I am doing a webinar for Brighttalk on tactics for driving webinar attendance on Thursday at 8AM PDT.  Also on Thursday: I have a webinar at 11am with Steve Gershik, Eric Wittlake, and Brian Vellmure on inbound marketing, I also wrote a piece  on inbound marketing leading up to the event that I liked alot

Okay, back to the ridiculous title.  How many times over the last three years have you heard: “Marketers need to act more like publishers”.  Many people interpret this mantra to mean creating third-party, objective content and a lot of it.  There is another important factor: Publishers create what I call “content reliability” — they constantly deliver content on a consistent basis.  Example: A newspaper will feature a columnist X on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week or a simple example, you will get a newspaper on your doorstep that will have a front page, sports page, etc. Remember that.

Now when you think of your event content, you should think of how television networks create their content:

1. Their are reliably on-time – Deliver the show rain or shine on the same day, same time each week

2. Build the show brand — There is typically a network with a big brand who actually wants for their individual content pieces (their shows) to have their own brands. People know what they are going to get from their favorite shows.

3.  Build your performers into stars that people want to root for each week

I mention Modern Family because Scott Albro likes to always talk about creating persistent events while drawing parallels to Modern Family.  He says: “My wife knows Modern Family is on every Wednesday at 9pm”

Have you ever thought about delivering your content like a network?   Create an event brand that you deliver consistently throughout the year.  Build star-power that people can’t wait to listen to each week.  Here is a great example: SAP runs a weekly event called “Coffee Break with Game-Changers“.  It’s on every week with it’s on content brand and they have the same dynamic, exciting host Bonnie Graham. While I am pretty sure SAP has a humongous email database, it is NOT used to promote this show.  The point: audience started small and has continued to grow organically over time by building a following just like a radio/tv show.  Many times with online events, each event is it’s own large-scale campaign instead of thinking of events as a content product you deliver over the course of time.

I talk about this use-case and more during my webinar on Thursday. Join me!

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter