Content Marketing – Worth it?
Edward Simpson
Why consider Content Marketing? Firstly you should understand why clients, investors, referrals, those that know you and those that don’t interact with you online, more importantly understand that simply pushing out content doesnt mean your latest task is complete, the opposite a poorly composed content clogs up inboxes of your target audiences…
- What content should you produce, over what time period? Articles, blogs, fund prospectus’, marketing materials, emails, newsletters, blogs, tweets, brochures, PR, pitch book, once a day/week/month? All in all with within the traditional and online world content marketing is a key foundation of an effective content marketing strategy, get it wrong ends up in negative branding to you and your business.
- I believe that there are three types of content, there is the ‘product’ content for example ‘why set up a company’, the there is the ‘product updates’ once you have set up a ‘company’ you need to be kept updated with changes, and lastly then there is the ‘marketing’ content, your news, or which conference you are speaking at, new staff members, recent transactions, blogs and so forth.
- We work with clients in managing or creating their content marketing strategies, from content rewrite for a website, to creating content for your blogs/social media assets, to a content style guide for your firm, to where the content can be distributed, to working out who will be producing your content as well as who will be in charge of editing and publishing content. Ultimately how to see the benefits, work through the analytics to present the tangibles, content marketing works only if it’s done right, move away from push marketing to pull – find out more by contacting us.
- Keep a backup of your content, better still create a ‘content pool’ in here place all your content both past and future, manage accordingly. Websites need updating, rewriting, as do all your marketing materials, we work with clients to create a content pool and how to manage this to fully engage and implement a content marketing strategy.
- The idea of creating all of the above mentioned types of content may be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Blog’s can easily be converted to other formats. Series of blog’s can be compiled into an article. Look for opportunities to use one piece of content in many ways, you can retweet/reblog/recycle content.
That said, content creation still needs to play a role in your strategy. Original content – whether it’s in the form of a blog, case studies, videos, infographics, etc. – will help you define the point of view you want to convey and should help set the tone for all of your content marketing efforts. Content Marketing creates that first impression of you, your expertise, your business, creates new opportunities, increases your circle of contacts, changes the mindset and much much more.
Content Marketing is not just about creating content, its where you promote and/or distribute it enabling it to become a valuable asset for your traditional and online marketing, building online communities, driving traffic to your site who are potential and existing clients/referrers. Here are the top ways to promote your content, both on-site and off. In todays environ with social media, websites and so forth, we work with our clients to become their own publishers, why spend money to publish content?
- Share it on social media networks. Be sure to let your Linkedin, Twitter, and Google+, followers know about your latest content. Share your content within groups on Linkedin, and only place CSR/Careers related content to Facebook.
- Many companies today are investing into ‘private networks’ this not everything needs to be in the ‘public’ eye, but the trick to these is to encourage your contacts to join, clients are often receiving similar requests from multiple firms.
- Send it to your mailing list (need to work on your mailing list so that it is clean and updated, the content is engaging to the recipient, and that all have opted in). By sending them valuable content it demonstrates your expertise, you’re likely to turn subscribers into customers. This is very effective for loyalty marketing, a law firm for example business’ comes from existing clients/contacts/referrers so use your content as one part of loyalty marketing.
- Ask bloggers/contacts to get the word out. If you have built good relationships in your industry, they will be open to informing their contacts about your content.
- Encourage others to share your content. Add to your email signature links to your content.
A good content marketing strategy requires time, an understanding of content marketing and money, but there are plenty of supplemental activities that can help justify the investment and lessen the emphasis on the daunting task of creating content. As the web becomes more and more saturated with content every day, our inboxes are crammed with ‘content marketing’ then its time to contact us, this is what we do we save you considerable time, we have the expertise to write your content or simply manage your content marketing, and save you a small fortune – this is our bread and butter.
CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS
Content Marketing Some of the most important trends in content marketing involve tools and technologies which really weren’t even in existence just a couple of years ago. It is essential for all businesses to keep up to date with the latest types of content, and use them properly to interact with potential customers. We work with clients to choose which of the ten doors to open, make the right choice, you don’t need a Rolls Royce when a Mini works just as well.
We have all heard the mantra ‘Content is King’ why churn out vast reams of content with little or no penetration, we can help you become your own publisher, building online communities around you and your practice area, not mass emailing your newsletter to all and asunder. Our inboxes are full of such content, the effort taken to produce the latest content only lends to negative branding ‘stop cluttering up my inbox – delete’ consider ‘pull’ marketing, your conversion rates with an inbound enquiry.
The following are the most popular types of content marketing:
- Blogs – A business blog is almost a requirement for any company to be successful online, you need to create that all important first impression, that you are comfortable working in both a traditional world as well as a digital world.
- Email Newsletters – Customers expect to receive high quality content from companies they are following, and delivering regular information via email can be very effective when done properly. 9 times out of ten newsletters are poorly put together and merely sent to contact database, ticking the box, marketing dine for another month….a newsletter can be so much more.
- Podcasts – Podcasts or other audio content allows a company to literally speak to their customers in a way that is much more personal than an advertisement.
- Video – Video blog is of the now, learn more how video can save you time, money, and in some cases generate new revenue streams.
- Social Media Posts – Linkedin, Tweets, Facebook, Google+updates and many others are great ways to interact with customers. They allow for a two way conversation between the company and the customer, which really helps to develop a strong relationship.
- Webinars
- Events
- Third party content distributers like mondaq.com
Quality is important – but how do you know if you’re really producing content that’s engaging your audience? Perhaps even more importantly, how are you measuring the results? Effective content marketing shows instant return on investment, it creates that all important first impression, leads to new work, however even today many websites are brochurial, content doesn’t engage the reader, it’s done merely because your peers are producing and distributing content.
Contact us to find our how you can be a part of the 10% of companies that are effective in their content marketing.
