content marketers - Express Writers

Stop Selling, Start Helping: What The Aim of Your Branded Content Marketing Should Be

December 31, 2020September 8, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Content marketing is a breeze, right? In theory. The theory often goes like this… You take a bunch of words, string them together, complement those sentences with striking images and stick out there for your fans and followers. If you have the know-how you can add a couple custom images, videos or even podcasts…maybe an infographic or two. You tweet, post and holler like crazy–until your content goes viral. It’s that easy, isn’t it? If only! Building Customer Trust Through Branded Content Marketing The lure to create, curate and then distribute content is so strong for brands because it works. Brands and marketers who prioritize blogging as not 5, or 10 but 13x more likely to enjoy a positive ROI. That’s huge. Content marketing generates 3x as many leads as its more traditional counterpart, outbound marketing, but costs more than 50% less. So, how come only 30% of all content strategists consider their efforts effective? And, there’s a lot of B2B marketers who seem lost in translation between their actual business results and content marketing efforts. So, what’s going on? What’s missing from the big picture? Is branded content marketing really “all that?” In short: content marketing is all that. The longer answer: content marketing will work if you care enough to delve into that nitty-gritty element of gaining your reader’s trust and creating content that is catered to them. Here at Express Writers, we think of branded content marketing as something much bigger than merely a tactic. It’s an essential tool. Better yet, it’s your lifeblood online to help you build meaningful relationships with customers and prospects. What you put out makes you, online. Or breaks you, if you don’t put anything out. Be the brand that does content marketing right. [clickToTweet tweet=”Content is your lifeblood online to help you build relationships with prospects. -@ExpWriters” quote=”Content is your lifeblood online to help you build relationships with prospects. -@ExpWriters”] Building Relationships Rooted on Trust The swiftly and ever evolving digital landscape has made it entirely possible for brands to overcome all sorts of weird and wonderful barriers in order to reach out to their target demographics. Brands and markets can now effortlessly seek and segment prospects, garner information and very readily respond through a whole shopping list worth of platforms. And best of all, feedback arrives in a matter of seconds. This all sounds great, doesn’t it? And it is. But you cannot force your services and products on your tribe once you’ve found them. You’ve got to work at building relationships, one solid piece of content at a time. For every piece of content you post, your number one goal should be to gain trust and elicit a real response from your audience in favor of your content (an action, whether that’s conversion-oriented or a simple responsive comment). Gaining Trust: Emotions vs. Logic Charts, statistics data – they’re all pretty cool. They’re like the geek squad who unwaveringly support your brand’s claim or cheer on about why you’re the best thing to ever happen to your niche. But hang on just a second. Have you ever stopped and thought about how your customers and prospects go through the gamut of emotions on a daily basis? Whether you’re promoting hip replacement surgery, selling a bread knife, or convincing your readers that a holiday to Bali is just what they need, it’s important to craft content that makes them feel. You need to be creating content that will have them nodding in agreement, chuckling at your humor and leaning in closer to read and share your words. In due time, it’s those emotions that will draw them to subscribing to your newsletter, signing up for a free trial and ultimately, seal a deal. According to Roger Dooley, brand campaigns with highly emotional content perform twice as well as content that is rational. Emotional content also does a little better than mixed emotional and rational content. What’s more, the more positive the readers feel with your content, the more likely they are to start talking about your brand. 5 Ways to Build Trust With Your Branded Content Marketing To whittle it down: emotions drive buying decisions, and to evoke emotions in your readers, you need to build trust in what you put out online. Let’s explore how. 1. Who Is Your Audience & What Are Your Intended Outcomes? Brands always need to consider who they’re writing for and why. It’s a lot easier to build trust (which leads to sales) when the right reader is presented with the right content. Then brands need to think about why they’re writing: what’s the goal of your content marketing? If your object is trust – and it should be – make sure you’re not pushing too hard, too soon 2. Determine Content Type, Frequency & Location While these three elements alone won’t build trust, trust really begins by placing the information your audience wants somewhere where they’ll benefit from it. So let’s say your audience mostly looks for content on Reddit, make sure you make it available to them in their favorite space. 3. Share > Promote > Engage In order to build trust, you need to get word out that your content is available. That being said, there’s a fine line between spammy promotion and a little nudge towards awareness. Share on the platforms where your audience is most active and curate your content carefully to help the reader realize that want to read it. Finally, once a reader takes time to engage with your content, reach out and let them know you appreciate it. 4. Make It Easy To Connect With Your Brand If you’re working hard on your content, chances are good you want to make it easy for people to connect with your brand, right? So make sure interested readers can easily connect with you, be it through RSS, email, phone or any other means. 5. Analyze Responses, Optimize for Next Time Brands need to look at their content to what’s being viewed, shared and, of course, engaged with. If particular content is attracting a good response and other posts are being ignored, then you need to … Read more

5 Surefire Ways to Convert Your Clients on Why They Need Great Online Content

December 31, 2020June 21, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Great online content is a powerful marketing tool. You know that, and I know that: but your clients might not. If you’ve had the experience of picking up a client with no knowledge of web marketing, you understand how frustrating it can be to try to sell someone who knows nothing about online content on the actual benefits and investment of content. Even though you’re certain that online content is an effective way to market a business, your client might not be. Luckily, you (and they) don’t have to be stuck in content limbo forever. These simple tactics will give you the edge you need to convince a non-content marketer about the value of content. Read on to learn more. Converting Them to Online Content: What Makes it Difficult? While many marketers are more than willing to embrace content marketing as a whole, some haven’t turned the corner just yet. These clients may be unfamiliar with the world of web marketing or simply wary about the expense and effort associated with developing a content marketing strategy. For some people, content just seems unnecessary (even though you know it’s not). While dealing with these clients can be frustrating (especially when you’re well aware of how useful content could be to them), it’s critical to understand where they’re coming from. So much of building a successful client-agency relationship is compassion. By being compassionate about how your customer feels and understanding why they hold the beliefs that they do, you can tailor your approach to suit their needs better. This, in turn, helps you go the extra step and make them into content believers not only because you told them they should be, but because they’ve seen and understood the benefits of content on their own. This creates longer-lasting relationships and a more productive client-agency partnership. 5 Practical Tips to Create Content Evangelists 1. Create a comfortable environment Imagine walking into a room and sitting down with a total stranger. Before you’ve had a chance to so much as sip your water, said stranger starts pitching you on the value of including space rock dust in your marketing strategy. You’ve never heard of such a thing before, but the stranger keeps pushing and pushing. “You need this!” they insist. Before long, you’re running from the room, screaming as you go. Sound dramatic? Maybe. But this experience isn’t all that different from how a new client will feel if you fail to create a comfortable environment based on mutual trust before you start pitching. People tend to be resistant to new ideas. According to the Harvard Business Review, this can be due to factors ranging from uncertainty to a perceived loss of control. Regardless of where your client’s resistance is coming from, the only way to overcome it is to build a foundation of comfort and trust right off the bat. To make your client comfortable, be respectful of their time and don’t get overly complicated with your solution. While content is a large and multi-faceted thing, simplifying it for your client is the best way to help them warm up to the idea without feeling like you’re trying to sell them snake oil. 2. Back yourself up with some serious stats If you can’t provide data to back up your claims about why your client should be using online content, you’re sunk in the water. In addition to helping you come off as knowledgeable and authoritative, good data can give your client the objective proof they need to take the dive into content. For examples of great statistics, consider the following: In 2015, 67% of all B2B companies reported that content marketing was within their top three priorities Implementing an inbound marketing strategy (that includes content) can double a website’s overall conversion rates – taking them from 6% to 12% 41% of all marketers say that content marketing has a positive ROI 44% of B2B marketers have developed a documented content strategy When it comes to reach and engagement, blogs and social media platforms reach 80% of U.S. internet users and account for approximately 23% of the time users spend online 61% of customers are more willing to make a purchase from a company that creates custom content for them Marketers who blog are 13x as likely to earn a positive ROI than those who don’t 70% of customers report that they’d prefer to become acquainted with a company via helpful articles and blogs rather than ads The good thing about trying to convince someone of the power of content is that there is a ton of online material out there to back you up. Great stats roll in every year, and it’s easy to find solid data to back up virtually any claim you’re making about the power of content marketing. Two top sources that keep track of the real ROI of online content, perfect to help your case for convincing are Hubspot and Content Marketing Institute. 3. Show your client where content has worked in the past If you’ve got a customer who is notably reticent about the idea of adopting content, you might need to demonstrate to them that other companies have had success with content. One great way to do this is through case studies. For an example of a compelling case study, consider one that Content Marketing Institute recently released. The case study focuses on Eloqua, a marketing automation company. Before implementing a content marketing strategy, Eloqua had been in business for ten years and had built a good reputation. As the popularity of marketing automation blew up, however, the company started to feel pressured to keep up with their competitors, so they opted to implement content marketing to meet their goals. Specifically, the company wanted to create a new branch and build hype around the launch of a new product. They planned to do this by developing content and building relationships with their customers. They worked to develop a distribution schedule for their content, utilize cross-platform functionality, and reach out to their audiences more effectively. Soon after they launched their new … Read more

The Top 60 Content Marketers You Should Be Following on Twitter

January 1, 2021October 27, 2015 by Adam Oakley

For any kind of marketer, Twitter is a hugely powerful tool. This social media platform has more than 304 million monthly active users: it’s a way for information to travel faster and broader than almost any other platform on the web. That said, within those 304 million users, who are the ones worth following as content marketing leaders? That have similar interests to us as marketers, and are leaders within the content marketing space? Let’s take a look! 60 Top Content Marketers You Should Follow (Today) On Twitter My list of these top 60 content marketers is made up of the crème de la crème of the industry. These content marketers specialize in everything from Content Marketing 101, SEO and how content fits into that, all the way to advanced branding techniques. I follow these guys and have engaged with them regularly. Good stuff will follow if you start following them today – you’ll probably learn a few things as you consistently see and read their content. Here you go (all their names are linked to their Twitter handles), in no particular order: 1. Rand Fishkin. Rand Fishkin is an author, blogger and founder of SEO Giant Moz. People who follow his tweets can look forward to ample marketing, SEO, technology and startup information. 2. Jay Baer. Author of the New York Times bestselling book Youtility, Jay Baer is a global keynote speaker, and digital media entrepreneur as well as being president the strategy consulting firm @Convince. 3. Brian Clark. CEO of Rainmaker Digital, Brain Clark is also the curator of several successful content marketing websites. 4. David Burn. David Burn is a content strategist, writer and brand specialist who assists content marketers in learning to distribute content effectively and write pieces that will draw readers in. 5. Michael Brenner. Michael Brenner is a renowned speaker, author and blogger with @MKTGInsiders as well as being Head of Strategy @Newscred. Brenner is also the former VP of Content Marketing with @SAP. 6. Mitch Joel. President of Mirum, Mitch Joel is a marketer, speaker, author and self-proclaimed “media hacker.” Additionally, Joel is a blogger at Six Pixels of Separation. People that can’t get enough of Joel via Twitter can check out his new book Ctrl Alt Delete. 7. Brian Fanzo. I enjoy catching Brian on Periscope as well as watching all of his keynote speeches. He’s an energetic social media advocate, going by the title “Change Evangelist”, has a huge following, and is behind the iSocialFanz site. Follow him for great insights on how to run your social media. 8. Sue B. Zimmerman. She’s the “Instagram Expert”, a successful entrepreneur, speaker, and Instagram coach. This lady is the go-to expert when it comes to Instagram, and she’s hot on Periscope too. 9. Neil Patel. Neil Patel is a renowned entrepreneur and blogger who has started two analytics companies: @CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics. He’s a top followed content marketer (I read and enjoy all his stuff). 10. Pamela I Wilson. Pamela I. Wilson is the owner of Big Brand System. She also manages the CopyBlogger blog and produces educational products for the company. 11. Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt. Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt is an attorney-turned-content marketer who was named one of the Top 50 Rich Media Influencers to follow. 12. Paul Roetzer. Paul Roetzer is the Founder of The Marketing Performance Blueprint & The Marketing Agency Blueprint as well as being the Creator of Marketing Score (@MKTScore). 13. Aaron Orendorff. Aaron Orendorff’s mission is to “save the world from bad content.” He is also a contributor for publications like @EntMagazine, @FastCompany, @BusinessInsider, @SuccessMagazine, @CopyBlogger and @Unbounce. 14. Lee Odden. Lee Odden is the CEO of @TopRank, where he specializes in online marketing. He is also a B2B Content Marketing consultant and a social media and PR specialist. 15. Bob Geller. Bob Geller is a PR and content specialist as well as being the president of Fusion PR. 16. Joanna Wiebe. She is the genius copywriter and Internet marketer we all aspire to be. CEO of Copyhackers and top-notch wordsmith, Joanna has been featured in numerous places and sites. 17. Jeff Deutsch. Jeff Deutsch is the VP of Marketing for @ptengine. He also contributes content to @HubSpot. 18. Ryan Hanley. Ryan is the host of the popular Content Warfare podcast and author of the book by the same name. 19. Amanda Subler. Amanda Subler is a former journalist turned public relations, content marketing and video production specialist. She is also a PR and Media Manager for @CMIContent. 20. Tim Ash. Tim Ash is the CEO of Site Tuners and author of the bestselling book Landing Page Optimization. 21. Meryl K. Evans. Meryl K. Evans is a writer, editor, social media specialist and content marketer. Her tweets are aimed at helping content marketers adapt to web standards and boost site traffic. 22. Doug Kessler. Doug Kessler is a content marketing, B2B copywriting, social media and tech marketing specialist who focuses on helping content marketers learn to promote their brand and write better content. 23. Matt Heinz. Matt Heinz focuses on helping B2B companies produce more revenue via focused marketing strategies. He also helps companies produce more demand from customers and hone their sales process. 24. Bernie Borges. Bernie Borges is the host of The Social Business Engine Digital TV Show & Podcast as well as being the CEO of popular B2B digital marketing firm Find and Convert. 25. Neal Schaffer. Neal Schaffer is an author at @MaxYourSocial as well as being the founder of @msocialbusiness and @socialtoolssmmt. 26. Bryan Eisenberg. Bryan Eisenberg is the founder and CMO of Ideal Spot. He is also a keynote speaker and author. 27. Rebekah Radice. She’s an award-winning social media author, speaker and strategist. She works at the uber-cool PostPlanner and is behind #InfluencerChat, as well as a co-host for #ViralChat from Post Planner on Thursdays. 28. Jay Acunzo. Jay Acunzo works on content at @NextViewVC, and is the host and producer of the Traction podcast, where he discusses and features super cool entrepreneurial stories. 29. Lisa Petrilli. Named one of the Top 20 CMO’s by Forbes, Lisa Petrilli is dedicated to empowering women in positions of business & leadership in the world of digital communication. 30. Andrew Davis. The founder of Monumental Shift, Andrew Davis teaches marketers how to find and target a niche in order to grow business and produce great work. 31. Heidi Cohen, Heidi Cohen is a speaker, professor and journalist. He shares tweets on social media, content marketing and how to create successful small businesses. 32. Henneke Duistermaat. She calls herself someone who’s on a … Read more