The Nine Ingredients That Make Great Content
Today I wanted to pose a question: is your media mix weighted appropriately given the changing media consumption landscape? Do you still invest heavily in traditional media like magazines and television? If you're a mass marketer, TV has probably been your "go-to" media for the last 30 years…it can be hard to let go of such a trusty companion. But what if there were more cost-efficient opportunities to gain the same mass reach and impact afforded by TV, without the massive price tag?
No one can doubt the mass reach that television enables, but the truth is the online channel is now beginning to offer that same level of audience reach - but with arguably better engagement. And almost always at a more affordable price point.
Users are also spending more time online than ever before. It depends who's releasing the report (e.g., Nielsen or an online publisher like Yahoo), but some studies show that online media consumption has now surpassed TV viewing. As reported by MSNBC, this is most certainly true of teens and young adults, with time spent online now surpassing time spent watching TV or talking on the phone.
And the advertisers follow the eyeballs. Online advertising has been rapidly encroaching on traditional media's portion of the media mix pie for the last several years. And according to Forrester, spending on online advertising is in fact set to eclipse TV spends by 2016.
Of course, TV is not going away, but it's not a secret that more and more people are turning to the Internet to watch their favorite shows, instead of tuning in via cable.
A 2010 report by Nielsen found that 72 percent of online users were viewing video online. And that was in 2010.
And according to several studies, these online viewers may be more engaged and have higher ad recall than those watching TV commercials. The same report by Nielsen found that premium online video ads had better brand impact metrics than traditional TV ads, including brand recall, message recall, and likeability.
Additionally, a 2012 survey by BrightRoll found that 64 percent of advertisers surveyed said that online video advertising is equally or more effective than ads on television. And 87 percent said that video was more effective than display advertising. NewMediaRockstars.com provides this data and also points out the success of the viral YouTube campaign for Old Spice (I mean, who didn't watch that video?). And apparently it worked - sales reportedly increased by over 100 percent.
In the BrightRoll video report cited above (which incidentally you have to register to access), BrightRoll points out that in years past advertisers have cited the high perceived cost of online video as a reason for not investing as much. However, that was based on comparing online video to other forms of online advertising when making investment decisions. Now, they appear to have shifted dramatically in the way they look at online video - comparing it directly to TV instead of other online ad formats. The result is that cost is no longer an issue.
Based on the rapid uptake of this medium, it's clear that advertisers are seeing great value in advertising with online video and embracing the era of connected TV.
The question is: will you?
Online Video image on home page via Shutterstock.
What is content curation? It is the act of finding content to share throughout social media platforms. Finding relevant, interesting, and informative content to post is important for anyone in social media. There is an art and science to finding the best content and it is well worth your time to be thoughtful and careful in what you share. Give people a reason to follow you and keep following you!
Per Beth Kantor, “Content curation is not about collecting links or being an information pack rat, it is more about putting them into a context with organization, annotation, and presentation. Content curators provide a customized, vetted selection of the best and most relevant resources on a very specific topic or theme.”
The first step is defining what your topic or focus will be for your content. What do you want to be known for? What is your business focus? Pick several keywords for your content and be consistent. These words should also be used throughout your social media profiles so that people will find you when they search for keywords that interest them. This doesn’t mean that you have to share only social media (if that was your keyword) but a good percentage so it is clearly your focus. Nurture the niche that you are trying to create for yourself.
Here is Guy Kawasaki’s Useful Sources for Good Stuff to Post article which is a chapter from What the Plus! in which Guy shares his tips for content curation. Mari Smith is also a huge fan of proper content curation. Here is a video that Mari created with Social Media Examiner called 8 Ways to Find Great Social Media Content:
As Mari says “Always be curating (ABC) other people’s content (OPC).” Mari and Guy both like to use the phrase cherry-picking content from great sources, I am not sure where the phrase originated in social media, but they are both people who excel at content curation from great sources. They each have their own unique style and you need to create one of your own! One aspect of content curation is making it unique.
A few of my favorite sites for finding amazing content:
- Pinterest: You can tweet or post to Facebook right from Pinterest. I would caution against pumping all your pins to Facebook, as with all curation, be thoughtful and considerate when sharing. Your goal is to enchant not turn off your followers.
- StumbleUpon: Set up your interests, search by topic and be ready for great content at your finger tips.
- Alltop: This is my Alltop page which will show you my favorite websites that I curate automatically on Alltop. Super easy!
- Follow great curators and share their material! Make lists on Facebook and Twitter as well as circles on Google+ of people whose content fits your criteria.
Several ways that I efficiently share my curated content:
- Buffer App ~ I adore the team behind Buffer but the practical reason I use this daily is that it is easy and effective. I use the Buffer App for Chrome so when I see content that I want to share, I can work it into my content plan for the week. Everything doesn’t need to be shared in one big group when I am reading blogs. This is a much more advantageous and balanced method for sharing. I also like the drag and drop feature for scheduling out your tweets or posts as well as the analytics. This is an example of what you see in the Buffer analytics section.
I also use Buffer to send Power Tweets from Twylah. Again, done to balance out my content sharing. If I spent a half hour reading my friend’s Twylah pages, I share the tweets that I want to send over a week. Smart!
- More on Twylah here: Take Twitter By the Tail with Twylah
- Do Share ~ Another Chrome extension that I use daily. Do Share allows you to schedule posts on Google+. It works for personal Google+ profiles as well as Google+ pages. Tzafrir Rehan is always around on Google+ so hit him up with a mention if you have questions.
- PostRocket ~ still in BETA but I love the recommendations for types of posts to share on Facebook as well as the analytics.
It is important to be consistent when you are a content curator. Sharing at the times when your followers are online and active is always smart. Tweriod is a tool that tells you when your followers are active on Twitter. You can also share this information directly to Buffer from Tweriod. Brilliant!
A very important thing to remember is that you are curating other’s content NOT stealing it. Per Steven Rosenbaum, “Take the time to give attribution, links back, and credit. The sharing economy works because we’re each sharing our audiences, and providing the value of our endorsements. If you pick up someone’s work and put it on your blog, or mention a fact without crediting the source, you’re not building shared credibility. You’re just abusing someone else’s effort.” I would also add that this goes for tweets, posts or any other content. It is actually easier to share on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook than it is so cut, paste and steal someone else’s work. Hit retweet or share. Be cool. Don’t steal.
I hope you got a few tips from my post and some ideas from the resources that I shared. What are your best content curation tips?
Resources:
5 Tips for Great Content Curation by Steven Rosenbaum
Content Curation Primer by Beth Kantor
12 Most Mind-Blowing Content Curators to Follow by Susan Silver
12 Most Helpful Tips for Curating Content by Margie Clayman
Featured image courtesy of cizauskas via Creative Commons.
The Converged Media Workflow in Action
Once you implement a converged media program, you'll have a straightforward cycle that propels you from success to success. And remember: It's not optional.
"Rapid journeys across multiple digital devices will increasingly blur the lines until almost all distinction between paid, owned, and earned media dissolve," note Lieb and Owyang.
"Companies that don't prepare for this convergence now in digital channels will be at a marked disadvantage."
As social media redefines what passes for communication and information today, companies are beginning to question whether they should continue to invest in developing high-quality content. Their thinking goes, “If we’re just tweeting or posting to Facebook and LinkedIn, we don’t need anything longer or more substantive.”
Our years of experience working with several leading consulting firms that embody the gold standard in content marketing tell us otherwise. These firms long ago recognized that superior content is the best way to enhance their brands, connect with prospective buyers and grow their revenues. They also know that while social media channels are valuable for staying connected with prospects and clients, they still need something of substance and quality behind the status updates and one-minute self-produced YouTube videos. We’ve not heard of any senior executives making a multimillion-dollar bet on a consulting firm because he was intrigued by a clever tweet.
What these consulting firms understand — and other B2B companies should, too — is that high-quality content is more important than ever. Here’s why:
1. Attention is harder to grab
More distribution channels for marketing messages mean more publishing and more competition for buyers’ attention. Bullet points aren’t the answer. Simply good content is the most effective way to stand out from the rapidly growing publishing crowd. Leading consulting firms have long known that to capture distracted executives’ fleeting attention, they must provide deep, valuable and concise insights relevant to the challenges those prospects are facing.
2. You can’t fool Google
Search engines are getting smarter and more proficient at sniffing out bad content, especially with Google’s Penguin algorithm. Why? By incorporating time spent on pages, bounce rates, sharing of pages with friends and other measures of how real people use websites, the new algorithm makes the quality of a site’s content much more important to search rankings.
3. Content lives longer and can have a lasting impact on a firm’s brand
Because of email and social media channels, it’s impossible for a company to fully control the dissemination of its content, good or bad. The risk associated with publishing poor content (i.e. not adding value) — and having that content live in perpetuity online — is greater than ever.
4. High-quality content combats pressure on prices and margins
Customers today are more focused on price than they were before the recession, particularly for commodity-type offerings. High-quality content that demonstrates a compelling reason why customers should buy a particular product or service shifts the conversation from price to the overall value delivered by the product or service — and thus elevates the company and its offers above less-expensive (but also less-valuable) competitors.
5. You need something to say, and something else to say tomorrow
In our experience, one of the best ways to ensure the idea pipeline stays full is by investing in major pieces of high-quality content that can be “sliced and diced” for use in different channels over a longer time horizon. For instance, leading consulting firms produce major research studies, the findings of which they release in phases via LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook posts over several weeks or months to extend the content’s value while keeping their communication fresh.
6. Expectations increase for marketing ROI
As many companies’ marketing budgets have tightened in recent years, leadership is demanding a greater return from their marketing investments. Marketers must get the biggest “bang for the buck” from every collateral piece or campaign they create. By focusing on quality and not simply getting something in prospective buyers’ hands, companies can increase the chances their messages will resonate with target buyers.
7. High-quality content will increase your odds of getting new business
This is the No. 1 reason why high-quality content is more important than ever. Consider the IT services industry: According to a buyer survey by ITSMA, a service provider’s strong insights on a buyer’s problem and its best solution to that problem increase the odds the provider will win the work, even as a sole source. Great content also is an excellent way for smaller, less well-known companies to get on prospective buyers’ radars. This is especially true in the professional services industry, where executive buyers are intrigued by the strength of a firm’s ideas, not by the size of its marketing budget.
If high-quality content is so important, how can companies go about ensuring they produce it?
In working with leading consulting firms, we have found a simple set of criteria is useful for ensuring content quality. We have used these “seven hallmarks of compelling content” to evaluate the strength of consulting firms’ white papers, articles and other marketing materials. But any company can use them to improve the quality of their own content — particularly documents that promote a specific product or service.
- Novelty: Is the content unique or does it break new ground?
- Focus: Does it have a single, overriding message that can be stated in a few sentences?
- Relevance: Does it meet a critical market or buyer need?
- Validity: Is the product or service being advanced supported with strong evidence of how it works and how it benefits the buyer?
- Practicality: Does the content demonstrate that the product or service can be used or applied by the buyer?
- Rigor: Does the content have tight, consistent logic throughout?
- Clarity: Does it use language and concepts the target audience understands?
By evaluating its content along these seven dimensions — for instance, using a simple 1-to-10 rating scale — a company can roughly gauge whether its content meets the high-quality standard or needs further development. For instance:
- Content that is weak in focus should be stripped of extraneous material that obscures the main message.
- A piece that lacks rigor or clarity may benefit from the help of a professional editor who can tighten the logic structure and enhance the writing.
- A document that is not especially relevant may need to be recast to more sharply address a particular buyer need (or, in more drastic cases, simply eliminated).
Content should score an “8” or higher on all seven dimensions to be truly “market ready.”
Want more content marketing inspiration? Download our ultimate eBook with 100 content marketing examples.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
You are not alone if you feel that your social media program has gotten a bit unruly. You may or may not have adequate team coverage to stay on top of everything. Or it could be you simply didn't know what you were getting yourself into when you started what you thought was going to be a simple "Facebook page" last year.
10 Examples of Visually Engaging Facebook Updates
The goal of any Facebook update for brands is to get as much engagement (Likes, Comments, and Shares) as humanly possible, or at least it should be. It’s a difficult task. People have short enough attention spans as it is – combine that with the competition present in a Facebook user’s news feed and getting them to interact with just a few short sentences, and engagement proves to be a monumental task.
Fortunately, there’s a bit of a “loophole” that some creative brands have found. Facebook allows you to post several kinds of updates, those being text, photos, links, videos, or a combination thereof. Well, what if you take the engaging status update you’ve written and turn it into a picture? Confused about what I mean? Scroll down to view some examples.
Fanta
We begin with Fanta, the upbeat soft drink brand with the infectious jingle. What they’ve done is take a simple question: Would you rather dive into a pool or perform a cannonball? This post really has nothing to do with the product itself and is a essentially a blatant play for engagement. But it’s very in tune with the bright, summery image the brand portrays. They also posted it in the middle of summer when people have pools and beaches on their mind. Such an image is likely to pique a fan’s interest when they see it in their newsfeed. They also used a little bit of text to complement the image and elicit responses.
Disney
Simple and brilliant, Disney forgoes any use of regular text with this fill in the blank post. It would have been a fantastic status update on its own (I mean, who wouldn’t want to spend a day with a Disney character?), but turning it into a picture was a stroke of genius. Not only does the solid blue square pop, but the Disney logo is included without it being forced or tacky. This serves as an excellent template if you’re looking for something to pattern your own creative status update after.
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A is also quite adept at visual status updates, as seen in this trivia post. Including a picture of a delicious chicken sandwich never hurts.
The brand also used this type of update to bring awareness to their Cow Appreciation Day promotion.
Here, Chick-fil-A shows how you can get even more creative with these types of updates. A word scramble would be very difficult to execute with the text options Facebook offers you, but using a picture makes it much easier to get the point across. Chick-fil-A went outside the box with this one, and they were rewarded with thousands of Likes and comments.
Coca-Cola
I would have been very surprised if the social media juggernaut that is the Coca-Cola Facebook page didn’t have these kinds of updates. I was glad to see they weren’t ones to disappoint. Unlike their soda, these updates have a formula that is very easy to replicate. Instead of using their logo, they very creatively integrated the iconic silhouette of their bottle into the updates, my personal favorite being the National Pi Day post.
Sharpie
Sharpie does a fantastic job of organically integrating its product in this post. Although it didn’t get as much engagement as the posts featuring Sharpie art, it totally blows their normal status updates out of the water. Given the many uses of their product, I would recommend that Sharpie do all of their status updates like this from now on. Take a normal question or fill in the blank; grab some Sharpies, paper, and a camera, and tell your community management team to go crazy. Throw some fun doodles in there and you’ve got a recipe for really engaging posts.
Boston Red Sox
And finally, my personal favorite. Instead of a “‘Like’ this if you Like the Red Sox and Dislike the Yankees” post, the Boston Red Sox instead chose to symbolize that message with a very creative graphic. That freed up room to include text of the schedule and starting pitchers, not to mention it’s an enormous picture with iconic logos that is sure to catch any Sox fan’s eye.
What’s so great about this type of update is that it takes something which is already a very sound way of engaging fans and wraps it up in a beautiful package. Also, apart from the Red Sox update, they’re all relatively simple and wouldn’t take very long for a graphic designer (or in some cases, a person with basic knowledge of Photoshop) to mock up. I hope more brands post this way. It should make Facebook a lot prettier and a lot more fun.
Have you seen any more examples of normal status updates transformed into pictures? Share in the comments below.
Content both motivates actions and resolves problems. As marketing communications practitioners, it’s natural for us to think about what it takes to get a little attention from a buyer. But are we doing all we should with our content to nurture those buyer prospects that are milling around the periphery of the sales funnel — gradually mitigating their concerns, soothing their anxieties, and building their confidence so that they are ready to advance through the sales funnel?
The nurture phase requires content that motivates inquiry
Content marketing strategy that targets the inquiry stage should try to establish credibility and confirm notions about the appropriateness of a product within the initial consideration set. It may also seek to establish the company’s authority in the category while influencing hierarchal preference.
In a recent chat with Ruth Stevens, CEO of eMarketing Strategy and author of “Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers,” Ruth shared her point of view about the role content plays in lead development efforts:
“Profitable action is all about hand raising. Top performing content products like white papers, primary research reports, video segments, and special guides or eBooks may each be used to motivate readers to offer their personal contact details in exchange for the information product.”
And while basic data capture may provide little to no insight into the precise mental state of the prospect (i.e., where they sit in the buying cycle), the data is a precursor to any contextual activity that may follow — including nurturing.
What nurtures prospect interest?
Stevenson notes that content takes a beefy role in forging and developing the relationship a brand has with an interested prospect. A brand can nurture that interest when it provides more advanced education and specialized insight in a non-threatening, approachable manner. Properly timed, content designed in lockstep with natural decision-making progression can solidify brand position and open gateways to more free-flowing communication.
In this phase, a content strategy should build on the mental space the brand or product has come to occupy in the target’s mind through the use of discrete offers and variable communication formats, ranging from blog posts, videos, and opinion papers to case studies, webinars, and videos. A recent survey by DemandGen provides some insight into the content products potentially best suited for various stages of a buyer’s readiness. The appropriateness of your content for the need stage, for example, could influence whether your brand is chosen over the competition.
Content marketing that nurtures leads
“Having any kind of nurturing program is better than none at all, although of course systematic engagement is best.” Stevens cited a 2008 study by the Aberdeen Group covering B2B lead nurturing to prove her point. The study found that, “…superior performing organizations are two times more likely than their peers to leverage lead nurturing programs.” The survey also found that “Best-in-Class” companies achieve significantly higher performing lead to sales revenue, response rates, lead qualification rates, and average order values than companies falling into lesser “Industry Average” or “Laggard” categories.
The implications of this study certainly give pause. And although there hasn’t been anything like it published in the past couple of years, it’s reasonable to assume companies with nurturing programs tied to strategic content marketing plans are creating better revenue opportunities than those that aren’t.
Take heed of these common errors
If you’ve been nudging internal stakeholders to formalize a content planning process in collaboration with business development efforts, here are a few suggestions from the experts that you might find helpful:
- Map customer interest to your solution/product. “Philosophically, the biggest mistake is thinking that people are interested in your product or service. Rather, you should start from the mindset that they could not care less. Then, eventually map what they are interested in to your ultimate solutions.” – Paul McKeon, President of The Content Factor;
- Have a grip on the buyer’s journey before embarking on a content audit. “The problem with most content audits lies in the execution. Existing assets have usually been created in an earlier era with a different mindset. They are frequently ‘solutions brochures,’ data sheets, case studies, and more that have been created within a ‘product push’ mentality. But today’s content marketing requires a softer touch with the focus on the prospect or customer’s interests, not our products.” – Paul McKeon
- Don’t sacrifice inbound for outbound. “Inbound marketing alone can take a long time to identify prospects and decision-makers and, as a result, may not address very early and very late buying stages. Outbound calling has some benefits including that of a personal, real-time connection where a rep can make a deeper dive to fully understand the buyer’s situation.” – Dan McDade, President/CEO of PointClear.
- Thought-starter: Does your sales team have content resources that match up with common questions, rebuttals, or concerns? Are those resources well matched to human-to-human interaction (i.e., bite-sized length, narrowly focused, strong calls-to-action, etc.)? The best solution may differ from that needed by a self-directed buyer searching the web.
- Measure everything you need, but report only what is important. “Design an analytics pyramid (a structure of measurement using a variety of metrics to surface specific insight for individual stakeholders) by identifying priorities. Define measurements that align with individual department goals and feed up into larger goals. You end up with a hierarchy of measurements that provides a clear view of what’s important and to whom. Give those folks the data that matters to them.” – Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi, from their book, “Managing Content Marketing”.
Want more content marketing inspiration? Download our ultimate eBook with 100 content marketing examples.
You know what’s “hot” in content marketing? It isn’t straight-up content! People love — and share — images, so marketers are trying to incorporate more visuals into their content marketing plans.
This week, our Content Marketing World speakers answer the question, “With the popularity of apps like Pinterest and Instagram, how have you adjusted your content strategy (or the advice you give to clients) to incorporate visual content?“
The popularity of visually based content has given rise to social media sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Path. Facebook and Google+ also allow for visually stimulating content. Our guideline is that every content piece should have a relevant image that is shareable. Curating visually relevant content from sites like Pinterest and Instagram is easy and effective at brand building. The challenge is to always have a visual appeal with every piece of content. A well written blog post is okay. A well written blog post with great, relevant images is much better.
I would flip-flop this question. Frankly, it’s the importance of visual content that gave rise to Instagram and Pinterest. If a brand isn’t investing in visual content, the popularity of these channels should convince them of its importance. Great design finds a way to spread.
- Joe Chernov (@jchernov)
Photographs are white hot this year. Use photographs as content in these three ways:
- Integrate photographs into your content. Add photographs to your text content, whether it’s your website, blog, or other communications. For online content, don’t forget to associate relevant search keyword text.
- Provide interesting photographs prospects, customers and the public want to share. Post photographs that have emotional appeal that others want to share or use in their content.
- Curate customers’ photographs. Ask readers to submit their photographs related to your product. It can be literal and show your brand or it can be a related topic.
Apps like Instagram have made high-quality, artistically-stylized, imagery and photography accessible to anyone. It’s also easier than ever to create a consistently formatted image that you or your web designers can build around. We’ve taken this idea so far that every image on our website is an Instagram image. That’s right, every person in our office is armed with a cell phone and Instagram. Their images are intertwined in our posts and go a long way in promoting what we’re working on and thinking about. Creating a visual style that embodies our no nonsense approach to creating visual content that extends our brand. Give it a try — start using an Instagram image in every single blog post, it’s a low-barrier way to create consistently formatted, compelling imagery that tells your brand story.
- Andrew Davis (@tpldrew)
While we haven’t adjusted our content strategy drastically, we have been focusing a bit more on thinking how we can make our content more visual in general. For example, we are thinking more about creating infographics in addition to reports and we are focusing on small steps such as ensuring every piece of content we create has a strong visual component. Ultimately both platforms grant the opportunity to have a little fun and showcase your brand’s personality, so we are starting to focus on taking and sharing pictures to showcase that and we have created profiles on both platforms for that very reason.
While the channels may evolve, the same approach applies to building sound content marketing strategies. The key is to know what your prospects and customers want to achieve, and then generate content that meets their goals. Understand how your audiences consume information, and then choose the tools that speak to them. Blog posts, email newsletters, and video are the obvious choices, but consider the potential of press releases, original reports, case studies, white papers, eBooks, content curation, webinars, streaming video, photos, social-network status updates, podcasts, and infographics.
Pinterest and Intstagram haven’t adjusted the way we advise clients regarding content strategy at all. They are simply new(er) properties that should fit into a broader content marketing strategy. If that strategy calls for the sharing and distribution of visual content, then we’ll certainly include recommendations on maximizing the impact of these properties. The strategy should drive social media property usage; the existence or growth of an individual social media property should not drive the strategy.
I wouldn’t say that I’m wholly committed to these, but I’ve been experimenting with both. For SAS Global Forum, the largest SAS user event of the year, Kirsten Hamstra, SAS Social Media Manager; Meg Crawford, Americas Marketing; and I ran a photo contest using Instagram. We wanted to encourage SAS users to post their conference photos on social media. To enter the contest, contestants needed to take the photo using Instagram and tweet it using the conference hashtag. We didn’t set a goal, but were surprised at the number of tweeted photos from an audience that is not normally vocal on Twitter during this conference.
For Pinterest, I’ve been adding the videos and images from my SAS Users Groups blog to boards that I’ve created. The most important thing, once again, is promotion. Even though Pinterest has been highly successful for some audiences, it is not widely accepted by my audience. However, by tweeting and otherwise promoting each Pin, I’m slowly adding followers on Pinterest, too.
These sites are popular because we all love simple, visual things that convey an emotion or an insight into business, life or fun. We have looked at creating visual elements for all our content efforts. How can we turn our latest initiative into a slideshare deck, a scribd document or an infographic on Pinterest? All these sites present opportunities to force us to think visually in our content marketing efforts.
As a general rule, you should approach sites like Instagram and Pinterest with the same strategy you use for all of your content marketing. Develop your plans with your core audience in mind and then see if these channels would be a good for distribution. Our speakers also provide some specific ideas on how to use these channels when blogging, at in-person events, and more.
Now it’s your turn: How have you adjusted your strategy to incorporate visual content?
Remember that you can see all of these speakers live at Content Marketing World in Columbus, Ohio from September 4–6! We are looking forward to seeing you there!
I had the privilege of attending a webinar with the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, Ann Handley, yesterday. Her name on the cover of Content Rules told me that she means business where content is concerned, and boy howdy does she ever have great ideas! (Note: I downloaded the e-version promptly at the end of the webinar.)
If you were unable to make it to our fun session, don’t dismay – here’s what you need to know in point form, along with the recorded version with some very practical (and fun!) advice on creating rocking content.
- Content is the new black, but be careful not to simply subscribe to the idea of content without thoughtfully considering your approach.
- Enthusiasm for content is great, but best intentions and a deep desire to have killer content is not enough.
- You want your content to resonate with your audience.
- There’s lots of wishy-washy content being created, don’t let that be you. Your story should transform your business.
- It’s not storytelling: it’s telling a true story well.
- Content is not a magic bullet.
- Current content not working? Abandon ship, or get stuck.
- Good enough isn’t good enough anymore. 41% of B2B companies are struggling to produce the kind of content that really engages their target audience. #GoodEnoughSucks
- Content is not new, but the ever-increasing number of platforms to share it across are creating new opportunities to be creative in your sharing.
- “Content is anything you create or share to tell your story.”
Ann shared insight and examples around ways to tap into the creativity of our youth. After all, she says that we were “all given the same box of crayons” when we started school. Tap into the creativity that you were once so carefree about, the kind before you were a grown up with a giant fear of straying from the norm. Stop doing just what you see others doing. Experimenting can be frightening, but show me a brand that really kills content that is copying everyone else. Mr. Rogers offers childlike inspiration to draw from in the video below, if you’re struggling to channel that creativity you once drew from.
PlayUse any cliché you like, but remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Ann recommends finding that “one thing that you can make a change in”. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Tackle one area vs revolutionizing your entire content strategy.
Here are 13-ish steps to get you started. Check out the full recording at the end of this post for meatier conversation surrounding each step, complete with real examples of brands who get it.
1. Tell your story
1½. Tell your untold story
2. Answer FAQs
2½. Answer FUQs, too (Frequently Unasked Questions)
Here’s a look at how Brock University responded to an FUQ.
Play3. Make your customer the hero of your story
4. Reimagine from existing collateral (like Cisco did in this example shown below)
Play5. Create 10 things out of 1 thing
6. Notice content moments everywhere
6½. Think Visual
6¾. Visual Curating
7. Experiment. Create the unexpected
8. Speak human (lose business Frankenspeak)
9. You’ll have to watch the recap to see where number 9 went
10. Show how your product lives in the world (like the way LL Bean demonstrates in this video)
Play11. Hire a brand journalist (and all the brand journalists of the world rejoiced!)
12. Create a path
13. Have fun! (Like FMW Fasteners does)
Fresh from the plater, zinc plated and waxed…that’s right, I said it…waxed nuts #waxednutsmonday #htownproud twitter.com/fmwfasteners/s…
— FMW Fasteners (@fmwfasteners) April 30, 2012
If all of this great advice wasn’t enough already, Ann provided loads of valuable prompts to help you tell your story. From re-telling the story of your ‘ah-hah’ moments to writing about how you’ve evolved, there are loads of prompts shared throughout the recorded webinar that can help springboard your mind into a zone of creativity.
Oh, and I must also add this. Ann tries to use her own photos whenever possible, so that photo up top? That’s one that I took of the webinar in progress.
Without further ado, here’s the webinar recording that fills in all of the blanks I left out:
Play**Please forgive the funny edited bits and pieces as we had a little audio glitch a time or two, but have done our very best to smoosh it into a useful vid for you.
Seriously, we were thrilled to have Ann with us, and it is our hope that you take away big things. Please share your favorite moments with us and tell us how you plan to kick your content up a notch.
Our webinars are always fun, so keep your eyes peeled for what’s next. We tend to talk about serious things like content, social media strategy, and even zombies. For more recorded webinars that you may have missed, see here.
Tags: Ann Handley, content marketing, MarketingProfs, Social Media, Webinar
Conventional wisdom has it that your blog is most effective for improving brand awareness, driving qualified traffic and leads to your website and for middle of the funnel (MOFU) lead nurturing. You need something else, more substantial “salesy” material (like brochures) for nurturing sales-ready leads into customers. I don’t think so. A few well-timed bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) blog topics can go a long way toward improving your lead-to-customer conversion rates. Here are some prime time examples.
Mini Case Study
Why do people subscribe to your blog? Well, in most cases they learn from you and value your advice and knowledge on topics that are of mutual interest. Chances are they have already explored your website and know what you do or sell. You should already have in play several important content pieces aimed at nurturing the sales-ready or nearly ready leads into customers from the middle of the funnel to an inside sales call and closing. Case studies demonstrating your solutions and happy customer results are a natural fit for these cases. Why not extend that strategy to your blog? Every now and then publish a post that summarizes and highlights the key points of one of your best case studies, then include a call to action to download the full case study. What does this accomplish?
- It exposes your BOFU content to an audience that’s already fully subscribed and receiving your content on a regular basis (as opposed to reaching out to them on an involuntary basis).
- It increases the chances that you will accelerate some of your MOFU leads into sales-ready BOFU leads.
- It reminds everyone in your sales funnel (at least your blog subscribers) that you aren’t just a clearing house for information—you’re also in business to help them accomplish their goals.
Tip: Don’t just copy content from your case study into the blog post. Add your “spin” or some kind of update to the content to make it fresh and interesting.
Mini Press Release
In a similar way, a “newsy” blog post that informs your subscribers about your business side is also a great way to remind them that your products and services are selling well and that other potential customers are winning by purchasing them. Announcements about new projects, new clients (if they will cooperate), new products or services are all fair game for this sort of post. Again, don’t do this too often or you will risk losing subscribers, but every now and then it’s appropriate, especially for newsworthy events.
Tip: Use caution when announcing new employees, unless hiring those people really makes a difference to your potential customers. An example might be hiring a well-known expert in the field who may be perceived as a “game changer” by your subscribers.
Guest Post by a Customer
Involving your customers in your content marketing strategy is a great idea throughout the sales funnel. A guest post can be like a testimonial on steroids. Ask them to talk about their challenges and how they are solving them. A video is ideal because it adds that extra level of credibility. If they choose to mention your solutions in the post or video, all the better. If they don’t, it’s still relevant to your potential buyers. Either way, your blog takes on a more open level of participation and becomes more believable. Don’t forget to include a brief bio and photo of your guest blogger at the end of your guest post. That’s a standard courtesy for guest posting.
Tip: Don’t forget to mention the benefits of guest blogging to your customer—increased brand awareness, thought leadership, and a link or two to their website. Yes, I would be generous with that, because the benefits of an extended testimonial far outweigh the potential loss of SEO juice due to outbound links. You can always use “nofollow” links to prevent search engines from crawling away from your site. If your blog happens to get syndicated by major independent sites, all the better for both you and your customer.
Lead Nurturing
Don’t forget about the strategic nature of your BOFU blog posts. You’re deliberately reaching out to subscribers in the MOFU part of your funnel with the intention of stimulating them to move closer to a sale. Make sure that your calls to action and BOFU offers are appropriate types of content and that you score leads higher as they move towards a sale. Create a behavior driven lead nurturing campaign that sends additional sales-ready materials and notifies your inside sales team about these new “warmer” lead conversions. In short, include your blog in your overall sales funnel optimization strategy, and you can improve both lead quality and the sales cycle.
Photo Credit: *ejk*
Paying Too Much Per Lead?
This week, we have been sharing some ideas on how to plan your content marketing teams. Yesterday, I shared ideas on the types of people you need on your content marketing team, and today our CMI consultants talk about what skills are essential. If you are planning your team, this will help you find the right people. If you are a marketer looking to move up the ranks, change positions or find clients, this gives you ideas on what kind of skills you can work on.
That is a rather large question and it depends on the role and the company, but there are certainly some skills they need.
Whenever possible you have to find a good communicator. They need to be able to write and speak in a way that makes people feel welcomed and informed. You can always teach someone new technical skills, but it is really hard to teach this. A person either has it or they don’t. I also think they should look for people who love to create. I don’t care what medium they create in, but by having the desire to create and share in their blood, it means they will do well. This is why writers, photographers and theater people are great because they love being creative.
Finally, and most importantly, I believe that they’ve got to have good all around business skills. Understanding how a company works, and what different departments do, is critical for long-term success. Plus, then they won’t go off only focusing on the creative and are usually grounded enough to balance it out appropriately.
The biggest thing I suggest when clients are looking to hire for their content marketing team is versatility. The ideal hire needs to be well-versed in what makes for good content, have some writing skills, have some editing skills, manage an editorial calendar, and contribute to content strategy. Finding all that in one person can be a real challenge, and many clients end up prioritizing certain pieces over others. The key for many, then, is to have one person that can be centrally leading and accountable for the company content marketing program. Mike Sweeney made some great points about this in his post, 4 Reasons to Centralize Your Content Marketing Program – whether internally or externally centralized, you need that leader, internal champion, and accountable person most of all.
- Will Davis (@willdavis)
Excellent writing skills are a must. Understanding of the various channels and types of content that are possible is almost a requirement as well. Then beyond that, you might want to look for someone who is specialized in one area of content — video production, webinar production, videography or photography, etc.
Look for a journalist obsessed with serving their community — leaning on them for story feedback, content ideas and subject matter; someone who has excelled covering the field your brand is in. With that you get familiarity with the subject matter in a profound, objective (and hopefully honest) way. Media live and die by their ability to enable audiences, build communities and have those communities speak to each other. Good journalists (and bloggers and writers) deliver audiences (and unique visitors) as part of their job. They do this by going where their audience is and being more interesting than anyone else in the space. And the best ones yield the influence over audiences interested in their niche, and this usually comes from a unique point of view, standing for something and getting their audience onside with that honesty. Now wouldn’t it be wonderful for your brand to wield such profound connection with your customers? Hire someone with the skills above and you’ll be on your way.
First, companies need content marketers who understand why the bigger story matters and how to discover, articulate and communicate it. Content without context is a waste of time; it’s critical to have this overarching perspective before taking any next steps.
Second, content marketers need to think like investigative reporters, always looking beyond the obvious and continually asking “why.” Internal groups naturally have their agendas for the content they want to produce, but generally the reason they believe is important is a derivative of why something matters to a customer. Content marketers have to be comfortable asking why these reasons matter, and sometimes that takes five to seven iterations of hearing an explanation. “Because we need to generate more revenue through this channel” is not a reason. But helping retail CIOs understand the fundamental shift in buyer behavior is.
Communication and storytelling skills are critical these days. I would much rather have a group of amazing communicators, who can understand the business, wrap compelling and engaging stories around that business and communicate them brilliantly, than someone who can help me grind out an extra percentage point on my calls to action. It’s not that those tasks aren’t important – but they can’t help me differentiate my brand. Great communicators will help me to be different.
There are two main skills: The need to be solid writers and solid researchers – which is why I’m a big fan of hiring journalist types. Other than that though, you want people that have a very creative mind, that push thought outside of the normal “box” most are encapsulated by, and that are willing to make mistakes in order to achieve big.
There seems to be a lot of emphasis on writers, editors and to some extent, visual storytellers such as videographers, for content marketing teams. However, in my experience, project managers with backgrounds either in producing broadcast news programming or working as publishers in newspaper or magazine publishing, have skill sets needed to effectively manage content marketing initiatives.
- Russell Sparkman (@fusionspark)
Storytellers. This goes beyond just having good writing skills. You need people who can take the mundane and make it interesting enough for a customer to take action.
Understanding of the company and its products and services is overvalued. Unlike social media roles, where having thorough knowledge of corporate culture and processes is a must, in content marketing roles being able to look at the organization through the eyes of potential customers is a real advantage. Consequently, content marketers can be successfully hired from outside the company in ways that social media personnel typically cannot. Additionally, outstanding writing abilities, some technical and software aptitude, and exceptional organizational skills should be required among content marketers.
Also, leadership skills. This is frequently overlooked, but content marketers need to cajole, convince, and coerce others in the organization to create outstanding content. That’s not easy, and content marketers need enough personality and leadership ability to create a “movement” about content in the organization.
Of these skills mentioned, which do you think is most important? What would you add to the list?
COMMENTS
That is COMPLETELY exhaustive. Great infographic on the evolution of marketing!posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 8:01 AM by Vickie Siculiano
Although this infographic does give the big picture of the evolution of marketing, but I find it confusing because it is just too packed with information. It's lacking clarity. Pictures are always worth a thousand words but when not used correctly, the result is a mix of images that don't make sense. I've always valued Hubspot's articles, but this one didn't work for me.posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 8:38 AM by QlinArt
"The emergence of new mediums" - I think you meant "media". Mediums are people who have psychic ability.posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 8:55 AM by Terre Chartrand
A few important milestones you may wish to include in a future revision:-
1919 - Edward Bernays opens the first marketing office on Madison Avenue and coins the term "public relations"
1930 - Young & Rubicam hire the first director of market research, Dr George Gallup.
1937 - First opinion poll company, Mass Observation starts in U.K.posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 9:03 AM by Richard Milton
Nice representation.
in General:
Infographics are very interesting and quite visual but shallow in depth. If that is the goal, it serves it's purpose.
Even though there is Alot of information here, they feel like run-on sentences. Sort of unstructured, non-linkable context where you cannot extract useful information just from the work.
I am interested in knowing how Long does it take to produce something like this ? Aside from the research data collection. Purely the Infographic production from structured data aspect.posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 10:31 AM by Sanat
Great Graphic,
Could do with cutting up, a lot of consecutive information, I enjoyed it but I am a wiered stats freak.
Would run well as a string of graphics.
Do you have any more?
Cheers
Davidposted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 10:48 AM by David Brownley
Cool infographic.. but kinda confusing..posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 12:40 PM by Valerie Deveza
I think a version of "the history of marketing" in slide format could help build the story from one era to the next.posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 1:10 PM by Pamela A. McNamara
Funny you should say that, @Pamela, because we are working on that :)posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 1:13 PM by Corey Eridon
What you depict is the history of marketing communication or the "promotional" element of the traditional marketing mix, not marketing as a whole. Marketing is much more than advertising.posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 6:52 PM by Marketing Prof
This made me smile and I will also "borrow" it to dramatize to a nonprofit group where I volunteer WHY and HOW the way they fundraise needs to change. What worked five or ten years ago is no longer sufficient!
Also, in response to a prior comment, the intro says that this is a timeline of how technology has changed the way marketers do their job - not a history of marketing.
Thanks, Hubspot, for making me smile on a FRiday morning!posted on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 7:23 AM by Jean Ann Schulte
Have to say i feel that you have gone a little overboard with this infographic. I'm not really sure what the hook is?
Whilst it looks great... i don't get why this content could not have been better communicated in an article. Infographics are meant to make life easier... not trickier.
But...just my humble opinion.
posted on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:52 AM by Danny Ashton
FANTASTIC! (Love the addition of the HubSpot launch in relation to marketing history!)posted on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 11:30 AM by Elaine Fogel
Thanks for sharing this interesting infographic on the history of marketing and the new inbound marketing. Many companies make excuses for using inbound marketing because they are set in their ways in traditional outbound marketing. A recent study from the SIIA showed that 90% of marketing executives admit to using social media marketing and 75% believe that it has a positive impact on their businesses. Here is a helpful article that describes this study in more depth and how it shows social media to be an effective marketing tool. http://www.grmwebsite.com/blog/bid/71928/Research-Shows-Social-Media-To-Be-An-Effective-Marketing-Tool I hope this article further supports the use of inbound marketing strategies and how companies who use it may be able to benefit in ways they wouldn't have imagined possible.
-Sarahposted on Monday, February 13, 2012 at 10:25 AM by Sarah
The formatting of this page is a total failure on my iPhone linking over from your Facebook post. Looks like one big pile of tags and codes. Can't see your infographic, but from my point of view I can think a number of sarcastic subtitles that could this fail into a featured point. ;)posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 8:50 AM by Tony Kinard
I am a great fan of infographics and I found this very complete. Good job, you guys!posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 1:02 PM by Alex
Nice! Why don't you make a presentation out of this. Would love it. Thanks.posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 11:29 AM by Marco
Citations please?
Oh wait, I forgot - this is the web. We don't pay attention or care if data are accurate or not.
We also don't pay attention to the fact that the only hyperlinks within the article are those to the author's own content and products. Or do we?posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 12:16 PM by Stephen
Slides and video too, please! Just like your great 101 marketing quotes!posted on Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 10:36 AM by Alex
I believe Movable Print was firstly invented in China by Bi Sheng (990-1051). Gutenberg developed it in Europe, although independently.posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 3:35 AM by Daisy Tan
Absolutely great graphic and even more so the history of marketing in itself. It was a good read, and mind you I did not realize that ask.com was amongst the first of engines.. Great work indeed.posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 8:26 AM by DiTesco
there are so many changes created in present from the past, what is my question is the present techniques is helpful for middle grade businessmen or for higher grade businessmen?posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 8:02 PM by balaji
There’s no way around it: Content marketing takes a lot of elbow grease and time, but the rewards are great. And, as we’ve shown in this week’s series on productivity, there are plenty of ways to streamline your efforts and make them work more smoothly. Here are some of the most common issues content marketers face, with solutions for each.
Are you spending too much time trying to figure out what to write about?
If you write with any frequency, I’m sure you have wondered, “What should I write about next?” In fact, as indicated by the 2012 B2B Budgets, Benchmarks and Trends research, producing engaging content is the biggest challenge for content marketers. Coming up with ideas is something our authors have covered a lot on CMI, so here are some ideas:
Do you need a better way to plan all of your content?
If there is one tool I think every content marketer needs to be efficient and organized, it’s the editorial calendar. While this document can be fluid, it provides the structure you need to know what content you need to create when. You can download a template that I created, or you can check out this recent post from Joe Pulizzi on Copyblogger about the components of an editorial calendar.
Are you trying to get more focused when you write?
In his post, 3 Tips for Increasing Your Content Productivity, Roger Parker suggests two tools to help you stay focused: “Don’t assume that your current word processor is your only writing option. You may be thrilled, for example, to discover highly focused writing tools like IA Writer, with its uncluttered writing environment. Or, if you want to keep your ideas and online sources in front of you as you write, explore Scrivener, which uses an index card motif. “
Alternatively, if you don’t like looking at a blank screen, you can “talk it out” by using an audio recorder, a tip suggested by Brody Dorland.
Do you need a way to break down all of the tasks associated with a project?
Dianna Huff provides this general framework for reducing “getting it all done” content marketing anxiety:
- Keep track of your workflow
- Determine your bottlenecks
- Design your own system and processes
As an alternative, in a comment to Roger Parker’s post on increasing productivity, Howard Rauchl provides some great tips on how you can figure out how long it takes for content creation so you can have realistic expectations:
In the productivity workshops I used to run at Folio, I chided editors because many assumed they were efficient. There are always shortcuts, and eventually they must be discovered. So, when it comes to content marketing, the premise in terms of content creation is that anyone supervising the process must know how long it takes to do everything.
Here is a simplification of how to start the process: (1) Break down the job into components; let’s say you end up with 12; (2) of that number, identify your three or four biggest time-eaters; (3) within the framework of a 20-21-day work month, estimate how much time is required to complete tasks involved; (4) then do the same for the lesser time-eaters; (5) you may find that your 20-21-day month has become a 25-40-day monster.
So now you know everything I know! Right now I am in the process of developing estimates for digital content workloads. The process is clearly diferent from content marketing, probably because the biggest time eater is e-news writing. Perhaps a good starting point for content marketers interested in this kind of stuff is to first identify key presentation categories… like white papers, webinars, newsletters, eBooks, etc. Then within each category, develop time-eater sub categories… and go from there. Enjoy!!!
Do you need a better way to organize and access all of the information you come across?
If you’re like me, you’re always finding ideas of things you want to try or getting inspired about things to write about. But, unless you centralize all of that info, this can be a time-consuming process. A great way to store, organize, and access your ideas is with Evernote. It’s no surprise that it’s been a very popular productivity tool for years. Here are some tips on how to set up Evernote to capture and store info, as well as ideas on how you can use it for content marketing.
Are you feeling overwhelmed by all of the social media channels out there and unsure of where to focus your efforts?
Instead of diving in to all social channels, Jayme Thompson suggests deciding which ones make the most sense in Cutting the Complexity of Content Marketing. She explains: “Our customers are probably much less aware of the newest, greatest content outposts than we are. If you do some listening and find the ponds they’re in, customers will find your content. And the No. 1 way to simplify? Start small, see how it goes (track it), and then add on when necessary.”
Are you looking for ways to automate distribution?
Once your content is created, you need a plan to get it out into the right channels. Brody Dorland wrote a fantastic post on 12 things to do after you have published a blog post with the updated 7 additional tips. Taking a cue from that, I developed a simple template for content marketing distribution. You can download and customize this template as a way to help you remember all the key steps when you want to get the word out.
What other productivity challenges or tips do you have? Let me know in the comments.
On its own, a single piece of content holds little value when you are trying to make a lasting impression. Only by understanding and harnessing the strengths of multiple, varying forms of content can you reach the gold standard of content marketing (as demonstrated in the infographic below).
Here is a rundown of the main strengths of different content types, and some examples of companies that are getting it just right.
Blogs
Regularly updated blogs provide a great forum for putting a personal face on an organization. People don’t interact with nameless, faceless brands — they interact with personalities. A blog filled with fresh, relevant content will boost engagement and help build a relationship with customers. Moreover, websites that have blogs report receiving 55 percent more visitors, according to Focus Research, and evidence shows they work in both B2B and B2C environments.
Here are two contrasting, but equally effective examples:
Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola has used its partnership with the Olympic Games to launch the Coca-Cola London 2012 mums’ blog. In this instance, the company uses the blog to highlight the experiences of parents whose children are involved in the Olympics and to help foster a sense of community around the brand.
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Google: Google’s official blog provides a hub for its latest announcements, but recent posts that tied in with Mother’s Day and behind the scenes insights really injected the personality needed to bring this content to life.
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Infographics
Many have already hailed 2012 as the year of the infographic. This visually appealing format engages web users and boosts the time spent on-page. Much of the appeal of infographics lies in their shareability and potential for quality backlinks. Forty percent of people respond better to visual information than plain text, according to Ecademy, and infographics reach out to this huge group.
NewsReach: The Gold Standard of Content Marketing: Infographics must have a strong central message, backed up by a clear narrative and all the essential information. In its Gold Standard of Content Marketing infographic, NewsReach likens the creation of content to the mining of gold. Just as gold must be sourced, mined, processed, shaped, and hallmarked to become desirable pieces, so too must high-quality content.
White papers
White papers act as a great brand-building tool and offer a chance to reach out into the C-suite. Decision makers want the facts in an easily digestible format. According to Eccolo Media, 65 percent of U.S. business purchasers believe white papers are either very or extremely valuable when making purchase decisions. For the company producing them, white papers are a golden opportunity to collect leads and showcase their thought leadership. And don’t forget the social media buttons. White papers are valuable content that have high shareability potential, particularly on professional networks such as LinkedIn.
HubSpot: HubSpot has built up a reputation as an industry leader when it comes to white papers and eBooks. The Content Marketing Institute has built up a similarly well-stocked library of materials, securing its status as a go-to source of information in the industry. Those with a less well-known brand may want to stay clear of such a hefty form at risk of putting visitors off with a clunky downloading process. Trust needs to be built up before people are willing to share that much information. Like CMI, ensure you offer a tantalising teaser and concise description on the landing page to ensure your content doesn’t fall at the final hurdle.
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Video
Where to start? Each week 100 million social actions are taken on online video — think of the buzz created by Kony 2012. Video is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page in organic rankings than plain text sites, according to The Video and Image Optimization report by Forrester, as search engines look to return more blended results and, in part, due to less competition for top rankings. It is engaging, shareable, and allows a brand to really showcase its creative side.
This example from Tipp-ex really says it all.
Tipp-Ex: The interactive element to this video is what helped it rack up over 8 million views on YouTube alone. The lesson here? There is always room to be creative, and if you succeed in entertaining your audience and drawing them into your brand story or experience, you’re onto a winner (warning: the video below contains some language that is NSFW).
Analysis/Thought leadership
B2B brands have long known the importance of thought leadership, but the internet has taken it to a new level. Businesses should not be restrained by traditional tried and tested methods — such as white papers and reports — and should also embrace the new tools made available that can really showcase their expertise to build their brand. The top use of B2B social media is now for thought leadership.
IBM’s Institute for Business Value website offers one of the best examples on the web.
IBM: Full of great content in a variety of formats — reports, newsletters, even a mobile app — and designed with simplicity in mind, the Institute for Business Value allows IBM to showcase its expertise without the theatrics. It is the first port-of-call for those looking to expand their thought leadership.
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FAQs/ How-tos/ Guides
Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C sector, FAQs and guides help turn your website into a valuable resource hub. Impartial advice builds trust with potential customers and helps forge relationships, while pages also perform well in SERPs. With Google also indicating that it plans to place more of a focus on semantic search, FAQs could provide a valuable SEO boost when the changes sweep in.
Here are two examples of how to get it right:
Amazon: When it comes to FAQs, simplicity is key, as Amazon demonstrates here. Ensure you perfect your navigation, and give clear, concise answers to the common questions consumers are likely to ask.
B&Q: U.K. DIY retailer B&Q has created an information hub with its Ideas and Advice section. It’s a way of saying, “We don’t just care when we’re trying to sell you something,” and offers the chance to get some great searchable terms on the site.
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Only by adopting a targeted and integrated approach to content in all its forms will content marketing efforts succeed. Share with us your experience with using different types of content to engage audiences and meet your marketing goals.
Want more content marketing inspiration? Download CMI’s ultimate eBook with 100 content marketing examples.
Content marketing is like the quiet kid who sits in the back of the class to whom no one pays attention. Yet, below the surface lies a superhero who can transform your content marketing into a powerhouse via its integration with social media, search, and sales.
So how can content marketing supercharge your social media, search, and sales?
Content marketing super power: Social media
Content marketing helps fuel social media interactions in many ways, such as:
- It attracts prospects, customers, and the public with engaging, useful, and entertaining information: Place content on social media platforms to lure your target audience in.
- It provides currency for interactions through information and entertainment in a variety of media formats: Think comments, photographs, graphics, videos, audio, and presentations. Prospects, customers, and the public can consume content on any device, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and e-readers, so be sure to tailor your content so they can access it on their terms.
- It helps you interact with prospects, customers, fans, and the public: At its core, social media is about a public conversation. Content marketing provides the basis to start a dialogue, as well as help you respond to prospects’ and consumers’ questions.
- It extends your reach through sharability. Regardless of where you place your content — whether it’s on your owned media, social media, or third-party media — add easy-to-use social sharing buttons to expand your reach and make it easy for consumers to spread it around while they are already engaged.
Content marketing super power: Search
Content marketing provides a relevant environment to support search optimization (Here’s additional help from 15 SEO experts.):
- It offers context for appropriate keyword phrases: Relevant content supports keyword use on your owned media, since it enhances the meaning of the words used — which will improve its search rankings.
- It functions across various media formats: Integrating non-text media into your content provides additional entryways to help searchers (and search bots) to find your content. Be sure to add relevant keywords for non-text content (photos, videos, etc.), as well.
- It attracts inbound links: Offer useful information your target audience and the public seek, such as checklists, resources, and round-up posts to increase your inbound links and social shares.
- It supplies links to appropriate areas of your owned media: Include links to relevant content on your owned media to help prospects and customers with their pain points and questions. These links also put your content in context for search bots, so you will want to link to pages that are as close to the purchase phase as possible.
Content marketing super power: Sales
Content marketing provides information to answer questions and support sales at every step in the purchase process:
- It enhances a brand through a 360-degree view across different media formats. While many firms have branding guidelines, few if any consider how to present their brand in today’s multi-media environment. In other words, when creating your content, make sure you consider how your brand talks, what sounds it makes, how it should look in photographs and other images, and how it should act on video or in real life.
- It tells memorable stories about your products, brand, and company: Stories with a beginning, middle, and end are easier to remember than a bunch of facts loosely tied together. Enhance your brand and products with stories that engage consumers at every step of the process, whether it’s explaining why your product is important for them or showing them how to use it.
- It supports purchase by answering questions at every phase of purchase. Content marketing provides information that helps consumers evaluate and choose products, as well as enhancing product usage after purchase. Don’t underestimate the need to create content that helps customers post-purchase — which can help sell related products.
- It offers customer reviews to provide a sense of reality for customers: Consumers trust other consumers more than they trust marketers. Providing this user-generated content to your customers helps them overcome potential impediments to making a purchase. Invite customers to give you their feedback post-purchase as another way to get them engaged — and to give you a reason to extend the relationship.
Like any super power, content marketing needs to be used properly to achieve the maximum benefit. To this end, consider how you’ll use content marketing to support your social media, search, and sales marketing efforts and to integrate them into your editorial calendar.
How do you use content marketing to give your social media, search, and sales super powers?
Need help getting started with Content Marketing? Attend Heidi Cohen’s Content Marketing 101 at Content Marketing World.
Photo credit: Flickr
Chances are the CEO, CMO, and other executives in your organization know at least a little something about how to deliver a message to customers — that’s why they make the big bucks, right?
But the marketing game is always evolving, and now that content marketing has emerged as one of the most vital components of any marketing plan, what they know about our discipline may not have kept up with the times.
Part of the content marketer’s job is to champion the value that content has on the bottom line of any business, and explain its benefits in a clear, compelling way in order to get the sign-off and budget necessary to move projects through the execution.
If you’ve ever found this to be a challenge, you’re not alone. The content experts who work with the CMI Consultants program have all been there. Here, they share a few tips to help you make the case to the C-suite — so your business can start reaping the rewards of deeper audience engagement.
The first thing you need to think about is how to tie the impact of content marketing to business priorities. The C-suite doesn’t care about clicks and opens, they care about increasing revenue and decreasing costs. Content marketing has plenty of research and use case examples available. Search them out and build a business case for it within your organization.
Why not create a persona-driven content strategy to convince your executive team? Find out specifically what they care about that content marketing can address and create a series of emails to convince them.
It also doesn’t hurt to include examples of content marketing done by competitors to make your case. What if all the engagement from this new eBook could be ours? Look how we’ve slipped in the search results because our competitor keeps publishing fresh content…
Get the VP of Sales on your side and have him/her go to bat for you. Work together to forecast what the impact could be to revenue if salespeople are able to increase close rate by X% due to having more highly qualified leads.
Near-universal internet access has created an era of self-serve information. Google’s Zero Moment of Truth research shows that consumers digest more than 10 pieces of online information before making a purchase decision (up from just five a year ago). Companies must provide comprehensive content assets that inform, educate, persuade, and retain customers.
While resource-intensive, content marketing is fortunately quite efficient, as every piece of content creates an information annuity that continues to generate visibility and persuasion indefinitely. This is in stark contrast to advertising, whose benefits fade quickly if the media buy stops.
I explain to them that there no longer is another option. Every customer of theirs is now online, and if they do a web search for the company’s product or service they need to find them immediately or they might lose them. The only way to insure that this happens is with content that is appropriate for them. They have to have a strategy to make sure that all departments are talking to each other and that what they are creating is the right sort of content.
The truth is that some C-suite members don’t want to hear this. They want to keep doing things the way they have been doing them for years. I always let those sort of people in on a little secret — that they are dinosaurs, and when they realize they don’t have much longer to call me back, we’ll work on making sure they survive.
When explaining content marketing to the C-suite, I typically like to paint a broader picture to start. I ask them to imagine that they could keynote the best event in their industry with all of their best clients and prospects in the audience, with the opportunity to deliver their best message. Would they want to do that? Then I explain that a content marketing program, when properly executed, gives you this opportunity every day of the year, without having to hop on a plane, stay overnight out of town, or even put on their best suit. Best of all, the content that you create now can have staying power, continuing to drive opportunities for you years after you initially create it. Once we have heads nodding on the emotional side, it’s time to break down the investment, cost-per-lead, typical close rate, cross-sell opportunities, and the other financials in the big spreadsheet to win the hearts and minds of the C-suite.
- Will Davis (@willdavis)
Content marketing is simply using your company’s expertise and creativity to attract an audience to you. Once they’re interested, we have a chance to help them buy our products.
In an increasingly commodified marketplace, what sets brands apart in the consumer’s mind is purpose and an interesting point of view communicated in an honest and human way. A content strategy puts your audience at the heart of everything you do and sets parameters and rules for your people to communicate with customers in a way that’s consistent in scope and tone. Content marketing has the ability to focus your proposition (and save you money on disparate, one-off campaigns that never really get tied back into your long-term marketing goals). It also, all of the sudden gives you stuff to tweet about, post on your Facebook page, pin, and Instagram. Your brand is incredibly interesting. Content marketing lets you find those stories and share them with your customers in a way they care about… and recall at the moment of truth.
Additionally, content marketing is a way for brands to duplicate the success of a good media company, where communication is always tied back to a mandate the audience has bought into, the stories are fresh and better than the competition’s, and not everything is always vanilla and safe. These stories keep people paying attention and show that there are people behind the messages. When done right, weaving your brand’s story consistently into ongoing, fresh conversations with your audience can become the connective tissue of all your marketing by giving you a direct line into what your customers want. Are you finally going to splash out for that paid media campaign? Don’t dare do it without mining your content marketing team for insights… and content!
Today’s marketing environment has made a fundamental shift away from the traditional 4 Ps: Where we used to focus on promotion for what we deliver, successful companies have made the transition to education, and content marketing serves as the foundation for this. The best way to attract and retain customers is to educate them about the industry in general, where it’s headed, pain points and solutions that address them, and how company offerings fit into this mix. This is the path for companies to shift away from the price-sensitive selling and become trusted advisors and strategic partners.What executive wouldn’t want to sit in that seat?
I believe it’s about making a business case — not in promising some kind of immediate ROI. Content marketing is inherently an innovative new process for most organizations – and so by definition is new. So, the key is to build a case for WHY an innovative new process may help solve a business goal. It might be more leads, a more efficient funnel, or simply a decrease of customer service costs; but whatever the goal, the case should be made that a content-driven strategy will help to achieve it (but not without some risk and, certainly, fine-tuning over time). Ultimately, I find one of the best ways is to identify a particularly “ripe” part of the funnel to approach first. It might be your biggest pain point — or one that is new — but identify some tactic (let’s say building leads through pay-per-click) and then applying a content marketing process on top of it to see if we can improve those results. If you can, then use that savings to try another tactic – and then another. Slowly build an economic model that makes a content-driven strategy make sense.
This may sound odd or unbelievable to some, but my greatest success has stemmed from explaining to CEOs how Google actually works, how search works, and how we, as humans, search for content in the first place. Once someone understands these principles, a light bulb will often come on, and then magic happens. Everything in this world is information- and content-based. If organizational leaders see this vision, content marketing just makes sense.
I’m convinced that before content marketing strategy and tactics can get C-suite buy-in, they have to be first convinced of the value of content (both created and curated) as a wise investment. Naturally, that means convincing them of what the return on those investments will be. I generally begin by explaining that any other flavor of marketing tactic they may be currently using, whether it be social media, or email, or inbound, word-of-mouth, and so on, isn’t worth a plug nickel without good content. I then deliver my Content is Gold analogy, drawing the following comparisons to characteristics of gold:
- Content is an INVESTMENT that not only holds value, but increases in value over time.
- Content is highly CONDUCTIVE, in that it’s the medium through which awareness is moved (think of “share” and “like” buttons, retweets and embeds, for instance).
- Content is very MALLEABLE. For example, a series of blog posts becomes the basis for a video, and so on.
- Content is CURRENCY, in that it can be used as a basis of exchange (such as my participation in this crowdsourced CMI post in exchange for access to an audience).
- Content provides STATUS & INFLUENCE to the holder, in that whoever has the best content wins.
- Content RUNS IN VEINS throughout an organization, and those veins can be mined and tapped for resources, and for ideas.
- Content is a brand’s BLING in the way it “accessorizes” a brand’s core products or services.
Content Marketing is nothing new. What’s new is the way your customers interact with your organization. They are more savvy now and they have high expectations. The consumer of old would sit back and listen to what you had to say. The consumer of 2012 fully understands that they manage your brand; they don’t just sit there and do what they are told. They are aware of the market and your competitors. With content marketing you can create compelling, educational, and inspiring content that engages the consumer to create a relationship. This is how you gain and retain customers in today’s rapidly changing market.
Like most things in the marketing world, good communication seems to be the surest path to success. Do you have additional ideas for communicating the value of content marketing with executives, your colleagues, and your other marketing peers? Tell us how you do it in the comments below.
Want more guidance to meet your content marketing challenges? Our CMI Consultants would be happy to help. You can also learn more on how to get executive buy-in for your content efforts when you attend Content Marketing World on September 4 – 6 in Columbus, Ohio, where you can listen to and meet many of our consultants.
In a world where “every brand is a publisher,” giving away audience-focused content is cheaper, more inspiring, and better for the world than interruptive marketing. And it works better, too.
When I graduated from high school, my uncle gave me Dale Carnegie’s classic self-help book, How To Win Friends And Influence People. I thought it was a joke. But being 17 and insecure, I read it anyway. In between cheesy stories about Abe Lincoln and Henry Ford, a nugget of truth stuck with me: People love talking about themselves. If you want people to like you, talk about them, not you.
Most companies suck at good conversation. They’re used to blasting out one-way messages about how great they are. Their product. Themselves. Me, me, me.
Today’s consumers don’t have to put up with that. Unfollow. Friend request denied. We want to talk about us, not you.
Great content transforms advertisers from interruption to destination.The companies that win friends and influence fans are the ones that give us content we want and unique experiences focused on us. For free. And those that do it well make a killing in business.
Birchbox, for example, grew its beauty sample service from zero to more than 100,000 subscribers (each paying $10 a month) in the past two years, according to MarketWatch. The New York-based startup drew attention in the noisy beauty products space in large part by producing a blog and magazine about grooming and makeup. Like Allure or Glamour or any traditional beauty mag, Birchbox talks about what its audience wants, and not about Birchbox itself.
“Content is the best way to differentiate your business and to create value,” Birchbox’s director of content, Mollie Chen, told me in an interview last fall. “We give our customers useful articles, videos, and blogs in order to gain their trust, communicate with them, and keep them coming back to our site.”
American Express (a customer of my startup, Contently), is another great example. Its small business news site OpenForum.com publishes small business trends, how-tos, and entrepreneurial war stories at scale--dozens per day. Nowhere do the articles or videos slip in “…and you should use your AmEx card!” And, paradoxically, that’s what makes Internet users like AmEx. Two point four million Facebook fans and counting.
The secret to using free content as a business driver is to be the host of the conversation your audience cares about, not the subject of it. Great content transforms advertisers from interruption to destination.
This piece is part of a Collaborative Fund-curated series on creativity and values written by thought leaders in the for-profit, for-good business space.Consumers don’t load up Firefox after work in search of banner ads about 0% balance transfer credit cards. They don’t pop out of bed in hopes of encountering Internet propaganda about deodorant. They want interesting stories. They want to be entertained, enriched, and to discover content that makes them look good to their friends.
I believe the successful businesses of the future will continue to invest in being good publishers, purveyors of education and knowledge. Their investments will yield not only goodwill and positive branding, but win customers and advocates at a fraction of the cost per acquisition of traditional advertising.
And yes, I have an interest in saying that (my company connects brand publishers with reporters), but I also believe it’s true. At Contently, giving away our secrets has won us loads of business. We make no effort to mask who we are on our blog and in our magazine, but we eschew talking about ourselves as much as possible. Though many of our readers become our customers, our content works because we strive to teach our readers how to be successful on their own.
Just like Mr. Carnegie’s did.
Shane Snow is founder of Contently.
Your recent blog statistics showed that the number of readers is dwindling. Those who visited do not stay long. Why doesn’t anyone read your blog, you ask?
Especially after you spent so much time and effort, not to mention funds on building a website. Well, chances are it’s the same reason why students fall asleep during lectures. Or someone trying to avoid long queues (did you know that in some parts of the world, people get paid to queue for others?). I think you got the message!
Yes, your blog is probably B-O-R-I-N-G to others. No offense but not everyone is interested in what you had for lunch today. Or to read a 2,000 words posting on quantum physics. But having a boring blog is only one of the few reasons why some blogs have no readers. There are many other reasons.
But don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve list down 5 main reasons why no one reads your blog except perhaps your family and your best friend. I have also included ways to overcome them.
1. Boring Blogs
A few years ago, you could get away with a not-so-interesting blog. Back then, blogging was still a fairly new concept and there were not that many around.
Fast forward to today, there are countless of awesome blogs and in order to stand out, you need to create an edge. People need a reason to want to come to your blog. So if your blog has:
- all text with no or few images
- monotonous writing or academic sounding posts
- a sitting-on-the-fence approach to a topic
… then you are sending your readers a boring message. And eventually, even the most enthusiastic reader too will tune out.
How to overcome:
In today’s blogging world, just like most things in life, the laws of attraction works. Give your readers what they want to read, or benefits to visit your blog. It could be reviews of the latest technology or the hottest gossip in town or even controversies, depending on your blog type! On my web hosting blog, I always share great web hosting deals – for example a huge discount on Bluehost hosting plan at $3.95/month (instead of the standard $6.95/month)! Satisfy those what’s-in-it-for-me needs.
A blog is a two-way communication unlike traditional print. Write your posts as if you are talking to your readers. Let them know that there’s a person behind that blog of yours. Engage them by fielding questions and asking for feedback. Also, response to the answers you get.
2. Not Posting Often And Consistently
How often do you post? Everyday? Once a week? Once a month? No specific time? Well, if you are not posting often enough, your readers would eventually grow out of the habit of clicking on your blog URL. Even those frequent visitors who had been visiting your blogs previously, they would over time, forget about your blog too!
How to overcome:
Easy. Post regularly. Make sure you consistently publish fresh and quality contents. Give your readers a good read every time they check back at your blog. You would find that the more you publish, they more readers you get.
If you don’t have enough ideas on what to post, just hop over to some of your buddy’s blogs or blogs of similar topics for inspiration. But, if you found that you don’t have the time to write, do check out our 5 Productivity Tips.
3. Too Many Advertisements
Ever been to those blogs that has tons of advertisements that shout at you? How did you feel? Having some advertisements is alright but crowding your blog with banners and links would turn off your readers.
Moreover, blogs with lots of advertisements usually take a long time to load, which I’m sure you know, is not good for SEO purposes.
How to overcome:
While I am not against having advertisements on your blog, there should be a limit to these. If you do put up advertisements, it pays to ensure that your blog is optimized to ensure speedy loading and also that your hosting provider has enough bandwidth to support them.
If you decide to write “promotional posts”, then do draft them out in such a way that your readers would benefit from them too e.g. providing valuable information within that post.
4. Your Blog Design Leaves Much To Desire
I’ll be honest here. Blog design does play a crucial part in drawing new readers and persuading them to stay. Take a step back and review your bog design. How does it fare? You can also ask your readers whether they think you need a makeover. That’s an engaging post there!
How to overcome:
Select themes that go well with your blog topic. For example, if you have a photography blog, choose a theme that offers a lovely gallery and a home page that allows you to showcase your works. If you have no clue where to get such a great WordPress, you can start your search at Elegant Themes.
Other design features to take into consideration include typeface (whether it’s legible) and choice of colors (striking or easy on the eye combinations). Your choices would depend on your target audiences.
5. Lack Of Exposure
On the other hand, you may have developed the best looking blog and publishing great posts every other day and yet still experience low readership and traffic. What could be wrong? Well, it takes more than design and good writing to draw readers. You need to market your blog. People need to know that it exists!
Poor promotion leads to poor SEO and poor traffic. If your URL is buried deep in the 7th page of a search, chances are no one will find you.
How to overcome:
Learn how to SEO your blog and raise its ranking e.g. inserting proper keywords, building backlinks, installing WordPress SEO plugins and fine-tuning Permalinks. You can look for more tips at our SEO articles.
Another effective way to promote your blog is to guest post. This way, you build a relationship with other bloggers. In blogging, it’s about being part of a community. They come to visit your blog and you drop by theirs. They comment on your posts and you leave your thoughts at theirs. The more blogs you visit and leave comments, the more people are aware of you and would return the visit.
When your readership increases, so would your pagerank and traffic. The higher your pagerank, the more new readers you will attract. The cycle goes on.
Other than that, you could also develop an email marketing list or make use of social media. Just drop an email or tweet or update Facebook status to let your friends know about your new post.
A lack of readers is quite demotivating to a blogger, especially after all the hard work poured in. But the good news is that you can certainly do something about it, as shown in the above. Hopefully, you will be able to boost your blog readership through implementing these suggestions.
Do you have any other tips to add? Feel free to share them below.
We hear it all the time: "I know blogging is important, but..." "But I don't have any
time." "But I can't write." But, but, but. Well luckily, every business blogging challenge we've heard has a solution that you can implement immediately if you truly want to keep that New Year's blogging resolution. Take a look at the most common objections we hear to starting or maintaining a regular blogging regiment, and learn how you can overcome those impediments to become a business blogging rock star.
1. "I don't know how to design my blog."
First of all, make sure your blog resides on a subdomain or subdirectory of your website. For example, blog.hubspot.com or hubspot.com/blog. It would be a bad idea for us to publish our blog on a different domain, like hubspotblog.com, because our website would not reap any SEO credit.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about the layout of your blog. It doesn't have to be complicated! There are a few components you should include, though. First, you ought to have social follow and sharing buttons as part of every blog post. If you don't know the difference between the two types or how to include them on your blog, check out our guide to creating social sharing and follow buttons. You'll also want to include post previews, categorization by subject matter so readers can easily find more information about the subject matters that interest them, and calls-to-action so you can convert blog readers into leads. There are many other things you can include on your blog, but if you start with the basics we've mentioned here, you'll be off to a great start.
2. "Who has the time?"
Not being able to find the time to blog is a very common problem. Lessen the burden by asking your CMO if you may require employees to contribute a certain number of posts per month. This is something HubSpot has implemented with great success; it also offers multiple perspectives in your content, letting different areas of expertise shine through and benefit your readers. You can also lighten the load by reaching out to guest contributors, which also gives you the opportunity to benefit from their reach and possibly get a valuable inbound link.
But to find time for you to blog (and ensure your employees keep up their end of the bargain) it's wise to work off of deadlines. Staring at a blank page can be intimidating and often results in wasted hours or, worse, no blog post at all. Set and enforce reasonable deadlines for blog submissions so both you and your employees stay accountable.
Finally, check out some of our tips on how to blog faster. If you're committed to business blogging, you will have to sacrifice some time in your day to make it happen; them's the breaks. But it can be a much less timely endeavor if you follow some of these suggestions for faster blogging.
3. "There's nothing to write about."
When drafting this post, I reached out to my Twitter community to ask them their most common question. Kate Brodock responded immediately with a very common struggle -- lack of good topics -- and a great solution. Go to your RSS and read your industry's news. You might find a timely topic about which you should report -- for which Google and by extension your SEO manager will love you -- or you'll simply get inspiration by reading all of the things happening in your industry.
You can also take a trip to visit your sales team to ask them some of the common questions they are receiving from prospects. These can provide great fodder for blog posts because of the potential for creating evergreen content, not to mention that if everyone's having an issue, you certainly want to be the one to provide a valuable answer!
You'll probably find that some days you're teeming with great content ideas, and other days the well has run dry. On the days when your creativity spikes, document your topic ideas in an editorial calendar to which you can refer on those days when you're suffering writer's block. Or simply consult our list of 100 blog content ideas that can help get you out of a blogging rut.
4. "I'm not a writer."
Not everyone is a natural writer. But many of the things that typically trip up employees when they're asked to blog is not a writing inability; it's hang-ups that plague them from either the depths of their subconscious, or possibly high school English class. Make sure you and anyone else who is worried about being a "bad writer" knows that blogging has a totally different set of rules. To be a great blogger, all you have to do is write about what you know in a way that's natural to you. Don't get caught up in fancy language; frankly, it makes your blog less engaging, anyway. I always tell people to write like they speak, and not worry about length. When you've said what you want to say, you're done, and you can move on!
And don't forget that people love visual content. Consider shooting a quick how-to video, or if you're graphically inclined, doodle a humorous cartoon that comments on your industry. You can even curate a list or publish excerpts from some of the long-form content (e.g. ebooks, whitepapers) you've already written. If you're having trouble stringing sentences together, leverage your other talents and assets to keep your blog fed.
5. "I don't know what to look for in a freelancer."
If you're really not up for the task of writing, there's always the option to hire a freelance writer. But if you've ever tried or talked to someone who has, you may be scared away from the experience because of unreliable or under-qualified writers. To ensure you're working with a great writer, treat them like another employee of your company. Talk to them on the phone, ask them about their expertise in your industry, ask for several writing samples that pertain to the topics you discuss on your blog. If you treat this relationship like one between an employee and employer, you'll find a more reliable freelance writer that understands your industry.
That also means, however, that you may have to pay a little bit more to get the quality you need. This is particularly true for those in a complex industry. Invest the money and time up front to train your freelance writer to ensure they understand your business model, industry, and blog objectives; once you are both on the same page, you'll be able to pull back and know that you've put your blog content into safe, reliable hands.
6. "Nobody is reading my blog."
You're putting time and effort into creating remarkable blog content, consistently, and then nobody reads it. That's a huge bummer. If you're creating valuable, helpful content on a regular basis, there are a couple of things you can do to get your blog more visibility.
First, put a link to your blog on your homepage and in your navigation so it can be easily accessed from anywhere on your website. Follow this logic by also including it on each of your social media accounts, all of which provide the option to include at least one outbound link in your profile information. And speaking of social media, are you sharing your blog content on all of these social networks? If not, get started. Social media and blogging are inextricably tied. By tweeting and posting your blog content, you will grow your social reach, and by growing your social reach, you will get more visitors to your blog.
Finally, consider that one of the most common ways people find information is through organic search. Your blog posts should all be optimized for relevant keyword phrases, particularly the less competitive long-tail keyword phrases. As you create more and more keyword optimized content, you'll be found more frequently in search engines and receive a big boost in blog visitors from organic search traffic.
7. "I don't know how to prove my blog's ROI."
A lot of people have anecdotally accepted that business blogging is important for marketing success. But they don't believe it enough to start doing it. Is your boss one of those people? Are you one of those people? Consider these data points about companies who blog: they enjoy 55% more website visitors, 97% more inbound links, have a 62% cheaper cost per lead, and 57% of them have acquired a customer through their company blog.
Once you get started, showing the ROI from a consistently updated business blog will be cake. Generate monthly reports that show how much traffic your blog has driven, how many times your content is shared in social media and how much your social reach has grown, how many inbound links you've received, and how many leads you've received from calls-to-action on your blog posts. Presenting your boss with indisputable data that proves the ROI of your blog is the best way to ensure it sticks around as part of your inbound marketing strategy.
Are there any challenges on this list that keep you from blogging? Do you have any creative solutions to these common blogging problems that we didn't already mention?
Image credit: martin.canchola
Oh, the feeling of having nothing to write about! How grossly misleading! There’s always something to write about, we just like to complicate things, don’t we? There are tons of tips spread round the blogosphere for how to get fresh ideas for your next post. Brad for instance advises to use Twitter to generate ideas for blog posts. However, rarely do they say anything about HOW to approach those who may be the source of ideas for your blog posts.
Before I get into that, I must stress: “Be curious!” Find your inner child. He/she is still in you, somewhere. Curiosity is one of the blogger’s best assets. If you’re curious enough, you’re more aware of your surroundings. If you open yourself to stimuli from your environment, you’ll be surprised how many ideas you can get for the blog. Don’t be, however, alert only in your office or when doing your work or reading for your work. Anything that you do at work or in your free time, everybody you come in contact with at work or outside work is potentially a great source for blog ideas.
You’ll find most corporate blog ideas among the people you work with, especially among those who have direct contact with customers. And here’s my advice: do not approach them officially, or only when you’re out of ideas for posts. Talk to them regularly. Approach them as if you were talking to a friend, or if you were their shrink. Don’t come to them and say, “I am writing a blog for our company. What is new in your department? Please give me some ideas.” Don’t make them think, because you may not extract anything genuine nor original nor useful from them. Don’t make them “work”. Talk to them! Let them complain about or praise customers, let them speak about how something is disorganized… Be their confidant(e). That is how you’ll learn the most about customers and their problems. Turn those conversations into helpful blog posts.
My own blog is about customer magazines and branded print publications. I get most ideas from marketing directors and magazine editors who either email me or call me with questions or are looking for my opinion on how to do something. This is how I stay in touch what really bothers my prospects and turn that into useful blog posts.
If you’re responsible for your company’s blog, how do you regularly get ideas for posts? Let us know in the comments below.
A web design company illustrates how to court “old media” with grace and gravitas.
Blue Fountain Media operates in a cut-throat, crowded field: website development and design, and online marketing. From 2007 to 2010 — years that were downright cruel to most U.S. businesses — revenues at Blue Fountain Media grew 620 percent.
The company was named an Inc. 5000 high-flier in 2011 —reaching number 541 on Inc. Magazine’s annual list of fastest-growing U.S. companies — and executives write columns for among the most recognized media properties in the world, including the New York Times, American Express OpenForum and Inc. Magazine.
Despite appearances, the Blue Fountain Media’s publicity engine is fairly young. “Just five years ago, the world didn’t know much about us,” says Jon Gelberg, chief content officer. “We created a content marketing strategy because we felt people wouldn’t take us seriously until we were recognized by the media as experts in our field.”
And it’s obviously doing something right; the company has a growing roster of high-profile brand-clients, including, Walt Disney Resorts, Procter & Gamble, Oppenheimer Funds and the NFL.
How does a web marketing company stand out from the tens of thousands of companies offering similar services? According to Blue Fountain Media’s chief content officer: gravitas. (We’ll get back to that in a moment.)
Using content to fuel a heady climb.
Gelberg joined the company in 2009 and recounts that Blue Fountain Media was producing very high quality web designs and online campaigns, but little promotion was in place to build momentum and brand recognition.
The first move was to pre-fill an online learning center with more than a dozen articles on popular marketing topics, such as “What Should My Web Design and Development Project Cost?” and “How Social Media Marketing can Enhance your Bottom Line.” With a solid — but very small — library in place, Gelberg began an intensive campaign to pitch stories and expertise to the media. He explains, “We would contact a newspaper or magazine and say, ‘We see you’ve been writing about how to use Facebook. We have that area of expertise.’ Then we linked to an actual story with ready-made quotes for journalists to use.”
Slowly and steadily, the combination of digital content plus PR campaigning began to pay off. Blue Fountain Media gained access to smaller, regional media companies, publishing columns and winning interviews. Those stories in smaller publications were picked up by aggregators like Yahoo, and before long, Blue Fountain Media executives-turned-authors were climbing the media rungs, reaching bigger and bigger media properties with bylined articles, interviews and regular columns.
When asked how the company measures the results of its PR offensive, Gelberg is decidedly circumspect. “I can recount for you the number of clicks or calls to our office mentioning our press coverage,” he explains. “But as a company we also get a big boost from the respect or gravitas of our content marketing program. Our column in the New York Times, for example, bestows a lot of credibility and respect on us, particularly when anyone can call themselves a web designer or SEO guru.”
Don’t bother if you don’t actually possess real expertise.
“Content has gotten a bad name for a good reason,” says Gelberg. He’s referring to what many call “content farms,” or agencies and technology companies that staff up blogging platforms with hundreds of writers who are paid-per-click for branded media sites. He explains that if you hope to get the attention of media companies, you need to have something valuable to share (i.e. insightful expertise) and high-quality writing, not SEO-stacked cotton candy. Without value and quality, your public relations push, no matter how hard you work, will amount to nothing.
Ultimately, catching the attention of top media outlets takes more than great content. It also requires a bit of grace when developing and executing on the all-important pitch. Gelberg offers a few pointers for content marketers with PR aspirations:
- Craft your pick-up line: Remember top media editors receive dozens of pitches per day. How will you break through the clutter? Do you have an insight into a current problem that is unique, practical and valuable?
- Focus on the editor’s needs: Don’t babble about yourself. Show you are interested and knowledgeable about them — both the publication and the reporter. Point to a specific story and offer an additional insight for a future story on the topic.
- Keep your chin up: You will be rejected. Repeatedly. Get over it. Be persistent; if someone doesn’t answer a call or e-mail but you’re convinced it’s a good fit, follow up multiple times, stopping just shy of pestering.
- Give and take: Be specific about what types of insights and information you have to offer. After a media outlet has relied on you, become a trusted resource by saying “thank you” and keeping in touch with additional insights and story ideas. Follow editors and journalists on Twitter and LinkedIn to see their latest bylines; keep up the social banter to ensure your name is top-of-mind.
What’s ahead for Gelberg and Blue Fountain Media? Consistently executing more of the same. “In our business, staying on top of technologies and trends, and studying online user behavior is the most important thing we do across the company,” explains Gelberg. “By keeping up with and growing our expertise, we serve our clients well and produce intelligent, high-value content.” Touché!
This article originally appeared in the May 2012 issue of Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free print subscription.
Every day we are flooded with information about the latest and greatest social and mobile platforms where people hold conversations, voice opinions, or influence others. Whether it’s Instagram, Google+, Path, or Pinterest, people are flocking to these new social networks.
But companies are now left trying to make sense of which ones they should be paying attention to, what they need to be doing in these channels to gain a competitive advantage, and how it all ties into their overall content marketing strategy.
On today’s rapidly shifting web, it’s essential that companies start to take a more holistic approach to content marketing and connect more effectively with their various stakeholders across a number of web and social channels. This “pressure to extend” has created a new strategic online content life cycle that is imperative when competing on today’s unpredictable social web — especially in light of recent changes in Google search algorithms and how they might affect established SEO strategies.
The new content life cycle
In a business climate that’s moving at “web speed,” new technologies, media channels, platforms, and social networks continue to pop up and present new challenges for businesses. These demands require a renewed focus on holistic content models, and strategies that scale and optimize the right content to the right channels while measuring its impact.
This necessitates a shift from the old, linear “Create, Approve, Publish” model of moving content to just the corporate site. Marketers and content owners now require a model that extends in either direction.
The new content life cycle is, in fact, a virtuous circle:
- The process, conceivably, starts with planning, before moving into the management phase of content creation.
- From there, content still needs to be created, approved, and published, of course, but our jobs do not end there.
- Once published, the value of that content needs to be measured and (based on that measurement) further optimized.
- Of course, the strategy will likely need to be adjusted based on the relative success (or failure) of that content against its original goal, before being fed back into the planning process for the next wave of content.
Once a plan like this is put in place, there is no longer a beginning or an end to the content life cycle. Of course, a particular piece of content has to start somewhere, but the overall content strategy needs to be constantly in motion.
Although the corporate website remains critical for establishing a strong, recognizable brand, as we move forward, the process of creating meaningful and engaging conversations across the social channels where your constituents are interacting has a growing impact on whether or not you will achieve your business goals.
Content strategy in action
Lancaster Bible College (LBC) is an example of an organization that is thinking about its content strategy in ways that will increase business results. When you consider the staggering number of colleges and universities on the web, recruiting efforts can be challenging for a small, faith-based college in Lancaster, Pa. To remain competitive and ensure that prospective students are attracted to the school, it’s crucial for LBC’s marketing team to have control over the delivery of fresh, timely, and interactive content that they can push through the content life cycle and make accessible across various web channels.
LBC’s old web content system had many limitations that prevented the school from powering content quickly to its site and building a presence in the social channels populated with prospective students. LBC needed to revamp its content life cycle and empower content owners to react nimbly to the rapid changes of the web. By empowering the marketing arm of the organization with new web content management technology that removed the historical content bottlenecks, LBC’s marketing department and administrators can now create new content and publish it instantaneously without IT involvement.
LBC has extended its content ownership to more people at the school, enabling them to stay timely and competitive, while removing its reliance on limited IT specialists and/or outside consulting services to publish and make changes to the site.
LBC is capitalizing on this new strategic approach to marketing on the web by streamlining many of the costly and time consuming phases of the content life cycle, and focusing on what matters most — creating meaningful and relevant content to broaden its online reach, enrich social engagement, and improve business results.
Four content imperatives for the new content reality
As we awaken to the new realities of content, here are four ways to rethink your content execution, and take advantage of the new content life cycle.
- Structure your content marketing strategy as a holistic system that allows you to connect more effectively with various stakeholders across a number of social channels, drive conversation, and influence customers.
- Open up content contribution to more users across the organization, providing more opportunities to connect with and engage customers in social channels, and extend your online reach. Be sure to remove any technology or process roadblocks that inhibit the expansion of your contributor pool — the more people who are able to contribute easily, the more content you will have to push across your channels.
- Deliver fresh, compelling and timely content that engages users and keeps visitors returning to your site, and then be sure to extend that content into your social channels. It’s no longer required to use your corporate sites as the centralized point of engagement; push your content out to the edge of the network and transform your website so that it serves as another node on that network.
- Be sure you are listening to the online conversations of your target audience, and optimize your content and content strategy based on the insights you gather from them. Set goals for expected outcomes with your content, just as you would with a traditional marketing campaign, and track and measure the results fervently. To complete the cycle, constantly test new ideas, and dump what doesn’t work while further optimizing what is working.
If your organization is still questioning whether you should be doing more on the social web, it’s time to step back and look at your content life cycle through this new strategic lens. As more companies start to adopt a more holistic approach to their content marketing strategies — by ensuring delivery of rich and engaging content on both their site and to social channels — they will drive results, and be better equipped to handle whatever comes next on the web.
Taking even one of these four simple steps outlined above will better position your content and instantly make your content strategy more valuable. But don’t wait to get started! The faster you get rolling, the faster you will start to see results.
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If you're a curator looking for some boundaries in what feels like the Wild West, here are five best practices to consider.
Last week, I wrote a blog post on how to effectively measure online influence and offered some insight in terms of how to plan out your influencer marketing channel strategy. This week, I will share 8 tips to increase your blog influence by increasing both blog subscribership and level of influence amongst your readers.
Long-term readership is the key to blog influence, as return visitors and those who engage with you are the individuals who actually look to you as an authority in a given subject matter, and consequently are the individuals that you have the opportunity to influence.
Below are 8 tips to increase your blog influence:
1. Understand your target audience and focus on a limited set of topics/industries that are relevant to your target audience’s interests and needs. Below is a chart demonstrating a typical B2B blogger’s target audience.
2. Clearly define the blog’s coverage and target readership in the blog’s description, so that your readers know what to expect from your content and know that your content is intended for their interests.
3. Engage with your readership and draw attention to this fact.
– Adopt a blog layout that clearly highlights the blogger comments with a comment button or a different color that calls attention to the blogger’s participation in the comment section of the blog.
– Respond to reader comments within 24 hours or less. Responding to reader comments quickly shows that you care about what they are saying and view their input and involvement in your blog as an important component in the overall development of ideas.
– Make your blog interactive, so that readers feel welcome to comment and engage with you.
– Clearly post your email and all social media contact information in the blog description or About page, and encourage readers to reach out via any of these channels.
4. Generously reference previous posts, so that new readers and occasional readers are exposed to multiple posts every time they visit your blog. Long-term readers result from multiple touch points and continued satisfaction, so encouraging multiple page visits every time they come to your page will increase your blog’s RSS subscribership.
5. Cross-promote your blog content via Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media channels, so as to ensure maximum exposure of each entry.
6. SEO optimize posts, so that new readers have a higher likelihood of stumbling across your content when executing searches in Google and the other search engines.
7. Write guest posts and articles for important community publications and participate in important community forums, blogs and discussions, so that you can expose new readers to your content and knowledge and hopefully inspire them to check-out your blog.
8. Make your content predictable, so that readers know what to expect. Top bloggers use the following tactics to do so:
– Post in regular intervals, so readers know when to expect new content.
– Foreshadow the next topic that will be covered at the end of each entry, so that readers can get excited about your next post.
– Write series that cover multiple posts that encourage readers to visit your blog on a regular basis.
– If you post more than once a week, write weekly and bi-weekly series to generate reader anticipation.
Next week, I will share tips to increase your influence via twitter based on tactics we uncovered while creating the top 10 venture capital online influencer report.
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By Scott Aughtmon, Published April 27, 2012
I want to give you two simple reasons you should be using content marketing. Ready?1. It gives people a reason (and an easy way) to “share” you with others.
2. It gives people a reason to keep coming back to your site.
Let me explain…
- We all want our business to experience the power of “word-of-mouth.”
- We all want our website to be linked to, and tweeted, and posted on Facebook.
- We want people to “like” or “+1″ us and our business.
But what current reason do people have to do these things in regards to your business or website?
One of the things people love to do online is to share great information (content) with others. When you create content you give people a reason to share you and your business with others.
What? You don’t have time to create content? You’re not good at writing?
That still shouldn’t stop you.
You can still curate content. You can begin to post excerpts of interesting news, articles and blog posts (with links to the referenced source) on your site.
Creating or curating information will make you more “shareable.”
But that’s not all.It will keep you on people’s radar. They’ll remember you when they need/want what you sell. Why? Because the great content you post will cause them to keep coming back to you to see what’s new.
It will make you and your business “sticky.”
And those two things are some of the most important keys to success today.
Photo by Lovin Scoopful
It’s the question I get more than any other lately, and it’s one of the most important questions you’ll answer in marketing your startup:
How do I create a content marketing strategy that works?
That will take several thousand words to answer, and then you’ll have to create your own strategy. Yep, ultimately it’s up to you.
To help, I’ll be writing a series of articles over the next several weeks, starting with this one. Each will progress from general to more specific at each step, to provide a blueprint to work from.
The first step is to get your head right. In other words, you need to begin with the correct perspective to succeed with online content as a marketing tool.
Mainly, you need to begin with the end (the result you want) in mind. This is where content marketing strategy fails … essentially when there isn’t a executable strategy in place at all.
Agile content marketing is the answer. Because no matter how wrong you get it at first, you can always make it right if you abide by this general philosophy.
Once again, we can borrow methods that have been proven to work by others. Some software companies have been using an agile methodology for quite a while.
Standup comedians have been doing it even longer. Let’s start with them.
How Stand-Up Comedians Develop Content
The word agile used in this sense comes from the world of software development, and is based on iterative and incremental development. Meaning, as with lean manufacturing, you start with something simple, understand that it needs improvement, and quickly make those improvements based on feedback.
With agile content marketing, you’re not starting with a minimum viable product. You’re first trying to build a minimum viable audience using the same lean principles of iterative and incremental development, so that you understand how to grow the audience further and better understand what they want to buy.
When applied to content marketing, agile development can be best understood by the way stand-up comedians write, test, and refine their acts. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not some isolated act of creative genius; it’s a process of iterative and incremental joke development.
- First, a comedian writes material. These jokes are based on what the comedian thinks is funny based on an educated guess of what might be funny to the audience.
- The comedian knows the act needs to be tested and improved. So, she heads out to small comedy clubs and performs the initial jokes in front of a live audience.
- Based on audience response (laughter, or lack thereof), after each performance the comedian cuts certain bits, tweaks others, writes new jokes, returns to the stage, and repeats. At some point, she arrives at a honed set of material that is then taken to larger venues, a comedy special, or other setting where a more polished performance is important.
Simple, but not easy. You’ve got to have the courage to just put it out there, and then objectively and progressively adapt.
How to Create Content that Isn’t a Joke
Similarly, agile content marketing follows the same 3-step process:
- Start with an educated guess for a content approach
- Release content knowing it’s likely flawed
- Optimize constantly based on feedback
It’s that rare approach that encourages disciplined execution and constant innovation at the same time. This ready, fire, aim methodology actually boils down to four distinct steps:
1. Strategy
This is the phase of the process where you’re making your own educated guesses. Those guesses come primarily from general market research into who you’re trying to reach, what they’re currently buying, what they need to learn to solve their problems and/or satisfy their desires, and how that can relate to a general class of products or services they want to buy.
2. Release
Research is vital, but at some point you need to settle on the overall positioning of your website, and start putting content out. You don’t need a theater or stadium-sized audience, just the equivalent of a small comedy club. Even then, you’re going to have to work to get your content viewed and shared enough to generate meaningful feedback.
3. Iterate
Iteration means the act of repeating and refining a process in order to reach a certain result. In mathematics, it means taking the output of a function and using that result as the starting point of the next function. Likewise, with content, the results (comments, shares, links, etc.) you receive from an initial content “experiment” fuels the approach you take with the content you produce next.
4. Optimize
The first three steps are repeated endlessly for the life of a project, just like the evolving editorial focus of a magazine, production cycle of a TV series, or career of a stand-up comedian. Mistakes are made and pivots performed. But you’ll also discover the content that is fundamentally crucial to your website – what I call cornerstone content (see also this article) – which can be organized and optimized as a constant workhorse for your content marketing efforts.
Help … I Need More Detail!
I know, I know … but as I said at the beginning, getting into an agile content marketing mindset is the first step. Without this philosophical framework in place, your efforts can quickly slip from iterative to idiotic.
Up next, I’ll walk you though a 5-step process that details more specifically how to execute on an agile content marketing approach. After that, I’ll drill down even deeper into a production process to create content that works as effective marketing, not just as filler on a webpage.
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Brian Clark is Editor-in-Chief of Entreproducer, a multimedia email publication exploring the business of independent digital media. Get more related content on Twitter.