by admin | May 3, 2013 | Blog
When executed correctly, Content Marketing Strategy is the best form of win-win persuasion. Here are the 4 critical steps to implementation:
1. Make Your Content Marketing Unique and Persuasive
To be successful, your customers must understand the benefit to them when they choose you over someone else. Therefore, the most critical element of successful Content Marketing Strategy is developing useful and engaging content that provides appropriate, unique and convincing messages for your target audience. [1]
2. Develop Content that is easily shareable by your target audience
Ideally, this content is present within an inbound content destination (Website, Blog, Facebook Page, YouTube Channel, etc.), which successfully answers your customers’ key questions. It does not directly promote your products, but it invites your visitors to explore your solutions ‘no strings attached’. [2]
Your Content Marketing Strategy must have flexible content delivery options to suit the end users’ preferred format. Kraft is an absolute success story when considering openness to new opportunities and channel preferences. When Pinterest became popular, Kraft noticed users were actively sharing recipes and added a ‘Pin It’ button to the Kraft website to make it easier for users to share recipes, also creating their own ‘boards’ to share their thoughts with the audience. [3] Think electronic Word of Mouth Marketing – are you giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place?
Another great case study is Volvo, whose brand identity wasn’t derived from its logo or product design; rather it was the constant stream of product reviews that published data on crash tests over time that formed the foundation for its brand. What other people subsequently said about Volvo created the meaning for their brand – Safety! [3]
Content Marketing Strategy is most effective when it facilitates ‘user generated content’ that is, having customers talk about your brand in the correct way and constantly engages with customers to contribute to this multi-channel ‘conversation’ to monitor and guide their customers’ perception and understanding.
3. Design Your Organisation to be focused on Helping Your Customers
Successful Content Marketing Strategy requires that your business’ culture has adapted to and embraced its importance, no longer yielding to the deeply held belief that marketing is required to promote your products. Your management team needs to understand why you need a Content Marketing Strategy and start to focus your organization on helping your customers. [2]
4. Define Content Marketing Success Measures
Finally, to know if you are being successful with your Content Marketing Strategy you must be able to define your measures of success, and then apply them! For example;
- How many early stage search terms drive traffic to your site (thus determining if you are answering your customers’ most important questions)?
- How many leads are generated from inbound (vs. outbound) sources?
- How much early stage content are you producing and how well does your target audience connect with this? [2]
Here are 2 tools that can assist you in making sure your Content Marketing Strategy is on track:
- Inbound Marketing Traffic and Leads Calculator
- One Page Online Marketing Action Plan
REFERENCES
[1] “5 Traits All Successful Content Marketers Share – Copyblogger”
[2] “What Is A Content Strategy And Why Do You Need It? – Forbes”
[3] “Successful Content Marketing in Action – Forbes”
by admin | Apr 23, 2013 | Blog
The internet, social and mobile revolutions have completely altered the state of play in how we all connect – there is now a seamless flow of instant information.[1]
No longer is the impression of your business driven by a singular marketing pitch or ad, your business is constantly exposed to an evolving audience. You need a Content Marketing Strategy to ensure your messaging and channel usage makes you visible and relevant amidst the ‘noise’ of the market.
Content Marketing Strategy requires that you know who your customers are, where they are in the buying process and what kinds of content and channel they prefer. It defines a targeted marketing method for each market segment, and then determines the correct resources to produce a consistent stream of relevant content mapped according to their needs. This is a complete change to the nature of marketing from the traditional linear marketing approach, which just isn’t as effective as it used to be. [2]
Content Marketing Strategy drives content development efficiency because it outlines the relevant tone…
Content Marketing Strategy ensures your content is engaging and relevant according to each customer type and it maintains consistency in messaging. Your customers will have an optimal information search experience because each market segment will have individual content paths created maximizing conversion rates (the conversion rate being the percentage of visitors to a website who take a specific action beyond a website visit, as a result of subtle or direct requests from marketers or content creators) as your content will be highly relevant.
…create greater customer loyalty and retention through customer education as early as possible in the buying process.
Content Marketing Strategy drives content development efficiency because it outlines the relevant tone, theme and structure of information as well as how content should be used over time so you are not constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Ideally content should be produced only if it can be re-used, e.g. turning a blog post into a video or a series of tweets, or an e-book. [3]
The overall aim of Content Marketing Strategy is to create greater customer loyalty and retention through customer education as early as possible in the buying process.
However, incrementally the implementation of Content Marketing Strategy could well rescue marketing for your business because it forces you understand your customers, the stages of your buying process, your channel effectiveness and your business environment. It is the customer’s advocate for content within your business.
Sources
[1] “What Is A Content Strategy And Why Do You Need It? – Forbes”
[2] “Will Content Strategy Save Marketing? – B2B Marketing Insider”
[3] http://barbragago.com/blog/
by admin | Apr 15, 2013 | Blog
A Content Marketing Strategy is “the mindset, culture and approach to delivering your customer’s information needs in all the places they are searching for it, across each stage of the buying process…. a strategic approach to managing content as an asset with a quantifiable ROI” [1]
Prospects across all service categories are increasingly more selective about making purchase decisions. Therefore the information they require must meet these high expectations in order for businesses to remain competitive and to attract and retain a loyal customer base.
Adding another layer of complexity to this is each market segment requiring a specific delivery channel. This is the plight of Content Marketing. To maintain a competitive advantage in today’s business environment, businesses need to provide relevant, and timely content to their target audience.
“Content Marketing – 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.” [2] Such practice within an organization needs to be embedded within the business culture, so that every piece of material produced has a purpose and meaning, this is the aim of a Content Marketing Strategy. This strategy ensures a consistent methodology of content planning, creation and delivery. It is a repeatable system that governs the entire editorial content development process. [3]
Traditional marketing has often been about business promotion, however Content Marketing is about the customer and what their wants and needs are, and providing them with information which is truly relevant and helpful. The Content Marketing Strategy ensures that your customers are at the center of everything you do, it is the why and the how and Content Marketing is what you actually deliver. [1]
Whilst the end point of a Content Marketing Strategy seeks to drive customer loyalty to then increase sales and profit, it is not the primary goal. Content Marketing Strategy seeks to ensure your intellectual property is presented to your target audience in a way in which they feel their information needs are being met and the correct internal narrative they associate with your brand resonates with them long after they have been directly engaging with your product, service or marketing channel/s.
REFERENCES:
[1] “What Is A Content Strategy And Why Do You Need It? – Forbes”
[2] http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/
[3] Wikipedia
by admin | Feb 24, 2013 | Blog
Think before you type – Social media can land you in Hot Water!
by Sharon Givoni
A recent legal stoush between two well-known Australian swimwear labels over photographs and comments posted on Facebook serves as an important reminder to people in business of the dangers of using social media when making comments about other businesses. What happened in the case?
Leah Madden is Principal of White Sands. She discovered what she thought to be a “rip off” of some items in her 2009 “Shipwrecked” swimwear collection. She posted an album on her Facebook page entitled “The most sincere form of flattery?”. The postings featured several side-by-side comparison shots of models wearing White Sands and Seafolly swimwear respectively and below the images Madden inserted descriptions such as: “White Sands 2009-Seafolly 2010”. She embellished the images with comments such as:
- “Seriously, almost an entire line-line ripoff of my Shipwrecked collection.”
- “I know, the buyer from ‘sunburn’ (who, as it turns out, works for seafolly) Came to my suite at RAFW and photographed every one of these styles.”
- “Ripping off is always going to happen, but sending in a dummy ‘buyer’ to get photos is super sneaky!”
The response
The Facebook statements were read by many people, and elicited quite a response. People said:
- “Nasty! Shame on ’em! Won’t be buying Seafolly. WHITESANDS all the way. X”
- “Seafolly own everything! Sunburn, miraclesuit and gottex and they used to own jets but sold it recently! And unfortunately they do rip off everyone, they have copied a design 2 chillies has been doing for years! A little frilly triangle, its so bad!”
- “Disgusting! How people look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me.”
Media Attention
Madden then sent emails to media outlets also using the same words “The most sincere form of flattery?” in the subject line of each email.
Responses from readers included
- “This sort of thing is happening ALL the time. Large corporations no longer have ‘designers’ but ‘product developers’ that source indie designs, copy and mass produce them.”
- “Yeah right Seafolly – you really expect us to believe this garbage?…”
What did Seafolly do? In response, Seafolly circulated a press release heavily denying the allegations of copying. It was able to show that it had already had the designs in the marketplace before White Sands. White Sands responded by stating that it had never specifically accused Seafolly of plagiarism.
However, from Seafolly’s perspective the allegation of copying was clearly implied. It needed to set the matter straight and it issued legal proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia. Seafolly alleged:
- Misleading and deceptive conduct (in relation to Madden’s emails to the press)
- Injurious falsehood (namely, that Madden’s comments and posts had caused damage to Seafolly’s reputation and thus economic loss) and
- Copyright infringement (as White Sands had reproduced Seafolly’s swimwear photos online without permission).
Madden argued that she had only expressed an “opinion” – not a statement of fact so it should have been alright. The judge disagreed. Madden also argued that she was not making the comments in “trade and commerce” so the misleading and deceptive provisions did not apply. Again, the judge disagreed as the setting was clearly in a competitive context. He found that Madden’s comments were “a serious assault on Seafolly’s business integrity”.
Seafolly’s CEO agreed (of course!). He commented that in “this day of internet, where things go viral” once things are released into the “public space, no amount of logical reasoning actually matters”. “…Once she put that up there, I was finished anyway… the damage had been done.”
No winners
Ultimately Seafolly succeeded in its arguments concerning misleading and deceptive conduct. White Sands was ordered by the court to pay Seafolly damages in the sum of $25,000 and Seafolly’s costs of the court application.
However, in reality, no-one really won. The public airing of their “catfight”, led to both companies attracting some level of negative publicity. One headline state: “Swimwear designer ‘malicious’ against rival” and, “Court slams small designer for falsely accusing bikini maker Seafolly of ripping her off.”
Tips for commenting in Social Media
- Think before you speak (or at least think before you type, especially when it comes to social media).
- Just because you do not expressly say something, if you imply it, that can be just as bad, legally speaking.
- Posting things on social media sites may be considered “in trade and commerce”, especially if you mention your competitors and could be deemed misleading.
Disclaimer – The contents of this article do not replace tailored legal advice
*Sharon Givoni is an intellectual property lawyer with 16 years and has clients across all industries.
by admin | Feb 10, 2013 | Blog, LinkedIn
From a Marketing Consultant’s Perspective…
Yesterday I read possibly the best and worst article about LinkedIn.
Here is the article that made me so happy and then half way through as frustrated as I ever get. So in today’s world where Content Marketing is king, and Inbound Marketing rules, what’s one to do but take to the keyboard and vent one’s disappointment? Well that’s only a part of it, as a marketing consultant and one that also provides LinkedIn training to clients, I know that I have to deliver some solutions to our valued clients, prospects and colleagues.
In summary, the first half of the article promotes all of the amazing benefits that can be gained by correctly using LinkedIn. However the reasons given by the author as to the prospective “decline” of the medium are more of an indication to the author’s own lack of strategy to deal with the so called “information overload”.
On the other hand, assuming that there is a slight possibility that the author’s predictions turn out to be correct and people begin to leave LinkedIn for greener social media pastures, this will actually mean that those that are left and are truly using this social medium correctly to their own advantage, will have an easier time of it!
Here are the 9 problems mentioned in the article and my recommendations on how to best overcome them, after all problems are just challenges that have not been solved satisfactorily!
Problem 1: The dinosaurs have arrived in droves
• Late adopters are joining
• They won’t last as they have no idea of what to do
Solution 1
How exactly does this pose a problem I am not sure!
• There are plenty of users who value LinkedIn and use it correctly
• Dinosaurs who use faxes and rely on their PA’s will as dinosaurs tend to do, die out. They are probably not the type of people YOU should be targeting or networking with anyway.
Problem 2: Information Overload
• Too much going on, profile changes, updates, group notifications, etc
Solution 2
• There are simple technical things you can do to control what you see on your Home page
• There is a way to control how often you get your Group Digest if at all!
• Most importantly you need a strategy as well as discipline that will provide focus of what you should pay attention to and what to ignore. It is no different to managing your email, which by the way most of us could improve tenfold!
Problem 3: Quality of information in many areas is poor and incorrect
• user generated content is LinkedIn’s best friend and enemy
Solution 3
• That can be said about Social Media in general
• Again becoming more astute about what to read and how to do your ‘due diligence’ on the validity of content is something that I have no doubt will be a growing area of education for marketers, journalists, students and consumers in general! Welcome to the new world!
Problem 4: Groups are poor
• Self-promotion, useless posts, and ‘quick hit’ requests are common, ie: “I’m selling this – want one?”
• the author even suggests turning off group notifications
Solution 4
• True, many groups can be poor, some are not with very strict posting guidelines that are policed
• Don’t join 50 groups as the author rightly observes some tend to do
• Take the online etiquette / law into your own hands and “flag” discussions as inappropriate and they will be removed!
• As the author suggested ‘one’ solution himself, I don’t know why this was raised as a problem in the first place. My feeling is that “negative controversial headlines like “LinkedIn is becoming LinkedOut” was an exercise in PR and why not! It was successful!
Problem 5: News Updates
• The news feed is clogged up with 95% of jargon, irrelevant rants, promotional messages, rehashed articles, and recruiters posting the same jobs day in day out!
• There’s a lack of original thought or opinion
Solution 5
• Again I see no problem but a massive opportunity for those that have something to say that is worthwhile and can deliver their opinion in an engaging way! By being original and adding value to your network it will be easier to stand out in the “sea of sameness”!
• Firstly there’s a technical solution to decreasing the type of information you deem to be of no value
• You can also remove the offenders – that is dis-connect from them! and if you want to stay connected but don’t want to see their updates on your home page, you can click Hide when you move your cursor over the update.
Problem 6: User profiles BEWARE!
• “There’s an ex-employee who has a warrant outstanding for his arrest and yet he has a glowing profile”.
• Recommendations are biased.
• Genuine people remain without a competitive advantage. The liars look just as good.
Solution 6
• Actually quiet to the contrary I have read somewhere, I’m sure that someone in the recruitment industry who is a true professional will find this, that people in general tend to NOT “fib” on their LinkedIn profile as they would on their resume! After all the chance of “getting found out is a lot higher on social media”. Just a few weeks ago I met someone who was silly enough to make themselves out to be so much more important than they were! When I examined their LinkedIn profile I realised that they straight out lied about their level of seniority at a major corporate entity!
• Additionally the ability to see who this person in question has a ‘connection in common’ with me, allowed me to get feedback about them that I would have otherwise never received as I wouldn’t have even known who we have in common in the first place!
• LinkedIn RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE BIASED but you also have to know HOW to read between the lines. It is only human to give a recommendation back when the person asks, and other times you have to do it for political reasons. This is the process I follow:
1) I refuse to give recommendations to people who’s work I have not experienced or am not sure about.
2) If I really have to recommend them I will never recommend their technical skills but talk about attitude and make the recommendation very general – nice guy! Like I said read between the lines! Good recruiters do!
• Finally, “genuine people”, by which I hope the author means people who have the best skills, will always have a competitive advantage if they firstly know themselves well enough to know what makes them unique (Branding 101) and can then eloquently communicate their point of difference! “Genuine people” who are talented, hard working and positive will always have more Recommendations than those trying to cover up with “smoke and mirrors”. An incompetent idiot is unlikely to get 20+ people recommending them! Keep in mind that Recommendations are like Testimonials, no-one ever puts a bad one on their website, however we all know that Testimonials still work and it is better to have more than less, when it comes to building credibility!
Problem 7: People shared in common aren’t so common and I am losing faith
• People don’t help random people just because you’re a LinkedIn connection.
Solution 7
• Yes they do!!! And if you want to know why, please connect to me! I know, blatant self promotion, but as all good content marketers know I needed an “in text call to action”!
• Ok, although I was serious, when I said connect to me, I will give away some more free advice! make sure that when you connect to someone you can actually become memorable by adding value to them right there and then! I have done it 3 times this week. Yes it can be labour intensive, but ask yourself why you are here on LinkedIn – to connect or network and networking is all about building relationships.
• Here’s a major clue about what I mean; make sure you ask for and accept introductions in a way that will add value and leave a positive perception with your new connection!
Problem 8: Diminishing value of connections
• It’s simply too easy to connect and this damages the value for everyone.
• LinkedIn should cap the number of connections and charge to connect. All of a sudden, users would think twice before connecting.
Solutions 8
• I just don’t see it…maybe the author can explain to me, I will invite him to comment on this! 🙂
Problem 9: Recruiters will lose their competitive edge as more sign up for LinkedIn Recruiter
• Being on LinkedIn was more of an advantage a few years ago than now!
Solution 9
• We should all know that technology in today’s day and age is unlikely to provide you with a sustainable competitive advantage. Relationships with customers and prospects will!
• Technology will not make you a better listener or problem solver.
• Technology will not assist you in communicating with prospects so as to change what they think and feel about you and your organisation! That’s up to you and your marketing consultant, unfortunately if you can not afford one, one will not be appointed to you, although I am sure that most marketing consultants would love this idea in our common battle to eradicate bad business communication!
• There are so many problems (let’s be positive, I should say opportunities) most recruiters face when it comes to developing their brand and marketing in general, let alone using LinkedIn in a way that is optimal, I don’t even know where to start, but here is a link to a very detailed blog I wrote on the topic.
For a Free and No Obligation Discussion about your specific needs contact us today.
by admin | Jan 24, 2013 | Blog, Content, Design, Promotion, Strategy
What are you going to do differently in 2013?
Checklist for New Year
The Mayans were wrong, we are all still here, your clients and prospects still need you, but
they are increasingly harder to communicate with; grabbing attention is more difficult and
keeping it is even harder.
Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is not only the definition of insanity but
it also means that today you will NOT get the same result, but one that is substantially worse
– you will be going backwards.
For your convenience we have prepared a summary of Hubspot’s 27-page Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2013 and one we have turned into a simple Marketing Action Plan Checklist.
1. Inbound Marketing (Get Found*, Convert, Analyse) will become more important and both
small and large enterprises are dedicating more of their budget to online / digital and away
from Outbound / Traditional Marketing.
*Get Found = Social Media+SEO+Blogs+PPC
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have a costed Marketing Strategy Plan for the year?
- Have you established your KPI’s, e.g.: Cost Per Lead, Cost Per Sale
- Are you being found by enough new prospects?
- Are you getting enough referrals?
- Do you have a Referral Strategy?
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2. Marketing Communication is moving away from Campaigns to Real Time Communication thanks to Social Media and immediacy of client expectations. Prospects are increasingly contacting / finding (Inbound Marketing) prospective suppliers / sellers and they want answers NOW! Technology will keep driving these changes with new widgets, gadgets, readers and scanners, RFID tags, and of course apps! Gamification will also grow as a marketing tool beyond product placement to improve the delivery of content in a more enjoyable way.
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have all of your Social Media profiles set up correctly; do they reflect your
company and personal brand?
- Do you know which Social Media channels to focus on?
- Are you interacting with prospects and customers via Social Media?
- Do you have a Content Marketing Plan so that you can be “active and successful” on Social Media?
- Have you personally or your company carved out a niche that you are known for?
- See how we deliver Content Marketing for our clients
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3. CRM and Unified View of the customer will become more and more important, and some
of the new systems are now integrating Social Media information for their client records.
ACTION
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- If you are thinking about these issues please give us a call. Choosing the CRM system
(or getting the most out of your existing one) is a minefield and we have access to a number
of world-class experts at qubePartners as well as our own team that can assist you.
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4. Mobile Optimisation of Websites will keep growing and become a must have channel for
many businesses.
ACTION
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- Pretty easy to do depending on what your current website has been built in. Give us a
call and we can provide answers very quickly.
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5. Social Media, Content Marketing and Off Page SEO will keep overlapping and merging
and On-Page SEO “tricks of the trade” will play a less important role. Social Search and User
Generated Content with Facebook’s and Google’s focus in this area will undoubtedly
make a big impact!
ACTION
|
- Start treating these practices not as separate channels, but as one part of holistic
process.
- Have a Content Marketing Plan for each of the channels and work out how they
should be integrated amongst each other and your website.
- Check out our website dedicated to LinkedIn Training and Consulting
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6. Smart or Dynamic Content (ala Amazon Recommended for You) will enable you and your
competitors to serve up highly personalised messages to the right audience at the right time.
CHECKLIST
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- Can you easily segment your database and get insights into the behavior of your
customers?
- Can your CRM, ERP, Email Marketing technology / software act on the insights?
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7. Story telling will become even more important as companies scramble to be seen more
human (than their competitors) and develop a trustworthy, approachable and caring brand
personality.
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have a powerful, unique brand with an interesting story to tell clients and
prospects?
- Are all your staff singing from the same hymnbook?
- Download our Brand Design Questionnaire from our Free Marketing Resources
Section (it’s the 4th document down the page) – knowing and acting on the answers in
this document should be the cornerstone of your marketing communications.
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“The advent of social media has meant that the world of separate internal and external
messaging has disappeared. If a customer talks to your Customer Service department, they
expect the same response they’d get if they talk to marketing, or sales, or engineering.
Creating a unified external face is critical. If you want to build long-term relationships,
you’ve got to have a consistent, human voice – coming from all levels of your organization.” –
NICK JOHNSON founder useful Social Media
8. Email will not die but become more personalised, relevant and targeted based on real time
data.
CHECKLIST
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- Are you communicating regularly with your database and is the marketing
communication tailored to different segments?
- Are they engaging with your content and offers?
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9. Content will remain King and more marketing teams and departments; small and large
businesses will invest into more quality content and attempt to make it go viral or at least
improve the chances of it being passed onto to a secondary audience. With falling production
prices and better and simpler technologies, we see Online Video as the ‘biggest and most
effective mover and shaker’ in Content Marketing. Most small businesses do not have a great
website, let alone reasonable video content, so this area will keep booming.
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have great content?
- Is it promoted sufficiently? No point creating more content if not enough people are
engaging with what you have!
- Check out our great Fixed Fee Marketing with Online Video Marketing Packages
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10. “Sites like Pinterest and Instagram prove that visual content is really worth 1,000 words
(or in instagram’s case, $1 billion). Infographics, photos, picture boards, video, and other forms of rich-media will increase over the coming years as humans look to digest more information faster than ever before.” – Hubspot Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2013, p.23.
CHECKLIST
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- Does your brand have a well developed visual palette?
- Do you have a suitable image library? Make sure this is part of your Content
Marketing Plan
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Wishing you a healthy and productive 2013. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need any assistance in improving your marketing results.
qubePartners
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