Marketing Revolution

Great Word Of Mouth Marketing Association infographicon why content marketing works.

Gold In Them There Hills
You need GREAT content and lots of it. Outsourcing great content is expensive. What do you do? A: You become a content creating engine creating GREAT content. K, how do you do THAT?

Now you are asking the right question. Sun Tzu said there is nothing as motivating as closing off all the exits. Here are 6 Steps from the Content Marketing Institute to help you create the content team you need:

1. Ideation/topic generation

2. Create Hook-y Blog titles

3. Blog Structure - The Magic Loop

4. Listen for Tone and Style

5. Content Governance (Who Signs Off)

6. Repurposing Content and Doubling Down

Ideation
I create a lot of content since I love being a content marketer. I get ideas from three places:

* What is happening NOW.

* Branded themes I know are important or that I am interested in such as content marketing.

* Listening very carefully to feedback in all its many shapes and sizes (metrics, comments, reviews, friends talking to me over lunch, whatever).

Since the things you could write about are infinite I agree with having a solid plan, BUT I like to leave large blocks open for response, ideation or tweaking. Don't schedule every moment in a content marketing plan. Leave some open space.

Titles SELL Attention
You will learn how to form a title FAST and with hooks. Hooks are things that force engagement. An unanswered question can be a hook. A hot piece of news can be a hook. A branded guru or authority like Forrester can be a hook. I try to live by the 7-word rule - titles shouldn't exceed 7 words.

The Magic Loop
Stories open with connection and hooks, explain some things and then close the "magic" loop by going back the start and closing the loop. I don't write in loops, but by the time I get to the end of a piece I look for ways to pull the opening back and summarize the middle thus closing the loop.

Hear Tone By Reading Out loud
When I want to hear my tone I read the piece I'm working on out loud. Sometimes I record it. Usually just "hearing" the words as they are spoken helps fix stutters and pauses, helps speed up your writing and tone.

Governance is pretty straightforward, but don't put so many layers of approval on top of your content marketing that all spontaneity is washed out.

Double Down
When content GOES learn from it and immediate go back for MORE. Most of your content will meet with average response. Know those baselines well since the minute some new content is setting records for shares or links you want to write the redux piece. Your second acts will never get as much viral lift as your first, but they will get more than the average content since you are riffing a proven winner.

I tested some year old research today. When I joined Atlantic BT a little over a year ago I was asked to do research on 5 different business verticals. Amazingly I found a common pattern. 

Amazingly because these verticals varied from government research to BI software. The common theme? Q&A content was over subscribed (lots of searches) and under published (few pages). Why?

I've been an Internet marketer for 13 years learning to drop WHY from my vocabulary. Speculation would say that we often overlook the simplest things assuming everyone knows something. Assuming is a good way to NOT make money online (lol). 

My challenge today was to look into a new vertical, food trucks, and see if the pattern held. It did, and this piece provides a step-by-step process to understand how to mine keywords for content marketing gold. If you can only start with ONE type of content, Q&A would be my suggestion (I also share my favorite Q&A tool AnswerHub.com from right here in Cary). 

SEO Is Dead, But....
 An interesting discussion about Social Media Marketing being the new SEO is blowing up on Curation Revolution (http://www.scoop.it/t/curation-revolution/p/3995061782/social-media-is-the-new-seo-and-here-s-why ). Let's assume search engine spiders will need signals for a long time and some of the signals you control used to be called SEO (lol). 

This article speaks to the power of content curation. Let's avoid the SEO trap and discuss why content curation helps engagement and so the new SEO:

* Curation creates authority.
* Authority websites save our TIME and so are loved.

* We support things we love with LIKES and LINKS.

* Heuristic measures improve when engagement goes up.

* Better Heuristic measures = more relevant and so Authoritative.

* Engaged customers lower costs and increase profits.

If you can't sell that list to your C level then updating resume is a good idea. My theory is the right proportion of creation to curation is 10% curation to 90% curation. 

I didn't just pull that ratio out of the air. I have digital properties I manage that have the reverse ratio and they are NOT SUSTAINABLE. If I get hit by a bus those properties wither and die. 

If you create an ecosystem that is 10% YOUR creation and 90% curation and User Generated Content (UGC) it is sustainable. The more diversified your website is in expertise and experts the more sustainable it becomes. 

Let me be clear, deep knowledge is required to even know WHAT to curate. I am not suggesting skimming along the surface of many things. I am suggesting once you build one platform with a 10% to 90% community building another one is half the work (no matter what the subject). 

If, like me, your ratio is 90% creation and 10% curation consider developing a strategic plan to flip that ratio. Your Internet marketing becomes stronger and more sustainable. 

WOW, is this a MUST READ for all 'inbound marketers". I realize we are all inbound marketers now and, as Marcus points out in this excellent post, that is part of the problem. We Internet marketers love to run to one side of the boat damn the consequences (like drowning LOL). 

Don't misunderstand my lament, I love the fact everyone and their sister is in love with content marketing. Friends of mine and I have been preaching content, content and more content since 2003. Careful what you wish for. 

Now two trends are meeting head-on. Everyone is creating and curating more content and so we are swamping the boat. Content creation and curation is NOT a dabbler's game. If the only thing you write is a grocery list please don't assume you can write mega-viral content. You can't. 

Creating great content takes WORK. I just wrote that if creating an online community (a tribe that loves you and follows you like the Grateful Dead) is the hardest thing to do well then writing mega-viral content that generates leads is a close second. 

This article is GREAT and correct. I would add most content marketers forget to:

* RESEARCH those Keys. 

* Watch near real time metrics. 

* Double down on leaders.

* Leave losers. 

* Write, Write and Write some more. 

* Curate, Curate and Curate more. 

* Connect top of funnel (what generates traffic).

* To Bottom of funnel (where conversions live). 

There is no easy or fast way to do any of these things (sorry). I'm convinced you cannot either create or curate your way to where you need to be. You must CURATE and CREATE to become an authority, to be a player. 

Marcus has written a great article about sins we've all committed. Sin less and create more in 2013 and you will be one of the special inbound marketers who actually know how to write to make money.