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With content creation, the goal is to have a lot of the heavy lifting finished before you ever sit down to start producing it. To this end, it’s useful to think like an old-fashioned magazine editor whose publication is based around editorial events, regular columns, and departments. While at the heart of building an effective editorial calendar, this preparation is challenging when you are first starting out. To facilitate a smoother editorial process, it helps to plan in terms of two-week or four-week intervals (I call this the “CliffsNotes” Editorial Calendar). Here are the five steps to rock star-caliber content creation...
In the world of content, it’s hard to know what’s too much and what’s not enough without testing it out. Marketers are famous for wanting to test before implementing but it’s always good to have a few benchmarks in place before you run with a program. When chatting with folks about their content marketing programs, I often get asked “how often is too often?” and to be honest, it depends on your program and your content. Below are a few guidelines that will help you make an informed decision on how often to post content for your business....
Social media marketing requires businesses to remain up to date with the latest platforms, and Instagram makes a case for widespread adoption. Social media marketing evolves as companies embrace new networks that prove to generate conversions and business for brands. In 2012, Pinterest marketing went through its coming of age, outpacing many other networks in terms of growth, referral traffic and adoption. Pinterest continues to expand and add new features to its ever-adapting interface, but the service is no longer the social-media newcomer – that prize goes to Instagram. Of course, the picture-sharing network has been around for a few years now, but businesses have just caught on to Instagram’s content marketing benefits. With more than 90 million monthly active users uploading approximately 40 million photos per day, Instagram has already been adopted by 59 percent of the world’s top brands. In Simply Measured’s latest report on Instagram’s growth, the source notes strong audience growth for major brands and a wider gap for those who haven’t created an account yet. Since the last report in November 2012, Instagram grew 9 percent. More, Instagram accounts with more than 10,000 followers grew 6 percent since November 2012, and profiles with 20,000 plus followers grew a percentage point in the same time period. As for brands with more than 100,000 followers, they experienced a 2 percent growth between November 2012 and February 2013....
Those already executing a successful content marketing strategy know there’s a pretty good chance that your competitors are as well. However, if you’re not, there’s big chance you will be left behind in the marketing race. So how do you stand out from the crowd and ensure you are a winner in 2013 and beyond? Here are some ideas to help your company differentiate itself...
...B2B marketers have no reason to shy away from reliable metrics. They can ignore most of the nonsense and take a much simpler approach. In all likelihood, you have a singular goal as a B2B content marketer—to drive sales. Therefore, you want to focus on and measure how the content you’re creating is impacting each level of the sales funnel, so that you can optimize your efforts. Let’s take a look at how to do that simply and easily....
Top-Of-Funnel (Awareness) Middle-Of-Funnel (Prospects) Bottom-Of-Funnel (Leads)
My company uses content marketing for a number of purposes to promote our business and build relationships with customers. But one of the particularly effective ways we’ve used content marketing is to increase the membership of our LinkedIn Group, “Manage Your Leads,” a group focused on lead generation and B2B sales.... If you’d like to start a LinkedIn group of your own — or boost the membership and raise the profile of a LinkedIn group you already have — here are five time-tested B2B content marketing tips that we’ve used to drive traffic, attract new members, and increase the engagement of our group...
If you’re serious about communicating like a human being and not a company, you’ll use personas as the basis for your marketing. Before social media taught us we had to sound human, we could talk to everyone in the same generic business-speak to everyone. Now,people have come to expect businesses to speak to them in a more personal way and to be more relevant. Personas allow you to do that. Personas will determine the content, tone and language that you use when communicating. To better understand how important this is, imagine yourself at a family holiday party. You would not discuss the same topics or use the same kind of language with your grandmother who loves to garden, your college-age nephew who is fascinated with politics, or your sister, who’s an executive at a software company. Personas have traditionally been used to develop website designs, but they are an excellent communication device for all marketing purposes. Content marketing, which is what we are all doing, depends on knowing who you are speaking to and developing personas helps you craft the message that allows you to relate more personally. Whether it is through email, social media or in-person, when your words speak to a specific human being, you will better be able to connect. People want to feel “she is talking to me.”’...
When Coca-Cola’s ad agencies ran out of ideas for a marketing brief, the company decided to turn to an online community to crowdsource some ideas. By using co-creation Coca-Cola was able to generate thousands of new ideas from a global community of creative individuals, giving it a huge amount of content to inspire future marketing activities. And the drinks brand isn’t the only major business using co-creation. BMW has a minisite that allows people to contribute to its current projects. So to find out more about why Coca-Cola moved away from the traditional agency model and its on-going work with co-creation community eYeka, I spoke to the Asia Pacific regional director for sparkling and activation platforms Leonardo O’Grady... [A good crowdsourcing exercise that led to valuable content ~ Jeff]
This past May I wrote an article entitled Why The Value Of Content Is Nothing New. "One of the big buzz phrases sweeping the digital nation is the term "content marketing.'" It seems the sweeping of said digital notion is still occurring, especially in the business to business marketing world for B2B marketers - according to the results of a study conducted by B2B Magazine, identified content marketing (51%) as being the most important tool for generating leads, outscoring brand awareness (38%), thought leadership (34%) and sales (29%). The study of 440 B2B marketing professionals also indicates a sincere willingness to make a commitment to content marketing with two-thirds of the respondents saying they will be either "very" or "fully" engaged in content marketing by next year. This represents a 100% increase (66% to 33%) over 2012 to 2013. I would say that is a pretty significant increase, wouldn't you?...
How Yoplait Grew Facebook Likes By 800K In A Year A lot of brands wouldn’t complain about having 200,000 “likes” within the first year of their Facebook pages’ existence. But Yoplait started there, then added 800,000 likes within its second year on Facebook -- celebrating its one-millionth fan last month. How? Largely by moving away from an impersonal, push-marketing approach to a more “authentic,” discussion-driven approach in which racking up “likes” is actually far less of a focus than engagement metrics, according to Teresa Coryell House, digital strategist for the brand. Initially, Yoplait’s Facebook page was “very much approached as another way to promote current campaigns,” Coryell House tells Marketing Daily. “We were mostly talking at our fans, about product attributes and launches, rather than having consumer-driven discussions with them. Our new strategic goal -- which is much harder -- was to drive organic growth by becoming more relevant and authentically engaging.”... [These are really powerful social media numbers. They show that smart content marketing strategies can deliver "results." The unanswered question is whether these "likes" translate into sales and an ROI. It's a great story but I wish reporters would ask the ROI question more often - JD ]
...The Content Marketing Institute (a division of Z Squared Media, LLC) was honored to be among the most recent additions to the Inc. 500 fastest-growing American companies (#365). To make it to this level, we almost exclusively used content marketing strategies and tactics to launch and grow the business, including starting with a blog platform and then expanding the strategy to white papers, print books, eBooks, e-newsletters, social media content, in-person events, and more.
After looking at the most recent list, I started to discover how many of the other companies on the list were employing a heavy amount of content marketing. Yes, content marketing (and blogging) are alive and well with the fastest-growing companies on the planet....
[Joe Pulizzi highlights 11 fastest-growing companies leveraging content marketing for success - JD]
In a post last week, I talked about turning your content marketing upside down and focusing first on what behaviors you want your content consumers to perform. Once you’ve done that and created content that you think will drive the desired actions, you can start measuring the efficacy of your content program. Content cannot be measured with a single metric, because no one data point can successfully or satisfactorily tell you whether your program is working. Instead, you need to create an array of metrics that are selected from four primary buckets...
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This morning, I noticed Google Analytics had added a Trackbacks section to their Social Analytics data. This, to me, is very big news. While bloggers will know all about Trackbacks and why it’s nice to get them, businesses may not be aware of their importance. Yet as the social web in particular continues to be graded, Trackbacks could become even more important, especially in the eyes of Google, as they look to rank the Authority of content and that content’s creators. So why is this new Trackbacks edition to Google Analytics important and, more importantly, how can you use them to build your content strategy?...
Are you guilty of any of the behaviors of a me-me-me brand? Learn how content curation can help companies diversify their content & better serve audience needs. ...Back in late 2011, Jay Baer conducted a study to determine how audiences in social responded to the two different content types (that is created vs. curated). What he found was staggering, and still some of the best data on the subject of content curation. Brands that posted curated content linking to 3rd party sites experienced a 33% increase in clicks vs. those with original content linking back to their own site. Your Recovery Starts Today Now is not the time for denial! To identify and cure the symptoms of a ‘Me-Me-Me’ brand and prevent a relapse, follow these 3 simple steps...
Content - 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends
Our friends over at MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute recently released The State of B2B Content Marketing in North America. It’s a fascinating report revealing insights into how B2B marketers are using content marketing techniques and the biggest challenges they face. The results reveal that B2B marketers are spending more, using more tactics, and distributing their content on more social networks than they have in the past. Another standout from the survey found that 90% of respondents are doing some form of content marketing, but are not necessarily doing it correctly. The following infographic provides a visual interpretation of the most revealing stats from the report. It clearly shows us thatcontent marketing is not a fad and will continue to be a driving force for marketers, while at the same time indicating that the majority are still struggling to find a process that works for them and are having trouble garnering buy in from the C-suites....
Titles play a key role in getting eyes on your content. Create compelling content titles based on your analytics using this 12-step process. In the content marketing rush, it can be hard to slow down and think about an essential element of each piece of compelling content: its title. Yet titles feed onto social media sites and play a big role in search engine optimization (SEO).
Because of this impact, titles also influence the amount of traffic a content marketing blog garners, as the Content Marketing Institute recently found out. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working with CMI to figure out exactly what makes a good title, and how to make every single title shine. Forget guesswork and gut feelings — we dug deep into CMI’s analytics to find out exactly which types of titles made the traffic roll in. Of course, many factors play into blog post traffic, but our research shows clear correlations between certain types of titles and higher or lower page views....
Why is a headline great? What content is viewed most? The Scoop.it Cool Content Curation Report answers these questions to improve your content marketing. Scoop.it’s analytics are excellent though manual (unless I missed the export to Excel option, which is very possible). After a little over a year of Scooping content, I wanted to answer three questions: What type of content generated the most views? What keyword triggers formed the most successful headlines? What is the value of cherished Internet marketing notions?
* The move to a more visual web as expressed in a sea of infographics.
* Have we reached a point of diminishing returns on infographics?
* Is storytelling as hot as it seems?
* What about Social, Local and Mobile: Are they as hot as they seem?...
Content marketing has changed the way marketers, companies and organizations of all kinds generate interest, reach their audiences and create opportunities.
Success through inbound marketing now requires more than traditional SEO tactics and the sharing of run-of-the-mill content. The quality and social capital of content has taken center stage. To achieve high-volume websites and booming operations, you need to create online content, which is unique, engaging, information-rich, high-impact and very shareable.
The goal of high rates of social content curation—social sharing—is becoming increasingly more important to SEO. Each time your content is liked on Facebook, tweeted on Twitter, “+1ed” on Google+ or shared on LinkedIn, it gets a stamp of approval—increasing its reach and magnifying your opportunities for higher rates of traffic and lead generation and better SEO. Once you create truly dynamic content, you need to maximize its social exposure. The promotion of your online content needs to be organized, consistent and strategic. There are a variety of social media management tools and methods that can simplify social sharing and content curation across multiple social networks....
Writing great content is a choice. You can choose to put in the time and work required to create great content. Or you can choose to take the easy path and write poor content. The path for content marketers is clear. In order to boost SEO rankings, gain traffic and/or leads, you need to have great content on your blog or website. If you write original content, search engines will help your site get more exposure. For instance, Google has made it plain that they do not like and will penalize sites with duplicate content. Put another way, Google wants to reward high quality sites that contain original content. So not only does great content make a better website, it also improves your site’s rankings, which can have a very positive impact on your business. Whatever your reason for having a content site, whether it’s for business or a personal hobby, it’s important to do it right. In this blog post, we’ll break down some tips for developing great content. First, let’s look at what makes great content, and then we’ll move on to sites that produce great content.... [These are really great ideas and examples to help you produce content that influences your SEO positively ~ Jeff]
Need a handy, systematic (and exhaustive) guide to content marketing that covers the essentials of building a viable online platform that converts? Here you go ... But even if you consider yourself a seasoned practitioner I doubt you’ve ever had a handy, systematic and exhaustive guide — loaded with 53 articles that cover content marketing essentials to building a viable money-making platform — at your finger tips.
Now you do …
Want to know the two attributes of exceptional content? Need a way to jump-start your editorial calendar? Want to read how real-world businesses created their content empires? Would you like to learn how to earn profits with your content without sounding like a high-pressure salesman?
You’ll find answers to those questions — and more — in the following list. This guide will fill in the gaps to your knowledge. It will help you become a content marketing expert in your industry or company.
This list reaches back to November 2008 and goes all the way up to the present. It is broken down into nine sections:
- Content Essentials
- Content Strategy
- Idea Creation
- Content Creation
- Social Media Promotion
- Traffic Generation
- Content Marketing Case Studies
- Content Auditing
- Content Business Building... [Demian Farnworth shares a superb list of 53 content marketing articles. Just an awesome reference ~ Jeff]
Spredfast, a social business software provider for corporate social media management, released the first Social Engagement Index Benchmark Report to highlight key social media trends across the brand and to help companies assess the success of their social media programs against their peers. With data from 154 companies the report gives quantitative insights into the structure, configuration, and social activities. Companies of all sizes are active on social channels and are at different stages in the development of more sophisticated social programs. Spredfast categorized the 154 companies into three distinct segments with similar levels of internal and external engagement: Activating, Expanding, and Proliferating. First conclusion? A brand’s level of social engagement is more influenced by its commitment to social business than its size. The report is full of data and nice insights. So take the time to read it, but here are the key trends across the industry:... [Agreed. This is a must-read benchmark study of how large companies are using social media - JD]
Tweet Tweet Freshness is one of the more recent factors that Google has added to their algorithm in the last couple of years. Freshness is one of the more recent factors that Google has added to their algorithm in the last couple of years. In fact, the Caffeine web indexing system was meant to help them find and identify fresh content among the massive amount of stuff that gets published every day…an impact that affected 6-10% of searches.... More than likely you will fall into that last category…useful, but old content. So let me tell you how to reach the top of the rankings by increasing the freshness of your current content.... Freshness is just one piece of theGoogle algorithm puzzle. Learning how to influence it will only get you so far, so it pays to have a comprehensive SEO strategy. That strategy should focus on developing valuable content, which will naturally influence freshness and other factors. [Neil Patel offers advice on how to use content strategically to improve SEO. A must-read - JD]
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Great content creation tips from Heidi Cohen.