Perry Raso, oyster farmer and our guide.
Remarkable content creation can be experienced in lots of ways, including a classroom setting out on the bay by one of the most popular oyster bars in Rhode Island!
Fourth of July weekend my family and I (3 out of our 4 kids, anyways, plus one son-in-law) visited our cousins in Rhode Island. They live right on the beach! A touch of heaven!
One of our adventures was a visit to an oyster farm. Perry Raso owns the farm on a pond right off his restaurant, the Matunuck Oyster Bar, an amazingly popular spot in Rhode Island. Perry was our guide for the day. About twenty of us met at his restaurant on a Sunday morning, where he had set up chairs. It was basically a classroom setting.
There Perry gave us a talk about the topic he’s passionate about, acquaculture. Think agriculture, but instead it’s the breeding, rearing, and harvesting of fish, shellfish, plants, algae and other organisms in water environments.
So here’s the owner of a very popular oyster bar (the crowds are so large at night that the local police have to direct traffic!) leading a class on acquaculture for an engrossed audience at his restaurant. Then, after the lecture, the whole group got on his large oyster barge and he took us out onto the pond to see his “crop” of oysters in their special cages.
He talked the whole way about how he started the restaurant, the science of acquaculture, and his oyster farming experience in particular. After we got to the oysters, he put on his waders and got out into the water. Hoisting up the cages, he showed us the tiny oysters developing right there in the water.
It was an amazing lesson in science and business. He told us how the oysters developed in the water and how he knew when they were ready for harvesting. Along the way he shared his own personal success story.
And what a journey.
He had started clamming as a kid, noticing how much money you could make on seafood. So he went to college and studied acquaculture. He looked into starting his oyster farm on a pond near the ocean. On that pond were some docks that would be perfect for his business. But to get the docks he had to buy the old, broken down restaurant that went with them.
He didn’t know anything about the restaurant business, but he bought it anyways. The rest is history. He hired the right people, learned the restaurant business, and worked his oyster farm. As I said, now the crowds are so big that he hires local cops to deal with the traffic.
What You Can Learn from Perry Raso and Matunuck Oyster Bar’s Content Marketing
Content Creation for YouTube
You can hear pretty much the same lecture we heard by going to YouTube where Perry posted a TedX Providence talk he had given. So he created content by giving a speech for TedX and then got that online at YouTube. It’s gotten 2,625 views since its posting in May 2016. You can see it here.
Search Perry Raso on YouTube and you’ll see more. How can videos about oysters be interesting? Perry is always teaching, telling viewers about the different flavors of oysters depending on where they came from and how they’re grown. He keeps it real and interesting.
Content Creation for Your Website
Perry then posted the YouTube video on the homepage of his website. You’ll see the acquaculture theme there that’s his unique selling proposition: “Growing. Harvesting. Serving. Farm to Table & Pond to Plate”
You’ll also get info on his farm to table vegetables, grown for his restaurant and for sale by him at his own vegetable farm. Perfect consistency in the info provided his visitors and his tag line/mission statement.
Content Creation for a Seminar and Tour
We're looking on as a cage full of oysters gets pulled onboard. That's me in the red hat.
He then repurposed the TedX speech to use as his lecture for the oyster farm class and tour. Seminars are a terrific way to prove your authority in the marketplace and establish face-to-face connections. You feel after having toured the oyster farm on his barge, that he piloted himself, that you are part of his family (or crew?).
Content Creation to Tell Your Story
See above where Perry tells us about how he got started in acquaculture. Everyone has a story, see if you can come up with yours. You can get some help with the two posts listed below.
A Cocktail to Great Content Creation
And don’t worry, our whole bunch (now Perry’s bunch) stopped by the bar for one to celebrate our adventure. We talked about the oysters, the sea, and how much fun we were having on our short vacation in Rhode Island.
Here’s the thing: Perry Raso isn’t just an oyster farmer/restauranteur. He’s a passionate acquaculturist, teacher, businessman, and entertainer. The key to his content marketing is that he lets us all in on the fun.
You may not have a “fun” business where you can entertain with a cocktail afterward. But what if you manufacture a product. Is there some science there that you could teach kids? Get them to actually see a product made using the math and engineering skills they’re learning in school. Then, video tape the session with the students and get it up on YouTube and your website.
Insurance agencies can market with content about lifestyles and safety, IT firms about computer science, and beauty salons about tips for aspiring beauticians. (By the way, the author, Kurt Vonnegut, was a copywriter for GE in Schenectady! Hmmm…maybe there’s something there for me, teaching writers.)
Think of ways you can make people’s lives better by teaching them about what you know, what you're passionate about. But even better, if you can pull it off, give them a hands on experience at your business. It’s a terrific way to prove your authority in the marketplace and get people to know, like, and trust your brand.
Until next time,
Nick
PS. Thanks, Perry, for a wonderful adventure in the great state of Rhode Island!
Other posts about telling your story that you might be interested in:
About Us Page...Gain Confidence by Getting Personal
About Us...Channel The Donald's Authenticity for Instant Impact
Nick Burns is an SEO web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. He provides clients a winning content strategy plus the special web writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
