About Me
Thursday, June 23, 2016
When you set out to define something, it’s easy to assume
that everyone you’re talking to is on the same page. With content marketing,
there is a lot of talk about how and why and not as much about what it actually
is. So, I’ve defined the purpose
behind it and given you some ideas about the homework you need to do before you
start and today, I want to begin sharing a blueprint for building rock solid
content marketing!
Everyone needs a
roadmap
While this process could be built from point A to point B,
it’s more like a lot of locations you need to visit in order to complete your
mission, many of which are interchangeable in the order you do them. For
instance, there is no reason you cannot create your editorial calendar first,
then fill in the details, and obviously you need some definition of your
audience before starting any of this.
So, here, in no particular order are the seven things you’ll
need to build in order to launch a profitable content marketing campaign. In my
next posts we’ll break these down further so we can get inside and look around,
but for now, here are the basics.
·
Build a
Home Base: This is typically a website, but in content marketing, I prefer
to specifically focus on a blog, whether as part of a larger site, or you whole
base of operation.
o
This is the only piece of real estate you really
own online and you get to set the rules, unlike email platforms, social media,
etc, where things can change quickly
o
You brand your home base to speak directly to
your ideal audience, no one else gets to limit your creativity or mute your
voice
o
In addition to a “journey’s end” for your
audience to find and engage with your content, you can sell directly from this
platform
·
Define
your audience: This one kind of explains itself, but you need to know who
your ideal customer is and where to find them in order to reach them
effectively.
o
Learn as much about your ideal customer as
possible and integrate it into your content marketing
o
When you first get started, finding out about
your customer is going to play a role in your content as well, the two go hand
in hand
o
A well defined audience consumes your content,
buys your goods and services and transforms into brand evangelists that bring
you new clients
·
Find Your
Sources: This may not seem like a “channel” to some, but you need good,
regular sources of information about your industry and audience to feed into
your content.
o
Start with those who are successful in your
industry. Quote them, or follow links to their sources and do your own thing.
o
Set up some tools, like Google alerts to help
you keep up to date on information that will interest your target audience
o
Learn to curate. By sharing content direct from
your sources, you can build your own authority and double up on your content, since
you don’t have to invent it all
·
Create Your
editorial calendar: This may be an actual calendar, or just a checklist of
what content you will be sharing when.
o
The more detailed your calendar is, the less
work you’ll have organizing content later. Integrate this with some automation
tools to make it even more powerful.
o
This tool also allows you to keep the right
balance between curating other’s content and creating your own unique content
o
Remember, you invented it, so you can make
changes as needed. Concrete is for sidewalks and digital calendars are anything
but difficult to edit
·
Set up Your
broadcast network: This is how you share your content. The places you place
links to your blog and the like. It also includes automation and syndication
tools.
o
Make as much of your content sharing automatic
as possible. This can included tools like IFTTT and social media automation
o
Share every piece of content as many ways as you
can. You never know when a single connection will cause content to go viral
o
Be consistent in your broadcasting. Use a
checklist for things you can’t automate to make sure each piece of content gets
maximum exposure
·
Choose Your
channels: Where you share your content, starting from your home base and
branching out into social media and more.
o
There are literally thousands of social media,
blogging and media sharing platforms. Take your time and research a variety of
them, you might find one that is perfect.
o
Choose your channels based on your audience’s
participation, not only your own likes and dislikes. You have to put your
content in front of them to get them engaged.
o
Channels that provide lots of active
participation are best, the key to a good content marketing channel is that a
good conversation magnifies your content
·
Nurture your
feedback mechanism: How you engage your audience in the conversation. It’s
not enough to get them to consume your content, you have to give them a way to
respond, then engage them in conversation.
o
Start with a monitoring strategy. You need to be
aware when your audience is talking to you.
o
Use notifications and email alerts to make the
most of your time, without hanging out on social media and your blog all day.
o
Reply in a conversational tone and use questions
to further the conversation. The more your audience contributes, the better, it
builds ownership for them and draws attention
·
Establish your
measurement methodology: This is where a lot of plans fall flat. Producing
content is only step one. Once your content is out in the world, you need a way
to determine what’s working to impact your audience, and what needs tweaking.
o
Don’t fall to the temptation to skip this step.
It may not seem that important, but if you don’t know what’s working, you’re
shooting at a moving target.
o
You not only need to know the stats on your
content marketing engagement, but which ones are leading to sales.
o
When you figure out what works, use it.
Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about your audience, and what you want them
to respond to may not be what they actually respond to.
So, there are some basics and we’ll dive deeper into each of
these topics over the next posts. I hope this is helpful. If you need help with
your content marketing, as always, contact me. Share my content freely, but
please give me credit and be sure to leave a link. Thanks!
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Sometimes the best way to describe a thing is to explore
what it is not. It may seem like all I am doing is giving a bunch of rules,
here, but it’s important you understand how it works. Doing it the wrong way
can kill whatever audience you already have and it will take time to get that
back. Most of what I’m saying is learned through trial and error over years of
doing this, so, please, learn from my mistakes, you don’t have time to make
them all yourself.
1. Sales letters
In the world of content marketing, there is an 80/20 rule,
80% conversational, 20% product messaging and offers. If you approach this as a
way to deliver sales circulars, or infomercials, you’ll lose. The goal is to
educate your audience in an entertaining way. You should write content that
anyone interested in your products and services and the surrounding industry
would find interesting.
·
- Content is useless unless someone engages, that means, reading your articles, watching your videos, listening to your podcasts, and sharing your social media.
- · Content that has value beyond selling your goods and services will get shared. Sales circulars rarely will.
- · In this model, “selling” is mostly reserved for those who are already customers. I know, that feels weird, but we’re building trust here.
When your customers know more about you, they feel
comfortable buying, using and sharing you and your company. The more they know
and the more you can teach them how to integrate your products and services in
their lives, the better.
2. Monthly Updates
In today’s busy world,
a monthly newsletter is like spitting in the ocean. It just gets lost.
If you want your content to get noticed, you’ll need to set up a regular
schedule. While it sounds extreme, daily content marketing is best. Don’t
worry, that doesn’t mean writing a novel every day if that’s not you.
- · Sharing on social media is easy to do every day. I know, that seems time consuming, that’s where automation tools come in, I’ve talked about that before and will again.
- · Channels like email marketing are easy to set up to go out once a week, or more, depending on what you are talking about and who your audience is.
- · You don’t only have to share your own original content. Sharing relevant content from other sources is known as “curating” and we’ll talk more about that in future posts.
Monthly updates are like that one set of grandparents you
never really see. Most of us have one. You love them, but they’re just not the
ones you think of when you think Grandma and Grampa. You need top of mind
awareness with your audience if you want to be successful at this.
3. Only Sharing Other’s Content
Curating, or sharing content from other sources, is an
awesome content marketing tool, it means you don’t have to write volumes of new
material daily to stay in touch with your audience. But, if this is all you’re
doing, your audience isn’t really your audience. You’re engaging them with
brands other than your own.
- · At least 60% of your content should be original. The more original the better. That’s what gets shared.
- · Avoid sharing from competitors. If they say something you like, put it in your own words and share it with your audience as original content. There are no new ideas.
- · When sharing other’s content, use links embedded in your own content. Add your own explanation and tie it into your overall strategy.
Your audience needs to learn to see you as the expert. So,
when you share from other sources, make sure their expertise is at least as
strong as your own. Research and news sources are good, they are expected to be
shared and knowing what of their content is valuable for your audience is a
great way to increase your own authority.
4. Being a Comedian
Be funny! Be very funny! But sharing funny cat videos is not
content marketing, except… when it is. Doing this occasionally, or from a
personal profile that also engages with customers from time to time is great.
Make sure that comedy used in your content marketing is not hurtful or insulting
to the audience, that can back fire quickly in today’s world.
- · Be funny with a point. Tie it back in, generally. For instance, if you ran a body shop, amusing YouTube videos of cars in accidents might be perfect messaging, mixed with beautiful, rebuilt cars you’ve finished.
- · Don’t avoid an obvious joke that ties into your industry. Getting involved in trending conversations that will only be hot for a moment, is a great idea, just follow your rules.
- · If all you are is funny, you’ll get lost in the shuffle. There are a lot of people online trying to be funny and some of them are very good at it. Plus, making people laugh and making them buy may not always be compatible. Make sure they don’t see YOU as the joke.
Just make sure your comedy builds, rather than tearing down
your brand. Questionable topics (for instance, Cosby memes) or comedy that doesn’t
related directly with your audience are best left alone, or posted to your own
Facebook wall.
5. Making a Point
Content marketing is not a bully pulpit. Yes, if you are in
the “renewable energy” market, for instance, you may need to make some
political points with your audience, but that shouldn’t be the focus. You want
to engage and that will drive more people away than it will gather.
- · Share, don’t tell, people hate to feel like someone just told them they are wrong about anything. Don’t be that guy.
- · Educate with a positive focus, if your thing is doom and gloom, show me how to avoid it, how to work for positive outcomes and give examples of those who already are.
- · If every message you send ends with me feeling like I have to have your product or service to avoid Armageddon, unless you are selling prepping supplies, you’ve probably missed the target.
The goal is always a sustainable and growing audience. Write
content that makes people come back time and again. Make it so good, they want
their friends to enjoy it too. This rarely happens if you spend all of your
time preaching. It’s a marketing plan, not a crusade.
So, the last three
posts have shared what content marketing is, the two things you need to develop
first if you want to succeed in content marketing and now I’ve shared a few “don’ts”
I hope you are starting to get an idea of how this works. Tomorrow, I’ll be
sharing some content marketing tools you can use to begin building and sharing
with your audience! Let me know if you have questions or like the content.
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