Case Study #3: Reading, writing and fanfiction site generates hundreds of hours

of watch time on video series

What the heck is this thing called marketing anyway? If you ask Google to define it, you
will be told, “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services,
including market research and advertising.”
Promoting and selling, eh Google? And that is probably how most people in the world,
especially customers would define it.
But here is how the American Marketing Association defines the term:
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners,
and society at large.”
Offerings that have value for customers. For society at large even.
I like that definition, and not just for altruistic reasons and to make us marketers feel all
warm and fuzzy about what we do. Think of it this way. Sure, you could go around just
promoting and selling. Let’s see how far that gets you in the world, okay? Yeah, it may
work sometimes. But the jig is pretty much up, and customers mostly know when they’re
just being promoted or sold to.
Offerings that have value. Now, that is what we all want in the world, isn’t it? And it’s a
pretty expansive definition of the term marketing. So much so that when I offer to take
my dog for a walk — that is an offering of value. (By the way, not trying to brag, but I
have a perfect streak of a 100% conversion rate for 10 years on that one). If I offer to
read a book with my kids, that is an offering of value to, but my conversion rate is far, far
lower. Why? They don’t always perceive the value as much as I do.
And perception is the challenge. Marketing is a loaded word.
For example, Joanna Smith, Editor and Social Manager, Wired For Youth, wrote to me
and said, “I was really impressed with Commaful’s Writing Advice campaign that they
released recently. With everybody stuck at home due to COVID-19, Commaful put
together a free writing tutorial series for anybody to use. You don't even need to be a
user. I know a lot of people have shared the campaign and many teachers, parents and
others have used it and shared it. All in all, a very useful resource that led to more
exposure and reach for their site.”
Sounds interesting. So I reached out to the good folks at Commaful to get the story for
you. But they were hesitant. “If possible, I do want to emphasize though that this wasn't
intended as a marketing campaign,” Sydney Liu, Co-Founder, Commaful told me.
Fair enough. It certainly doesn’t fit the selling and promoting definition.
But they did create an offering of value. And it did bring them a result.
The team put together resources for young writers as well as the parents and teachers
that use the site. “Many professional writers, published authors and screenwriters were
very generous with their time and resources to help support our community of readers
and writers who were hungry to learn. We had started working on it last year because it
was something our community was asking for, but accelerated the release because we
felt it was more needed than ever given the COVID-19 stay-at-home situation we are all
in,” Liu said.
Creative Sample #5: Writing advice campaign from writing website
With very little promotion, the advice videos have totaled hundreds of hours of watch
time already, and the team has heard very positive feedback from teachers, students
and others, many who had never heard of Commaful before.