Posted by Willie Pena on Thu, May 17, 2012
Go ahead--ask your clients. It's a good question.
Content marketing, like social media, is at risk of “jumping the shark” and losing its effectiveness in an online world becoming cluttered with endless drab, four to six hundred word pieces of unimaginative, thinly-veiled sales pitches posing as informative articles. Oh yeah, I just vented a little — and it felt great.
Seriously though, it is a little odd to see aluminum siding specialists hosting blogs with articles like “Three Reasons Why Aluminum Siding is Good,” chock full of jargon and uninteresting tidbits, and expecting people to get excited about them. While no disrespect is meant to the fine members of the aluminum siding industry, subjects which are relatively uninteresting to most people to begin with are not well-served by content that makes them seem even duller.
Thankfully, with just a few tweaks, even aluminum siding people can spice up their content to make it more inviting and engaging. Read on for some tips you can give your clients, to help them avoid boring their visitors to death.
Write stories, not school essays.
A local businesswoman once sent me a rather drab essay-type article which I published on a community website for her. She thanked me for “helping her go viral.” As her article has, to this day, no more than about 15 views, I realized she (like many other small business marketers) had no real concept of what content marketing is all about, let alone what “going viral” means. Her case is a perfect example of getting it wrong — just taking information that normally gets printed on actual paper and placing it on the Internet does not make it “content marketing.”
Save the essay material for more appropriate dissemination methods, such as a white paper or e-book where people expect to be hit with a lot of expository writing. Instead, try relating stories to make your point, speaking in the first or second person rather than the didactic, authoritative style of a college paper.
Writing for the web is different, and an informal style in plain English is, thankfully, the preferred tone for Internet marketing. Don’t be afraid to let your hair down a bit; it can be done while still maintaining professionalism.
If you are trying to sell with facts, don’t. Instead, persuade.
Some content marketers claim that putting any type of sales pitch whatsoever in your content will drive people away. While being blatantly sales-y is boring and will obviously not work, there is nothing wrong with tooting your own horn a bit in some areas of your content as long as you have provided some value along the line and some compelling arguments to back you up.
It is an art to strike a correct balance between informing and persuading someone to become a customer, especially since too many companies are being coy and disingenuous by disguising ad copy as “content.” A good approach is to take a strong stance on something, provide excellent information about it from various sources, and then show how your brand somehow contributes a solution.
But leave the benefit bullet points and the finer points of the glossy finish of your product for the brochure or dedicated sales pages.
Ask visitors to get involved by doing something —anything!
Simply sharing great info can make everyone feel all warm inside, but this in itself does not lead to sales. The best social marketers always place a call to action somewhere on the same page as the content, usually next to or at the end of an article. This can be entertaining in and of itself, especially if you give some kind of freebie away.
The concept behind content marketing is that by regularly providing something beneficial to end readers with their interests in mind, you have every right to ask for some kind of exchange. This can be in the form of subscribing to your blog or mailing list. Some might even be prepared to place an order with no further prompting, so make an offer occasionally, without becoming obnoxious.
The quality of your material goes a long way in determining the success of your content marketing strategy. Fortunately, affordable and professional writers, including former journalists and agency copywriters, are available to produce high-quality work on a freelance basis for every industry imaginable.
Posted by Sarita Harbour on Tue, May 15, 2012
Is your client's website effective at gaining new customers and increasing sales? If the
answer is no, it is time to re-visit their content strategy. What's that? They don't have one? Well then, it is time for your clients to get serious about their online content marketing efforts.
Content strategies are plans to develop and populate your website with useful information that readers will incorporate into their decision to purchase goods or products. Implementing a good content strategy plan will take a website and blog from being a boring chore to a deadly weapon in your client's marketing arsenal.
Develop, implement, and revise a plan based on feedback to optimize their web content. Use these 10 tips for creating a content strategy that will take your client's website from boring to brilliant:
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Know your target market. Both traditional and new marketing rules dictate the importance of identifying and studying your ideal reader in order to truly understand what they want. Create one or more customer profiles of typical buyers or readers in order to focus the content you will provide.
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Choose content topics for relevance and timeliness. What's new in your industry or area of expertise? How are current events effecting your business and customers? What do your readers want to know and how can you answer their questions to encourage them to make a purchasing decision?
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The best plan in the world is ineffective if no one benefits from it. Include search engine optimization research in your content strategy to improve your inbound marketing, and provide content that online users are searching for. Appearing on page one or two of search engine results greatly increases your success with chances of driving traffic to your website and blog.
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Brainstorm available resources your team can use to help provide content. Go old-school and review paper-based manuals, textbooks, annual or corporate reports and white papers. Look at competitor websites, brochures from recent seminars, workshops or conferences to find information your customers want to read.
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Select a variety of methods to present your web content. Many small business owners use a combination of blog posts, articles, tutorials, or case studies on their websites. Remember, online users are notorious for having short attention spans, so keep blog posts between 500 - 750 words, use short lists and try introducing videos, graphs or other images where appropriate.
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Identify, assign or hire content creators. This is a great opportunity to engage employees. Have your clients assign regular writing or blogging duties, or ask for guest posts from suppliers and satisfied customers. Approach companies who offer services or products complementary to yours, and ask to exchange guest posts. If content production is just too large a responsibility for you and your staff at this time, consider outsourcing to a content marketing firm where professional writers will create quality content for your sites.
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Use a social media business campaign to support your content strategy. Study your customer profiles to choose the most suitable social media sites and applications for your business. Once your accounts are set up, drive traffic to your website through carefully crafted posts, tweets, pins, interactions and comments.
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Set up an editorial calendar to schedule the next month or quarter of web content. This is important to keep your content strategy on track. Include several flexible or open dates where "breaking news" type blog posts can be slotted.
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Publish, publish, publish! Be disciplined in working your content strategy. There is no point in creating a wonderful plan only to abandon it. Consistently publish blog posts at least 3 -5 times a week. Carry out social media marketing on a daily basis. Keeping your client's website fresh and relevant are key to a successful web presence, and disciplined, consistent work is crucial to a successful plan.
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Analyze traffic and website information to modify or streamline your content strategy. Which blog posts get the most comments? Provide more information or different angles on these topics. Look at your inbound marketing efforts - which social media sites are driving the most to your website? Work on promoting your client's business there. Which search phrases are sending users to your site? Analyze the data regularly to identify new customer profiles, create content they'll love and optimize the content strategy to make more money for your client's business.
Posted by Tracey Sandilands on Thu, May 10, 2012
Using content for brand marketing is not a new idea. In 1904, when Jell-O published its first
book of recipes using its product, consumer response to the book turned the company’s dwindling fortunes around. A century of content marketing followed, with businesses producing books, radio and television shows based on providing useful content that would help sell products.
With the arrival of the information age the delivery method changed, and the advent of search engines and social media that greedily feed off content ensured the continued growth of the concept. But why is content marketing necessary, and what does it do for brands?
Establishing Credibility
Advertising is passé. Consumers want information they can use, and businesses that supply it gain credibility in the arena of knowing-what-they-are-talking-about. Sure, there are still companies creating ads for various media, but with billboards going electronic, users blocking virus-spreading pop-ups, and news on paper dead in the water, companies are finding other ways to deliver their messages. Instead of marketers paying media, they can deliver it themselves through content that offers information of value.
In a recent study of the top 50 brands using content for brand marketing, credit card supplier American Express stood out with its AmEx Open Forum, a website aimed at providing expert information for small business owners on everything from managing employees to accessing start-up capital. The brand scored top marks on the content marketing index and has more than a quarter million followers on its social media profiles. The company’s credibility makes it the first choice for businesspeople needing financial products.
Content Marketing Platforms
Websites and blogs provide ideal platforms for content marketing in the form of articles, blog entries and social media posts. Sites that speak naturally to the individual consumer are ideal opportunities for business to consumer (B2C) companies to publish branded content aimed at potential customers. These include:
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Facebook
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Twitter
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YouTube
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Pinterest
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Gather
Business to business (B2B) marketers, however, also need to find ways to deliver their value proposition, and a blog that focuses on the company’s target persona is one of the fastest ways to do this.
Lead Generation
It’s all about finding customers. Brands need content marketing to enable them to generate qualified leads, which are critical to meeting revenue goals and growing business. Inbound marketing, the science of attracting clients to you rather than pushing products at them, is an exciting way to sell to customers who have knowledge of your brand and want it. But for customers to show interest, they have to know what you offer. Brand marketing using a variety of content options can create a potential customer base hungry for your product – and leads that are ready and waiting for you to close the deal.
To generate really strong leads, it’s necessary to use a variety of different types of content. In a recent DemandGen survey, white papers and webinars offering real value as opposed to advertorials were found to be the primary avenues respondents made use of to learn more about the brands. The most valuable brand marketing comes from word of mouth, however, and in the Internet age this means user-generated content such as comments, reviews and blog posts.
SERP Ranking
Another reason why brands need content marketing are search engines. With the recent algorithm updates by Google, keyword stuffing is out the door and original content is in. To be indexed by the major search engines and appear high up in the search engine results pages (SERPs), companies need to publish regular content updates that are immediately recognizable as unduplicated, well-written and free of commercial links. Whether the format of the brand marketing content is text or audio-visual the same rules apply, and a recent survey by the Custom Content Council showed North American marketers spent a whopping $40 billion on content creation in 2011, with video leading the pack.
Content Curation
Create unique brand marketing content or make use of content curation, by seeking out information of interest to your client's reader and presenting it on their website or a platform of their choosing. Pinterest does this really well – for a company offering carpet cleaning services, curating content about the manufacture of carpets or environmental issues associated with production of materials can be easily combined with photographs. Post these on Pinterest on virtual pinboards in different categories, with links to your client's website or blog, and include calls to action to turn reader interest into qualified leads.
Posted by Mary Chris Hines on Tue, May 08, 2012
Increasing sales is what content marketing is all about. Publishing a website and related
blog are great first actions to take. But this is not all there is to marketing your client's product or service. Exceptional tools exist now to increase traffic to web pages and blog.
Creating a content marketing strategy should include every tool you can get your hands on. Here are seven tools and how to utilize them.
1. Send Out Email Newsletters
Email newsletters are a great way to get your brand name out into the public. Sent to the right email contact list, it can create new buyers or elicit repeat business. Besides being very cost efficient, a newsletter sent by email gives the customer the ability to interact with you and communicate any questions or concerns they may have.
Be sure to send your email newsletter out on a regular basis. Some research has found that an individual may see one ad a total of five times before they buy. Suffice it to say that continuing to send out your newsletter will eventually end in a sale in a certain percentage of cases. Sending one newsletter out per month is a good strategy.
2. Post a Video or Some Animated Graphics
Videos an d/or animated graphics are a wonderful way to visually present information relating to your product or service. Just like content writing for the Web, they should be filled with informative content.
One particular style of video that seems to attract attention is one done in the style of a diary. Here you could present a customer who has used your product or has obtained your service and let them give a testimonial, relating their story from start to finish. A little aesthetics within the video never hurt either.
3. Publish a Podcast
If someone wants to get further information about your product, you can put together a podcast fairly easily. These are very beneficial as you will be able to:
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Increase the consumer’s trust in you by allowing them to hear your voice
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Give consumers the backstory to your product or service
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Reach those who may prefer to hear an audio version of your presentation
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Provide more value to potential buyers that might just make them into actual buyers
4. Hold a Webinar
Webinars are not as popular as they once were, perhaps due to overuse. However, if you are appealing to the kinds of problems your prospects may face as related to your specific product or service, you will find that you will get a lot of signups – and additional customers.
For example, if you sell business consulting, you would certainly know the most difficult thing businesses face in running their company. Hold a webinar focusing on that subject matter, giving valuable hints on how to overcome these problems.
5. Give Professional Presentations
When a prospective customer searches the Internet looking for more information to assist them in the purchasing process, if you offer a presentation that gives them the information they need, you’ve hooked them.
PowerPoint presentations or slide show presentations on various Internet channels can end their search – and give them the link where they can go to buy from you. You can generate a lot more traffic to your website and establish your credibility.
6. Write an E-book on a Topic Relating to Your Product or Service
The recent explosion in the popularity of digital media opens the door for a lot more business. You can write an e-book or have someone write one for you. A well-written e-book on a topic that informs and enlightens your audience is another method of advertising and can be included in your content marketing plan.
You can sell this digital copy or you can only allow someone to download it if they first provide you with their email address. Within your e-book, you can include links to your website or a phone number where potential customers can get questions answered.
7. Get Reviews and Publish Them
Get a lot of reviews on what you’ve sold, either service or product, and get these published on your website. You can edit them down so they don’t run on and on. Excerpts should include powerful statements.
There are many approaches to ramping up the traffic to your client's website or increase the visitors to their blog. Using the above tools are just a few of the proven methods of creating success for your client's business.
Posted by Alan Kelsky on Thu, May 03, 2012
Small, medium, large and even super-sized companies have all jumped on the content
marketing train. Of course, this is largely due to the knowledge that content marketing is a very targeted and cost-effective marketing strategy when done correctly.
Content incorporated into your client's business web presence must be relevant, engaging and informative. It should not contain more than 20% sales message and should contain at least 80% useful information.
Want to use content marketing to help your clients gain more and better prospects? Here are three tips that will help:
Content Marketing Tips
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Develop a Core Message: Assuming that you have a blog that crosses several types of social media such as, Facebook, your website and a newsletter or feed, your message should be unified. A bicycle shop might discuss latest trends in alloys for mountain bikes on its blog one month and then the following month a piece on the best bike trails in the area. This is the rich content, the information that keeps the reader on the page.
You may include in the first post a short bit that your shop is carrying the new bikes and invite your readers to stop by for a test ride. For the piece about great bike trails, you can remind folks to come in to have their bikes checked. To gain a viral marketing quality (where readers pass on your message) you might include a gift such as a free water bottle for anyone who takes a test ride or has a bike tune up. Internet users tend to share deals with their online friends if it is attractive. Your overt message includes things of interest to biking enthusiasts; your covert message is that coming into your place of business will enhance their bike riding experience.
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Define your target audience and discover where they hang out online. A bike shop may appeal to outdoor recreation enthusiasts and want to write content that appeal to that market. Intuitively this makes sense, until you realize that this market is a far larger target audience than writing for biking enthusiasts.
One great advantage of content marketing is the ability to focus with laser precision your marketing message. Seventy thousand impressions with the outdoor recreation audience may result in 3,500 sign ups (5 percent click rate) for your newsletter. A smaller audience of 30,000 biking enthusiasts may return a 15 percent click rate or 4500 leads with less work and expense. Find the forums and blogs where your target audience is likely to be.
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Create great content: Forget everything you have heard about keyword use. Yes, keywords help in search engine optimization, but keyword stuffing will actually get you penalized as a result of recent changes to Google’s search algorithm. Writing to key words generally results in poor writing – grammatically incorrect at best, almost indecipherable at worst. Keep your writing lean. Internet readers are skimmers. Use bullet points and infographics to hold the reader’s interest. White space is good.
Remember--poor grammar and bad spelling is distracting to readers. The thought is if you are not competent enough to produce quality content than your goods or services are likely to be sub-par too. Proofread a printed copy. While spell check and grammar checking software are helpful, they are not infallible.
Maximize Return on Investment
One last thing to remember is that the purpose of your client's content is to establish you and your business as expert in your field. The information you put online is intended to attract folks to your business. This occurs as you establish credibility as expert in your field. You not only want to tell them about the latest developments, you want to explain them. Your readers want to know the benefits and any information about the latest products.
In addition, for content marketing to work it must be continuous and current. A blog with the last entry that is a month old is a sad thing to read. Keep content fresh, relevant and informative and return on investment for your client's content marketing strategy will remain high.
Posted by Sarita Harbour on Tue, May 01, 2012
If your clients are like many online entrepreneurs and small business owners, panic may set in when
they realize how much work is involved in maintaining a website. Publishing fresh, useful and sharable content on a regular basis is an ongoing challenge for most sites. What should today's blog be about? What other pages should be included? Where will the information for the content come from?
Simplify the work with a content plan. Follow these seven steps and create an easy, stress-free content planning strategy that will keep your client's blog and the rest of their website right on track.
Gather and Evaluate Existing Content: Many website owners are overwhelmed at the thought of producing 500-word original blog posts relevant to their businesses 3 - 5 times a week. They shouldn't be. Suitable content is all around you, it just takes some investigation to find it.
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Begin in the offline world and review product information sheets, user manuals, and company catalogs.
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Create online marketing content pages based on your products.
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Present a series of how-to tutorials based on user manuals.
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Review your human resources information and company history to create a series of blog posts on how your business began and the roles of your key employees.
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Set up a News page and post local news articles featuring your company.
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Flesh out your content plan by adding pages for investor relations, customer service, government filings and annual reports.
Identify Gaps in Content Marketing: The purpose of content marketing is to provide content that encourages potential customers or clients to make a purchase so your business grows. Think carefully about how a customer decides to make a purchase. Present the information needed for each step. Identify material that may be missing from the information already gathered, and decide whether you and your staff can create content to fill the gaps, or if a freelance writer should be part of your content plan.
Create a Content Plan Schedule: Create an editorial calendar or diary of upcoming blog posts, pages, and other content marketing material. Depending on the nature of your business, seasonality can play an important role in scheduling posts. Map out a logical sequence for posting new pieces, and then publish routinely and frequently.
Maintain Consistent Branding Across All Content: A clear, core message should be evident across all content that bears your company name. Consistent branding in content marketing is key to establishing your business reputation online. When editing content, evaluate the "voice" of each piece as well as checking for spelling and grammar errors. Does it speak to your target customer, and answer their questions?
Create Outstanding Content: Creating good quality website material consistently is vital to your content plan. Sharing the work with other staff members or employees removes the burden of content creation from resting solely on your shoulders, and is a great way to engage other members of your team in your business. Assure all employees their work will be edited for spelling and grammar, and ask for ideas for new blog posts or infographics. Some businesses prefer to hire a professional content marketing service to write blog posts, web pages, white papers, product descriptions and other material instead of taking on the job themselves.
Become an SEO Guru: Gathering and producing information for your website and/or blog, creating a content plan, editing web content and building your brand won't increase your sales unless people visit your site and read your work. Improve search engine rankings by producing Search-Engine-Optimized content. Learn about keyword phrases and the differences between long and -short-tailed keywords. Open a Google Analytics account and review it regularly to see where your traffic comes from and what search terms lead them to your site. Base new web content on your most popular search queries.
Engage Your Reader: Wherever possible, incorporate a call-to-action in your web content. Direct your audience to "visit" or "join" or "buy." A call-to-action statement moves your reader towards the ultimate goal of making a purchase that will help grow your business.
Posted by Susan Davis on Thu, Apr 26, 2012
Online businesses and website owners eventually learn what the most successful marketers
already know: that quality content is worth the cost. With the variety of online tools available, including social media, it is easy to see just what role that web content plays with regard to the success of any online business.
The Art of the Story
The ancient, and yes, sacred art of storytelling, are key aspects of just about every type of writing – from fiction to journalism and into marketing. In ancient times, storytelling was used as a tool to inform and educate. In the modern world, stories are still being told to enlighten and entertain, as well as promote. Marketing incorporates both the technicalities of fact, as well as the associated behind the facts presented.
The very same writing techniques are used in marketing to promote businesses, just in a slightly different fashion. There is a story behind everything, and that includes products and services. For example, the story any firm that really wants to use to promote itself, would be how their products or services are used by their customers. This type of story can appear in everything from a short advertising blurb, to an article, full-scale white paper and beyond.
The reason that storytelling is so key to marketing is that the techniques are relied upon in developing the most interesting and compelling online content. It is, after all, the story within the content that inspires and motivates involvement and action.
Digital Web Content
In the digital web space, marketing efforts rely heavily upon quality content. Social web content, blogging, online articles and press releases are some of the more popular types of information created by marketers and advertisers. Because each of these types of writing may also be so easily interconnected, this makes them even more effective and far reaching.
The more far reaching information is, the more people will see it. This is why it is so important to produce the best web content possible that suits the goals and purposes of your organization. Whatever is published in connection with your business adds to its reputation and contributes to its branding efforts in ways that many business owners might not ever realize.
Quality Content Branding Advantages
Marketers have realized that brands have essentially become publishers. As such, they have recognized the need that exists for original, pertinent and regularly updated quality content in order to succeed at:
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Driving web traffic;
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Building brand awareness;
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Ensuring ongoing brand engagement; and
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Developing customer loyalty.
However, maintaining interest in any business requires more than merely churning out web content. Keeping consumers engaged and acquiring new customers entails providing information that they appreciate, find useful and will be compelled to respond to.
Advantages of Quality Content
Along with the success of content marketing has come a much greater emphasis on business and company tactics that attract target audiences, while keeping them engaged, in order to persuade them with:
Frequently updated quality content that is produced with an eye toward the above can be instrumental in delivering:
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The highest visibility on search engines;
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Increased traffic to the website;
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Web traffic conversion to sales leads and transactions;
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Establishing company, business or organization brands;
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Consumer interest and customer engagement through social media; and
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Building brand trust and loyalty.
According to a survey conducted by Readex Research, marketers have seen their best results come from:
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social web content;
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e-newsletters; and
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blogging.
In addition, over 80 percent of the survey respondents indicated they will spend more to have professionally written, customized, value-added copy. Savvy business owners appreciate the value of engaging and creative storytelling.
The best marketing writing techniques include professionally customized and well-crafted material. Those are the qualities considered most important, when business owners evaluate outsourcing partners for web content needs.
Writing for People
Professional marketers understand that it is more important that blog and website copy be written for the people intended, rather than simply to rank in search engines. While SEO is important, it is the quality of the content that will matter in the end. No one wants to read a bunch of keywords strung together or a piece that is obviously designed to attract search engines, rather than people.
Value of Outsourcing
According to PR Newswires’s 2011 Marketing Survey, one of the biggest challenges for any online business is how to address creating consistent quality content. For companies of all sizes, it is more feasible to find the best web content providers and resources.
Posted by Beth Hrusch on Thu, Apr 26, 2012
Steve Lazuka, founder of Interact Media, and the Zerys content project management tool and writer marketplace, will join HubSpot Partner Office Hours with Patrick Shea to present “The Secrets Behind Outsourcing a Killer Content Team,” 11 a.m., April 26.
In the midst of content marketing’s rising demand, and emerging opportunities through HubSpot’s new vertical marketing program for partners, agencies need the bandwidth to create a high volume of quality content for their clients. They must also find ways to deliver these services profitably, across a number of niche business areas.
Steve will present the benefits of building an outsourced team through the Zerys content marketplace, and how agencies can manage and coach their writers for long-term success.
He’ll also feature the process that dozens of HubSpot partner agencies have used to achieve sustainable results, as well as obstacles agencies face along the way.
Content marketing is a marathon for agencies. Learn how to effectively outsource a content creation team, and create a competitive advantage for your business.
HubSpot Partner Office Hours
- Time: 11 a.m. EST
- Date: Thursday, April 26, 2012
- Sign Up: http://www.hubspot.com/outsourcing-content-teams
About Zerys
Zerys is a powerful content project management tool and writer marketplace, offering a simple and affordable way to get quality, custom content. Zerys was founded in 2008, and today is used by thousands of businesses and hundreds of marketing agencies. Powered by Interact Media, Zerys is the proud recipient of App of the Yearin the HubSpot Marketplace.
About Zerys for Agencies
Zerys for Agencies is a customizable, private-labeled solution that allows agencies to manage all their clients’ content projects from start to finish. It also offers a 21-day e-course and professional certification program for agencies, as well as a robust writing platform for freelance writers. Visit www.Zerys.com for more information.
Posted by Karen Neal on Tue, Apr 24, 2012
The hottest buzzwords in the world of marketing are all about content. With all of the hype it could be hard
for your clients to determine whether or not content marketing is really that important.
Actually, it is.
Before you and your clients dive head first into the ocean of content marketing, it is a good idea to be prepared and know what works and what does not. As preparation, ask your clients these four critical questions regarding their content marketing initiatives:
What’s the point?
Ask yourself why you should use content marketing in the first place. In a recent Business Insider article the purpose of your content writing should be carefully examined before you begin. Is your intent to generate additional traffic for a business website? Do you need to increase the number of customers? Will you be introducing new products and services? Would you like to cultivate existing customers to get additional business from them? Are you expanding to new markets and need to get attention and build brand awareness? Make sure your content marketing initiatives have solid goals that align with the business objectives.
Who’s reading this?
A Marketing Profs article emphasizes how important it is for businesses to define their target audience before launching any marketing initiative. Understanding the demographics and habits of your potential customers will help you to better tailor the messages through your content marketing campaigns. The more pertinent your message is, the more willing your target audience will be to take the next step to your website or to buy.
Does the content really help?
Your content marketing message should not be the “same old same old” recycled information that is commonplace. Introduce a new, fresh perspective on your subject that can enlighten the reader while educating. Perhaps your business solves a problem in a better way, or maybe the audience is not that familiar with the features and benefits of some items.
Where do I go?
Your content marketing strategy should encompass more than just a website or blog. Consider leveraging multiple media outlets including emerging online markets such as Pinterest and even Instagram. Another Marketing Profs article explains how social media should be a part of your overall content marketing strategy and how emerging trends can reap great benefits for your business. Also, check out our blog, where we explain how a variety of methods including guest posting, video marketing and other techniques can build traffic with content marketing.
Your content marketing initiative can be a very worthwhile effort – with the right approach and the right goals in mind.
Posted by Marti Norberg on Thu, Apr 19, 2012
Has this ever happened to you? You prowl through the frozen food section of your local
grocery store looking for a pre-packaged meal of some sort. You inspect all the choices, looking at the picture on the front and reading the description. You finally settle on one with a picture that makes your mouth water and a description that makes your stomach growl. You get home, carefully follow the directions for preparation, and “ta-da!” you serve it to your family.
You stare briefly at the meal you just offered your loved ones, then go back and dig the box out of the trash. What you just prepared has little resemblance to the picture on the box. Then you notice the small lettering on the corner of the box – “Serving Suggestion.” Well, regardless of how it looks, your family is hungry and has already dug in. It smells good and tastes good, but you are still disappointed.
The frozen dinner company’s marketing (the box) was effective, but the product was lacking. You will probably never purchase this dinner, or any other from that company, again. And, unless you contact the company and tell them why, they will never know why their sales have dropped.
The same concept works with content marketing for your client's business. They need to accurately measure the effectiveness of their efforts, and they need to know exactly what is working and what is not. Just like you with the disappointing frozen dinner, your client's potential customers are not likely to send them an email explaining why they didn’t purchase your product or service. They will just go somewhere else.
Within your client’s content marketing campaign are probably blogs, videos, whitepapers and articles designed to help customers solve a problem or fill a need. Content marketing is not a direct sales campaign; it is designed to build trust between your client's business and their customers – eventually leading to a sale. It is a gradual process, providing a lot of information from a lot of different directions. This is what makes it so effective, but also makes it hard to measure success.
Set and track your goals.
Your clients must set specific goals in order to have something to measure. Identifying detailed goals will allow them to pinpoint successful campaigns, and pinpoint which specific content marketing technique (or techniques) contributed to this success.
Through content marketing, your clients will want to save money, make money and get new customers.
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To save money, you need to generate more leads. To accurately measure this goal you need to track your cost per lead, your lead quality, the volume of leads generated, and the conversion rate of these new leads. Additional money saving measurements come by evaluating customer service costs; the better the lead, the less contact will be needed to finalize a sale.
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To make money, you need to generate more sales. You need to measure which portions of your content marketing campaign actually generated the sales, while also measuring what steps the customer followed to reach that point. This must be measured by costs, revenue, ROI, and the potential value in a specific new customer for future sales.
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To get new customers, you need to establish their needs and meet those needs. You need to know if a customer is sharing your information with others. You need to know how many people visit your pages, which pages are being visited, and how long your visitors stay. Other important measurements include the demographics of your visitors, how they reached your pages, and which keywords were used.
Evaluate and improve.
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By measuring the success of your client's different content marketing techniques, they will learn what is working, why and where. They can then take this information and improve the rest of their strategies. Once they determine the content that attracted the highest quality leads to your pages, they can re-purpose that content into other techniques.
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Through accurate measuring and evaluation, you will be able to determine when interest in content matter changes for seasonal, buying-cycle or economic reasons.
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By measuring demographics, you may identify gaps in your client's content marketing strategy, and develop a viable plan for plugging those gaps.
Numerous tools are available to assist in accurately measuring the different areas within a content marketing strategy. GoogleAnalytics is very popular, and it is free. Many other programs are available, providing this information for a fee.
Remember, your client's content marketing needs to be more than just a pretty box; it must offer value inside as well.