired results.
Knowledge has enormous value - when distinguished from the masses of information that overload us every day. Acquiring knowledge is not just about gathering more data (oops - just checked my computer desktop!) - but learning, embracing and then applying wisdom so that we can have more life.
CNN Money article 
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