Interviewee: Mr. Yoshiki Matsuura, President and Representative Director, No Budget Co., Ltd. Mr. Ariiso Chijinami, General Manager, First Editorial Production Department, No Budget Co., Ltd. Interviewer: Mr. Toshihiro Yamada, Deputy Chief Editor, Toyo Keizai Inc.
No Budget Co., Ltd. has a solid track record in providing cost-effective
digital marketing
support services, with the theme of “we always want to help our customers, even when they don’t have a budget.”
The company has believed in the potential of
owned media
since its early days and has been involved in construction and operation support services, and with its rich track record and solid know-how, has led many client companies to successful digital marketing strategies.
As a company with a particularly strong presence in the era of owned media, many people involved in digital marketing and owned media have probably heard of the term “No Budget.”
This time, we will talk about the possibilities of owned media from two key people who know everything about owned media: Yoshiki Matsuura, President and CEO of the company, and Ariiso Chinami, general manager who oversees the content production team. We spoke to them about the owned media services that are unique to No Budget.
Starting a business betting on the potential of owned media
Yamada
: No Budget is a company with a solid track record as an owned media support company that specializes in digital marketing in the IT field. First of all, please tell us about the background of establishing No Budget.
Matsuura
: In short, “I felt there was a future and great potential in owned media.”
To briefly describe my career so far, I joined Dempa Shimbun as a new graduate after graduating from university, and started my career as an editor for “OA Computer,” a computer information magazine for businessmen. At that time, NEC released the PC-8000 series, and it was the beginning of the personal computer era, when computers entered people’s lives, and I still vividly remember feeling a great deal of excitement about it. I am.
After that, he served as editor-in-chief of PC magazines such as “Monthly Windows World”, “Monthly NT World”, and “Monthly OS/2 World” at IDG Japan Corporation in the US, before establishing Media Select Co., Ltd. in 2001. As the world enters a full-fledged Internet era, we are excited to go beyond the boundaries of computers and into the broader world of IT, and we are publishing IT-related publications such as Monthly IT Select, Monthly Server Select, and Monthly Direction on Microsoft Japan Edition. We launched a magazine.
Media Select Co., Ltd. merged with IT Media Co., Ltd. As a director and general manager of the enterprise business, I served as the chief executive officer of IT portal sites such as “ITmedia Enterprise” and “ITmedia Executive,” and around this time I began to become fully involved in the paid media business.
This was a major turning point. At that time, it was common for reporters to collect information from major vendor companies such as IBM and Fujitsu. , I thought, “It would be amazing if we created owned media and started disseminating information ourselves.” That’s when I realized the potential of owned media.
Yamada
: It’s true that vendors at the time were primarily focused on their core business, and may not have been very enthusiastic about actively developing owned media.
Matsuura
: In this way, I felt the potential of owned media, and I felt that in the future, the IT industry and the mainstream of digital marketing within it will shift from
paid media
to owned media. Ta. If that happens, there will be as many owned media companies as there are IT companies. That’s why I was convinced that “this is a big market!” and established No Budget.
A unique methodology that produces maximum results within a limited budget
Yamada
: So you were convinced that the era of owned media was coming!
Matsuura
: Yes, it was. We have a strong desire to be a pioneer in supporting companies when the era of owned media arrives, and this is the driving force behind the establishment of No Budget.
No Budget was established in April 2010, but at that time we still lacked a track record of launching owned media. But instead, paid media was abundant. So I thought that if I used that experience and know-how as a weapon, I would definitely be able to compete.
Yamada
: Is the customer you have in mind an IT company?
Matsuura
: Yes. Among them, the main target is small and medium-sized IT companies.
Major IT vendors and major system integrators have abundant financial and human resources, so we purposely decided to focus on companies that have not reached that level. Specifically, we targeted startup companies, companies that do not have a marketing department, and companies that do not have the budget for full-scale digital marketing.
When these companies started to launch owned media, they drew up a blueprint for how to create content within a limited budget and connect it to effective digital marketing, and how to make it happen. It is important to be able to accompany them towards the target. We wanted to make this part of No Budget’s strength.
Yamada
: This idea is also reflected in the company name “No Budget” (no budget, only a very limited budget).
Matsuura
: “Even if you have a limited budget, we will do our best to help you create content for your company’s own media and develop a digital marketing strategy based on it.” That’s why we want you to consult us even if you don’t have a budget. The company name “No Budget” reflects this idea.
Yamada
: I’m sure there are quite a few people who want to develop effective digital marketing even though their budget is limited.
Matsuura
: In digital marketing, we believe that owned media is an indispensable important measure and the core of
marketing strategy
. In recent years, companies have become more aware of the importance of value, and I feel that we have entered an era in which companies are proactively disseminating information about themselves through owned media.
Yamada
: The number of inquiries and inquiries about No Budget is steadily increasing.
Matsuura
: This year marks No Budget’s 15th year since its establishment, and we have certainly started receiving many inquiries. Among these customers are of course the customers who are having trouble due to lack of budget as I mentioned earlier, but also customers who are having trouble with human resources because of their budgetary circumstances and not being able to assign a full-time marketer. We have received many inquiries from.
So, what are the specific support measures for customers facing such issues? For example, in the case of a customer who says they don’t have a budget, the first step is to ask them, “How much support do they want in a situation where they don’t have a budget?” We clarify these points and, depending on the amount, provide partial support such as “creating only the composition plan,” “creating only the manuscript,” and “creating only the layout.” For customers with sufficient funds, we can provide a total solution that starts with planning and consulting and extends to the construction and operation of owned media, but even in cases where we do not have sufficient funds, we can provide limited support by providing partial support. Even within a small budget, you can achieve cost-effective digital marketing.
On the other hand, in the case of a “customer who is worried about human resources,” we first listen to the customer’s requests, clarify the problem, and then “negotiate and make adjustments within the company, or if we are going to conduct interviews, We will make proposals based on the ideal division of roles between the customer and our company, such as “We will take care of the initial selection, and No Budget will take care of everything else as a total solution.”
We have supported many clients who have difficulty implementing sufficient digital marketing measures due to constraints such as budget and lack of human resources.
Marketers’ sense of ownership leads to the success of owned media
Yamada
: In the case of clients who have constraints such as budgets or lack of human resources, it is important to have them have a sense of mutual support and mutual efforts, since they cannot just give up everything.
Chijinami:
I can say that.
Essentially, in order to develop owned media, I think it would be better for companies to have the ability to do something themselves to a certain extent, rather than just giving up on everything.
It is not necessary to do everything from step 1 to step 10 in-house, but when creating content, we work out the structure and plan, and while conducting detailed negotiations and coordination with the production company, marketers also actively ask for specific images and ideas. It is important to make proposals. Whether or not there is this kind of mutual aid makes a big difference in the quality of the results.
Failure to do so will place a greater burden on the production company, resulting in higher costs and a higher possibility of not achieving the results originally expected.
In other words, high-quality owned media cannot be created unless the corporate client, the client, also has this awareness and actively takes action. We are already in that era.
Yamada
: Are there any cases that can be linked to what you just talked about?
Chijinami:
A good example is a case we recently handled where the client was a primary distributor of a design CAD tool.
The customer had just launched an in-house digital marketing department and consulted us about starting an owned media service for the purpose of acquiring leads, but the marketer in charge said, By having a strong sense of ownership and wanting to be actively involved in content production, we were able to smoothly and cost-effectively launch owned media.
Specifically, the marketer in charge conveyed a clear image regarding the direction, taste, design, etc. of the article, and was also conscious of “doing what we can do ourselves”, so we, the producers, We were able to clarify the division of labor between us, and we were able to create highly appealing content even within a limited budget, and we were able to satisfy the client.
Matsuura
: By adopting this attitude, marketers can implement effective and cost-effective digital marketing strategies, even in situations where the marketing department has just been established within the company, or where the marketer’s position within the company is low. It becomes possible.
Chijinami:
In the previous example, we supported them by saying, “First of all, let’s create content for one case study,” but by turning that into a sample, we could use it as a sales tool. You can use it to your advantage, or you can develop it into meaningful uses such as downloadable materials for lead acquisition.
Therefore, we provide the customer with advice that will lead to an improvement in the status of marketing within the company, such as, “By repeating small success stories, we may be able to demonstrate our achievements within the company, and based on that, we may be able to gradually expand the budget.” We also provided advice.
Yamada
: This is a very interesting case in which support goes beyond mere content production and extends to improving the status of marketers within the company.
Matsuura
: We also have a consulting company in our group called “No Budget Marketing,” which is responsible for the function of creating value by “improving the internal status of marketers.”
While No Budget is a production company that creates content, No Budget Marketing is a company that provides consulting on how to utilize the content that has been created.
By collaborating, these two companies will be able to utilize content for multiple purposes at low cost, making it possible to achieve effective promotion and marketing. Furthermore, from this point of view, we also provide consulting to help marketers secure internal budgets, thereby contributing to improving their status within the company. It can be said that this is a great strength.
Expanding the possibilities of owned media by fully utilizing existing in-house assets
Yamada
: No Budget’s great strength is that we can provide a wide range of support, from all-in-one total solutions to partial support, depending on the customer’s budget size and human resources.
Chijinami:
That’s right. Another piece of advice for customers who want to create effective content on a limited budget is to have the option of making full use of existing assets.
For example, if you want to create content from scratch, you will need to come up with a plan, create a composition plan, and incorporate design, interviews, and photography as necessary. Costs will also increase significantly.
However, in such cases, if you can make use of in-house materials such as
white papers
, lecture notes from online seminars, minutes of sales meetings and product planning meetings, etc., and use them in content production, you can save man-hours and It is possible to create cost-effective content without incurring any costs.
Matsuura
: White papers and other documents that are meant to be downloaded and read carefully are treasures that contain a company’s know-how. In order to create appealing content, it is important to utilize these internal assets.
To put it in extreme terms, marketers who must carry out marketing activities within a limited budget should abandon the idea of “creating from scratch” when creating content in the future. If you approach the project with the mindset of making the most of what you already have and creating “the remaining 40% to 60%”, you will be able to create highly appealing content at a lower cost and more efficiently. Sho.
Digital marketing can be successful even with no staff
Yamada
: So far, we have received advice on developing owned media under the condition of “limited budget,” but do you have any advice for cases where “there are no marketers” or “there are few people involved in marketing”? ?
Chijinami:
So you’re saying, “We want to work with a content production company that can respond flexibly to our requests.”
For example, when it comes to owned media, it is important to make the most of the content you create, but if you find a production company that can flexibly accommodate secondary use, it will make things easier later on. On the other hand, if a company creates content but won’t hand over the copyright, there will be considerable restrictions on its development as owned media.
In this regard, No Budget does not place restrictions on the secondary use of content and believes in responding flexibly to various requests, so it is easy to develop it as an owned media, and from a long-term perspective. This can be connected to a digital marketing strategy.
Matsuura
: If you choose No-Budget and No-Budget Marketing as your partner, we promise that we will be there to help you whenever something happens. As I mentioned earlier, we are flexible in all aspects, and we believe in being close to our customers to the fullest. In extreme terms, by partnering with Nobudget, you will be able to do everything from building your own media to operating digital media without any staff.
Yamada
: In other words, we support companies with “no budget, no staff” (lol).
Lost money buying cheap items? What are the key points to avoid failures in content creation?
Yamada
: Are there any trends among customers who use no-budget?
Matsuura
: There are many cases in which customers who come to our company for advice find themselves in a situation where they have lost money by buying cheap products. In any case, as a result of pursuing only “cheapness”, we ended up creating content based on manuscripts written by writers with no knowledge or missive manuscripts generated using AI, which resulted in ineffective results. There are many cases where you end up going back to square one.
Therefore, if the current measures are not effective, it would be a good idea to reconsider the quality level of the article from the perspective that “the outsourcing you are currently requesting is not necessarily the correct answer.” It is a common story that the same promotion and marketing strategy yields completely different results if the writer and creator change.
Yamada
: In that sense, the ability of the writer is important, whether owned or paid. And No Budget has a lot of good writers.
Matsuura
: In the IT world, it is not possible to write a good manuscript just by understanding current technology. For example, when the theme is “cloud,” it is difficult to accurately express the benefits of cloud technology and services unless you know why cloud services were created, going back to the days of mainframes. Sometimes I can’t do it. This is a very important element as it is directly connected to the appeal of the content.
In this respect, one of our major strengths is that we work with over 50 writers who have experienced the changes in IT since its inception. Therefore, depending on the theme, highly specialized writers will respond, such as “this person for security”, “this person for database”, “this person for cloud”, so it is inevitable that the content will be of high quality. becomes easier to produce.
Yamada
: Being interviewed by someone who really knows something gives companies a great sense of security and trust.
Matsuura
: That’s right. Even if you don’t go all the way back to mainframes, it is true that people who have experienced the changes in IT over the past 10 to 20 years will be able to write better manuscripts.
Because these people have experience first-hand of the changes and evolution of computers and digitalization over the years, when we visit our customers, they say, “I feel safe entrusting this person with the interview.” Creates peace of mind and trust. We are proud that No Budget has a very high quality of creators. So, if you have any concerns regarding owned media, please feel free to rely on us.