Content Marketing Blog - News, Tips, and Strategies for Serious Content Marketers

When you see that familiar red-and-white sign on a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, you can almost smell the gravy and feel the crispiness of the chicken, especially if you're hungry and haven't eaten yet. How is it possible that your brain retrieves these thoughts and sensory experiences at the mere sight of a logo?

That's the power of brand marketing, and you can use it to your advantage every bit as much as The Colonel, if you just know how to leverage it with your social media presence.

Social media has drastically reduced the cost of brand marketing. It used to be that paying a graphic artist to design a logo was just the beginning of your marketing costs. After you had the logo, you had to figure out how to print it: on t-shirts, on mugs, on flyers and brochures. Then you had to come up with a distribution plan. This method of brand marketing was expensive, but it got your brand out there where your potential customers could begin to make associations between your brand and the qualities you champion (irresistible gravy and crispy chicken, in the case of KFC).

But today, you don't have to bother with t-shirts and flyers and mugs if you don't want to. You can let loose your brand identity on the digital world simply by using social media. And, if you use social media wisely, your company and your brand will begin to develop a reputation. People will associate them with a set of qualities, skills, and traits.

Maybe your brand represents excellent customer service. Maybe it represents cutting-edge innovation. Whatever it is, you can have your customers salivating for it when they see your logo, just like you salivate for a hot and crispy chicken wing when you see the red-and-white Colonel Sanders.

Here's what you need to do if you want your brand marketing to really work for you. Remember, it's all in the content. Your content is what speaks for you.

1. Message. What is it you want people to associate with your brand? If you want people to look at your brand and think about interesting podcasts, don't tweet about your cat's hysterical antics. Colonel Sanders doesn't throw out messages about burritos or crepes every now and then just because he thinks they're yummy, too. Keep your message focused, and resist the urge to embrace variety. That's what your personal blog is for.

2. Voice. What's the voice of your brand? Is it folksy like Trader Joe's? Is it fun like Skittles? Is it sleek and sophisticated like Audi? Think carefully about your brand's voice because your voice should reflect the values, products, and services you offer. When you decide what kind of voice best suits your brand, use it in all of your social media marketing. Whether you're sending out a 25-character tweet or an 800-word blog post, keep your voice intact. If several different people handle your brand marketing, make sure they all adopt the correct voice while representing your company.

3. Authority. No matter what kind of voice your use in your brand marketing or what kind of message you're conveying, come across as an authority. People want to follow authorities on social media, sources they can trust to help them. How do you come across as an authority in your field, especially when you're a relative newcomer? Here are a few things you can do.

• Announce industry news. Set your news feeds to include stories about your industry. When you come across an interesting news tidbit, broadcast it to your followers in your brand-appropriate voice. 
• Relate anecdotes. When you share funny and helpful anecdotes for your personal experiences within your industry, your followers see that you're actively involved in the business. You're not just playing. This isn't a hobby.
• Share testimonials. "Thanks, @customer, for sharing: 'Couldn't be happier with the catering for daughter's wedding. Absolutely perfect.'" Who wouldn't see you as an authority when you share testimonials like this one?

Brand marketing has the potential to launch your business into the stratosphere--at virtually no cost--if you use it well. By staying true to the core message you wish to convey, using a voice that reflects your services and products, and adopting a tone of authority, you can become a social media influence that attracts the notice of potential customers, powerful industry contacts, and future employees. Use this power; it's within your grasp.

Online searchers are looking for information, so they can make better-informed decisions. Ebooks are the content marketing tool of choice when you want to provide information that’s too complex or simply too long to put in a blog article.

Any business looking for customers online must have a blog. A blog with rich and targeted content can improve your credibility in your industry and help you generate more sales. Your blog should be the go-to place for information about your products or services.

Whether you want to change course or simply produce more content than you can reasonably manage, at a certain point your content campaign has to evolve into a content strategy. There's no one right type of strategy - every producer has their own needs and objectives - but the wrong strategy is always the one that doesn't pay off.

A good content strategy is held together by a set of realistic, measurable goals. Your particular goals may be to:

• Increase traffic to your website
• Develop a stronger online brand presence
• Drive more social media traffic or engagement
• Improve your brand's reputation or credibility

Whatever your specific goals, your strategy has to achieve at least some of them in a short enough time that you know you're on the right track. Of course, some of these goals might be hard to hit because of missteps in your overall plan. If you're not meeting your benchmarks, look for any problems in your strategy, and then fix them.

People aren't sharing your content.

You've written a fantastic article about one of the hot topics of the day, and you can see that people have viewed it. But they're not sharing it. Are your readers complacent, or do they just not see a reason to share your content? These clues might give you the answer:

• It's too dated: A blog about this summer's fashions has as short a shelf life as the fashions you're writing about. On the other hand, a guide to the ABCs of content marketing is shareable in any season.
• It doesn't have anything to offer: Information is power, but most people forget most of what they read after they've read it. Your content should have at least one key take-away that readers will remember long after they've moved to another site.
• They've seen it before: A successful content strategy requires unique content, either a brand new topic or a familiar subject discussed from a unique perspective. People don't share content unless it's something they can't find anywhere else.

No one's following you online.

Months after publishing your first blog, or weeks after you published your Facebook page, the list of followers hasn't grown much. How come your target audience doesn't feel the need to stay in touch with you? It could be because:

• You're not promoting yourself: You can't just publish content and hope people stumble upon it; you have to let people know it's there. Your content strategy should include ways to put your content in front of your target audience. 
• You're talking to the wrong audience: If you're trying to attract stay-at-home moms, you won't get far if your content talks about after-hours clubs and cooking for one. Know who you want to target and write specifically for that audience.
• Your content is dull: Ideally, your content features cool graphics like flowcharts and photos, which generate more views and shares than written content. If you have to write it, make it funny, exciting, easy to understand, or all of the above.

No one's talking about you.

Why do reality show celebrities act like asses? Because in today's world, it's better to be ridiculed than to not be talked about at all. You don't have to become a laughingstock to be talked about, but you have to look at why you;re being ignored by the Internet:

• No one can identify you: No matter how prolific your content, it won't do much if you're not building your brand with it. Add key branding elements to every piece of content you create, including blogs, videos and infographics.
• You're not doing anything: If you're not very active, start acting; do things that would interest your target audiences. If you're already active, make sure your content strategy includes press releases and other PR campaigns.
• You're not talking about other people: You may have to make the first move if you want people to talk about you. Link to content from a favorite source, or promote key customers or partners to motivate them to return the favor.

Your content strategy might start as an idea, but it takes a lot of little steps to bring it to life. If your strategy isn't as strong as you'd like, make sure all the little steps are leading you to your overall goals.

An awful lot of business owners still don’t get what “brand” is all about. No wonder they don’t understand brand marketing.

Everyone’s generating content these days. We’re so bombarded by content from every direction that we’ve started to tune out even the good stuff, because we just can’t take in anymore. Internet users have become particularly selective about what they consume online, and you can no longer just “push” information at them and assume it will reach its target. Here are 5 secrets to creating a content marketing strategy that your market won’t be able to resist.

Have you "pinned" something lately? Chances are that if you're a woman between ages 25 and 54, you know exactly what I'm talking about. People around the world are sharing recipes, decorating ideas, craft projects and lots, lots more by creating and adding to virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest.

What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is the fastest growing social media site in the world. Launched in 2010, the site with thousands of virtual bulletin boards has attracted more than 85 million registered users in less than three years. Just who are these Pinterest users and how do they behave?:

• Between 63 and 84 percent of Pinterest users are women, depending on the source

Small business owners everywhere are realizing that an effective content marketing campaign has the power to reach more potential customers than traditional marketing methods like flyers, brochures, radio spots, and billboards. Even better, a great content marketing campaign doesn't have to cost a lot of money. With inexpensive web hosting and free social media accounts, marketing has never been cheaper.

Unfortunately, though, there are some very easy ways to kill your content marketing campaign. Let's take a look at these common mistakes so you can avoid them and get your content marketing campaign running like a well-oiled machine.

1. Moving Forward Without a Plan. Unlike the old days when you had to wait for a printer to print your brochures and then wait for the postal service to deliver them, today you can post something on the Internet in a matter of seconds. Thanks to the Internet's instant gratification, it's easy to let your enthusiasm carry you away. If you've ever posted eight blog posts in the first two weeks and then not even looked at your blog for six months, you're not alone.

To combat this tendency, funnel your initial enthusiasm into creating a plan. With a plan in place, you're much more likely to stick with a schedule, cover the range of topics necessary to promote your business, and delegate tasks when you're overwhelmed with other aspects of your business. Your plan should include the type of content you want to produce (web pages, blog posts, social media posts, YouTube videos, e-books, etc.), the publishing frequency (weekly blog posts, daily Twitter tweets), and the topics you'll cover. With this plan in place, it's easy to delegate tasks without losing sight of your goals.

2. Using Tired, Worn-out Topics. Although a content marketing campaign may be inexpensive, people won't read your content if it's not interesting. But how will you know what topics people will be interested in?

Customize your news to get headline updates on keywords for your industry. For example, if you use Google News and you run a salon, personalize your news to include the following keywords: "celebrity hair," "spa treatments," and "styles." Every day when you check the news, you'll see the latest news for your industry. Tweeting and posting content based on current events not only increases your hits, but it also tells readers that you're on the cutting edge of your industry.

3. Being Inconsistent. Whether it's fair or not, the way you handle your online presence shapes customers' impressions of you. If your website hasn't been updated since 2010, customers will think that your business is stagnant or declining, even if your shop front is as busy as ever.

To be consistent with your content marketing campaign, give yourself deadlines and meet them religiously, even if you have to hire out some of the work.

4. Depending Too Much on Text. As if attention spans couldn't get any shorter, today's consumers expect more than just text. They want to see infographics, professional images, how-to-videos, and even audio blog posts. For people on the go, long, detailed text-based articles will get passed over.

To reach the most people, produce content in a variety of different forms. Some people like to read thorough technical articles. Others like to watch videos. Still others want to post stunning pictures on Pinterest, and if you have an informative article behind the picture, they'll lead others to your site. When deciding how to present information, think about what you have to say and which medium can best represent your ideas.

5. Keeping It All to Yourself. I know a business owner who created a beautiful, informative blog. The blog was a treasure trove of helpful resources full of professional images, links to other sites, and well-written text. The problem was that nobody ever read it.

Why? Because she didn't know how to spread the word. Don't keep your content marketing campaign all to yourself. Tweet your blog posts, include links to your social media and website on all of your marketing material, including your business cards and emails. Make connections with suppliers, clients, and friends who can spread the word. Write guest posts for other blogs, and interview industry leaders on your own blog. 

Avoid these common content marketing mistakes and you'll reap the benefits of the Internet's marketing power. Excellent, timely content gets forwarded and forwarded to people you never could have anticipated marketing to, and your business will grow and thrive because of it.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

By now, everyone pretty much knows that content marketing is the way to go if you want to build your business. But the range of options and techniques and the wealth of content marketing tips available to help you implement them can boggle the mind. If you’re new to the whole thing, deciding where to start can be paralyzing.

Planning a marketing campaign? Then you'll need a content marketing plan ready to back it up. Your offline and social media activities will be driving potential customers to your website and social media pages, and they'll want to get to know you before making up their minds to buy. You'd better have content there that shows them not only who you are, but what it feels like to do business with you.