Positioning and Strategy in Content Marketing

I sat in on an impromptu SWOT meeting last week. While I think SWOT exercises are useful, I don’t think many people understand how to use them effectively. For example, someone in our group suggested that our newsletters were a strength. I had to ask, what made him think that? The answer was, “Because they’re good.”

The thing about strategy and positioning, especially in content marketing, is this: Nothing you offer is inherently good or bad. What you offer—products and services—is only good or bad in relation to other products and competitors. You might have an awesome newsletter, but your competitor’s might be even more awesome.

When trying to create a strategy and position your content products, it helps to consider what your competitors are doing. Let’s say your competitor has a print newsletter. Starting with that fact now gives you a framework for making strategic decisions. For example, you can make the following choices:

Compete head-to-head: Start your own print newsletter. If you go this route, now’s the time to do a SWOT on your newsletters. Compared to your competitor, rank your design, editorial, circulation, etc. according to whether they are strengths or weaknesses. What are your opportunities and threats?

Compete with variation on the theme: Your competitor has a strong print newsletter? Instead of head-to-head competition, maybe a better strategic decision is to compete with an electronic newsletter.

Compete yin to yang: Delivery platforms like newsletters have advantage and disadvantages. Your competitor may have strong newsletters, but the kind of information they transmit is limited by the platform. Perhaps you should position yourself by supplying different types of content to the market. Be the source of other information and its most effective platforms. Instead of using newsletters to market, why not books, podcasts, blogs, video—things that are distinct from newsletters.

Filed under: Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Marketing Strategies Articles, Position Marketing, Content Marketing, Content Strategy

Local Businesses Need Content Marketing

If your business depends mostly on local customers, then you might not think the internet is that important to your marketing. Many owners of restaurants, bars, hair salons, car dealerships, auto mechanics, real estate agencies and so on think that the internet is only for big companies that reach national audiences. Or they think that new business comes from word-of-mouth and foot traffic. That’s simply not true.

People who use the internet use it for almost everything. It is their primary method of research on companies they might do business with, even if it’s the pizzeria down the street. The internet has replaced the Yellow Pages for many people. You have to be on the internet if you want customers to find you. Even if you reach them through traditional marketing methods, such as advertising, direct mail, radio and TV, once they learn about you, one of the first things they’re going to do is look you up on the internet.

Being on the internet is more than having a website. Your website should be filled with a lot of good information that will help prospective customers decide to use your products or services. Your website should also be organized and optimized for search engine optimization (SEO). The best thing you can do in this instance is to hire a good copywriter, someone who knows how to write persuasive copy that also incorporates keywords that your customers will use to find you.

In addition to keywords and persuasive copy, you also need relevant, valuable information. That means determining why and how prospective customers decide to use your business. If you’re a bar, for example, does your website clearly communicate what the experience will be like? Do you have photos of your interior? Do you have staff photos and bios? Do you have a signature drink? Is there live music or a DJ? How many TVs do you have? When is the best time to come if you want to be alone or if you want to be somewhere crowded? Do you have testimonials and reviews?

The type of content and frequency with which you post content makes an impression on prospective customers. If you have a sloppily designed and written website with missing or outdated information, customers will assume that your service is sloppy and careless. But if you have a simple and user-friendly website with trust-building content, it will drive new business your way.

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

Put a Stake through Vampire Marketing Strategies

A vampire marketing strategy is when traditional marketing and PR professionals find a credible, reputable publication with an engaged readership and suck the life out of it by negatively influencing or altering the editorial content.

Here’s how it works: Say you have an e-newsletter with 1,000 subscribers. You built that list up by offering relevant and useful content. You start to sell advertising. Your advertiser suggests that you run a press release on their product. You convince yourself that it’s useful content and run the press release. Five hundred of your subscribers are thrilled about what they read in the press release. They call the advertiser up and buy their product. Your advertiser is thrilled and buys more advertising.

On the other hand, five hundred of your subscribers said, ‘what is this shit?’ and cancel their subscription.

The next week, another advertiser says, run this press release, please. You run the press release, and 250 of your 500 subscribers are thrilled to read about this new product that solves all their problems. They call the advertiser up and buy the product. The advertiser is thrilled and buys more advertising.

On the other hand, 250 of your subscribers said, ‘I cared about that first press release, but this one is shit” and cancel their subscription. Now you have one-quarter of the audience you used to.

You try to sell more advertising, but your advertisers don’t like your numbers. They say they’ll advertise, but only if you discount the rate card, now that your circulation is so low.

A year later, your revenue and circulation are down. You have to let go of a writer, but you still need content. You start running more press releases. The reputation and credibility of your publication diminishes. Advertisers start jumping ship.

Do you see where this is going? I’m exaggerating somewhat to make a point, but this cycle happens time and again, even if it takes years or decades to drain a healthy publication. Advertisers and marketers are not generally concerned with the long-term health of your publication, which depends on quality content. They are more than happy to trade your long-term success for their short-term gain. It’s a devil’s deal. If you’re a publisher, don’t take it.

Filed under: Marketing Strategies Articles, 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

Expensive but Not Volatile: Invest in Content Marketing

When creating a content strategy, one decision marketers make is whether to build a model around proprietary content or aggregated content. Each model has advantages and disadvantages. The model built on aggregated content is typically less expensive but also easily imitated.

Owning proprietary content, on the other hand, is like investing in real estate. There can be peaks and troughs in its short-term value, but it generally always increases over time.

Another downside to aggregated content is that is undervalues content development overall. There’s a general attitude among business owners that content is inexpensive to create or that it should be. To the extent that it does cost something, why pay to create it when it can be aggregated inexpensively from other sources?

I’ll tell you why—. Anyone can set up Google alerts, find stories on particular topics and link to them through their website or blog. The barriers to entry for competitors are low. Any organization with enough cash can replicate the technology and scale necessary to reach many eyeballs with aggregated content. What starts to distinguish companies is original content, whether that’s adding value to aggregated content or creating new content completely.

Content can be easy and inexpensive to create. Good content, on the other hand, is much more difficult and costs more. The dividends are also greater.

Filed under: Content Development, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Marketing Strategies Articles, Content Development, Content Marketing, Content Strategy

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

How to Make a Content Marketing Strategy

The first step to mapping a content marketing strategy is taking stock of your resources. You simply can’t have a content strategy without committing time, money and people. I argue that you do this before you do anything else, even brainstorming. Know what resources you have and then determine what’s feasible.

The application of finite resources toward ostensible goals is the strategic part of content marketing.

You can’t be everything to everyone. Nor can you be everywhere at once. The good news is that neither can your competitors. No matter how strong they are, your competitors all have finite resources from which to draw.
The strategic thinker determines how her competitors use their resources. That information informs how she deploys her own resources. In terms of content marketing, this means analyzing the types of content and platforms favored by competitors.

For example, if her competitor has an active, robust website filled with useful how-to articles, she might decide to:

a)    Pour resources into her own website.
b)    Pour them into a different platform.

If she decides to build up her website, she might decide to

a)    Create a website with how-to articles. If she does this, she will need to distinguish her website by providing three or four times the volume of articles and the quality should be much higher than her competitors. This is a head-to-head strategy that requires massive resources to be effective.

b)    Create a website that offers different but equally valuable content. This could include daily news, articles that entertain, or an online forum where customers can gather to share knowledge and experiences with each other.

If she decides to pour her resources into a different platform, she will have to decide what platform and content will help distinguish herself from her competitors. Too many organizations copy their competitors when they should be actively distinguishing themselves. Content strategy is also the art of using content to position your organization differently in relation to your competitors.

Remember, it is better to do a few things well than many things poorly. A good content marketing strategy will help you determine what one or two things you can do really well given finite resources.

Filed under: Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Marketing Strategies Articles, Position Marketing, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Position Marketing

Boost Your Event Publicity: A Road Map for Conference Directors

I’m going to share with you a very simple but effective strategy for getting your event more publicity. It’s a strategy that any-sized event can adopt, and if it’s executed correctly, this strategy will bring more attention and interest to your event than ever before. The idea itself is so simple, you’ll wonder why more event planners don’t take advantage of it.

But first, let me pose a question. How does your event generate publicity and awareness now? Do you rely on traditional press releases, brochures, websites and direct mail? Do you place ads in publications and hope to get mentioned in the editorial as well? These are the tactics that many conference directors still employ to get the word out and drum up interest in their events. Let’s look at some of the challenges with these tactics:

Traditional Press Releases: When they’re written for publications, they often contain nuts-and-bolts information. You’re at the mercy of the publications and readers who may or may not pick them up.

Advertising and Direct Mail: These forms of communication are only as good as the mailing lists that you own or the publication you advertise in owns.

The strategy I’m about to suggest is designed to perpetuate your message. It uses the power of the internet and social media to disseminate your message without boundaries, to more people than you or a publication could reach on its own. In fact, if you follow the steps below, you will stop having to spend so much time pushing your message out. Prospective exhibitors and attendees will come to you.

So what’s the secret? It’s simple. Your event is the source of valuable information and content that people want. Using the internet and social media in carefully coordinated ways, you can use this valuable content to promote your conference and ultimately convert prospects to attendees.

A word of caution: The strategy is simple, but many conference directors are afraid to share their valuable content with prospects. They’re afraid that sharing education presentations before the conference, for instance, will discourage people from attending. This is simply NOT TRUE!

The more content you share freely, the more it will be passed along and shared by networks of people interested in the information you provide. It will carry your event’s brand to people who didn’t know you existed. It will increase the available pool of prospects, and eventually many of them will convert to attendees.

Why is this so? Because there is no substitute for a live event. Sharing conference content ahead of time does not prevent attendees from coming to the show. In fact, it does the opposite, by exciting prospects and confirming that the event itself has value.

If you are new to this way of thinking, here’s a basic tactical plan of what you’re going to do:

1. Start a blog dedicated to covering your conference. At the very least, make sure the blog has an RSS feed, so people can keep track of updates without having to visit every day. Optional: Create advertising space and sell this blog as a sponsorship to exhibitors.
2. Post early, post often. Post photos from previous conferences. Interview session speakers and post the transcripts. Interview past attendees and ask them about their experiences. Post everything they say—the good and bad. Write a story about an attendee who found the product he was looking for at your show. Write about international attendees. The story ideas are endless, and there’s only one requirement: The content must be engaging and relevant! Avoid promotional copy.
3. Set up a Twitter and LinkedIn Account. Start building a network of followers. Post links to your blog. Update followers when new exhibitors buy space on the floor. Again, the ideas are limitless, so long as the content is relevant , useful and engaging. If you do this well, your network of followers will push your content to their network of followers.
4. Post content during the conference. If you publish a show daily, a blog is a natural add-on. Hire writers or use staff and attendees to post live content.
5. Post after the conference. Write a follow up story. Post as much content about sessions as possible. Include photos. You want as many people to review this information as possible.

If you follow these steps, produce good writing and stay focused on your publicity and marketing goals, this tactical template will take you far. Instead of having to push out press releases and brochures, other publications and prospects will come to your blog for information to publish. You are the source of information that people are searching for. Embrace this advantage and you will see awareness and attendance climb.

Filed under: Conference Marketing, Content Marketing, Marketing Strategies Articles, Conference Marketing, Content Marketing

Word of Mouth Marketing Has to Start Somewhere

People don’t start talking about a product or service out of the blue. It doesn’t spontaneously occur to them to post comments on a blog or online forum about a new restaurant they’ve never heard of. Word-of-mouth marketing has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is advertising, press releases, sales calls, direct mail, etc. I’ve used this analogy before, but advertising is like the Big Bang that gives momentum to word-of-mouth.

The problem with advertising is that most people tune it out, literally and figuratively. So the kind of advertising and promotion you do now has to be grounded in something your audience will pay attention to. Content marketing is one way to do that. Content marketing builds ties to customers, so when you’re ready to launch a product or promote a service or brand, your customers will be more likely to talk about it. Also, if your customers are used to finding valuable information from you, they’ll be more familiar with your products and services to begin with. In this way, your marketing is continuous.

Filed under: Marketing Strategies Articles, Content Marketing, Word of Mouth

Five Content Ideas for Communications, Public Relations and Marketing Professionals

Although communications, public relations and marketing functions are separated in many organizations, content is the bridge that connects them. Offering useful, compelling content is a sound strategy for anyone engaged in these roles. Here are five tips to help you move in that direction:

1. Research and Statistics

Communications and PR: Media love proprietary research and statistics. It helps them answer the question, “why is this story newsworthy?” If you don’t have the resources to generate your own statistics, visit census.gov and other public sites to find relevant information. In this way, you can help the media by doing some research for them.

Marketing: Share some stats with customers about what’s selling the most, or conduct a focus group and share the results with prospects and customers. Open a window to your processes and watch them respond.

2. Roundups, Rankings, Lists and Tips

Communications and PR: Press releases and story pitches that organize info into roundups, rankings, lists and tips are easy for the media to scan and even easier to publish in the format you send. Because tips and roundups are scalable, media outlets can easily add, subtract or modify the content to meet their needs.

Marketing: Customers and prospects want to know about your products’ features and benefits. Why not offer them a list of list of ways to use your product, or tips on how to get the most out of the product?

3. Have a Sense of Humor

Communications and PR: Some companies issue “fake” press releases on April 1, filled with tongue-in-cheek news.

Marketing: Hire a cartoonist to draw a one-panel joke about your  company or industry.

4. Seasonal and Other Timely Events

Communications and PR: If it’s Christmas, make a list or ranking of the best gift ideas. Always look to the season or current events for news pegs that will attract media interest. But make sure it’s relevant. Don’t shoehorn your company and its products into an angle that makes no sense.

Marketing: Use your delivery platforms to keep customers and prospects up-to-date on current events in your industry. Relate what’s happening and illustrate how your company fits in.

5. Q&As

Communications and PR: The Q&A is another format that’s easy for media to read quickly and even easier to incorporate into their publications. Choose a compelling subject from your company to interview, ask candid questions about your industry, publish candid answers and steer away from questions and responses about your products. Let the attribution be the link to your company, not the content.

Marketing: If you issue e-newsletters, include Q&As with prominent members of your customer’s communities. Again, focus on candid questions and responses, not on your products and services.

Filed under: Content Development, Content Marketing, Marketing Strategies Articles, Content Development, Content Marketing, Content Strategy