Image adapted from John Buie's photo on flickr.

We had the pleasure of hosting Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) on a recent DNN webinar titled "Broaden the Reach of Your Content Marketing by Thinking Like Food Trucks." 

The concepts Chris covered in the webinar were first shared in a blog post he published. The post is titled, "Content Marketing as a Food Truck: Rethinking Content Marketing In A World of Splintered Attention." 

Content Is Its Own First-Class Citizen

"People want the candy bar, not the vending machine."

As marketers, we worry too much about the platform on which our content is consumed. We want people to consume content on our website (of course). Secondarily, we're happy if people consume our content on our social media channels. In Brogan's food truck model, it's more important that your target audience consumed your content. Anywhere. Our focus should be on the impact resulting from the content, not where it was consumed.

As Chris shared during the webinar: "People want the candy bar, not the vending machine."

The Content Upgrade

During the webinar, Chris shared the concept of "The Content Upgrade:"

Instead of asking for a person's email address to receive your latest eBook, create a larger set of content around the eBook's topic. "Giveaway content" may be blog posts or SlideShares on the topic. Within this giveaway content, the main call-to-action may be to opt in to your email list.

Once users opt in to your list, they could receive (over time, via email) your premium content. The premium content could include the eBook, a chopped up eBook (i.e. share a chapter at a time), live webinars, on-demand webinars and training videos. 

For B2B marketers, I think the "Content Upgrade" approach can be far more effective than the conventional "one size fits all" email nurture program.

Comments from Webinar Attendees

Chris received high praise from webinar attendees, including a 4.5 (out of 5.0) rating. Here are selected attendee comments:

"Chris Brogan is smart, humble, and gives a great presentation. His points are meaty but concise, and his practical applications are clear. Overall, BRILLIANT and I would change nothing."

"I take a lot of webinars, but this one was by far, the most informative for our needs. Thank you!"

[Photo source: Sarah Reid's photo on flickr.]

"Great logical concepts put into practice. Thanks for sharing your world."

On-Demand Webinar

View the on-demand archive any time:

[WEBINAR] Broaden the Reach of Your Content Marketing by Thinking Like Food Trucks

DNN Does Food Trucks

Breaking news: we're in the food truck business. As Chris stated during the webinar (about our Evoq products):

"The [Evoq] tools are really built for this. You can make and re-mix content. You can add in different kinds of modules. There's all kinds of advocacy and review tools."

View three short videos that show how you can apply the food truck concept using Evoq.

Webinar Slides

Broaden the Reach of Your Content Marketing by Thinking Like Food Trucks from DNN