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

Thinking outside the Inbox

Ten Tips for “Outside of the Inbox” Email Marketing

1. Forget the “batch and blast” technique and consider your email campaigns as part of a conversation. Begin to think of each email campaign you send out as part of an ongoing dialogue with each prospect. The way to keep the conversation going is to listen (how are recipients responding to the campaign), be relevant (what are their projects and interests), and engage them in meaningful ways (if they visit your product page, your next communication should focus on products, not your blog).
   
2. Move beyond open and click-through rates – what else are your prospects and customers doing? The standard email success metrics are great, but explore all the valuable information available to you. After each email campaign, see where prospects went on your Web site, how often they visit, and whether there are new ways to think about how to segment your prospects based on the behaviours they exhibit.
    
3. While we’re on the topic of segmentation… Combine the “standard” segmentation approaches (lead source, industry, etc.) with behavioural data (e.g. who opened up an email, downloaded or, spent more than 30 minutes on your site and visited more than 3 pages) to create more complex segmentation strategies. 
    
4. An email message is called a “message” for a reason. A great way to test what messages about your product or service resonate with your audience is through email. Use campaigns to tailor your messages according to your prospects interests and actions and see what really strikes a chord with certain segments.
    
5. Automate what you can and leave more time for creativity and strategy. Use a marketing automation solution as the extra marketing resource you never had. Set up automated campaigns based on event and behavioural triggers and rest assured that you’re building up relationships with prospects every time. 
    
6. Mix up your campaign styles and methods. Experiment with a variety of email campaign types, some from marketing (HTML), some from sales (Outlook), and even some from you! You’d be surprised how receptive people can be when they know the message is coming from a real person—even a “marketer.”
    
7. Take deliverability seriously. Your creative strategies are no good if your emails can’t even get through to your prospect’s inbox. Use a tool such as Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua to proof how your campaign will look in di¬fferent email readers and identify if the HTML or content will cause trouble with spam filters before you hit “send.”
    
8. If you’re not testing, you’re guessing. Email testing shouldn’t be difficult to execute or understand the results. Testing subject lines should be a standard process to optimize open rates, but try to incorporate A/B testing into your campaigns whenever you can. All you need is two versions of an image, a piece of copy, or a promotion, and you’ll be on your way.
    
9. Dive deeper into your email reports without touching Excel. Use reports and dashboards that are built with the marketing user in mind, letting you publish detailed reports without needing to jump into Excel or creating the much dreaded pivot table. Use all of the details given in the reports to understand each prospect interaction and use this to inform your next campaign and prove marketing ROI!
    
10. Use “check in” emails to continuously build your relationship with each and every prospect over time and gain useful feedback. Prospects and customers will appreciate a “check-in” email from you or a sales rep every once in a while. These are great opportunities for you to ask how you’re doing as a marketer and ensure that your email communications are useful and informative. Ask what they found most useful about your spefic programs and what they’d like to see in the future.

Taken from http://www.marketo.com/library/marketo-email-marketing.pdf

Building your digital marketing jigsaw

Here are some practical steps you should take when building your digital marketing jigsaw:

1. Get your “Home” in order before you invite visitors in. Make sure your website reflects you and speaks to your target audience. How can you solve their problems? No website is better than a bad one.
   
   
2. Make sure you can be found by Google and its friends – ensure your website has simple, good optimisation – your web developer should talk to you about this. Check out Google Maps – gets you right to the top of the Googles.
   
   
3. To blog or not to blog? Can you provide your clients and prospects with valuable changing content? This is easier for service industries than with products. If you can then a blog can be a good platform – if not don’t create one and leave it empty
   
   
4. Be a content radar. Start to make a list of topics, articles, themes, current market trends that you can talk to you clients and prospects about. How can you grab their attention and see you as a source of help? What campaigns are you planning? Events, workshops, special offers
   
   
5. Choose your on-line soap boxes – which social media sites are best for you and your business?
   Linkedin – BtoB
   Facebook – BtoC – main users 15 – 35 yr olds but 35 – 55 growing users
   Twitter – cross section but mainly service industries
   Youtube – great if you have a visual business
   
   
6. Get a good photo and profile for each of the sites, either as yourself or your business.
   
   
7. Start following and listening to others. Join in the conversation. Start your own conversation – start spreading the word from your website, blog via social media and email.
   
   
8. Integrate with your existing Off-Line Marketing
   
   
9. When in doubt get some advice or help …..  or attend one of our Social Media workshops: 

Get your on-line marketing prepared for 2011 - 4 things to do

The end of one year, the beginning of another.  Lots of lessons learnt and plans for 2011 to make   The Christmas and New Year period can be a quiet time for some and a chance to catch up on some of those tasks that you keep putting off, tasks that are critical to bring you the best results from your on-line marketing activities.

Now is the time to get your on-line marketing ready for 2011.  Here are 4 things you should do this month, if not first thing in January.

1.       Put an On-line Marketing Plan together

Your plan might be in your head but by putting it in writing it makes it more official and available for others to follow and deliver.  A good plan should contain

• Who are your target market?– who are you aiming at and why they should buy from you.
• What are your goals?  - specific figures around sales, market share, growt
• What resources to you need? – people (internal or outsourced), suppliers, hardware, software, social media platforms
• Set out a 12 month plan – what is planned and when.  Think topics, compelling events and activities
• Document your on-line policy if you have other people working with you to ensure everyone is consistent in message and deal with feedback, enquiries in the same way.

2.       Review your Website

Your website is pivotal to your on-line marketing.  As well as ensuring the design is right for your target market, speaking the right language and clearly answering their questions. You should also have the ability to:

• Fully edit / add / manage main pages of the site as well as regularly add content such as news, special offers, events
• Add and edit “Call to Action” buttons on every page if appropriate
• Add unique titles, descriptions, keywords to any new pages, posts and if the content changes. Integrate with social media channels – follow on Facebook, Twitter etc buttons available on the site

3.       Set up Google Analytics

If you do not already have this facility or one with similar features then setting up Google Analytics on your website can give you valuable information about the traffic to your site.  Simple to set up and then add the code to each page of your website or ask your web company to do this for you. If you do have analytics then: 

• Set some goals to reflect the goals you have set in your On-line Marketing Plan so you can see if you are achieving these goals
• Create custom reports to see how specific on-line activities are performing i.e shopping cart, pay per click, social media
• Always review these reports and compare and adjust your on-line plan if needed

4.       Organise your data

Whether you have a dedicated CRM solution or just a simple spreadsheet ensure that all the valuable data your business is using is organised in one place

• Contact Details- customers, prospects, suppliers
•  Customer /Prospects – proposals, sales enquiries, visits
• Social media followers and friends
• Campaigns – who responded
• Referrals – who has been referred and referring others
• Results – where have these come from
• Costs – how much did it cost to make a sale
• Email marketing mailing list

With each of the above steps you will have a plan to execute, a professional and trackable website for people to visit and all the data at your finger tips to run any number of targeted, successful campaigns.

As with all marketing, particularly on-line if there are any elements of the technology or the marketing process that you are not sure about then get some advice.  

How to use Twitter better as a Marketing tool?

Everyone is talking about it and businesses are considering if they should be using it. But is Twitter just about following your favorite Radio 1 DJ or about incorporating it into your overall marketing strategy? The answer is both, but for it to be an effective marketing tool you need to consider the follow:

Decide on and find the people you want to communicate with. You should build a group of followers that are interested in your tweets i.e. if you work specifically in the Home Counties then these are the people that should be following you. Therefore you need to recruit them smartly.

• Look at Twitter applications such as Tweepsearch and try to find out via keywords who are other twitterers that could be part of your target group
• Use other online media where you know your target group is and highlight the option of following you on twitter and what type of content you will be tweeting
• If someone looks like they could be part of your network then follow them for a bit – if not you can always un-follow – they will not be offended!
• Check out other peoples followers and Re-Tweets – they may be in the same target market
• Register with Twitter Business Directories like Twibs, Twellow, Twtbiz
  

Be Consistent in what you Tweet and the way you say it. Maintain an Image / Brand

• Decide if it is about strategy, marketing, interesting products or just personal information and fun
• Only Tweet when you have something useful / relevant to say.
• Ensure your target group is not getting the same information from a different source – be inventive and original.
• It is also about the art of listening and responding to other peoples Tweets – it is a form of communication and building a community around your business.

Integrate it with your other online marketing

• You are limited to 140 characters so make sure you have other online media you can use to communicate the rest of the message. Links to blogs / websites / associate organisations.
• Use url shortening services like bit.ly and tiny.url which will help you to integrate long web addresses into your tweets.
• Tweets are public so think beyond the tweet to other forms of communicating once the relationship has been established – Direct Tweets are not public and of course Email.

Monitor the results of your Twittering – it may be free but your time is valuable

• Have you achieved your original goal – reaching your target market
• Have you increased traffic to your website?
• Found new associates / suppliers?
• Had more subscribers? Votes? Bookings
  

If you consider Twitter as part of your overall strategy with the same planning and execution as you would any campaign then you should see it helping to generate a group of interested followers that may recommend you to others or ultimately become a valued client.

Happy Tweeting.

Taken from my Social Media Marketing Workshop I am running on two dates 6th and 13th July.