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Cross-Media Authoring - A publishing strategy where a piece of content’s final medium does not dictate the message. Instead, the content becomes the asset and the medium is the delivery method.

In 1996, Apple Computer produced a brochure entitled “How to Be Heard Above the Noise: A Guide to Cross-Media Authoring”. In this brochure, Apple outlined how they would introduce their infamous “1984″ marketing campaign with the use of both traditional and digital marketing media. (Maybe you remember Apple’s Super Bowl TV spot where the woman runner threw the hammer at the Orwellian face on a giant screen.)

The essence of this new strategy was that for the first time you didn’t produce, for instance, just a brochure. That brochure had lots to say and it’s content should reside in multiple mediums - not just the brochure. Another example is a photograph. The photo is not simply shot for the brochure - it now must reside in a presentation, on a website and many other places where it might be useful.

With so many new and changing technologies out there, how is “Cross Media Authoring” affecting your company? Do you have a document that you use multiple ways - it’s faxed, handed out and on your website? Do you use PDF technology to post printed collateral or other informational documents? Or, do you wish you were?

The next time you need to produce a marketing piece, don’t think in terms of the final medium. Always keep your content in its most original form. You should be using it several different ways, through several different forms of media.

Let’s face it - we’re all trying to build, improve and maintain our credibility. We must really know our business in order to prove our worth to our clients, prospects and peers. In fact, they use our websites to see if we are backing up our assertions.

Stanford University recently researched this very issue and discovered some remarkable findings. The charts below highlight some of these facts:

Email marketing is a fantastic way to begin building your credibility. As mentioned above, the factors that contribute most to building your credibility include offering comprehensive information that cites sources, references and credentials. Email provides the perfect platform to engage your user with these techniques.

10 guidelines for Building the Credibility of a Website

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
2. Show that there’s a real organization behind your site.
3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
5. Make it easy to contact you.
6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
7. Make your site easy to use — and useful.
8. Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently).
9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

    Source: WebCredibility.org