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While a wide variety of professionals will define content marketing in different ways, no one who actually gets it would deny the central idea is to provide valuable insights and answers.
While a wide variety of professionals will define content marketing in different ways, no one who actually gets it would deny the central idea is to provide valuable insights and answers. Therefore when the conversation becomes about finding powerful content ideas and the drill-down process begins, more often than not, you’ll hear: • Identify your customers’ pain pointsand/or… • Answer the questions potential customers have.
You’ll get no argument from me. This is indeed the formula for success. How do you discover what questions to answer?...
More brands and people continue filling the channels with their blogs, infographics, white papers, etc. As a result, we’re experiencing a deluge of content, most of it suffering from over-messaged, self-important corporate sales talk, or worse, shoddy workmanship. There’s no better example of this issue than our own marketing space where the effort to produce consistent content creates an ever increasing level of drivel. In fact, there’s so much “me, too” content, getting beyond a headline skim requires some real shake-up in the social media marketplace or a dramatic post. When readers find themselves inundated with ever increasing quantities of the same, creators find themselves producing content with diminishing value. The situation devolves to the point where content becomes spam. We all know what happens to spam. It doesn’t get read, it’s unsubscribed from, deleted, and relegated to the annals of digital indexing somewhere deep in Google....
How do you create strong, meaningful, powerful content that sells, converts and engages your customers? The secret lies in creating a fool-proof content strategy that works for each and every website right from a small business to a large corporate site. In creating a content strategy for your website, essential tasks such as keyword research, content gap analysis, site maps and content audits take a back-seat to the creation of a content map, a simple diagram that places key pieces of info at your finger tips. A content map is an invaluable tool that assists content strategists and it’s elements are the building blocks for your entire website right from content to design to development and marketing. I like to use the content map that Joe Pulizzi and Christina Halverson used on slide 42 of their slideshare presentation – Web Content Strategy – How to Plan for, Create and Publish Online Content for Maximum ROI....
... Just like with any other social media platform – or your digital marketing strategy in general, come to think of it – going in with a sales pitch full of shameless self-promotion is never going to get you the social proof, site traffic or conversions you need. The other users on Pinterest aren’t just users; they’re potential leads and, instead, should be nurtured in the same way as in the other areas of your campaign; with great content and a bit of community spirit. Basically, you should act on Pinterest as you would on any other social network. Perhaps even more so, as it’s one of the most informal and community focused platforms around: hashtags are used to create conversations and find related content, commenting on and liking pins is common best practice and you can even join ‘Community Boards’ that multiple users can pin to. Most importantly though is the heart of Pinterest; ‘repinning.’...
There are still a number of marketers and business owners that need to be persuaded to try content marketing for the first time. Here are 2 foolproof methods for getting that buy-in. ...If you present your content marketing plan as a pilot, you’ll immediately see the key decision makers let their guard down. It’s not as much of a commitment as a full-blown content marketing strategy. But as you sell the Content Marketing Pilot, be sure to include the following: The length of the Pilot – should be at least six months.The overall goal of the Pilot…or how the business will be different after the Pilot.Agreed-upon metrics that, if you hit, will enable you to move forward with “more episodes.” This could be an increase in leads, more subscriptions, shorter time to close business, an increase in “quality” leads…just to name a few....
Michael Buller shapes content marketing strategy at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Learn how he targets a consumer audience and overcomes industry challenges.... Beyond our traditional social media channels (Facebook and Twitter), I think SlideShare has been the most successful. Some of our videos have really done well separately, just as YouTube videos and the videos that we link from our site.
For our research publications, we’ve created separate apps for all the various tablets. That’s been a little disappointing in terms of the number of downloads. They’re free apps, but we can’t seem to get as many interested eyeballs as I would like. I think it’s difficult, as people aren’t actively searching for this type of info. It’s not something they say: “Oh, cancer research. That would be a fun app!” So trying to get some attention to that amidst all the thousands and thousand of apps out there, and trying to drive traffic to the apps that we’ve created has been challenging for us....
As we wave goodbye to 2012 and say hello to 2013, there’s a good chance, you, like many other people, have been working to put together a content marketing strategy for the new year. No doubt you’ll have the objectives in place, created a well thought out strategy and work plan as long as your arm. It’s that last element I want to help you with in this blog post, by sharing a clutch of tools and services which will save you time, improve your results and give you the freedom to work on the creative aspects of your campaign....
Via Stefano Principato, massimo facchinetti
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If it’s becoming a challenge to get your C-level executive to write the thought leadership content you need for your corporate storytelling efforts, remember that, while some CEOs may love to write, nearly all of them like to talk. Try capturing their insight and ideas using a more conversational format; for example, interview them using Skype and record the conversation. Your content editors can then turn the resulting audio (or video) and transcripts into multiple content marketing pieces (e.g., blog posts, white papers, etc.). Or, if the recorded content is high quality, you can even use it in its original format as the basis of a podcast. Even if your CEO isn’t available to be interviewed and is unwilling/unable to write an article, ask if he or she would be willing to answer a few questions via an email. In other words, don’t block the content marketing process by trying to force your executives and staff members into doing something they aren’t comfortable with — there are plenty of other ways to generate effective content marketing....
Since roughly one out of six Google daily search queries have never been seen before, you must provide relevant content marketing about your organization, brands and products that your current customers need and prospects seek to make their purchase decisions.
Your content by itself isn’t sufficient; it must be findable by your target audience. Therefore, content marketing and search optimization must go hand-in-hand to generate bottom-line results. To ensure your content marketing efforts super charge your search optimization, here are seven actionable marketing tips....
How do you decide what to write about? Does your blog have a content plan? Do your social media posts have some structure and relationship to your blog posts or your other marketing programs? If your answer to any of these questions is “no,” you are likely missing opportunities to extend the reach of your marketing, to reinforce other promotions and activities, and to encourage your audience to make connections to your website, your blog, and other content you are producing. Effective social media marketing strategies need a powerful content plan....
Crafting a Unique Brand Story to Help Your Small Business Win ... The right story will help your small business stand out in the marketplace by building trust through emotional connections, demonstrating that you understand your customers’ needs and showing that you are the brand that delivers. Ask yourself how you add value, and then find ways to present your brand as human and caring. Here are 11 questions for you and your colleagues to seriously ponder as you work to determine what kind of story you want to tell. Like a fingerprint, your story is your brand’s unique point of difference. Once you have defined your story, you will need a platform that you can use to tell it. One of the best ways to tell your story is through a blog....
Are you looking for the best content curation resources on the web. Look no further as I provide 30 of the best content curation resources I use every day. Today, there are so many options available and we each have to find a way to find, filter, consume and share the information that is relevant for us. I use email alerts from RSS feeds, Twitter lists and a few key websites I visit every day to make sure I can stay on top of the latest trends and news in business and marketing. So here, I have curated my own list of the top sites of business and marketing information – some of which are great examples of content curation themselves. I invite you to visit these content curation resources, subscribe to their RSS feeds or follow them on twitter. I’ve also created a twitter list of these resources and other influential bloggers that you can also subscribe to…
The Content Marketing Strategy Checklist will help you sharpen your strategy and focus your very next piece of content.
It's time to go beyond 'random acts of content'. It's time for a strategy....
Here's a 10-minute guide that spells out what a business practitioner needs to know to get content marketing efforts off to the right start. Thought leadership about content marketing is full of truisms that apply to all marketing: Know your audience, measure results, etc. This post does not do that. Nor does it try to convince you to do content marketing (I’ll assume you’re already there). This aims to be the stuff you should know that relates specifically to content marketing, and only to content marketing — particularly for the business practitioner. I work in a content marketing agency, and we look at new content marketing programs on a regular basis. This is what we’d ask all new customers to do from the get-go, to maximize our shared potential....
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Barry Feldman tells you where to look for those great content ideas.