What to say? - Improve your Content Marketing in 2012

We have seen the Social Media revolution explode in 2011.  More and more businesses are embracing Social Media finding it to be an affordable and effect way of marketing their business.  My bite-size Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and Blogging Social Media workshops have been incredibly successful and are now running monthly.  One of the biggest questions to come out from these workshops is "What do I say?", its all well and good setting up Social Media platforms but unless you have good content this whole area of marketing can seem difficult.

So I have put together 10 useful steps to help you  improve your content marketing in 2012, increase your brand awareness and kick-start your Social Media Marketing

1. What are your business goals for 2012 and how is your marketing plan going to deliver on these goals.  i.e. increase on-line sales by 25% may require a 50% increase in webtraffic.  Make sure each goal is measurable so you can see how your marketing is performing.
2. Who is your target audience?
   
   Research your audience, ask them questions, research website traffic data, who are they? What are they reading? What are they talking about? What are their likes and dislikes? Think about the information they may be looking for.
3. What will be your messages?
   
   What messages will you be aiming to put over with your content? Try and come up with one to three main messages each with one to five sub-messages.  i.e. You as an expert but in three key business areas or Specialist producers with knowledge on unique products.
4. There are three different types of content marketing: Long-form - blog posts, articles and press releases — basically, anything longer than a couple of sentences. Short-form includes tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn status updates and graphics. Conversations and sharing includes participating in and driving conversations through blog commenting, link sharing and comments on videos.
   
   You can stick to one of these forms of content marketing, or you can use all three. They are each effective on their own, but they are also powerful when used together.
5. Have an Editorial Calendar
   
   An Editorial Calendar can help you plan what content you need, when it is required, deadlines and responsibilities.  This is a fairly major undertaking, but you’ll be thankful for your hard work once it’s complete — and you’ll save time in the long-run. Not sure where to begin?  Download my Content Marketing Editorial template.
6. Create a Content Bank.
   
   You need to develop the content you are going to use.  It needs to be unique and different. Go back to your key messages and subtly incorporate them into the content without overtly selling your product. Content marketing is about creating trust through education and information, not using traditional sales tactics.  Look back on content you have created in the past can it be re-used?  If you have difficulty producing content then look for some help from freelance copywriters.
7. Writing for the Web
   
   Ensure you have a good place to put your content on the web i.e. your website or a blog (Wordpress or E-Blogger).  When writing your content ensure it contains your relevant keywords. SEO plays a huge role so make sure you add tags and links to your posts.  Research your keywords to ensure they will generate traffic for you.
8. Social Media - Spread the Word
   
   As part of your editorial calendar, schedule in how you are going to publicise your content:  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, e-newsletters, guest blogs and associate sites. Remember to pick the platform that is right for the message.  Think of your audience - who are you talking to and tailor the message to them.  If you are unsure how to use any of the platforms then attend one of my Social Media Workshop
   
   Don't forget off-line too - you content maybe of interest to newspapers, journals and magazines.
   
   Eloqua came out with a free ebook, The Grande Guide to B2B Content Marketing, a helpful read when it comes to content marketing. Plus, it’s useful for deciding which platforms you should employ and how to effectively use them.
9. Measuring your results
   
   Always measure the effectiveness of your content, you can determine whether or not your plan needs to be altered, or whether it’s working in the first place. Keep an eye on pageviews, retweets, Likes, shares and so on. Anything your audience can take action on is something, you need to pay attention to. Figure out how well everything is working — or why it’s not working at all.
10. Have an evolving plan
    
    If something isn’t working, change it up. Be sure to pay attention to results, and then use them to your advantage.

Finally, quality content is better than quantity.  Always plan what you are going to say and who you are going to say it to - it will therefore always be well received by your clients and prospects. If you need help then Contact Me

When is the best time to email blast?

Testing is really the only way to know for sure. For example, it used to be the general consensus that Monday was the WORST day to send emails, so as a result the volume of Monday emails went way down.but then someone got the bright idea to send their emails on Monday and suddenly Monday became the BEST day to send theirs.

There are benchmarks out there but its hard to find one that mirrors your product, your offer, your demographic, your timing, etc.

I have used this list of pros and cons in sending email for each day of the week, which originally appeared on the 60-Second Marketer, written by Jenn Abecassis, as a general guide.

Monday -

Pros: Office work has not filled inboxes yet.

Cons: People are in “work mode” and won’t be focused on non-work tasks.

Best Practice: Send emails late Monday morning, after people have cleaned the weekend spam from their inboxes.

Tuesday -

Pros: People have organized their week, and can find personal time for emails.

Cons: Emails poised for a weekend response may be too early.

Best Practice: Use Tuesday for emails that request action during the workweek.

Wednesday/Thursday -

Prose: People are planning their weekends and gearing up for personal time.

Cons: Time during the workweek is running short, and requested action may be pushed back to the following week, or even forgotten about.

Best Practice: Focus leisure and weekend notifications during these key weekend planning days.

Friday -

Pros: Studies indicate fewer total emails sent compared to the rest of the week, increasing visibility among the myriad of other messages.

Cons: People hurry to leave the office early, and may not take time to view non-work related emails.

Best Practice: Send emails early in the day to give consumers more time to take action. An unopened email from Friday will sort to the bottom of an inbox on Monday, and is often discarded.

Weekends -

Pros: People check emails on weekends, too, so weekends may have untapped potential.

Cons: A B2B weekend email may seem overly-intrusive to some people.

Best Practice: By all means test. People tend to be less stressed and tolerant on weekends. Plus with mobile devices outselling laptops, emails are opened and read at all hours after work.

So, The BEST way to move forward is to:

1. Use the guidelines above in making an initial educated guess
2. Test to see whether your guess was right or not
3. Once you've got the best day nailed down, try experimenting with what time of day works best
4. Make sure you maintain accurate reports so you can benchmark your results moving forward.
5. Be careful about general company metrics. We have seen completely different test results within the same company for different business units.