Developing New Business with Content Marketing Takes Time

The unique thing about content marketing is that it helps you reach prospective customers that you would never reach using traditional marketing campaigns. When you produce valuable, relevant content, it will attract an audience that normally wouldn’t give you the time of day.

Good content appeals to people because it’s important to them. It matters in a way that jargon-laden sales-speak does not. It helps them solve a problem, learn a skill or make them laugh. If they like the content, they’ll pass it around to other prospective customers. Content marketing isn’t just for companies with massive markets. In fact, if you’re a B2B company, content marketing is equally effective, if not more. Take a look at your competitors: How many of them are following more or less the same marketing plan?

Content marketing is effective, but it doesn’t work overnight. It’s an investment. If you start a blog, don’t expect the phone to start ringing with orders the next day. It takes time before people start reading your blog, growing familiar with your company and its services, passing it around other prospects and then finally making a decision. It’s like any other sales funnel. Give it time.

Filed under: Content Marketing, Content Marketing and Sales, Content Marketing

Sales Conversion with AdWords and Content Marketing: A Quick Guide for Small Business Owners

This is quick checklist for small business owners who think content marketing might be for them. It’s a step-by-step set of instructions for combining Google Adwords and content marketing. This type of campaign is for small business owners who are just getting interested in search engine marketing (SEM) and content marketing.

The concept is simple. You’re going to offer a free whitepaper to prospective customers who give you their name, e-mail and whatever other information you ask for. You’re going to advertise the free whitepaper through AdWords and collect the information from your landing page.

1. Set up a Google AdWords account.

• Choose a set of keywords that will cause your ad to appear.
• Use the AdWords keyword tool to gauge the competitiveness of common keywords.
• Choose keywords that are not the most competitive but still get a significant number of searches.

2. Write the copy for your AdWords ad.

• Spend extra time on writing the headline
• Include an offer or some other call-to-action. In this case, offer a free whitepaper.

3. Design and write copy for a landing page. (This is the page people go to when they click on your AdWords ad.)

• Include a form to capture names, e-mails and other information you want from prospects. (Note: The more information you expect to collect, the more valuable the offer needs to be).
• Use keywords that you’ve identified to help with organic search and PageRank.
• Include contact information, and an offer or some other call-to-action.

4. Write a whitepaper or report about a subject that’s important to your prospective customers:

• Example: If you’re a accounting firm, write a whitepaper called “Ten Easy Ways to Avoid Getting Audited by the IRS.”
• Example: If you’re a law firm that specializes in contracts, write a whitepaper called, “How to Safeguard Yourself in Contract Negotiations” or “Ten Contract Clauses That Will Protect You and Your Assets

5. Design and layout the whitepaper in PDF form.

6. When someone requests the whitepaper, send to them immediately.

Filed under: Content Marketing and Sales, Content Strategy, Marketing Strategies Articles, Content Marketing, Content Strategy

The Path from Content Marketing to Sales

Remember AIDA? Attention, Interest, Desire, Action? This acronym was supposed to guide writers through the process of creating compelling copy. Somewhere along this way, these principles got lost by a lot of companies. The one most frequently lost is “action.” Content marketers who don’t understand sales tend to devalue the importance of a call-to-action. They focus on the development of useful, relevant content and then assume that when enough customers are reading that content, somehow it will convert to sales.

I have been on both sides of the business, developing content and making sales. From my point of view, the call-to-action is the bridge between the two. Quality content is a must. It is an absolute imperative, the cornerstone of a successful strategy, but without some call-to-action, content will only attract the interest and desire of customers. It might generate leads, but it won’t close a deal.

Sometimes content marketers start to “get it.” They ask for an e-mail address in exchange for some content, whether it’s a whitepaper or something else. That’s a good start, but the sales process doesn’t end there. In the whitepaper, for instance, the another call-to-action is needed, but it’s often missing. There’s no instruction to customers about what to do next. After they’ve read the whitepaper, what should they do? What can you do for them? Instead of using content in a whitepaper to advance a sale, content marketers consider the whitepaper an end in itself. They hand off the emails they collected to clients who a) don’t do anything with them or b) revert to a traditional e-marketing sales strategy that negates the relationship that content marketing built. In other words, say goodbye to the attention, interest and desire part of the equation.

Asking someone to buy something from you is not easy for a lot of people to do. It’s why some people are good at sales and some are not. It’s why some salespeople are better at prospecting and some are better at closing. I believe that the entire sales process is made easier when you have a relationship with prospects and that content marketing is the most effective way to do that. But for content marketing to work, it has to be integrated into the sales process. This is more difficult than it sounds, because the culture and values held by content marketers are often different than those held by finance and sales departments. I’ll focus more on these differences in upcoming posts.

Filed under: Content Marketing and Sales, Content Strategy, Content Marketing

Content Marketing: From Buzzword to Strategy

The choice for good marketers is never about implementing a “content marketing” strategy vs. a “traditional marketing” strategy. It’s always about the objectives. What are your marketing objectives? How can content marketing and/or traditional marketing help you reach these goals, given X amount of resources (time, financial and human)?

The downside with terms like “content marketing” is that they become buzzwords used to replace real strategic thinking. They’re treated like shortcuts on your desktop. Just click on the “content marketing” icon and boom! You have a strategy.

Strategy doesn’t work that way. There is no off-the-shelf playbook for any effective strategy, content or otherwise. You can’t operate a strategy without customizing it to meet your specific objectives. An effective strategy takes into account your resources and competitive environment. It might start with basic principles, but it ends as something unique and custom-tailored for you.

Sway Engine specializes in content marketing, but I know that’s not always what my clients need. Content marketing isn’t for everyone. As a consultant, I have a professional obligation to tell clients if I think content marketing isn’t the most effective course-of-action, given their goals and resources.

This isn’t something new or limited to consultants. As an advertising sales rep, I sold space in print and electronic publications. I competed with other publications with the same and different editorial focuses, as well as TV and radio. Most sales people fail because they promise every client that their product is the best solution for their needs, regardless of the objectives.

I took a much different approach. I consulted with clients about their objectives. In many cases, I suggested they advertise in other publications or try other marketing strategies besides advertising. It’s counterintuitive, but taking this approach made me more successful than if I’d done otherwise. You want to know why?

Clients know a sales pitch when they hear one. Sometimes they buy it, and they try you out. Then it doesn’t work, and your credibility is shattered, even if in the future, you do offer them something they could really use. I did lose business from a number of clients who took my advice and advertised elsewhere or did something entirely different. But I benefitted from the reputation and credibility that came with caring about my clients’ and prospects’ businesses. The clients I worked with stayed with me, and we together we watched their marketing grow and improve.

Sales reps and consultants are impatient. Or they only know one thing and therefore it must be the best thing. They’re constantly looking for new business instead of growing with the clients they can truly help. I think for content marketing consultants to be successful, they have to think more like the marketing directors they want to help. What are your objectives? What strategies are the most effective, given X resources, and regardless of whether they’re grounded in content? How can you blend elements of many different strategies into something unique and custom-tailored for you?

Filed under: Content Marketing and Sales, Content Strategy, Marketing Strategies Articles, Client Relationships, Content Marketing, Content Strategy

Why Small Businesses Fail at Content Marketing

Content marketing draws customers’ attention and makes your brand familiar and trusted. It helps make your business “known for” something other than what you sell. And it gives your customers something to talk about to other potential customers. Small businesses especially can benefit from content marketing because it doesn’t cost a lot of money to see results. Content marketing has so many tangible benefits that it makes you wonder why more small businesses don’t pursue it. Here are the most common reasons I’ve found while working with small businesses:

Marketing isn’t part of the budget:Too many small businesses don’t include marketing as a formal part of their budget…if they have a formal budget at all! Big businesses are often easier to work with because they’ve already dedicated funds to marketing. With bigger businesses, you can focus on selling the best way to market (content marketing). But with small businesses, you often have to spend time explaining why marketing is necessary in the first place.

Owners think they can do everything themselves: Entrepreneurs are used to doing a lot of things themselves. Some are used to dictating what they want done rather than listening to ideas. Their marketing plans are often flawed and unsophisticated. And they want it done inexpensively and immediately.

Innovation is risky: Entrepreneurs are mythologized as risk-takers, but many actually are afraid to take risks. Content marketing as a concept is something out of the ordinary to most small business owners, and until they see their competitors doing it, they’re afraid of the time and money they might risk losing. It takes an extra effort on a salesperson’s part to convince them of the upside.

As a salesperson who has worked with the smallest of small businesses, I’ve learned the hard way that spending too much time convincing a client that content marketing works is a waste of my time. I love helping small businesses grow with content marketing, but never again will I spend more than 10 minutes trying to convince a small business owner that marketing itself is part of a successful business.

There are lots of prospects out there, but not many of them are good. Here are some things I do to separate the good from the bad:

Ask how much they spend on marketing every year: If they can’t answer this question, it’s a red flag. Even if it’s ridiculously low, it’s important to know that they actually spend money on marketing.

Ask them to meet at your office: If you feel uncertain about the direction of the conversation, don’t waste your time visiting their offices. Explain that you would be happy to meet at your office for a preliminary consultation anytime they’re available. Small businesses owners leave their office to visit their lawyers and accountants. It’s important they see you as an expert, not just another salesperson.

Get a letter of intent: If you’re contact sounds interested in hiring you but keeps putting off the actual job, ask for a letter of intent—an email will work—that demonstrates some commitment on their part. Explain that the letter of intent is to lock down the rate you initially quoted. This will either move things along or at least drum up hidden objections. If you can’t get the commitment or the reasons for hesitating out in the open, then raise your rates immediately or walk away.

Filed under: Content Marketing, Content Marketing and Sales, Client Relationships, Content Marketing

Content Products Equal Cash

First of all, don’t think of content as something you must give away for free. Content is widely available and, frankly, it’s easy to produce, but it’s not easy to produce good content. You get what you pay for, and if you pay for good content, you should look for ways to get a return on that investment.

Some content marketing consultants will tell you to focus on non-revenue returns, or they promise that offering valuable, relevant content for free will pay off in sales down the road. That’s a viable business model, but I challenge you to think about how to generate cash immediately. I challenge you to create content products that generate revenue directly.

To start, does your organization think about its content in terms of product? When you talk about the value you offer customers, can you point to tangible products? Or do you use vague terms such as “expertise,” “education” and “community?”

Expertise isn’t a product, but books, magazines and catalogs are. Education isn’t a product, but webinars, videos and podcasts are. Community and networking aren’t products, but events and online forums are.

The kinds of content products you create are going to depend on a number of variables, including your target audience, and budget and staff resources. Whatever products you choose to develop, remember that it’s not the platform that makes the product valuable. It’s the content the product delivers. For example, a newsletter is a product, but it’s not a product that generates cash if the content is awful, because no one will read it.

Developing content for products that generate cash is different than content development for marketing. In some way, the stakes are higher. As soon as you start asking customers to pay, the content you offer has to meet different standards. Here are some suggested criteria for content products designed to generate revenue:

1. Invest in Proprietary Content: Develop one-of-a-kind content that can’t be easily recreated. In terms of product, create content that by its very nature creates a barrier to entry for competitors. One example might be a comprehensive, year-long research project that results in proprietary statistics.
2. Invest in Exclusive Content: Developing exclusive content means a few things. On the one hand, it means cultivating sources and conducting reporting that leads to exclusive knowledge or information. At the same time, it means disseminating the information exclusively. It’s nearly impossible to keep information contained for long, but if it’s truly exclusive, enough people will pay to see it instantly, and you have an opportunity to generate revenue.
3. Invest in Long-Term Projects: Again, if you think about research as the basis for content products, think about funding long-term projects. They can create a barrier to entry, lend themselves to exclusivity and they are easily repurposed into a variety of platforms. Instead of a book, think of a series of books based on a single topic or study.
4. Invest in Professional Packaging: Templates are useful and have allowed many companies to arrange and disseminate content, but they limit flexibility. Hire a good designer to package your products, someone who can apply design theory to your strategic goals.

Filed under: Content Development, Content Marketing and Sales, Custom Publishing, Content Products

The Impact of Content on Marketing and Sales Strategies

I think the relationship between content marketing and sales too often gets lost. It’s difficult to measure how providing content translates into purchases, especially when the content is given away for free. So here’s a reminder of how content directly contributes to sales:

I went to the grocery store this weekend to buy ingredients for a seafood paella dish I like to make. I wanted a bottle of wine to drink with dinner, but I was in the mood to try something new. I’m not an oenophile by any means. I like beer, drink a lot of beer, even make my own beer, but when it comes to choosing wine, I’m a novice.  So I did what a lot of consumers do in this situation: I picked up bottles that had interesting labels.

A pretty label might be enough to attract my attention, but it wasn’t going to sell me on the wine. It got the bottle into my hands, but the real test came afterwards, when I started to read the label. More and more wine companies include a description of the product on the bottle. In my case, the bottle I eventually bought not only described how the wine would taste, it went a step beyond and prescribed how and when the wine should be consumed. By the time I read “goes well with paella,” I was sold.

That description is an example of effective content marketing. It’s relevant, useful information. It served an educational function. It’s information I wanted and needed, and it ultimately caused me to buy the product.

Content marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. The cost to produce that little bit of writing is marginal considering that the wine was more expensive than many of its shelf-mates. What’s important is recognizing what kind of content your customers want and need, and then delivering it to them at the right time, through the right platform. A label on a bottle of wine is as valid a delivery vehicle for content as a newsletter.

Filed under: Content Marketing and Sales, Marketing Strategies Articles, Content Marketing, Content Strategy