Tag Archives: inland empire content marketing expert

When the Metamessage Contradicts the Message, You Need a Case Study

I recently published a post that asked three questions:

  • Isn’t it wonderful when a man loves a woman?
  • And isn’t it great to be born in the U.S.A.?
  • And didn’t the devil get what he deserved when he went down to Georgia?

I answered those three questions as follows:

  • No.
  • No.
  • No.

Apparently we weren’t paying attention to what these three songs actually SAID.

But what happens when we DO pay attention to the message, but there’s a “metamessage” that is also conveyed that says something COMPLETELY different?

By Rockero at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3949535

Gracious city livers of Upland (and others in other cities), read on. This post talks about:

    Let’s talk about metamessages

    There is a popular practice in which people ARE well aware of the original message, but only some of them discern the hidden message, or metamessage, behind those words.

    And you don’t have to look to business communication to find examples of this. Take the romantic world, in which the statement “If you go out with me I’ll treat you like the princess you are!” conveys the metamessage of predatory desperation. In the business world, “Let me take that under consideration” means that the speaker is not considering the proposal for a nanosecond.

    Sometimes many of us can’t discern the metamessage until long after the message is stated.

    • Remember the message that Whitney Houston gave to Diane Sawyer?
    Whitney Houston on crack, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqwBYognBzI

    Respect: We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness and arrogance don’t belong here.

    Integrity: We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly and sincerely. When we say we will do something, we will do it; when we say we cannot or will not do something, then we won’t do it.

    Communication: We have an obligation to communicate. Here, we take the time to talk with one another…and to listen. We believe that information is meant to move and that information moves people.

    Excellence: We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do. We will continue to raise the bar for everyone. The great fun here will be for all of us to discover just how good we can really be.

    From Enron’s Statement of Human Rights Principles.

    Now to be fair to Houston, the cocaine detected in her toxicology report may not have been CRACK cocaine, and cocaine was not the only substance detected. But now we know that while crack may have been “wack,” cocaine was OK, and marijuana, Xanax, and other things were OK too.

    I have no desire to be fair to Enron, but I guess we can say that “the very best in everything we do” can be defined as “maximizing personal value,” that there isn’t an “obligation to communicate” EVERYTHING, and that falsifying records does not necessarily mean ruthlessness or arrogance.

    When the metamessage agrees with the message

    How often do you roll your eyes in amusement when a business says something?

    Conversely, how often do you nod your head in agreement when a business says something?

    Now I’ll grant that there’s not universal agreement on whether Company X is truthful in its messaging. For every person who thinks that Apple is the last guardian of privacy on ths planet, there is someone else who is convinced that Apple is an evil corporation who has (and I quote an anonymous source) “become what they accused Microsoft of.”

    But it doesn’t matter what the world thinks.

    What matters is what your prospect thinks.

    • Does your prospect think your company is telling the truth?
    • Does your prospect think your company is lying?
    • Does your prospect need more information to make a decision?

    How case studies help you reach message-metamessage agreement

    One powerful way to convince a doubting prospect is via a case study.

    No, not that type of case! By Michael Kammerer (Rob Gyp) – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37604962

    It always helps when someone else is singing your company’s praises. Especially when the subject of the case study backs up what you’ve been claiming all along.

    If your Inland Empire firm needs a case study, Bredemarket can create it for you. After I ask you some questions, I can craft a case study (with your approval and the approval of the case study subject) that emphasizes WHY your company serves your customers, and HOW the case study demonstrates this.

    Let’s talk. Click on the image below.

    Drive content results with Bredemarket Inland Empire Services.

    If You’re Not Saying Things, Then You’re Not Selling

    Some of you are arriving here after reading about the AI CEO Mika.

    Some of you aren’t.

    But all of you (well, unless you’re Mika, who might not get out all that much) are familiar with how an outdoor marketplace works.

    A marketplace contains two types of people—sellers, and those who aren’t sellers.

    Designed by Freepik.

    There are many different ways to tell the sellers from the non-sellers, but one key way (at least as far as I’m concerned) is that sellers are saying things.

    If you’re not saying things, then you’re not a seller.

    And you’re not selling.

    If you want to sell, maybe you should say stuff.

    Whether you are an identity/biometric firm, a technology firm, or a firm located in California’s Inland Empire, Bredemarket can help you create the blog posts, case studies, white papers, and other content your firm needs.

    Click on one of the images below to start to create content that converts prospects for your product/service and drives content results.

    Buzzworthy Inbound Marketing For IE Firms

    Plant sex. It’s difficult, because the stationary nature of flowers complicates sexual reproduction. But as you will see, the solution to the plant sex problem can also solve the marketing problem of your Inland Empire firm.

    Stigma with pollen. By Thomas Bresson – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26008626

    According to Let’s Talk Science:

    Flowering plants reproduce sexually through a process called pollination. Flowers contain male sex organs called stamens and female sex organs called pistils. The anther is the part of the stamen that contains pollen. Pollen contains the male gametes. Pollen must be moved to a part of the pistil called the stigma for reproduction to take place. 

    From Let’s Talk Science.

    Because flowers cannot cross-pollinate by themselves, they need to attract bees (or other insects) to help. So the flowers just bat their little flower eyes, and the excited bees take the pollen from one flower’s anther to another flower’s stigma/pistil.

    By The original uploader was Y6y6y6 at English Wikipedia. – Original image located at PDPhoto.org. Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Drilnoth using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7365698

    Surprisingly, plant sex has EVERYTHING to do with your Inland Empire firm. Your firm is “a flower attracting bees.” So I’ll show you how your firm can attract the bees to spread your pollen and spawn results.

    What is inbound marketing?

    Now you don’t need to be like a flower and have an anther with pollen to attract prospects. The business equivalent of plant sex is inbound marketing. HubSpot defines inbound marketing as follows:

    Creating tailored marketing experiences through valuable content is the core of an inbound marketing strategy that helps you drive customer engagement and growth.

    From HubSpot.

    Unlike outbound marketing in which your firm goes out and grabs the prospects (hopefully not literally) through trade shows or cold calling, in inbound marketing the prospects come to you. And because the prospects are in your invisible trust funnel, you don’t have to log them in your customer relationship management system or track them (and their precious metrics) in your traditional sales funnel.

    Your traditional funnel where you know everything about your prospects. From Venn Marketing, “Awareness, Consideration, Conversion: A 4 Minute Intro To Marketing 101.” (Link)

    Or your non-traditional sales funnel with a “messy middle.”

    From https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-journey/navigating-purchase-behavior-and-decision-making/

    The “problem” for those who thrive on marketing analytics is that you don’t know who is in your trust funnel. I know from experience.

    • Most of Bredemarket’s work and most of my full-time employment positions came from people coming to me, rather than me soliciting people. They just popped up.
    • As I previously mentioned in my trust funnel post, Kasey Jones has acquired customers who have never engaged with her in the past, but who suddently expressed a desire to work with her. Again, they just popped up.

    But if your business can get that trust funnel working, the revenue will come. Not immediately, and not when you expect it, but it will come.

    How can your Inland Empire firm create your own trust funnel?

    Inbound marketing can attract “trust funnel” prospects to your firm by creating content that speaks to their needs.

    • First, you need to create the content, or have someone create it for you. If you fail to create new content, your website and social channels will look stale, and prospects will wonder if your firm is still ongoing and viable.
    • Second, ensure your content meets your prospects’ needs by asking key questions about your planned content before you create it.
    Here are seven questions you can ask before creating content. Read Bredemarket’s e-book “Seven Questions Your Content Creator Should Ask You” for more details.

    And Bredemarket is ready to help your Inland Empire firm create that content and ask the necessary questions to drive results. Click the picture to learn more.

    Drive content results with Bredemarket Inland Empire Services.

    Inland Empire Firms: Drive Content Results

    Does your Inland Empire firm need written content—blog posts, articles, case studies, white papers?

    Why do you need this content, and what is your goal?

    How will you create the content? Do you need an extra, experienced hand to help out?

    Learn how Bredemarket can create content that drives results for your Inland Empire firm.

    Click the image below.

    Drive content results with Bredemarket Inland Empire Services.

    #contentmarketing #inlandempire

    Start Your Engines: Writing Your Non-Traditional Words

    All too often, Bredemarket confines its writing discussions to the traditional ABCW (articles, blog posts, case studies, white papers) categories.

    But what if your content needs are non-traditional and fall outside of the usual nice neat business writing categories?

    From the 2023 Route 66 Cruisin’ Reunion, Saturday, September 16, 2023.

    If you are an Inland Empire business who needs words, but not in the traditional “ABCW” (articles, blog posts, case studies, white papers) business types, Bredemarket will help you with your non-traditional writing needs.

    Take a look at the examples I’ve provided below, and if these spark interest within you, authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.

    • Email me at john.bredehoft@bredemarket.com.
    • Book a meeting with me at calendly.com/bredemarket. Be sure to fill out the information form so I can best help you. For example, if you’re an Inland Empire business requiring non-traditional content, fill out the form accordingly.
    Example form from https://calendly.com/bredemarket/
    Bredemarket logo

    Here’s what I’m going to talk about in this post.

    The traditional 22+ content categories

    Sometimes I’m guilty of traditional thinking. Too traditional.

    I won’t say a lot about this because I’ve said it before, but I’ve defined 22 fairly traditional categories of content that I (and Bredemarket) have created and can create.

    22 traditional content types.

    I won’t go into all 22 types again, especially since some of them are internal content rather than customer-facing content. But I’d like to highlight the “ABCW” four types that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, plus a couple of others.

    Articles and blog posts

    I’m lumping articles and blog posts together, because while some “experts” try to draw hard-and-fast distinctions between the two, they’re pretty much the same thing.

    Whether it’s a blog post on your website, a post or article on LinkedIn, or even some extended text associated with an Instagram picture or a TikTok video, what you’re creating is some text that entertains, persuades, inspires, or educates your reader, or perhaps all four. You set the goal for the article or blog post, then tailor the content to meet the goal. (I’ll talk more about goals later.)

    Case studies

    From “How Bredemarket Can Help You Win Business,” available via this post.

    Case studies show your readers how your solution was applied to someone else’s problem, and how your solution can benefit your prospects with similar problems.

    Maybe your prospect is a city police agency that needs a tool to solve crimes, and your case study describes how your solution solved crimes in a similar city. Again, you set the goal for the case study, then tailor the content to meet the goal.

    White papers

    On the surface, white papers are informational, but when a company issues a white paper, the “information” that the white paper provides should gently guide the reader toward doing business with the company that issued the paper. Using the example above, you could write a white paper that outlines “Five Critical Elements for a Local Crime-Solving Solution.” By remarkable coincidence, your own solution happens to include all five of those critical elements. Again, you set the goal and tailor the content.

    Briefs, data sheets, and literature sheets

    One-page sheet for the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service. More information here.

    Perhaps you need to provide handouts to your prospects that describe your product or service.

    Regardless of whether you call these handouts briefs, data, sheets, literature sheets, or something else, they should at a minimum contain both “educate” and “persuade” elements—educate your prospects on the benefits of your product or service, and persuade your prospects to move closer to a sale (conversion).

    Again, you set the goal and tailor the content.

    Web page content

    If your business has a web page, I hope that it has more words than “Under construction.” Whether you have imagery, video, audio, text, or all four on your web page, it needs to answer the questions that your prospects and customers have.

    You know what I’m going to say here, but it’s still important. You set the goal and tailor the content.

    But…what if your business needs content that doesn’t fall into these traditional business categories?

    Non-traditional content: going to a car show

    I went to a car show this weekend—specifically, this year’s Route 66 Cruisin’ Reunion in downtown Ontario, California. (Yes, I know that Route 66 actually passed three miles north of downtown Ontario, but work with me here.)

    While some of the exhibitors were personal, some of them were businesses. As businesses, what was the major marketing collateral that they generated?

    Not a blog post, or LinkedIn article, or any of the traditional business media collateral.

    Their marketing tools were the cars themselves.

    So perhaps you may assume that car show exhibitors don’t need textual content. Your assumption would be incorrect.

    From https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ed9bn7lmtzA

    In addition to the car itself, this exhibitor included poster boards with words describing the car.

    Another exhibitor did the same thing.

    So while these car show exhibitors didn’t choose a traditional way to convey their words, they shared written text anyway.

    Your non-traditional business communication needs

    Maybe you don’t have a classic car. Maybe you don’t have a car at all. Do you need to share words with your prospects and customers anyway?

    Now I don’t know your business communication needs. You do. But I can guess a few things.

    1. Do you need to tell your clients/potential clients why you do what you do?
    2. Do you need to tell them how you do it?
    3. And last but not least, do you need to tell them what you do?

    I know that this may seem like an unusual order to you. Why not start with what you do?

    Because your customers don’t care about what you do. Your customers care about themselves.

    If you keep the focus on your customers, the answer to the “why” question will induce your customers to care about you, because it shows how you can solve their problems.

    Let’s illustrate this.

    Why and how Bredemarket creates non-traditional content

    You may be asking why I create content in the first place. There are countless content creators, both human and non-human. Why turn to me when OpenAI and its bot buddies are a lot cheaper and faster?

    Normally I include my recent professional picture, but I have been writing since my college days (on a typewriter back then).

    The simple answer is that I am obsessed with writing, and in this era of self-description, I self-describe as a “you can pry my keyboard out of my cold dead hands” type. (It used to be a typewriter, but let’s stick to this millennium.) And with my many years of personal and professional writing, I’ve honed my ability to take concepts and make them meaningful to readers.

    Which brings me to how Bredemarket works.

    1. Bredemarket’s service is independent of content type. I don’t have a “Bredemarket blog writing service” or “Bredemarket data sheet writing service” or “Bredemarket case study writing service.” My services are based on word length, not content type, with my most popular service targeted to customers who need between 400 and 600 words of text. From this perspective, I don’t care if you want the words to appear on your website or your social media channel or a paper flyer or a sign next to your car or a really really long banner towed behind an airplane. (Read about the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service here.)
    2. Before I write a thing, I ask your some questions. It won’t surprise you to learn that my first questions to you are why, how, and what. I then move on to questions about your goal for the content, the benefits of your solution, the target audience for your solution, and many additional questions. (Read about the Six Questions Your Content Creator Should Ask You here.)
    3. Once the questions are out of the way, content creation is collaborative and iterative. I create a draft, you review it, and we repeat. The Bredemarket 400 service includes two review cycles; longer content needs include three review cycles. The goal is to ensure that both of us are happy with the final product.

    Bredemarket’s process applies regardless of the specific content type, so I should be able to support whatever content you need, whether it’s traditional or non-traditional.

    Can I help you?

    And as an added bonus, here are some additional images from this weekend’s Cruisin’ Reunion. Enjoy.

    From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SboKOAmL5w

    Blogging: The Secret Growth Weapon for Riverside and San Bernardino County Firms

    From the 2022 Cruisin’ Reunion in Ontario, California. The 2023 edition takes place this weekend.

    (Updated blog post count 10/23/2023)

    There are many ways for Inland Empire firms to raise awareness about their offerings. For certain firms, blogging provides quantifiable benefits. Can your firm take advantage of blogging’s fresh immediacy?

    Blogging benefits

    I recently wrote a post, “The Secret to Beating Half of All Fortune 500 Marketers and Growing Your Business,” that lists 14 quantifiable benefits from blogging. Here are the top 4:

    Data source: Daily Infographic, https://www.dailyinfographic.com/state-of-blogging-industry
    1. Awareness: the average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors.
    2. Lead generation: B2B marketers that use blogs get 67% more leads than those who do not.
    3. Conversions: marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.
    4. Conversions (again): 92% of companies who blog multiple times per day have acquired a customer from their blog.

    Why Bredemarket?

    If you need help writing blog posts so that your Inland Empire firm stands out, I, John E. Bredehoft of Bredemarket, can help.

    In most cases, I can provide your blog post via my standard package, the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service. I offer other packages and options if you have special needs.

    Get in touch

    Authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.

    Bredemarket logo

    Should Inland Empire Companies Generate Content with ChatGPT (or other generative AI tools)?

    An image of a neural network. By DancingPhilosopher – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135594693

    Inland Empire companies are asking the same question that other companies are asking: “Should my business use ChatGPT (or another generative AI tool) to quickly generate content?”

    Bear in mind that I have a vested interest in the answer to this question, because Bredemarket’s business is content generation for other businesses. So I don’t have a natural inclination to tell you not to buy my services and use ChatGPT or Bard or whatever instead.

    Nevertheless, I’ll outline the advantages and drawbacks of using automation (in this case generative AI tools) to create written content. Then I’ll look at the three options for your business’ content generation needs. (Surprise! One of those options is to contract with Bredemarket. You’ve been warned that a call to action is coming.)

    An “exchange” of questions

    As I mentioned in my post about creating and populating Facebook business pages, yesterday afternoon was the first time in years that I had attended a monthly Ontario IDEA Exchange meeting. For those who aren’t familiar with these meetings, they allow small business owners from the Ontario, California area to meet and…um…exchange ideas.

    By Mack Male – originally posted to Flickr as Ontario Convention Center, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9512928

    One of the attendees asked me what I thought of ChatGPT.

    If you’ve read the Bredemarket blog or the Bredemarket LinkedIn page, you know that I have some thoughts on this. (If you haven’t seen my thoughts, I’ll share them later in this post.)

    It turns out that the attendee had a reason for asking the question that went well beyond generative artificial intelligence (generative AI), and touched on automation in general.

    • Should we use ChatGPT, Bard, or another generative AI tool to generate text content, or should we contact a content marketing expert?
    • Similarly, should we use a generative AI tool to generate image content, or should we contact a graphic design expert?
    • Going beyond generative AI, should we use tax preparation software, or should we contact a tax preparation expert?

    You can ask this same question about a variety of business services. Should you opt for the (sometimes) cheaper automated solution, or should you get a real person to perform the service?

    This can be a loaded question. After all, I can’t tell you that you should always use a person for these tasks when I personally use Freepik and a well-known tax preparation software package.

    Designed by Freepik.

    So, returning to content, let’s take a (probably non-objective) look at the pros and cons of using generative AI tools for content creation. After all, some of my best friends use generative AI…and they’re still my friends (and obviously not my customers).

    Generative AI content advantages

    While generative AI isn’t as trendy a topic as it was a few months ago, people are still talking about using generative AI to create text content. And there are clearly some advantages to it.

    Fair use, from https://www.racers-behindthehelmet.com/post/first-historic-pole-position-and-podium-for-antonella-bassani-in-porsche-cup-brasil. Photo credits: Porsche Cup Brasil.
    • It’s very fast. No, you won’t create your text in a minute. But with properly written prompts (commands to the generative AI tool) and by using a few iterations, you can probably get generative AI text content in five minutes. You won’t get text content of any length from Bredemarket in five minutes.
    • It’s (usually) free. In most cases, you can obtain your text at no cost to you. Again, Bredemarket doesn’t work for free.
    • It’s easy. You don’t need to know how to write. Sure, you need to know how to write the prompt, but you don’t need to worry about the mechanics of writing the text itself, and when to use “its” or “it’s”. You don’t want to sound like a looser, after all. (That was wrong.)
    • It’s “good enough.” Under most circumstances, the text created by a generative AI tool gets the job done, and is obviously better than no text at all.

    Generative AI content drawbacks

    Perhaps I’m biased, but I think that we can all agree on the drawbacks that I’ve listed below.

    From https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/evaluating-quality-cell-counting-methods-experimental-design-and-statistical
    • Potential accuracy issues. Generative AI content is sourced from the Internet, and you know how accurate the Internet can be at times. For example, when I was working for my former employer, I asked one popular generative AI tool to tell me the weaknesses of my employer’s product. The tool returned two responses, one of which was plain wrong.
    • More potential accuracy issues. The way generative AI tools work, most of them provide their answers as if they were most certainly true, with no attempt to provide the probability that the response is correct or incorrect. In essence, Mr. Gen AI is an automated know-it-all with complete certainty in its answers, even when they are obviously wrong.
    • Potential relevancy issues. Depending upon your generative AI tool, you may not have access to the latest data and may instead rely on older data that was available when the generative AI tool was trained. At one point, several of the popular generative AI tools were trained on data from 2021 or earlier, which meant that they knew nothing about events that happened last week.
    • Potential privacy issues. When you feed prompts to a generative AI tool, the prompts are stored by the tool. What if you’re using a public tool, and you’re feeding confidential data from your company to the tool? What’s going to happen to your company’s private data? (This is especially critical when the data crosses international borders, something that gave Samsung serious concern.)
    • Potential tone of voice issues. If your company feeds a prompt to a generative AI tool, and your competitor feeds the same prompt to the same tool, you will get similar or identical responses. If both companies use these responses, then the companies will sound like bland “me-too” providers, with no differentiation.

    I’ve touched on a number of these issues in more detail in pieces that I’ve written on the Bredemarket blog (and in one case on LinkedIn). These explain when I use generative AI, and when I do not.

    So what should YOUR business do?

    Depending upon your business needs, your budget, and your marketing direction, you have three choices.

    (UPDATE OCTOBER 23, 2023: “SIX QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU IS SO 2022. DOWNLOAD THE NEWER “SEVEN QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU” HERE.)

    • Use a generative AI tool to write your content. It’s fast, it’s free, it’s easy. It may be good enough.
    • Use a low-cost writer to write your content. If you want to spend a little money, you can find writers who will work for pennies per word. That’s more than a generative AI tool, but you have a better chance of getting the content you want.
    • Use Bredemarket. I cost more than pennies per word (the cost for my standard 400-600 word writing package is in the brochure on my Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service page), but Bredemarket’s collaborative kickoff process, including the opening six questions that I ask you, helps to ensure that your firm will get the content that you need.

    Authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.

    Bredemarket logo

    Bonus: here’s what Google Bard says on the topic (written by Google, not by me)

    Sure, here are three advantages and three drawbacks of using generative AI to create written content:

    Advantages:

    • Speed: Generative AI can create content much faster than humans. This can be a major advantage for businesses that need to produce a lot of content quickly, such as content marketing agencies or news organizations.
    • Cost-effectiveness: Generative AI can be a more cost-effective way to create content than hiring human writers. This is especially true for tasks that are repetitive or time-consuming, such as writing product descriptions or blog posts.
    • Accuracy: Generative AI can be very accurate in generating content that is factually correct. This is because it is trained on large datasets of text and code.

    Drawbacks:

    • Creativity: Generative AI is not as creative as humans. It can only generate content that is based on the data it has been trained on. This means that it may not be able to come up with new ideas or insights.
    • Bias: Generative AI can be biased, depending on the data it is trained on. This is a concern because it could lead to the creation of content that is inaccurate or harmful.
    • Plagiarism: Generative AI can sometimes plagiarize content from other sources. This is because it is trained on a variety of text data, including some that may not be properly cited.

    Overall, generative AI can be a valuable tool for creating written content. However, it is important to be aware of its limitations and to use it responsibly.

    Here are some additional things to keep in mind when using generative AI to create written content:

    • Always fact-check the content before publishing it. Generative AI can sometimes make mistakes, so it is important to double-check the information.
    • Be clear about the purpose of the content. Are you trying to inform, persuade, or entertain? The purpose of the content will help you determine the tone and style of the writing.
    • Be aware of the audience. Who are you writing for? What are their interests and needs? Tailor the content to your audience.
    • Use generative AI as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. Generative AI can be a great way to get started with a writing project, but it is important to put your own unique spin on the content.

    Creating a Business Page on Facebook for Your Inland Empire Company

    There are Inland Empire companies that have an online presence, and companies that don’t.

    Yes, the Ontario Convention Center has an online presence, on the web and elsewhere. Picture by Mack Male – originally posted to Flickr as Ontario Convention Center, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9512928

    If your Inland Empire company doesn’t have an online presence, one quick way to create one is to create a business page on Facebook.

    This post outlines the benefits of establishing an online presence via a Facebook business page. It also provides four examples of Facebook business pages. Finally, the post addresses the thorny question of creating content for your Facebook business page.

    Why Faceboook may be the best online presence for your business

    For the first time in years, I attended an Ontario IDEA Exchange meeting at AmPac Business Capital on Tuesday afternoon. There was a mixture of attendees: some who had established several businesses, some like me who had run one business for some time, and a few who were just starting out in business.

    The ones who were starting out were still trying to figure out all the things you need to do to start a business: figuring out why the business exists in the first place, getting the appropriate business licenses (and in some cases professional licenses), printing business cards (or creating the online equivalent), setting up SOME kind of way to track prospects and customers…and establishing an online presence.

    Now some businesses choose to establish their online presence by creating a website.

    I believe that this is the best way to establish an online presence since you have more control over the content. Plus, there are several alternative ways to create a business website (I use WordPress, but you can use SquareSpace, Wix, or any of several other website builders).

    But even the simplest website can involve a lot of complexity—bredemarket.com currently has 57 pages, not counting tag pages and individual blog post pages.

    For many small businesses, it may be much easier to create a Facebook business page then to create an entire website.

    • Facebook business pages are free. (Well, unless you run ads.)
    • Facebook business pages are easy to create.
    • Facebook business pages potentially reach billions of people, including your prospects and customers.

    Creating a Facebook business page

    So how do you create a Facebook business page?

    There’s no need for me to document all of that in detail, since many have already done so.

    Starting with Facebook itself.

    As long as you have a personal Facebook profile, and as long as you can provide basic information about your business (category, address, areas serviced, email, phone number, website, hours, etc.), you can create a Facebook page from your laptop or desktop computer by following these steps:

    1. From the Pages section, click Create new Page.
    2. Add your Page name and category.
    3. Add your Page’s bio and click Create.
    4. (Optional) Add information, such as Contact, Location and Hours, and click Next.
    5. (Optional) Add profile and cover photos, and edit the action button, and click Next.
    6. (Optional) Invite friends to connect with your Page, and click Next.
    7. Click Done.
    From https://www.facebook.com/business/help/473994396650734?id=939256796236247

    Don’t worry if you don’t have all the optional items, such as a page cover picture. You can add them later. This will get you going.

    Other guides to creating Facebook business pages are available from Buffer (with pictures), Hootsuite (with pictures). Sprout Social (with pictures), and a number of other sources.

    But before you create YOUR Facebook business page, let me show you four varied examples of EXISTING Facebook business pages.

    Four examples of Facebook business pages

    Let’s take a look at some pages that already exist. Perhaps one or more of these will give you ideas for your own page.

    The artist page (Paso Artis)

    Paso Artis is a European business whose proprietor is a painter who sells her paintings.

    From https://www.facebook.com/paso.artis/about

    The menu options at the bottom of the picture above (some of which cannot be seen) illustrate some of the elements you can include in a Facebook page. Here are just a few of the page elements that Paso Artis uses:

    • Posts. This is the equivalent of a blog on a website, and allows you to post text, images, videos, and other types of content.
    • About. This is where you provide contact and other basic information about your business.
    • Shop. Facebook allows you to include a shop, which Paso Artis uses to sell her paintings.
    From https://www.facebook.com/paso.artis/shop_tab
    • Photos. As you can imagine for an artist’s page, photos of the artwork are essential.

    The shirtmaker page (Shirts by Kaytie)

    (UPDATE 10/20/2023: Because Shirts by Kaytie is sadly no longer in business, I have removed the, um, live links to her Facebook page.)

    Let’s leave Europe and go to Illinois where we find another artist, but her work is not displayed on paintings, but on shirts. Here is the Shirts by Kaytie Facebook page.

    From https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095322638655

    You’ll notice that Shirts by Kaytie has a different menu item order (and different menu items) than Paso Artis. For example, Shirts by Kaytie doesn’t have a Facebook “shop” element; you need to contact her directly to purchase items.

    But Shirts by Kaytie certainly has photos.

    From https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095322638655&sk=photos

    The marketer/writer page (Bredemarket)

    Enough of such exotic locations as Europe and Illinois. Let’s head to California’s Inland Empire and look at my favorite marketing/writing services Facebook page, the Bredemarket Facebook page.

    From https://www.facebook.com/Bredemarket/

    I’d like to point out two things here.

    • First, Bredemarket (unlike Paso Artis and Shirts by Kaytie) provides services rather than tangible products. Therefore, I chose to include a “Services” element as part of my Facebook page.
    From https://www.facebook.com/Bredemarket/services

    Second, Bredemarket has chosen to implement Facebook’s “groups” feature. In Bredemarket’s case, there are three separate groups that focus on various aspects of Bredemarket’s business. Inland Empire businesses can read the content in the Bredemarket Inland Empire B2B Services group and not get bogged down in out-of-area identity discussions about the change from FRVT to FRTE. (They’re missing out.)

    From https://www.facebook.com/Bredemarket/groups

    The local technology champion page (Startempire Wire)

    I saved the Startempire Wire Facebook page for last because it makes terrific use of Facebook’s capabilities.

    From https://www.facebook.com/startempirewire

    By the way, if you are an Inland Empire business—especially an Inland Empire startup technology business—and you have never heard of Startempire Wire, STOP READING MY POST and go follow Startempire Wire’s Facebook page NOW. Startempire Wire is THE news source for Inland Empire startup tech information, and is a strong champion of the IE tech community.

    So what does Startempire Wire’s Facebook page offer? Posts, photos, weekly videos, and the “Inland Empire Startup Scene” group. All of the content is jam-packed with information.

    Facebook pages are essential to these firms’ strategies

    Now in some cases the Facebook pages are only part of the online presence for these firms. Both Bredemarket and Startempire Wire have their own web pages, and both firms are also active on other online properties such as LinkedIn. (Bredemarket is almost everywhere, but not on Snapchat.) But Facebook is an essential part of the outreach for all four of these firms, allowing them to reach prospects and clients who are only on Facebook and nowhere else.

    Perhaps a Facebook page is a perfect solution for YOUR firm’s online presence.

    Let’s talk about content

    But creating a Facebook page is not enough.

    You need to populate it with content, such as images, videos…and posts.

    And if your Facebook page doesn’t have any content, it’s useless to your prospects. As I’ve preached for years, an empty page makes your prospects and customers question whether you exist.

    Now I’m not saying that you HAVE to update your Facebook page daily, but it’s a good idea to add new content at least once a month.

    But what if you aren’t a writer, or don’t have time to write? Do you have to resort to ChatGPT?

    Heavens no. (I’ll say more about that later.)

    Well, online content creation is where Bredemarket comes in. I help firms create blog posts, Facebook posts, LinkedIn articles, case studies, white papers, and other content (22 different types of content at last count).

    Does your product (or company) need these 22 content types?

    Let me help you populate your Facebook page (or other online content).

    Authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.

    Bredemarket logo

    How Does Ontario International Airport Affect Inland Empire Businesses?

    As some of you know, I’m applying for full-time employment. Every one of my cover letters has a variation on this sentence.

    I am in Southern California, five miles from Ontario International Airport, and can easily travel throughout the United States or to other countries as needed.

    By Vmzp85 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64427385

    You will note that I explicitly state that Ontario International Airport is in Southern California, not Canada. Although the phrase “Ontario CA” can be interpreted as referring to the city in the state of California, or the province in the country of Canada, depending upon how you look at it.

    Not that anybody pays attention to my explicit California reference. When I was sharing pictures from the February 18 Ontario Art Walk, and labeling the pictures as originating from Ontario, California, I was still asked to promote one of the pictures on a Canadian Instagram page.

    From https://www.instagram.com/p/Co074Xsr–u/

    The curse that we endure in the town of the Chaffeys. I bet Mildura doesn’t have this problem.

    While Ontario International Airport is not the only airport in the Inland Empire, it is (at present) the largest one, and thus has a dramatic effect on those of us who live here.

    But what is that effect?

    Good times

    There is certainly a positive financial effect. Oxford Economics prepared a white paper entitled “The Economic Impact of Ontario International Airport, September 2022.”

    One impact? Well, in the same way that I can board a flight from ONT to my future employer in San Francisco or Austin or Paris or wherever, visitors can board flights to ONT.

    And some of those visitors are business visitors. Years ago, I was one of them, flying from Portland, Oregon to some town I had never heard of before for a job interview. Not only did I fly into the airport (Terminal 1 in those days), but I also stayed at the Red Lion Inn and spent other money while I was in town for the interview.

    Ontario International Airport Terminal 1 as of September 2021, 20 years after airport traffic changed forever.

    Postscript: I got the job. And other jobs after that.

    The economists assign a monetary impact to the activity attributable to the airport.

    The impact of economic activity taking place at Ontario International
    Airport itself, including the activity of the airport authority, airlines
    and their suppliers, government workers, airport concessions, and
    logistics companies is estimated at $3.8 billion in 2022. This will
    support $2.2 billion in GDP and 27,800 jobs. The bulk of these
    impacts—71% of the GDP impacts and 76% of the jobs impacts—
    reflect the impact of visitor spending in the region.

    From https://www.flyontario.com/sites/default/files/2022-11/ONT-Economic-Report-2022.pdf

    But don’t forget the government, which gets its own goodies.

    This $2.2 billion of local economic activity (GDP) will result in a total
    of $571 million in tax impact. This consists of $319 million in federal
    tax impacts and $253 million in state and local impacts. As with the
    GDP impacts, the majority (71%) of these tax impacts are driven by
    the spending of visitors to the region.

    From https://www.flyontario.com/sites/default/files/2022-11/ONT-Economic-Report-2022.pdf

    And this doesn’t count the impact of the Inland Empire’s logistics industry.

    The total economic impact of the logistics activity in the eight zip codes adjacent to Ontario International Airport was $17.8 billion of economic output, $9.9 billion of GDP, and 122,200 jobs. This activity generated $2.3 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.

    From https://www.flyontario.com/sites/default/files/2022-11/ONT-Economic-Report-2022.pdf

    Bad times

    But what of non-monetary impacts? As the description of the Ontario International Airport – Inter Agency Collaborative (ONT-IAC) makes clear, some of those impacts are negative.

    The ONT-IAC implements the policies and criteria of the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan (ALUCP) to prevent future incompatible land uses surrounding ONT and minimizing the public’s exposure to excessivie noise and safety hazards. 

    From https://www.ontarioca.gov/planning/ont-iac

    There’s always a balancing act between positive and negative impacts. While I might appreciate the ability to board a flight to Dallas at 6:00 in the morning, someone who lives near the airport may not be as appreciative. And the referenced “incompatible land uses” restrict the types of businesses that can be located near the airport.

    While the Amazon LGB3 warehouse in Eastvale, California is some distance from Ontario International Airport, the airport’s presence has a positive impact on the warehouse and its workers.

    But the relatively large amount of open space near the airport (again, our beloved warehouses) has helped to ensure that ONT does not need to implement the severe flight restrictions found at John Wayne and our former airport overlord Los Angeles International Airport.

    And for better or worse the airport will remain for some time. It’s not like it’s going to close down or anything.

    Although 9/11, the 2008 recession, and COVID tried to close it.

    And one more thing about your business…

    Does your firm need to create content for Inland Empire residents, Inland Empire visitors, and others who use your firm’s services?

    Are you ready to take your Ontario, Eastvale, or Inland Empire firm to the next level with a compelling message that increases awareness, consideration, conversion, and long-term revenue?

    Let’s talk today!

    Qualitative Benefits and Inland Empire Marketing

    Are you an Inland Empire business who wants to promote the benefits of your products and services to your clients? If so, don’t assume that these benefits must be quantitative. You can use qualitative benefits also.

    Benefits

    Before we talk about quantative vs. qualitative benefits, let’s talk about benefits themselves, and how they differ from features.

    As Kayla Carmichael has noted, features answer the “what” question, while benefits answer the “why” question.

    From https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/3-takeaways-from-start-with-why

    She explains that your clients don’t care if your meal kit arrives ready to heat (a feature). Your clients care about saving time preparing meals (a benefit).

    Quantitative benefits

    In certain cases, the client may be even more impressed if the benefits can be expressed in a quantitative way. For example, if you know that your meal kit saves people an average of 37 minutes and 42.634 seconds preparing meals, let your client know this.

    Am I the only one mouthing the words “these are the days of our lives” to myself? CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2949924

    But maybe you don’t know this.

    • You haven’t paid for a survey of your existing customers to see how much time they’ve saved preparing meals.
    • Or maybe the data just isn’t available at all.

    The power of qualitative benefits

    A lack of quantifiable data won’t stop your marketing efforts, though, since qualitative benefits can be just as powerful as quantative ones.

    I’m going to take the marketer’s easy way out and just cite something that Apple did.

    I’ll admit that Apple sometimes has some pretty stupid marketing statements (“It’s black!“). But sometimes the company grabs people’s attention with its messaging.

    Take this July 2022 article, “How Apple is empowering people with their health information.”

    You probably already saw the words “empowering people” in the title. Sure, people like health information…but they really like power.

    By Andreas Bohnenstengel, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61536009

    Later in the article, Apple’s chief operating officer (Jeff Williams) emphasizes the power theme: “…they’re no longer passengers on their own health journey. Instead, we want people to be firmly in the driver’s seat.”

    Of course, this isn’t the first time that Apple has referred to empowering the individual. The company has done this for decades. Remember (then) Apple Computer’s slogan, “The Power to Be Your Best”? If you missed that particular slogan, here’s a commercial.

    From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5S9VvMMxhU

    There are zero statistics in that commercial. It doesn’t say that the Macintosh computer would equip you to jump 5% higher, or sing on key 99.9% of the time. And Apple Computer didn’t claim that the Macintosh would equip you to draw bridge images 35.2% faster.

    But the viewer could see that a Macintosh computer, with its graphical user interface, its support of then-new graphic programs, and (not shown in the ad) the ability to distribute the output of these graphic programs via laser printers, gave Macintosh users the power to…well, the power to be their best.

    And some potential computer buyers perceived that this power provided infinite value.

    As you work out your benefit statements, don’t give up if the benefits cannot be quantified. As long as the benefits resonate with the customer, qualitative benefits are just fine.

    What are your benefits?

    Let’s return to you and your Ontario, California area business that needs content marketing promotion. Before you draft your compay’s marketing material, or ask someone to draft it for you, you need to decide what your benefits are.

    I’ve written a book about identifying benefits, and five other questions that you need to answer before creating marketing content.

    Click on the image below, find the e-book at the bottom of the page, and skip to page 11 to read about benefits.

    Feel free to read the rest of the book also.

    See https://bredemarket.com/iehow/