Do you have a content marketing strategy in place for your brand? If not, it’s time you create one! However, you might be wondering how to get started and that’s where we come in. In this week’s #ContentWritingChat, we talked all about the basics of creating a content marketing strategy of your very own. Keep reading for the recap!
#ContentWritingChat Recap: Content Marketing Strategy 101 with Julia McCoy
Our guest host this week was our very own CEO, Julia McCoy. As a content marketing expert herself, it’s no surprise that she had some amazing advice to share with everyone.
Q1: What is a content marketing strategy and why is it important for today’s brands?
To kick off the chat, we asked everyone to share their own definitions of a content marketing strategy. We also wanted to find out how important they felt it was to have a strategy and why. Check out a few of the responses we received:
A1 A content marketing strategy drives the guidelines, creation, execution and tracking of your content marketing. #ContentWritingChat
As Julia said, a strategy will drive the guidelines, creation, execution, and tracking of your content marketing. She knows it’s necessary if you want to achieve ROI and make goals happen with the content you create.
A1) Content Marketing Strategy is crafting a consistent schedule of content to tell your brand’s story to win customers. #ContentWritingChat
Annaliese said having a strategy in place gives you an established process for why you’re doing what you do, plus guidelines on how to do it.
A1 It’s knowing what to say, how to say it, where and to whom. Having a plan and executing it. #ContentWritingChat
— Maria Tereza Dickson (@terezadickson) June 20, 2017
As Maria pointed out, having a strategy is partly about knowing what you want to say, how to say it, where to say it, and who you’re saying it to. These are all essential things to figure out.
This is a great way to look at it! Jenn said your strategy is your road map from where you are to where you want to be. It’s important to set goals and create a plan of action to help you get there.
Q2: Before you can begin creating content and planning your strategy, what do you need to figure out?
Now that you know what a content marketing strategy is, you’re probably feeling ready and inspired to create one of your own. But before you can get started, there are a few essential things you need to figure out. Take a look at these tips:
Julia’s first tip is to figure out what makes you different from everyone else. When you know what your Content Differentiation Factor (CDF) is, you can embrace that and stand out from the crowd. (Read her Search Engine Journal article she linked to if you want to learn more!)
Next, she encourages you to discover who your audience is. She shares four key tips in the graphic she included with her post. You can learn about this more in-depth in the content course she’s creating.
Sarah knows it’s important to know key information about your audience. Who is your target audience and what do they need? Where do they hang out? What will make them convert? This is all important to figure out so you can create content accordingly.
A2: You need to figure out your audience. Learn who they are then you can determine what type of content to create. #contentwritingchat
Kyle also agrees that it’s important to know what your goals are ahead of time. Are you trying to increase brand awareness or land conversions? Is it something else? Figure that out beforehand so you can create the content that will help you get there.
A2: Know what success looks. Benchmarks? Goals? Objectives under goals? Tactics under objectives? #contentwritingchat
Jonathan chimed in about the importance of setting goals as well. Figure out what a successful piece of content looks like to you and what that means before moving forward.
This is a great answer from Jason. He said you want to determine who your audience is, including their demographics. You also need to establish your brand’s voice, the types of content you’ll be producing, and how everything will work together.
Gaby shared an impressive list of things you should figure out before creating content. She said you should understand: brand/content purpose, message, objectives, audience/target, content topic, industry, and brand voice.
Q3: What steps are required to develop a content marketing strategy for your own brand?
Now it’s time to get into the actual steps of creating a strategy that works. Here’s some helpful advice that will get you started on the right foot:
Julia recommends figuring out who your audience is, keywords, and your defined content types/costs. She also suggests having an editorial calendar, creating a content promotions strategy, and knowing how you’ll perform tracking and maintenance.
Brittany outlined her recommended steps and made it easy to follow along. She says to: gather your insights, outline your business goals, determine your budget and timeline, create personas, establish a process, create calendars, write and edit, and measure.
A3: Truly know the demographic of your audience, and the best way to cater toward them #contentwritingchat
— Roslyn Wertheimer ? (@RE_Wertheimer) June 20, 2017
Roslyn’s advice is to know the demographics of your audience and the best way to cater to them. This is essential in creating content that gets results online.
It’s also helpful to know how you’re going to differentiate yourself from everyone else around. With so many people talking about the same things online, you have to spin that content in a way that will stand out and attract your audience.
Q4: What content types are crucial to help your brand become an authority online?
If you ask any brand, most of them would say they’re on the path to establishing themselves as an authority online. They all want to become the go-to resource for their target audience. But what kind of content can you create to help make that happen? Check out these responses:
Julia encourages you to focus on your own website first. Create amazing content for your blog and then build content for other platforms. Other channels to direct your attention include guest blogging and building a presence on social media.
There are a variety of things that will dictate the types of content you produce. It can depend on your brand, objectives, messaging, your industry, your market, your audience, and also the resources you have.
Annaliese agrees there are a few factors that will dictate the types of content you produce. One thing to consider is what your audience prefers. Do they enjoy videos or are they bigger fans of written content? Figure that out because it’s going to play a factor for your brand.
Ultimately, what matters is that you create valuable content that addresses the questions your audience has. When you can deliver what they want and need, they’ll begin to see you as an authority in your field.
A4. A brand will only become an authority online by sharing relevant content for the audience, and engaging with them #contentwritingchat
It all comes down to sharing relevant content and taking the time to engage with your audience. That’s how you start making an impact in your industry.
Q5: How do you measure the effectiveness of your content? If you aren’t seeing results, how do you make improvements?
In order to know if your content is helping you achieve the results you want, you’re going to have to measure how well it’s performing. Even more important, you’ll need to know how to make tweaks if you aren’t seeing the results you’d hoped for. Here’s some helpful advice:
A5 I highly suggest setting up a tracking project in @semrush to analyze rankings you gain/lose and content success. #ContentWritingChat
Eddie’s advice is to set S.M.A.R.T. goals and objectives beforehand. This will allow you to see what you hope to achieve and which data you’ll need to track closely.
If you find you need to make changes, Annaliese suggests making simple changes. Tweak one thing at a time through A/B testing to see what’s working and what’s not.
A5) A/B testing is extremely helpful for determining what images/copy are effective. #contentwritingchat
Kyle also sees the value in running A/B tests to see which images and copy are the most effective.
Q6: What are the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to developing their content marketing strategy?
If you want to set up a strategy that’s successful, you’ll want to avoid some of the common mistakes that can be disastrous. Here are a few examples so you’ll know what to avoid:
Don’t be so focused on the money that you immediately start pushing the sale. You need to build trust with your audience first if you want them to convert.
It’s more important that you focus on your customers, as opposed to talking about yourself in a self-serving way all the time. Talk to your audience and listen to what they have to say. Learn from them.
Q7: Which tools, calendars, and other resources do you rely on when developing a maintaining a content marketing strategy?
With so many tools and resources available, you’re sure to finding something that will make creating and sticking to a strategy even easier. Take a look at these tools:
The Netvantage Marketing team relies on Google Docs as well as a few other tools to get their work done. It’s clear they know what works best for them.
Mallie keeps it simple with an Excel spreadsheet plus a pen and her paper planner.
Q7: At my last job, we used shared Google docs and sheets to track everything. Not fancy, but it worked.#ContentWritingChat
— Danielle Bullen Love (@daniellewriter) June 20, 2017
Danielle said her previously job relied on Google Docs. As she said, it’s not fancy, but it works. All that matters is that you use tools that are efficient and get the job done.
Q8: Which brands do you think are killing it with their content lately?
Which brands are doing an incredible job with the content they publish? Check out these:
The Rising Tide Society is one brand that consistently puts out great content.
Be sure to join us on Twitter every Tuesday at 10 AM Central Time for #ContentWritingChat! Follow our accounts for all the latest: @ExpWriters and @writingchat!
It’s no secret that every brand needs to have an effective content marketing strategy if they want to see results within their business. However, many brands feel unsure of how to get started when creating a strategy of their own. This week’s #ContentWritingChat was all about the basics of creating a content marketing strategy, so there’s no more excuses. You can get started on yours today!
#ContentWritingChat Recap: Creating a Content Marketing Strategy 101 with Doug Kessler
For this Tuesday’s #ContentWritingChat, our guest host was Doug Kessler. Doug is the is Co-Founder and Creative Director of Velocity. He shared some great insights with our audience about content marketing, so you’ll want to read through these tips and start implementing them.
Q1: Discuss the importance of content marketing for brands in 2017.
So, how important is it for a brand to develop their own content marketing strategy? And what kind of results will it provide once they have? Check out these tips from Tuesday’s chat:
A1 Content marketing has gone from niche tactic to mainstream strategy. #ContentWritingChat
As Annaliese said, content marketing has become expected of brands. She feels it helps you to build an interested audience and can establish you as a thought leader in your industry.
@ExpWriters A1: Content marketing is crucial to build relationships with customers which will lead to more brand loyalty #ContentWritingChat
Content marketing can help you build relationships with your customers, which can ultimately lead to more brand loyalty. You’ll see these kinds of results when you do your content marketing strategy the right way.
— Digital Natives Cast (@DgtlNativesCast) March 7, 2017
The Digital Natives team said it’s key for establishing trust and adding value for your clients.
Q2: What’s the first major step(s) of a solid content marketing strategy for any business/industry?
When creating a content marketing strategy for your brand, there are a few steps you’ll have to take in the early phases. Here’s what you need to know in order to get started:
Doug said that the first step to creating a content marketing strategy is getting to know your audience. If you don’t know who your audience is, you can’t create the right kind of content to attract them.
Know your goals and who your audience is. Once you’ve figured out those two things, you can start planning how you’ll connect with them and what kind of content you’ll create.
Tony recommends finding ways your audience likes to read and access content. Once you’ve figured that out, you can create exactly the type of content they’re looking for.
Q3: Content marketing vs. traditional marketing (i.e., TV spot): Your thoughts? Is one higher ROI?
Today’s brands still invest in traditional marketing as part of their content marketing strategy. There’s no shortage of ads on television. But is it really the most effective tactic or is content marketing the way to go? Here’s what our chat participants had to say:
Kevin’s advice is to figure out who your audience is and where they’re spending their time. Once you know that, you’ll be able to create content and put it directly in front of them on the platforms they’re using.
A3 In today’s market, consumers want relationships with brands. Broadcasting is over. Sales are made in conversations. #contentwritingchat
Keira brought up a great point about how consumers now crave relationships with brands. Those relationships are what help to build trust, which ultimately turns a follower into a customer. Conversations are key to building relationships with your target audience.
A3: We have the ability to track the success of content marketing much easier than traditional marketing. #ContentWritingChat
— Roslyn Wertheimer ? (@RE_Wertheimer) March 7, 2017
As Roslyn said, it’s also easier to track the success of content marketing than traditional marketing. This will help you to really see the results you’re getting from your investment.
Q4: Discuss a few favorite channels/content types that work for you (live streaming, guest blogging, etc.).
The channels and content types that work best for one brand won’t necessarily be what works best for another. It’s important to experiment so you can see what works for you, then make it part of your content marketing strategy. Here’s what seems to be working well for our chat participants:
A4 Fave content types? I’m a big fan of Slideshare. And B2B still loves a chunky eBook. #ContentWritingChat
Doug is a big fan of SlideShade, which we’ve also used here at Express Writers. If you haven’t tried it for yourself, give it a shot and see how your audience responds.
He also mentioned video, which is still very powerful today. Whether you’re uploading videos to YouTube or doing live videos on a platform like Facebook Live, it’s great for your brand.
A4 Fave content marketing avenues: 1) writing authority content on guest blog sites + our own 2) #ContentWritingChat 3) authoring a book ?
As Julia said, she sees results from writing guest blogs for other sites and here on Express Writers. This Twitter chat and her book have also worked out well.
A4: *Consistently* blogging on our own site and guest blogging are great for our industry. #contentwritingchat
Annaliese has seen great results with guest blogging. It’s a fantastic way to increase your exposure since you’re able to get in front of a whole new audience. Social media engagement is also great!
Michelle loves joining Twitter chats. They’re actually a great way to connect with new people and to share your expertise. She also enjoys using the story features on both Instagram and Snapchat.
A4: For @Brandfolder, when we hit on the right customer pain point, our audience takes notice, especially through email. #contentwritingchat
Cheval knows that podcasting is great for building his authority within his industry. Even if you don’t see a return on your investment right away, it can happen over time.
Jeremy said it’s important to test the content you create. This allows you to see what’s working and what’s not. Make sure you’re also being helpful and serving others.
Don’t forget to engage with your audience regularly. It shows them that you’re human and helps to build a connection.
Q6: How can you identify if your content marketing strategy is actually working and generating results?
Once you’ve developed and implemented your content marketing strategy, how do you know if it’s working for you? These tips will show you what you need to track:
As Kristi said, this is where your goals come in. You need to set goals for the content you create so you can see if it was actually effective. If it is, great! If not, you need to make some changes.
We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM Central Time for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!
The ultimate goal of content marketing is to draw attention. The signal of successful content marketing is when that attention results in action. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has literally iced out content marketing, providing one of the most incredibly perfect examples of the legendary power of compelling promotion for 2014. There’s a great deal for marketers and business owners to glean from this trending phenomena.
How It All Began
Would you believe that the popular challenge did not start out as an ALS Association fundraiser? According to Geoff Herbert of Syracuse.com, the roots of the phenomena date back to last winter when professional golfers were on a mission to gain support for various pet charities. According to The Guardian, the ice bucket craze hit the national radar when golfer Greg Norman issued the challenge to Matt Lauer, host of “Today,” and he accepted on live television.
The challenge comes with simple rules. Once received, you must make a video of dumping a bucket of ice water over yourself, post it online, and then tag Facebook friends and family, challenging them to do the same. Per the rules, you have 24 hours from being “nominated” to take the challenge or your subsequent forfeit demands a donation of $100 to a cause of your choice. The challenge has gone viral, and ALS has become the overwhelming standard.
What’s the connection between ALS and ice water? Just how did it become the overwhelming standard? It all goes back to the family of Pete Frates, a baseball player diagnosed two years ago with ALS. Their campaign fueled the standard and the results…well, they speak for themselves! Let’s consider the scope of this event.
The Legendary Scope
According to the ALS Association, from July 29 to August 27 of 2013 a total amount of 2.7 million dollars in donations was raised. As of August 27, 2014, the ice bucket challenge has rasied $94.3 million since July 29, 2014 from existing donors and 2.1 million new donors.
Icono Square Blog has been tracking the challenge since it went live on TV via Matt Lauer back on July 15, 2014. Using their hashtag tracking tool, they tracked the number of mentions of the two official hashtags: #icebucketchallenge and #alsicebucketchallenge. After logging a total of over 3 million posts, they broke the mentions down per hashtag:
Geologically speaking, the mass response to the ALS ice bucket challenge has been primarily rooted in the United States. But it has spread globally with participants from Canada, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Brazil, Israel, Lebanon, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia. Icono Square Blog also graphed geological stats per hashtag, which show the massive response from the US:
Just who has participated in the challenge? The support from some of Hollywood’s favorite celebrities has greatly contributed to its success and viral natural. A few of our favorites who have accepted and passed on the challenge include Robert Downey Jr, Oprah, and Steven Spielberg. And who can forget Tom Hiddleston’s nomination of Benedict Cumberbatch (television’s Sherlock), resulting in this hilarious continuation of the challenge that really captures the fun and reminds nominees to be punctual:
Even Google Jumped On Board
We all know Matt Cutts. He’s the Google guru. We track his tweets and stalk his site because he’s the go to guy for the latest and greatest Google news. He’s the first and last say on almost everything SEO, and when this guy does something, it’s usually followed by everyone and their Uncle jumping on board.
On August 22nd, Matt did his challenge and nominated members of the search quality team, including Brian White, Evan Roseman, and Michael Wyszomierski (aka Wysz). Not only did he say he’d write a check to donate, but he also “earned” his nominations:
With so many credible folks jumping on board, and the results of new awareness raising such a large donation total thus far, there’s just one unanswered question:
Are You Icing Out?
Don’t worry! We’re not going to ask if you’ve accepted the challenge and dumped a bucket of ice water over your head to raise ALS awareness. We’re not even going to ask if you’ve donated. But while we’re on the subject, if you haven’t at least donated to this profound cause, swing over to the ALS Association’s website and make a donation—every penny helps. And if you’ve accepted the challenge and caught it on film, feel free to share your awesomeness with us in this blog’s comments or via our social media.
The truth is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been a legendary example of epic content marketing in action. Crowd-based business models and marketing aren’t anything new, but this challenge has shown the potential benefits for non-profits. The question we’re asking is whether you’ve “iced out” your content marketing this year? And as we fly toward yet another new year, are you going to grab the takeaway lessons from the ice bucket challenge that can bolster your marketing plan?
Never underestimate fun and a good cause. Wikipedia notated some of the criticism that has surrounded the ice bucket challenge. It was issued as a means of raising awareness and encouraging donations. It combined a bit of fun with a profoundly good cause. In fact, it’s a safe bet that the majority of people undertaking the ALS challenge had little to no idea of what ALS was until it was issued. While critics like Williams Foxton almost insultingly label it as “a middle-class wet-T-shirt contest for armchair clicktivists,” there’s no denying the phenomenon created since the challenge went viral. It has literally become an international event as everyone from America to the UK take part.
Takeaway: Never underestimate what a combination of good old-fashioned fun and a good cause can do. Imagine the publicity if your company had originated the ice bucket challenge and helped raise awareness and donations for such a good cause?
Create the moment. The ice bucket challenge wasn’t originally made for ALS, but look at what happened when an ALS stricken individual jumped on the occasion. As a brand or business, it’s up to you to create the moment, issue the challenge, and promote it.
Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to take a risk and create that perfect moment. Chances are it won’t create itself, but if it does, don’t wait around. Jump on the wagon and gain that epic exposure. ALS did, and they’ve landed super attraction at zero cost.
How you craft your call to action matters. The ice bucket challenge is a lot like the cashier who asks you to donate a couple dollars to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital while you’re checking out. Although both causes are great, the ice bucket challenge managed the bigger bang for audience participation. Why? It’s all in presentation. How you entice your audience to action is just as important as what you entice them to do.
Takeaway: Take care in crafting your call to action. How will you motivate your audience? How will you engage and compel them? Have the answers to these questions firmly in mind before crafting your all-important call to action.
Keep is simple and make it easy. Yes, a challenge is meant to be tough. After all, we wouldn’t call it a challenge if it didn’t take some courage or determination. The ice bucket is a shining example of a challenge that takes courage and determination without being too difficult for just about anyone to accomplish. People don’t like hard. They don’t want to climb a mountain just to respond to your call to action. The ice bucket challenge is ingenious because it’s super simple yet still takes some guts to pull off.
Takeaway: Nobody wants to tackle something that’s terribly tough. People want fun and easy. Find those fun and easy ways to engage your audience, and find the ways that they will respond to. Your challenge could be anything from a snapshot to a click. Another great example of audience engagement comes from Sonic with their “how do you Sonic” challenge. They constantly receive new snapshots, which are displayed beneath the “See Yourself at Sonic” headline on their website.
Recognition motivates. One of the awesome qualities of the ice bucket challenge is recognition. In the past few months, it has quickly become a trend. Filming your successful challenge became a form of recognition, and the ALS Association encouraged it by offering handy free downloads like Twitter and Facebook cover image and profile picture downloads to broadcast challenge completion.
Takeaway: Give your audience extra incentive. Hand them recognition or a cool, free perk for acting on your call to action.
There will always be critics. Despite the challenge becoming an almost overnight success of sizeable proportions to the ALS Association, there are critics. Everyone from water conservationists to celebrities has taken a critical stand, bashing the challenge as wasteful and even life threatening. And the truth is they’re right. If someone of poor health dumps a bucket of icy water over their heads (or if the action isn’t performed with common sense), they could endanger their life. If you live in a draught area, or are otherwise surrounded by water shortage, repurposing the water or opting out of the challenge are wise decisions.
Takeaway: No challenge and no marketing plan will ever be perfect and critic free. You’ll always risk the backlash of haters, and some will have relevant, respectable points. The point is to be ready for criticism, take it in stride, and if it’s constructive and respectable put it to use to improve your strategy.
Videos are growing more and more popular. The challenge makes an important marketing point. Videos are beginning to take visual social platforms by storm. With a single 30 to 60 second video, an important message can be imparted that both inspires and entertains. Videos are easy for on-the-go viewers to watch and pass on. They’re responsive on mobile networks. They’re little packages packed with punch that lend themselves to creating huge social signals. Half of the reason videos go viral is because so many people find them easy to connect to in both a technological and emotional way.
Takeaway: Expand your brand’s message and audience by taking advantage of every media outlet and type available. Videos are quickly becoming the go to standard for businesses that want to make a lasting impression, and this media type hands you endless creative possibilities. It’s the perfect media type for your busy viewers, and it’s a prime means of connecting with your audience on an entirely new level. Videos are easy to share on social media, and they’re even a great way of repurposing content in a trendy fashion.
Social media + Content = Unlimited Opportunity. Since the beginning of 2014, we’ve heard all about the benefits of strong, high quality content combined with social media. The ice bucket challenge has done a superb job of demonstrating the sheer value of this winning marketing equation. The challenge has lit social media channels enough to create hashtags and an unprecedented, active response. For the audience member who wants to know more about the cause, the ALS Association’s website does not disappoint. It’s beaming with high quality content that covers everything from the disease they represent to the latest news surrounding the challenge. And now thousands of authoritative websites across the Internet are linking back to them in their own quality content covering the phenomena.
Takeaway: Content marketing works. High quality content sparks action, and it naturally boosts SEO. White hat SEO strategies really are gold, and the biggest, most effective tactic is high quality content. Combine awesome copy with the power of audience participation via social media channels and you’ve got a winning strategy at your fingertips.
Now that you’ve seen the scope, popularity, and takeaway points from ALS icing content marketing, only one question remains. What will your ‘ice bucket’ content marketing strategy be?
Your content is written, but your funds are limited. So what do you do? Clearly you would think that you should start looking for marketers to market your content, but those limited funds come right back up. This is a chance for you to save some money and begin marketing on your own. You can still utilize the services from other companies, but this blog is going to help you learn several nifty ways to market your content without breaking your bank account.
To Market or Not To Market
Believe it or not, there are people who wonder if marketing is important. In fact, you might be one of those! We can tell you that marketing is of the utmost importance when it comes to getting your content and product out there. How else will people find you? How else can they learn about your amazing products and services? Just because you have published your content does not mean it stops there. You have to market or else your other efforts will fall flat and you will notice your site going downhill fast. There are many ways in which you can market your content and according to Convince and Convert, some of these are:
Emailing employees on an internal network. If you do not have an internal network, you can still do this via Google+ or sending out an employee newsletter.
Social Media news release.
Traditional news releases.
Appearing on local news stations.
YouTube demos for apps and other products.
These are based on what one company did when creating a nifty app to help parents find the best car seat for their children. The app was successful because of the marketing this company did. Instead of treating the release as the end of the line, they advertised their product as much as they possibly could. While some of their methods may not work for your business, following some of what is listed above will help you. Do not neglect marketing or you will live to regret it.
Now, we are sure you are wondering how to market your product, content, and services. We will discuss a few handy tips and products that can help you immensely as you begin your marketing campaign.
1. Great Strategies and Strong Foundations. In order to market your content, you need to have solid content foundation. You cannot just jump into the content marketing game, you need to have a plan and follow it. Strategy is the best way to make sure your content will be noticed. If you do not have a strategy for your content and your content marketing campaigns, you will see it slipping. Once you have a strategy and a strong foundation, you can begin to publish great content and market it wonderfully. A good strategy will help you keep up with your marketing needs, but bad strategy will make you lose more customers and money. Never underestimate the power of great strategy!
2. Street Teams. These have proven to be pretty effective for a lot of groups and companies. Street teams rely on clients to give out information regarding a company or group. These can be done in numerous ways. For example, the International Geek Girl Pen Pal Club (IGGPPC) has several street teams throughout the world. Their teams give out postcards, pins, stickers, pencils, and other things that relate to letter writing. This is a great way for people outside of the IGGPPC friend circle to hear about this group. Because of the street teams, this group has approximately 45,000 site views a month. The street teams combined with social media get the information out there to a huge audience, creating a tremendous success for this year old group. Utilize your social networks and start creating a street team that will be appropriate for your business and content, you’ll be amazed at how much your name will get out there by getting clients to give out information around their towns!
3. Social Media. One of the biggest helps in marketing your own content is social media. It is so important that you have read it a thousand times over, but we keep saying it because a lot of people are ignoring this. Social media is a great marketing technique. A big help in social media is that share or retweet button. When you have an active social media marketing campaign, you will see more and more of your information being shared on the basic social media sites. It is really great when your info starts being shared a lot; it means you are one step closer to going viral, which is absolutely perfect in the world of the Internet and marketing!
While Facebook and Twitter are great ways to market, there are some other social media sites and tools that will help you in your marketing campaign. It is time to start thinking outside of the generic social media box. (And do not worry; we will be discussing these awesome tools in this blog!) As we have said and will continue to say, social media is the greatest way to self-market and promote your content and product, as it gets to a wider audience and can be shared many times over.
4. StumbleUpon. This is a great resource for marketing. StumbleUpon users will “stumble upon” various webpages that have been added. They then rank the web page as being something they are interested in or not, which will help StumbleUpon streamline the web pages the user sees most. This is a great opportunity for your marketing campaigns. Firmology gives a few examples of how StumbleUpon can be used in your content marketing:
Add a Page. This is an easy way to promote your page. Go to the drop down menu beneath your profile photo and locate the link that is appropriately titled, “add a page.” From there, you can add links to pages from all over your website. Be sure to add applicable tags so users can find you quicker! Make sure the content you add is engaging and do not overwhelm users with a lot of information from your site.
StumbleUpon Plug-in. You can add this to your Google Chrome or Firefox browser to share your content quickly. Just click the little thumbs-up button and you are good to go. If you see that it is already green, that is a great sign! It means it has already been shared on StumbleUpon. That would be an appropriate moment to do a little happy dance.
Badges. Yes, badges. Badges are cool. Using a StumbleUpon badge is a great way to get your content shared. The more people who like your content via the StumbleUpon badge, the more other people will see your site. This will assuredly lead to going viral. (Remember, that is what you want!)
Payment. The above listed items are the free ways to get your content noticed, but you can also pay StumbleUpon to share your content. This is another excellent way to get your content noticed, but you should keep in mind that it will show as a sponsored post on StumbleUpon, meaning some folks might ignore it.
We can personally attest to StumbleUpon being worthwhile. We have found that certain blogs and infographics are shared quickly. It has really helped to bring in more readers. In fact, our infographic The Era of the Content Beast received 91 shares on StumbleUpon! Pretty nifty, huh?
5. HackerNews. HackerNews is a great way to get your information out there if you are just starting up and you are in the techie and entrepreneurial world. Before you start thinking this is yet another social media platform, it is actually a news source for all in the technological and entrepreneurial realm. If you make it onto the home news feed, you will find your content receives thousands and more visits to your site. It is a great community that is dedicated to a niche topic.
6. Reddit. Following in the same vein as HackerNews is Reddit. It has the potential for a wider variety of topics, so it does not just have to be for tech related companies. Mashable discusses the various ways in which marketers can use Reddit in their upcoming campaigns and points out that this simplified format also gives consumers and readers the ability to discuss the elements they like or dislike. It is a great format to receive client feedback, as many will be able to stay anonymous and will feel freer letting the company know how they feel about certain aspects of the business.
7. HootSuite. You will start to feel really overwhelmed with all of these social media platforms and keeping them up-to-date, but never fear! There is a great app to help you keep all of those social media platforms together in one central location and make sure everything is adequately updated. This is an app called HootSuite. It allows you to add up to five social media accounts for free so that you can monitor them all and update them, as you need to. You can schedule an automatic RSS push to go out from HootSuite to all of your social networks, effectively covering all of the bases. It is a great way to make sure you do not forget about one of the social networks you are using, which is highly possible the more you increase your social media presence.
Be Sure to Use DIY Marketing With Paid and Earned Promotions!
These DIY marketing tips will be very helpful because they will save you a lot of money. They are also perfect ways to interact with your clients on a personal level and make them feel involved with your company. People who feel involved are more likely to share your content with others. However, according to Marketing Land, you need to use your own marketing in connection with paid and earned promotions. In the marketing world, you cannot rely specifically on one form of marketing, because you will miss reaching a lot of different viewers and potential customers.
Let’s take a look at paid and earned promotions and how they will help in connection with your own form of marketing:
Paid Promotions. This strategy is a good way for your content to be seen by a wider audience. You can do paid promotions by paying for sponsored tweets or Facebook posts that will show up in people’s news feeds. While some people might skip over the promotions, you will find that many people will start coming your way due to this sponsored item.
Earned Promotions. These are simply when you go viral; hence having the title “earned” promotions. Viral content means you have a lot of viewers and readers, it also means that your viewer and readership will grow with each new share. You can also obtain earned promotions by having a visually appealing website, as well as having an easy to navigate website, by writing for your audience and not the search engines, and by making your content easy to share on social platforms.
By combining your own marketing, paid promotions and earned promotions you will see that your content is being viewed more and that your company is beginning to be a tremendous success. Marketing is vital to getting your company running and keeping it going like the Energizer bunny!
In the End…
You cannot forego marketing, no matter what others might be saying and no matter whether you feel awkward or silly marketing for yourself. Self-promotion does feel strange to many people and you may feel like you are constantly trying to make yourself look good, and that is what you want! That is what marketers do already, why not do it for yourself? Go on and begin that self-marketing journey and you will see a significant amount of success for your company in 2014!
Content marketing is an incredibly powerful tool that will yield a high return on the investment.
Especially in today’s online era—and as long as it’s done properly and thoroughly.
But, you cannot convince someone to use a strategy or sign up for your services if you cannot express the benefits of why (in other words, the benefits of content marketing).
Showing the benefits, however, doesn’t mean spouting off a list of advantages. It is all about backing up your ideas with facts and presenting your sales pitch in a beautifully wrapped package.
If delivered properly, your recipients will be ecstatic to start using content marketing by the end of the pitch.
So, to help get those customers clawing at the doors to get access to your genius powers, we’re going to help you better understand those benefits and more importantly, show you how to demonstrate them.
You can take the credit.
It will be our little secret.
First, Help Them Get Over The Assumption It Doesn’t Work
Unfortunately, even in today’s internet age, there are still plenty of people that don’t embrace content marketing.
The reason you aren’t getting traction with this group is likely because you don’t exploit the benefits of content marketing, and there’s plenty of them to use. KISSMetrics came out with an insightful blog that highlighted why content marketing strategies are failing. If you think content marketing isn’t worth it, or your clients are rejecting the idea, it is likely because they’re committing a deadly marketing sin of their own. We’ve also written a guest piece on SiteProNews with more on the subject.
What are those sins?
4 Reasons Content Marketing Isn’t Working (So You Can Stop The It-Doesn’t-Work Argument In Its Tracks)
Before we go into the six major do’s (how to convince), let’s talk briefly about the don’ts, so you’re not unconsciously scaring anyone away.
1. You Don’t Have A Refined Strategy
If you haphazardly threw something together and then prayed it would work, you’re going to be disappointed.
Content marketing requires constant changes, innovations, and updates. If your strategy is even three months old, we recommend changing it up. You’d be surprised at the progress you will make by doing so.
2. You’re Not Putting In The Effort
Again, content marketing requires work. It doesn’t self-automate here. If it did, we’d all be billionaires.
In the content marketing world, you get what you pay for.
So, if you don’t see any improvement, look to see where you’re spending your money and see if you can squeeze more out of the budget to put it toward content marketing.
3. Your Content Sucks, Sorry
Bottom line, content marketing will never succeed when the content holds no ground.
Your content needs to be on point, relevant, interesting to read, and worthwhile for today’s reader with the epically short attention span.
4. There Are Too Many Brand Inconsistencies
A brand should be definitive.
If you read one piece of content from a particular brand, it should have the same tone, flow, and style with every other piece out there. When everything appears disjointed, mismatched, and doesn’t meet up with the mission statement, it won’t be effective, according to Mike Templeman at Forbes.
Now, Let’s Move On To The Good
Okay, now that we’ve dispelled some of the reasons you think content marketing doesn’t work (or the reasons your clients assume it doesn’t work), now we’re going to dive right into why you need to use it.
6 Ways You Can Encourage Anyone To Use Content Marketing
Sure, you need a compelling sales pitch.
But, you can’t just say “content marketing works,” and expect the world to jump on board.
Instead, you need to deliver a convincing pitch that makes it almost seem as though without content marketing, the internet world would fail.
1. Sites With Excellent Content Marketing Grow 7.8x Faster
Content marketers are the leaders in site traffic.
You could be one of those leaders.
According to Aberdeen and mentioned by Neil Patel, each year, unique website traffic is 7.8x higher for content marketing leaders than followers.
The team at Search Engine Journal is one you can reference. (I love them and write for them consistently.)
They keep up with consistent, high-quality content (there’s that quality content reference again), and they are at the forefront of content marketing.
Even better, they churn out over 900,000 unique visitors per month according to their LinkedIn profile.
So, how could you implement this fact and amplify your content marketing strategy?
Start working on high-quality blogs. We’re talking long-form, short-form, research and newsworthy reads.
Be a leader that sets the standard for your field. Whether you’re blogging about peanut butter muffins or your love for coupons, you need to establish yourself as the authority in that area.
Track what other leaders do in that industry, see what they write about, and learn from their examples.
2. Sharable, Great Content Is What Is Trending
Content that people want to read is the cornerstone of a great content marketing strategy.
After all, what is the point of churning out all that content if no one shares it?
A great offering for content marketing managers would be creating shareable content and then actually sharing it on social media for their customers.
This means sharing on brand-owned social media channels, sharing content at the right time on social media, linking up with other similar or competing brands, and providing valuable information that people will continue to share.
According to Pew Research Center:
65 percent of adults now use social media networking sites.
This was a ten-fold jump from last decade. So, if your websites aren’t going viral, you need a strategy to help them capture at least a handful of those millions of people engaging on social media.
Here’s another fact to chew on:
DemandMetric states that 78% of content marketers believe custom content is the future of marketing.
It’s true.
With everything trending online, you need content that is unique, custom and tailored to your readers — the people that will ultimately share your content online.
3. Show The ROI Potential
Everyone wants to see what they get in return for spending money on something.
When you buy something, you are doing so for a reason — and what you buy will improve your life in some way.
The same goes for content marketing.
If you’re offering content marketing, you need to show the ROI potential for someone investing in your service.
Since most are afraid to invest in content marketing, you need powerful stats that help them overcome those fears.
According to Dan Radak at Business2Community, 65% of companies think they’re already overpaying for content marketing — that’s a big assumption to overcome, but not impossible.
The reality is, you get what you pay for in content marketing.
Using traditional marketing tactics to generate leads can cost a business an average of $373. But, when they use content marketing techniques, they can spend less than $150.
So, with more than 50% savings and more lead generation, you already have a great pitch ready to prove the ROI is worth every penny.
Need more inspiration? Jayson Demers at Entrepreneur has some great reasons why people should invest in content marketing — and he may help you cultivate a compelling ROI argument.
4. Conversion Rates Will Get A Big Boost
Conversion rates are a constant struggle for website owners, but with the right content marketing, they don’t have to be.
In fact, it has been shown that content marketing improves conversion rates by six times more than those without content marketing, according to Jodi Harris at Content Marketing Institute.
5. Content Marketing Is What Will Help A Website Survive SEO Competition
Search engine algorithms are constantly changing. Already we’ve seen Panda, Hummingbird, and Penguin.
Before the next animal-themed blast strikes the web, you and your clients need to take control of your SEO strategy.
To do that, you need content marketing.
Content creation currently ranks as the most effective SEO technique, according to a post on Content Marketing Institute. In fact, content marketing is essential when developing a top-ranking page.
6. The Biggest Names Out There Use Content Marketing Managers
Companies from around the world are using content marketing managers to build their brands and increase their revenue. This is because these businesses have realized how trustworthy they become just by creating engaging, custom content.
In fact, the Altimeter Group found that 78% of consumers trust a brand more when they create custom content for their websites and social media.
By creating content that is useful and attracts people to your business, you can increase brand awareness and trust — meaning people are more likely to buy or use your services.
Even better, DragonSearch found that custom content influences 61% of consumers. So, if you have the right skills behind that content, you will see a higher conversion rate.
Ready, Set, Sell! Get People On Board With Content Marketing Today
You now know the things holding back your customers from content marketing and how to reel them in.
The time to set the bait and start encouraging customers over to the content marketing side is now.
With more websites entering the internet each day — and over 1 billion already active according to Internet Live Stats — sites can no longer ignore the need for content marketing.
You have the tools necessary to craft the perfect pitch.
So, take your expertise, use your personality, and of course, boost the stats so that you can entice your customers to take the leap and invest in content marketing.
Not sure where to go from here? Express Writers can help you create custom, brand-worthy content, develop a strategy and even handle your content marketing with ease. Visit our Content Shop to order up our services today.
