3. “It is far better to adapt the technology to the
user than to force the user to adapt to the
technology.” – Larry Marine
4. “Content marketing is a marketing technique of
creating and distributing relevant and valuable
content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly
defined and understood target audience – with the
objective of driving profitable customer action.”
-Content Marketing Institute
What is it?
6. Why Content Marketing?
1. Increase Leads + Sales
2. Improve SEO
3. Retain Customers
4. Build or Reposition your Brand
5. Ability to Integrate
6. Engage Customers Long Term
19. Content Distribution is a discipline that
needs to be integrated with content
creation, seo and management
strategies, not thought about
after the fact.
21. Manual Distribution
• Your Website
• Your Blog(s)
• Social Media
• Email
• Threads & Forums
• Events (live/virtual)
• Document-Sharing
• Multi-media sites
• Mobile Applications
22. Community Distribution
• Company Newsflash
• Influencers/bloggers
• Public Relations
• Social bookmarking
• Social News Sites
• Leverage Partners
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it.Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.And they do. Content marketing is being used by some of the greatest marketing organizations in the world, including P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and John Deere. It’s also developed and executed by small businesses and one-person shops around the globe.
If you create something of value for the end-users, they will pay it forward. And content marketing is becoming one of the most, if not the most, important ways brands can engage and influence their audience.In order to create value brands need to:EducateBecome Experts in their fieldPost High quality contentCreate intriguing content
Increase salesIn its purest form, content marketing provides a controlled and portable shop window for companies to sell products to their customers in their own time. Recent CMA research has found that over 50% of content marketing consumers say it has a positive impact upon purchase decisions, with 61% agreeing that it increases brand positivity.2. Improve SEOCreating fresh and relevant content frequently helps improve your Search Engine Optimization. More content means more keywords, fresh content results in regular indexing, and search engines love frequent updates. 3. Retain customersIn an increasingly fragmented culture, with every retail and service business facing stiffer competition every year, companies are placing more and more importance on retaining their existing customers. By offering both entertainment and information, content marketing rewards the customer with engaging editorial while keeping them updated on new products or services. By regularly communicating with your customer in this way, you are much more likely to keep their business.4. Build or reposition your brandFor any company wishing to build or transform their brand, they need a method of communication that gets their message across quickly in a carefully controlled way. Since good content on websites, emails, mobiles and print products requires a certain degree of concentration on the part of the consumer, you have the ideal opportunity to alter their perception of your brand. And since content marketing agencies will know your audience just as well, if not better, than you, they can ensure your message gets through to exactly the right demographic, giving you the biggest return on your investment.5. Ability to integrateThe core skill of the modern content marketing agency is to create and distribute content across all key marketing mediums - print, online, digital, mobile, video and social media. Not only can the agencies produce content appropriate for the individual channel, all channels will be integrated with one another, doubling or tripling the effectiveness of the campaign.6. Engage customers long termWhile clients may look towards content marketing for short-term gain, their real talent lies in long-term engagement. Using regular communication with your customer base, you can gradually build up a bond with the reader, increasing their trust in your brand and making your product or service their first choice. And by creating a regular dialogue with your reader, you can open a line of communication that gives a constant stream of feedback you can use to improve your service and keep your customers happy.
The task of nurturing a lead to a sales ready state is a complex process that requires leveraging he appropriate content at just the right time. Potential customers require multiple touches to be moved from a state of low purchase intent to a purchasing decision. Each stage in the buying cycle has an optimal communication channel and content type. This content marketing mix is designed to help marketers time their content use appropriately and achieve the optimal balance of nurturing and education to convert opportunities into closed deals. Of course this mix will chance slightly by industry and sales cycle, but the basic formula remains the same for all B2B marketers.
Content marketing is being used by some of the greatest marketing organizations in the world, including P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and John Deere. It’s also developed and executed by small businesses and one-person shops around the globe.According to the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends research, 9 out of 10 B2B marketers are using content marketing – regardless of company size or industry. And they are doing what it takes to bring about desired results:-On average, B2B marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals.-60 percent report that they plan to increase their spending on content marketing over the next 12 months.-Marketers, on average, spend over a quarter of their marketing budget on content marketing.
What is the biggest Content Marketing Challenge?
Infographics are highly popular tools for marketing. Essentially, they are the visual cliff-notes. They pare down large technical documents to the most important bits and use pictures to make the point. However, as with any popular medium there are pros and cons to using them. The following are some of the pros and cons for infographics:The Pros1) Easy to understandThe old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds just as true today as it did when it was first said. After all, there is a reason the best do-it-yourself guides are the ones that include clear pictures for every step of the process.2) Easy to shareSharing a picture is as easy as hitting the share button on Facebook, including the tinyurl in a Twitter feed, pinning it on Pinterest, uploading it to LinkedIn, or posting it in a blog. The ease of sharing it means it is more likely to be seen by more people, and is a very good way to create linkbacks to your site.3) More is GoodPeople usually aren’t willing to read long articles, but they are willing to scroll down to see what’s next in a long infographic, especially if it is well designed. This allows you to pack more information into the infographic than you can in a blog post.The Cons1) Time Consuming to CreateMaking a good infographic isn’t easy. It requires a lot of brainstorming in order to effectively condense statistics and boring text into an image that’s visually appealing while still making sense.2) Not readable by Search EnginesInfographics contain a lot of information, but because it is all packed in an image, the search engine cannot read it and thus cannot index it. It is possible to work around this hurdle by putting in a text summary of the content at the bottom of the infographic, or to include the information in the meta long description tag.3) Not accessible by the visually impaired or by voice searchBecause infographics are all image based, the visual impaired cannot access them, nor can voice search find them. There are work arounds, but it’s important to keep it in mind when creating and posting an infographic.The bottom line is that while infographics are very popular and very engaging, it’s important to be aware of their limitations so that workarounds can be put into place in order to prevent problems.A particularly powerful type of image is the infographic—the fastest growing form of content marketing for B2B brands. A well-designed infographic organizes and communicates technical or detailed information in a visually attractive, easy-to-process way. What’s more, infographics perform well on social sharing sites like Pinterest, where images are key.
What better way to differentiate yourself from the competition than with video? Videos are an ideal platformfor interviews, demonstrations, how-to guides, and any content with which you want to communicate a clearer sense of your personality and style.Types of Video MarketingTestimonialsDemonstrationsPositioning/ExpertisePromotionalTrainingsLeadershipTeasersStorytelling
General Stats: http://18-video-marketing-statistics/www.videobrewery.com/bloghttp://blog.eloqua.com/online-video-marketing-statistics/http://blog.webvideocrew.com/article/25-Video-Marketing-Statistics-to-Bolster-Your-Business-in-2013#.UZOqlIJkEXw
Article marketing can be a highly useful marketing tool if effectively used. Most important is making sure your article is both readable and worth reading. If you claim to add something to the discussion of a particular topic, you must have a distinct voice and communicate your expertise. Poorly written articles negate whatever expertise you may be sharing. Fortunately, you can always hire a freelancer (or ghostwriter) to write articles for you, but you will incur some expense doing so.Well-written and timely articles on your site or business’ field can be like a drop in a pond – quickly spreading outward and drawing more readers and/or consumers to you. It also quickly creates back links (through your resource box) which plays a key part in effective search engine optimization (SEO). Finally, the more articles you put out there, the more your name, site and business become associated with your field. The growth in back links, recognition and readers/consumers can seem exponential.
Email marketing should be considered one of the components of your advertising and marketing program, according to More Business website. Take the time to research how to execute a efficient email campaign, and your company will benefit from the results. To develop a good email campaign, it is important to understand the pros and cons of email marketing.Cost SavingsAccumulating and maintaining an email list can be easier and less expensive than gathering standard mail addresses, according to online marketing resource Business Marketing Plan website. People only need to respond to an electronic form to sign up for an email list where a response card for a standard mailing list costs to print and return postage. Sending emails is free in comparison with the cost of sending standard mailings. Email content does not have the printing costs associated with it that standard mailings do.TrackingYou can track your emails to tell which ones were received, which email addresses are no longer active and which people preferred to not receive your emails anymore. According to More Business, it is simpler to track the impact of an email campaign than it is a standard mail campaign.TimeA marketing email can be created in hours and reach millions of people in minutes, according to the Email Marketing Guide website. You can design a marketing plan to respond to something your competition has done or said, and get it out to your customers much faster than with standard mail.ReliabilityIt is common for people to receive several marketing emails a day from many different companies. According to Business Marketing Plan, it is possible that many customers will delete your email as unimportant before they even take the time to read it. Using a bulk emailing program means your marketing email could get caught in the recipient's spam folder and they may never see it.ReputationSome people do not appreciate having their inbox filled by unsolicited marketing emails. Using mass emailing could cause customers to consider your company less than reputable.
6 Reasons Why Images are ImportantIf you have an online store, issue press releases or even just have a Facebook business “page”, then here are 6 reasons to publish images and photos as part of your business marketing tactics.1. Articles with images get 94% more total views2. Including a Photo and a video in a press release increases views by over 45%3. 60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business when an image shows up in local search results4. In an ecommerce site, 67% of consumers say the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product5. In an online store, customers think that the quality of a products image is more important than product-specific information (63%), a long description (54%) and ratings and reviews (53%)56.Engagement rate on Facebook for photos averages 0.37% where text only is 0.27% (this translates to a 37% higher level of engagement for photos over text)A whopping 93 percent of communication is nonverbal, says psychologist Albert Mehrabian, which means almost all of what you tell your audience happens outside the words you say. With powerful pictures, illustrations, and graphics, you have an opportunity to make a real impact on your fans—amplifying your message, explaining an idea, and gaining user attention.
Content Distribution is a discipline that needs to be integrated with content creation, seo and management strategies, not thought about after the fact.
Content Distribution is a discipline that needs to be integrated with content creation, seo and management strategies, not thought about after the fact.
Content Distribution is a discipline that needs to be integrated with content creation, seo and management strategies, not thought about after the fact.
Content Distribution is a discipline that needs to be integrated with content creation, seo and management strategies, not thought about after the fact.
Blogging – Blogs can serve as an excellent platform for distributing content because of RSS and the tendency blogs have to freely link to each other.RSS SubscribersNetwork with other bloggersGet on other blogger blogrollsSyndicate content to other web sites/blogs
Social Networking/Media - Networking and word of mouth is the oldest kind of marketing there is and in many cases, still the most effective. Online tools for networking and sharing of information can be leveraged in concert with real-world networking to build an impressive level of connections.LinkedIn is growing into a very worthwhile business networking platformMySpace tends to be more personal, but offers topical networking opportunitesFacebook also offers benefits similar to MySpace in terms of topical networkingReal world events are often overlooked and in-person relationships are far more powerfuldel.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, digg, etc can serve as channels of distribution and networking
Forums & Discussion Threads – Whether you start a forum yourself, moderate, advertise or simply participate, the exchanges that occur within forums and discussion threads can build credibility that can be leveraged into building blog and newsletter subscribers.OwnerModeratorSponsorParticipant
Email - Email newsletters offer an excellent channel of distribution as the publisher or in an advertising capacity.Start an email newsletter to communicate with clients, prospects and your target market at largeAdvertising & sponsorship opportunities exist on others’ newslettersProvide guest articles to other newsletters with a desirable readership profileThe opt-in email newsletter is a fantastic avenue for getting your message out to loyal followers—the key is providing highly relevant content that they actually want to read. This means it’s time to forget recycled blog content and opt instead for unique content that meets a need for your audience: inspiration, humor, information, etc. Ask yourself how you can make your newsletter a must-read.
Media Relations - News organizations be they online or offline, mainstream or blog networks, are always looking for good content and story ideas. Develop amedia list to announce company news and story ideas toEstablish newsworthiness by producing consistently high quality editorial that meets the needs of the publications you’re pitching toPress release distribution via online wire services bring exposure via email and news search enginesBe a trusted news source by creating relationships with the media
Tools For Distribution a. Outbrain – Headline Distribution b. SimpleReach – Suggested Story Distribution c. ARC – Newswire Distribution d. Zemanta – Link Distribution e. TubeMogulOneLoad – Video Distribution f. StubleUpon – Paid Social Distribution
Find your nicheNo matter the opportunity, be sure to define the space you’re working in and have a clear focus, ensuring that all of your content helps drive your organization’s goals and objectives.Share the loadYou may have a team or you may be the sole marketer in your organization, but regardless, you may feel the responsibility of content creation rests squarely on your shoulders. While you should certainly drive and manage the effort, content can seem stale and monotonous if it’s only coming from one point of view. Enlist colleagues from different departments to contribute to your content efforts. This will help keep content fresh and offer new perspectives. “Color” your contentWhen most people think of the term “content,” text usually comes to mind and can feel like a time-consuming initiative. Text is certainly a critical part of content, but don’t underestimate the value of an image, such as an infographic. Images can often influence an audience even more than text, as it may be more attention-grabbing right off the bat. An image can be the lead point of a particular article, or it can complement your text. It’s a great way to keep your content exciting and different for your readers. Curated ContentCurated content helps eliminate the challenge of limited staff and budget as it is an effective way to keep populated with fresh content. For starters, identify a blog post or article that you want to share with your audience and write a short excerpt that includes your commentary, including a summary and thoughts on why the content is relevant. Invest in TechnologyWith the advent of content marketing, there is also a slew of software to simplify and streamline many of the laborious or complex tasks. For example, there are now specialized tools to help manage the workflow of content production, the outsourcing of content to a team of writers, the distribution of content to multiple publishing channels, and the curation of content. While you can implement a content marketing program with existing tools and technologies, you can greatly improve your efficiency and efficacy with such tools.
Continually test and evaluate Like everything else you do with content, your first guess can usually be improved. Always look for opportunities to gain insight into how your audience responds to your content and then make adjustments.