2. Course outline and objectives
Strategy Ad Copy Content DevelopmentDirect Mail
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3. If I hear you say “marketing plan” one
more time…
• Satisfy your user’s needs…
• Know your audience’s concerns, hopes.
• Consider desired tasks. Make these
prominent.
• Provide information to support decision-
making.
• Write easy-to-understand task instructions.
4. Make every customer interaction count
• Who is the customer and where are they in
the process?
• The buyer PERSONA
5. Landing Page
• Think of your landing page as the bridge
between your ad copy and your sales
objective
• Content based on an organic search needs to
appeal to “LCD”. You don’t control who arrives
at your landing page
6. Landing Page: PPC
• Your ad campaign generates traffic specific to
your ad content.
• You know where the traffic came from
• Remember to dovetail page content with sales
message
13. Landing Page: Clear and Concise
Here are a few examples of clear, concise headlines:
• “Sign up for your free account”
• “Work Smarter with Evernote: Online Workshop”
• “Get our tips straight to your inbox and become a better
manager.”
14. Landing Page: Subheadlines
Here are a few examples of headlines with subheaders:
• “The Conversion Collection: Generate Even More Leads From
Your Blog”
• “Money Matters: Your Guide for Financial Security”
• “Get a Free Strategic Analysis of Your SEO & Content
Marketing”
• “Watch a demo of our Marketing software: See how you can
increase your company’s revenue with our all-in-one
platform.”
• “Learn the science behind the art of winemaking: Fill out this
form and we'll enroll you in a free sample lesson on sparkling
wine”
17. Insist on Action
• Emphasize the now. The user needs to know that now is the
time. Make them live in the present and experience the
urgency of the situation.
• For every informational sentence, add a “so that.” If you need
to give information, then explain the “so that” behind it. For
example, you write “The fastest processor on the market, so
you can get tons of stuff done.” That two-part fragment
contains information (fast processor), and why it matters
(action). The action helps the sentence live, breathe, and
move.
18. Insist on Action
• "Use action verbs. Verbs like “be”, “is”, “was”,
“am”, “are”, “will” and “have” are unavoidable
• “Get”, “work”, “launch”, “lead”, “blast”,
“produce”, “create”, “push”, “drive”, “pull” and
“sustain” are far more descriptive.
19. Landing Pages
Think of a landing page as the arrivals area of
your website.
• Where does your prospect need to go?
• What does your prospect need to do to get
there?
20. Landing Page: The Purpose
• Target a particular audience
• Direct traffic from an email campaign promoting a particular
ebook, or visitors who click on a pay-per-click ad promoting a
specific campaign.
Tip: Allow visitors to download your content offers (ebooks,
white papers, webinars, and so on), or sign up for offers like
free trials or demos of your product.
Tip: Build a unique landing page for each of the offers you
create.
21. Landing Page: The Purpose
• Lead generation
• SEO (web content)
• Maintain lead flow
• Evergreen content
• Where are they in the funnel?
• Company intel
22. Landing Page: Clear and Concise
Here are a few examples of clear, concise headlines:
• “Sign up for your free account”
• “Work Smarter with Evernote: Online Workshop”
• “Get our tips straight to your inbox and become a better
manager.”
23. The Age-Old Question
• Why am I here?
• Remember: your customer wants to know
what’s in it for them
24. Time to rethink your approach.
• What do you want to know?
• What do you need to do?
• What do you need to feel comfortable and
smart?
• What do you care about … really?
25. Digital content: best practices
Make the information:
• easy to access
• concise
• like a story
• consistent
• new / fresh
• “standalone”
26. Lead generation: landing pages
Best practices:
Test A/B
Customer is king
Create unique visitor profiles
Social media interaction
Mobile, tablet, forget about it
27. Two things I want you to remember:
1. Understand the buyer persona
2. Know where they are “at” in the process
28. Don’t rush the process
• Pushing “late stage” content is a turn off
• Start with educational and informative
content first
29. What constitutes web content?
Broadly speaking, there are three types of
content. Remember, though, that they are not
necessarily mutually exclusive, nor do they
need to be:
• Educational
• Entertaining
• Interactive
31. Good question
“There are about a million IT companies floating
around, then why us? Reasonable question!
The answer is simple… because, WE ARE THE
BEST! Best in Quality, Service and Post Service
Relations…”
32. Our friend Maslow
Transcendence: help others realize their potential
Self-actualization: realize your own potential, self-fulfillment,
peak experiences
Aesthetic: symmetry, order, beauty, balance
Learning: know, understand, mentally connect
Esteem: achieve, be competent, gain approval, independence,
status
Belonging: love, family, friends, affection
Security: protection, safety, stability
Physical: hunger, thirst, bodily comfort
33. Determine your end objectives up front
Most B2B companies' primary objectives for offering
free content are:
1. attracting prospects
2. nurturing relationships with existing clients
B2C brands are generally trying to sell directly to
consumers or raise brand awareness to increase retail
demand and market share.
Generally, both B2B and B2C companies are interested
in increasing their customer databases for future
marketing opportunities.
34. Be useful
• Know what I want, and show me you do
• Help me accomplish something
• Deliver on your promises
• Answer my questions - before I have them
35. Marketing objectives
• Overcome resistance
• Create a connection
• Motivate or inspire
• Mobilize or reinvigorate
• Use real world events
• Introduce new directions
• Show value proposition
36. Marketing objectives
• Increase customer spend
• Educate about an aspect of offer
• Break into a new market
• Create leads or keep feeding them
• Enhance loyalty
• Communicate USP
• Increase market share
37. What types of story do you want to tell?
Mystery, romance, comedy, drama or adventure?
42. Marketing objectives
• Overcome resistance
• Create a connection
• Motivate or inspire
• Mobilize or reinvigorate
• Use real world events
• Introduce new directions
• Show value proposition
43. Marketing objectives
• Increase customer spend
• Educate about an aspect of offer
• Break into a new market
• Create leads or keep feeding them
• Enhance loyalty
• Communicate USP
• Increase market share
45. Content creation and PR
“The goal is to expand our
digital footprint and use
content to drive initiatives.”
46. Content creation and PR
PR is responsible for driving messaging
and it’s messaging that helps drive
brand.
47. Content creation and PR
• Blog posts
• Press releases
• Case studies
• Social media content
• Newsletters
• Articles
• White papers
• Events and webinars
48. Content creation and PR
At the intersection of marketing and PR:
Brand awareness
Acquisition goals
49. Content creation and PR
Some PR-focused goals:
• Boosting awareness and exposure
• Influence and positioning
• Educate audiences
• Thought leadership
• Reputation
• Growing networks and engagement
50. Content creation and PR
From a purely content perspective,
PR determines what is ‘promotable’
or newsworthy
This process helps extend the life
and reach of marketing materials
51. Content creation and PR
Consider that created content can be
repurposed:
• Publicity
• Targeted advertising
• Email promotion
• Social
52. What Doe Your Audience Care
About?
What is newsworthy?
• One of a kind
• First ever
• Atypical
• Trend
• Unusual application of product or service
• Celebrity participation
• Tale of the underdog
• Money, sex or health
53. Selling the story
Ask the expert or how to position a ‘thought
leader’:
• Be authentic
• Be yourself (tell the story your way)
• Keep pounding away
• Look to the future
54. Elements of a press release
• Establish a newsworthy topic
• Label (for immediate release)
• Headline and sub-headline
• Body
• Quote
• Boilerplate (shortened version of background)
• End ( - 30 -)
55. Backgrounders
Also know as Fact sheets or FAQs
• They use different formats and depend on the
publication (or media outlet) as well as the
subject matter covered
– Prose
– Bulleted list
– Question and answer
56. Backgrounders, fact sheets and FAQs
• Fact-oriented (stay away from opinion)
• Chronological
• Follow 5w format
57. Sample FAQs (Q + A)
• What does the product do?
• What are the company’s goals?
• Who is the product intended for?
• How much does it cost?
59. The 10 Laws
The Law of Listening
More listening, less talking.
Read your target audience’s online content
and join discussions to learn what’s
important to them. Only then can you create
content and spark conversations that add
value rather than clutter to their lives.
60. The 10 Laws
The Law of Focus
Better specialize than be a jack-of-all-trades.
A highly-focused content marketing strategy
intended to build a strong brand has a better
chance for success than a broad strategy that
attempts to be all things to all people.
61. The 10 Laws
The Law of Quality
Quality trumps quantity. Every time.
It’s better to have 1,000 online connections
who read, share and talk about your content
with their own audiences than 10,000
connections who disappear after connecting
with you the first time.
62. The 10 Laws
The Law of Patience
Content marketing success doesn’t happen
overnight.
While it’s possible to catch lightning in a
bottle, it’s far more likely that you’ll need to
commit to the long haul to achieve results.
63. The 10 Laws
The Law of Compounding
Publish amazing, quality, shareable content
This sharing and discussing of your content
opens new entry points for search engines like
Google to find it in keyword searches.
64. The 10 Laws
The Law of Influence
Find the online influencers in your market.
Their audiences are more likely to be
interested in your products, services and
business. Connect with those people and work
to build relationships with them.
65. The 10 Laws
The Law of Value
Focus less on conversions and more on
creating amazing content
Don’t spend all your time directly promoting
your products and services, people will stop
listening. You must add value to the
conversation and developing relationships.
66. The 10 Laws
The Law of Acknowledgement Don’t ignore
someone who reaches out to you online
Building relationships is one of the most
important parts of social media marketing
success, so always acknowledge every person
who reaches out to you.
67. The 10 Laws
The Law of Accessibility Don’t publish your
content and then disappear.
Be available to your audience by consistently
publishing content and participate in
conversations.
68. The 10 Laws
The Law of Reciprocity Share and share alike.
You can’t expect others to share your content
and talk about you if you don’t do the same
for them. So, a portion of the time you spend
should be focused on sharing and talking
about content published by others.