Content marketing - a viable approach

Content marketing isn't just a buzz word, its a shift from creating one piece of content for one purpose to creating several pieces of content that can be leveraged in different channels using different formats to achieve defined business results. And though at its base it is common sense, there doesn't appear to be a clearly defined approach - which is why I've written this. I hope it helps people understand all the work that is required up front but that in the end you can reduce work effort by leveraging one strong piece of content.

Approach to content marketing strategy

• Clearly defined marketing strategy
• including goals, KPIs, budget
• Identify channels that can be supported and are the most effective for target audiences
• Product marketing strategy for existing and new products/ services
• including defined audiences, messages, key differentiators, keywords, competitor review, pricing strategy including offers/discounts,
• Content marketing plan
• Persona development and content mapping (content type and channel)
• Develop content starting with most robust (e.g. report, whitepaper, ebook)
• Extrapolate other content for various channels (e.g. articles, blog posts, infographs, tip sheets,)
• Cross reference other content (e.g. case studies, webinars, presentations & video recordings, demos/tours, surveys)
• Campaign development per product/service
• Create lead generation forms including workflows and lead scoring
• Develop landing pages for robust valued content (e.g. report, whitepaper, presentations, guides); create confirmation pages with secondary calls to action (e.g. to other lead generation and to other content – e.g. articles)
• Develop emails  - per audience (type & lists) – with defined nurture streams (series of emails); personalize emails; schedule
• Align content type and channel per audience and stage of sales cycle (understand your product/service cycles and buyer behaviour)
• Create an advertising and promotion strategy
• Develop a news release for primary value asset
• Develop social media strategy utilizing all assets
• Develop an advertising strategy to promote lead gen items during campaign
• Measure and follow through
• follow up on leads generation
• measure lead quality and quantity
• track users through downloads and web sessions
• report on social media and news sharing
• report on ad click throughs and impressions
• report metrics against KPIs and make recommendations

Video - more than 1,000 words

Video continues to be the hot topic and so it should be. Done right, video can engage users in an entertaining, easy to use format. Done right, video can be leveraged in multiple channels to capture a broad audience. Done right, video can be viewed in various devices when and where as convenient to you.

Consider these video statistics:

• Videos are shared 1200% more than links and text combined in social media.
• Pages with video are 53x more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results.
• Emails that include video generate 55% increase in click through rates 
• 50% of YouTube views are from a mobile device and is expected to grow to 72% by 2019
• Vertical video ads have up to 9x more completed videos (attributed to smartphone viewing)

 and,

73% of respondents believe that video positively impacts marketing results and ROI. 83% of those companies surveyed are using video content for website marketing, with another 50% incorporating video content in their email marketing campaigns. Source: Video Marketing Tips, Trends, Strategy & Best Practices http://www.reelseo.com/video/marketing/#ixzz3qSwx2taW

 

 Check out my presentation on things to consider 

when creating a video strategy.

Communication - are you on the same elephant?

Emails fly and meetings drag; projects get derailed and can fail, all for the lack of clear communications. There is a poem I heard long ago that exemplifies the need for people to be clear in what their vision is, the direction they'd prefer and the results they want to achieve. I can't say it better than this 1872 poem  by John Godfrey Saxe (thanks to Wikipedia https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_poems_of_John_Godfrey_Saxe/The_Blind_Men_and_the_Elephant)

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT.
A HINDOO FABLE.

i.

IT was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

ii.

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me!—but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

iii.

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried:"Ho!—what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 't is mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

iv.

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

v.

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'T is clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

vi.

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

vii.

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

viii.

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

moral.

So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

Why using social media makes business sense

Now is the time to build your business case for using social in your organization, if you’re not already. If you have time to do an audit of your competition’s social presence as well as for your clients/customers you will have a great basis to start your business case. After all, if you’re competitors are on social and your customers are on social, chances are your competitors are reaching out to your customers on social. If you’re not on social, you’re not even part of the conversation.

Here are some helpful statistics I’ve gathered to make the case for social business.

[You may also be interested in my presentation on how to create a social media strategy http://www.slideshare.net/cathcontact/social-business-strategy-52941478]

Social is part of the digital experience

       Over 70% of B2B decision makers use social media as a source of information

       68% of users spend time reading about brands that interest them

       60% of people are inspired to seek out a product after reading about it

       53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and products

       65% of social media users learn more about brands, products or services

       53% compliment brands

       50% express complaints or concerns about brands or services

       64% of consumers made a first purchase because of a digital experience

An alternate approach to traditional marketing is needed

       78% of consumers say that the posts made by companies on social media influence their purchases.  

       81% of people say that posts by their friends on social media influence their purchases.

       63% of marketers believe traditional branding methods are losing their effectiveness

       70% of people would rather learn about companies through an article than an advert

       72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. 

       Consumers indicate they expect brands to be available in an average of 3.5 social media channels,

       around 80% of consumers expect brands to be present on Facebook.

       Consumers expect brands to engage on consumers' terms

       62% of Millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social networks, they are more likely to become a loyal customer.

       nearly 50% of people have used social media to praise or complain about a brand in the past month.

Social is being used to support sales

       96% of respondents in a Sales Management Association study use LinkedIn at least once a week and spend an average of six hours per week on it

       73% of respondents in a Forrester study have engaged with a vendor on social networks;

       relevant context to connect with vendors is one of the top reasons buyers use social networks for business

       52% more leads were generated when marketers spent 6+ hours a week engaging on social media

       85% of IT decision makers use at least one social network for business

       60%-70% of the buying process in a complex sale is already complete before  prospects are willing to engage with a live salesperson

       95% of B2B buyers prefer shorter content formats

Social media is part of business

       96% of survey participants indicated they are participating in social media marketing

       92% said social media was important to their business

       84% of marketers agreed that they have integrated their social media and traditional marketing activities

       66% of marketers plan on increasing use of Twitter, YT and LI

       93% of marketers are using Facebook and 62% plan on increasing FB activities

       57% of marketers use video in their marketing

 

Sources:

• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/
• IBM the Interactive Marketing eBook
• http://www.wordtracker.com/blog/basics-setting-up-twitter-business
• social media today
• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/
• http://www.slideshare.net/JakeAtwood1/20-shocking-sales-stats?related=1
• Hootsuite “A definitive guide to social selling
• https://apps.ioninteractive.com
• www.marketingprofs.com
• http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
• http://cdn29.elitedaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015_EliteDaily_MillennialSurvey3.pdf
• http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/new-social-media-research-uncovers-the-big-problem-for-businesses/
• Search Engine Journal
• Forbes

 

 

SEO the right way

I recently had someone say to me that SEO could be solved by just adding the words they wanted to be found on in the code. I was shocked.


Years ago - over 10 years ago, people would "hide" keywords in code to try to fool search engines into thinking that a page was relevant for a search on the words. Search engines have gotten much smarter and will now penalize anyone using such a sneaky, illegitimate method. In addition, think of the user experience - they have searched for a term and landed on the page - if its not relevant they're just going to be annoyed and bounce - that leaves a bad impression and can be detrimental for your brand.


Don't let someone try to talk you into doing something that is a lazy, "short cut" that will hurt you in the end. Spend the time to understand what your keywords are and use them effectively in your content.


Be a credible, content provider and earn your search results - after all, if you give good results, you'll get good results.

LinkedIn tips for business development

Why use LinkedIn for sales?

• 75% of B2B purchases are influenced by Social Media and 57% of buying decisions are made before a sales rep is involved.
• 76% of buyers prefer to work with vendors recommended by someone they know; and 73% prefer to work with sales people recommended by someone they know.
• 92% of B2B buyers engage with sales professionals who are known industry thought leaders
• 59% of buyers said they are more likely to engage with a salesperson if they mention a common connections

Your Profile

• Create your LinkedIn profile - Maintain your professional identity & brand

Connect

• Connections menu: Keep in touch – shows your connects and suggests some; Under settings you can sync with any of your email and calendar accounts; Add connections – also links to your emails to pull in contacts; Find Alumni pulls up people with the same alma mater. You can even include notes and reminders for each contact under relationship.
• with client contacts – search on their name or company
• with other employees ( this strategy then connects you with their connections)
• seek new connections by joining groups

Search

• Search out prospects and clients prior to meetings to learn more about them *

Follow

• Your accounts  (search companies to find your accounts) *
• Your company – stay up to date on our initiatives and support the brand.
• Relevant influencers, channels, and publishers

Engage/participate

• Share an article or blog post a few times per week. You don’t need to be a writer – share articles you find interesting and relevant. Share your company posts.
• Liking someone else’s status update also gets your name out there.
• Commenting can be even more powerful than a share when done correctly, add your expertise to the thread.
• LinkedIn groups can be a great way to interact with industry professionals and find new leads. Be an active participant in any group you join. Search topics in your line of business and join as appropriate.
• Can’t find a relevant group? Consider starting one and then posing interesting questions. You must commit to maintaining it if you start it.

*Some CRMs are integrated with LinkedIn or other software (e.g. InsideView)  

Speaking like a leader

At the end of the day a leader is someone you would follow - that means that they have to instill trust, be decisive and share values. A title doesn't mean someone is a leader.

 

In Judith Humphrey's book "Taking the Stage" she highlights things women are socialized to do that diminishes their leadership. These are the things women need to stop doing:

• Stop apologizing.
• Stop asking for permission.
• Stop minimalizing and being tentative - "just", "little bit", "only", "maybe", "perhaps"
• Don't take everything personal.

Men initiate 75% of all gender based interruptions (and they don't apologize). Men tend to treat discussions as a sports huddle and make sure they get their point across regardless of who is speaking.

 

Women are told not to show off, but to be a leader you need to promote yourself. Women are criticized if aggressive or bossy and need to be able to be assertive and take charge. Start expressing the qualities you value in yourself - e.g. intelligence, passion, conviction, creativity AND think of what type of leader you want to be and use those terms to describe yourself e.g. decisive, focused, confident, strategic, inspired etc. and then become that. Men focus on what they want next and move forward.

 

People need to be ready to make the change from being the "workhorse" to becoming the decision maker. You also need to recognize that it is all politics and you need to make it easy for people to say yes to you.

 

The book spends a lot of time going over public speaking methods - but there are better sources for that.

 

Women need to recognize what voice they are using in business - is it high and child like? too quiet? breathless? Pay attention to your tone, volume, pitch, pace and projection. Speak up and contribute at meetings. Breathe. Some people talk too fast - then need to take breaths and learn ways to deal with people that may interrupt. For people that say "um" a lot (which is distracting and takes away from the authority of the speaker), learn to take pauses and close your mouth. Speak clearly and deliver your message. Be present, authentic and open to the audience - listen to them and pay attention to their body language.

• Prepare a 30 second elevator speech for when you meet executives you want to impress. Prepare for chance meetings.
• Presentations should start with an attention getter - some people can start with a joke or amusing anecdote - as long as it's appropriate for the context. Be specific in your topic. Tell your audience what you're speaking about, give your speech/presentation, then tell them what you told them. The body of your speech can be three key points or a comparison. End your speech/presentation with a call to action - your ask - whether its for budget, approval or a sale.
• Move like you own the space. Never take one step forward or back - it makes you look tentative. Walk with authority across the stage. Stand up straight. Don't close your arms off in a defensive position. Make eye contact. Smile as appropriate - make sure your facial expression is congruent to the subject.

Watch Amy Cuddy's Ted Talk on "Your body language shapes who you are" http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

Managing change

Whether the company is going through a re-organization, a downsizing or a merger, change management is key but most organizations do not do it effectively. Usually there is minimum communications and considerable miscommunications - let's face it people talk and they spread what they think they know - right or wrong. Also, people resist change and some actively fear it, especially if it hasn't been effectively communicated.

If you're re-organizing you should have:

• a clear understanding of what people do; jobs change over time so job descriptions need to be up-to-date
• a skills assessment of staff; they may have taken on tasks or further education or they may be struggling with duties they can't manage
• an impact assessment - if you're going to let people go what duties need to be redistributed and how can that be done with the least disruption; what are the implications if they manage several email addresses or committees; are there processes that they manage or have a  role in; - its not just the what, its also the who
• a communication strategy; if you are re-organizing and people will have different reporting structures have follow-up meetings for the new teams so they have the opportunity to ask questions. It's far better to get everything in the open right away rather than let people disperse to ask questions of people who don't know the answers or to complain to each other that they don't know what is  going on; people have a right to be concerned and worried and the best way to alleviate that is to communicate and get them in a productive environment as soon as possible
• a talent management strategy; if people suddenly become people managers they need to have the maturity, skills and resources to fulfill the duties required of them; and if they go from managing one or two staff to a dozen additional skills may need to be learned including conflict management, communications, and time management; otherwise the Peter Principal comes into play and no one is happy

It's equally important to know what you shouldn't do:

• don't lie; people figure things out sooner or later and they talk with each other; lies destroy trust and credibility and you will never achieve employee engagement or loyalty
• don't hide; people don't want to feel like they've been involved in a hit and run, they will have questions so be prepared and address them, otherwise you will lose respect and trust
• don't do a re-organization on a day when there is a social event or other company activity and if possible try to avoid any significant dates for the participants - like birthdays or just before a statutory holiday, no one should be let go on their birthday if you can avoid it

Essentially, managing change is respecting people by being considerate and communicating effectively. People will adjust and it takes as much effort to manage change effectively as it does to clean up messes when mis-managed. And if you truly want engaged and productive employees, giving them respect, communicating with them and allowing questions and providing answers while giving them the resources they need to cope, will keep them on track to being successful.

Using competitive intelligence to identify content and keywords

If you're conducting searches and are concerned that your site isn't coming up on the search results page but your competitors are you should take the opportunity to review their digital ecosystem and see what they are doing starting with reviewing their website and any social media sites.

You can start by focusing on their service pages and analyzing the keywords they are using - this may also inform your own product strategy as it will help identify common industry terms and can help reveal gaps in services that you may already be doing but not communicating. You can also do a quick count of keywords they are using and do a search on their site on keywords.

You can then look at their thought leadership - what are they writing about? What formats and channels are they using? This includes their social presence, any blogs and video use. What aren't they writing about? What aren't they doing that you might be able to do?

You can take your assessment a step further and review RFPs and your responses. What are RFPs asking for? What words are being used? These are critical as they are from prospects. Are the words they use to refer to services reflected on your website? Have they posed any challenges and requests to know how you would handle them? Do you have that content also on your website (e.g. 5 things you can do to manage X challenge...).

Once you've identified content and services your competitors have that you don't, and you've identified gaps in content, you should add it to your site.

Make a point of reviewing your content annually and monitor competitor activity (e.g. using things like Google Alerts) to keep content relevant and competitive. Think of new ways to stay one step ahead of your competitors - look at trends, assess RFP activity and questions being asked, document discussions from conferences and tradeshows and get ideas for new content.

SEO Tips for Writers

Search engine optimization (SEO) supports a website being found when a person is searching using a search engine.

Why SEO is important

A quick scan of some facts reveals why SEO is so important for marketing effectiveness:

Being found and clicked on:

• 75% of users click on first page search results¹ with an accumulative 90% clicking on results from the first three pages of returns². In other words, the chances of your page being looked at rapidly declines after the main search engine results page (SERP).
• 87% of results clicked on were from the organic (non paid) portion of the search results – which are totally dependent on their ranking by ensuring they follow the optimization techniques.
• Top results are given credibility  with people interpreting that leaders rise to the top “…users ascribe industry leadership to those brands within top results, and believe them to be leaders in their fields given their placement in the results” ²

^{1. Source: How to make any content SEO-friendly by Anvil and Act-on}

^{2.according to Robert Murray, President, iProspect}

Writing to optimize being found

• Websites should be written for people, with a focus on being clear and user friendly – know your audience and write to them.
• Be more specific in writing your headings (use keyword phrases and not just generic terms).
• Create content that is of high value so people will share it and link to it.
• Commit to having fresh content – frequently update your content (stale content will get pushed down in the results).
• Use questions in subheadings (users often pose questions in search engines, so the more you align with what people might ask the higher the likelihood of returning results high on the page).
• Have at least 10 keyword phrases for your site, each phrase should have two or more keywords .
• Where feasible, keywords should be included in:

• Page titles, headings (h1,h2,h3), and anything that is being emphasized
• Only the first 65-75 characters of a title tag is displayed in the search results - this is also the general limit allowed by most social media sites,  (long headings can be interpreted as spam by Google).
• Bolding or italicizing keywords  (adding emphasis) can also aid search engines to know what words are important – but emphasis must be appropriate, i.e. done for a reason the reader understands (Note: italics can be hard to read).
• Keywords should be included within the first paragraph, and then within the content where it makes sense to include them; (have about 250 - 300 words per page) – this will enhance search engines’ efforts to index.
• URLs – should be readable and the shorter the better (115 characters max as shorter urls have higher click throughs). NOTE: by default, the main page heading is used as the URL for morneaushepell.com unless specified otherwise.
• Linking
• Link content, that is, create contextual links, ideally incorporating key workds when possible. (Never have a page of links as content and context is needed; no use of “Click here” as that is a wasted opportunity to have a contextual link that supports optimization).
• Navigation/menu items and anchors, should all contain keywords when possible.
• Cross link within your own site by indicating links to similar or related content.
• Add links to other credible, relevant sites.
• Request credible, relevant sites link back to you
• Social sharing can aid in improving search results.

•  Flat sites do better as spiders view low level pages as less important; therefore, the hierarchy of content and information architecture is important. Note: morneaushepell.com is a flat site with maximum of two levels.

• Format

• Multiple formats can aid in improving search results (e.g. videos, articles, tools); note that in order to be effective there are format considerations (i.e., images need alternative text; video needs transcripts); note pdfs should not be locked in order to provide search engines with access to index that content.

• Content behind a form may not be indexed, therefore a summary of what is in it, using keywords, is important (e.g. whitepapers etc. should have a short description before the form).

Ways to test

• Try the 8 second test – have someone view the page for the first time for 8 seconds then ask them what they think the site is about – you may be surprised .

• Use your own search engine to test key words.  

Keep in mind: Print vs. Online

Print and online are different mediums. People even see and read them differently. Consider that:

• Reading is harder to do online since screens have flicker rates and varying resolutions so your eyes need a break more often than with print; and screens are read 25% slower than paper.
• 79% of readers scan pages so content online needs to be chunked into manageable bites with subheadings denoting different topics.
• Wording needs to be concise – you have seconds to get your point across and you’re competing with all types of distractions.
• People read print in a linear way – one page at a time; start to finish. People jump around web pages – following links according to their interest – they may come back to the original article or they may not.